PlusNet and that old Connecting issue
Psychophysiological entity
Thread Starter
PlusNet and that old Connecting issue
Our computer forum and others never did have an answer last time, but the problem went away. I have about 24 hours to cancel the deal for this year if it's the provider.
Sitting watching the word Connecting and even timing out is the fault that went away.
After simply not being able to cure the fault some months ago, the local computer guru delivered something for me and I showed him the very, very slow Connecting time I used to get sometimes but not others. It could be Prune, or Headlines, whatever, one never knew. Often time out before showing.
He blamed my Wi-Fi connection and loaned me 10metres of 'yellow' wire. Can't be that, some downloads are quite quick, thinks I.
It made an astonishing difference. Or at least, something did.
From that day on I worked at the modest 12 download and small upload figures on my cheap and cheerful connection. Plenty fast enough and it was one heck of a deal. (155 for the phone I don't need and zilch for the broadband. When the 75 quid check arrived, I'd forgotten all about that bonus. It was a cheap year.) However, shortly after starting a new year for 'not bad but not cheap' price, the Connecting problem came back.
I'd concluded it was my slow Upload speed that was at fault. 12 and a bit down today, but only .62 up. I reason that some sites want to suck information back from me and it's the up speed that's really ruining the whole deal. That would explain the variation. However, I have no idea why that day the wire was installed everything went okay for a while. No, not sure of the up speed in that era. Yes, I know, would've been handy.
Time's running out and I'm stuck for a year with a crap net if there's not something I'm missing and can fix.
W10 on both. Latest FireFox. One dual i5 and one quad i5 with 8 gigs. Both hard wired to the router. The fast one is faster, but still I suddenly get the problem.
Relative values. One recalls putting one's pencils in a jam jar and feeling pleased my mum had washed it out first. I don't feel that pleased owning all this kit.
Sitting watching the word Connecting and even timing out is the fault that went away.
After simply not being able to cure the fault some months ago, the local computer guru delivered something for me and I showed him the very, very slow Connecting time I used to get sometimes but not others. It could be Prune, or Headlines, whatever, one never knew. Often time out before showing.
He blamed my Wi-Fi connection and loaned me 10metres of 'yellow' wire. Can't be that, some downloads are quite quick, thinks I.
It made an astonishing difference. Or at least, something did.
From that day on I worked at the modest 12 download and small upload figures on my cheap and cheerful connection. Plenty fast enough and it was one heck of a deal. (155 for the phone I don't need and zilch for the broadband. When the 75 quid check arrived, I'd forgotten all about that bonus. It was a cheap year.) However, shortly after starting a new year for 'not bad but not cheap' price, the Connecting problem came back.
I'd concluded it was my slow Upload speed that was at fault. 12 and a bit down today, but only .62 up. I reason that some sites want to suck information back from me and it's the up speed that's really ruining the whole deal. That would explain the variation. However, I have no idea why that day the wire was installed everything went okay for a while. No, not sure of the up speed in that era. Yes, I know, would've been handy.
Time's running out and I'm stuck for a year with a crap net if there's not something I'm missing and can fix.
W10 on both. Latest FireFox. One dual i5 and one quad i5 with 8 gigs. Both hard wired to the router. The fast one is faster, but still I suddenly get the problem.
Relative values. One recalls putting one's pencils in a jam jar and feeling pleased my mum had washed it out first. I don't feel that pleased owning all this kit.
"12 and a bit down today, but only .62 up." -- I doubt that would be too terrible.
Plusnet support had a good reputation before the BT takeover - try a call.
Get the line tested. Not sure if you will be allowed to use the BT Customers automatic line test. GOD! you need a login now. Try it anyway.
Test the phone. Use a plain old phone if at all possible.
Listen for noise (crackles). Get someone else to do the same on the other side.
If there are phone issues get the phone fixed without mentioning broadband problems. They have to fix the phone, broadband is optional. You likely agreed to a Service level of none.
Get Pingplotter an ping bbc.co.uk, google.co.uk, 8.8.8.8
Look for drops in the various hops. Leave ping plotter running all of the time so that you can look at the history if you experience service problems.
Use the Master Socket (has a split faceplate) to eliminate internal wiring issue/interference from other phone-line-connected equipment. Take off the lower faceplate and plug-in inside. Disconnect the filter if you can (you need a suitable rj11-BT cable) since it won't do anything unless you make phone calls at the same time and you wont be able to if you use the master socket's internal socket.
Try a different filter.
Get the line signal noise ratio from your router
And Bit Error Rate
and power
Check these are OK
If you are on fancy broadband (12M suggests you will be) check that your BRAS is not turned down by asking the ISP.
Reboot your router to make sure that it has not run out of memory or some-such. Be aware that with modern fast DSL the exchange and may interpret frequent router reboots as line noise and turn your speed down (BRAS).
Eliminate your router's DNS management. Set a static DNS server in your PC. Leave the address on DHCP.
Use say google 8.8.8.8 and if you like OpenDNS or other free one.
You could try a decent router to wall cable. I have once found a really nasty untwisted ribbon cable was spoiling things.
To test DNS use nslookup - it always checks with the conigured DNS server.
C: \Users\fred>nslookup
Default Server: google-public-dns-a.google.com
Address: 8.8.8.8
> bbc.co.uk
Server: google-public-dns-a.google.com
Address: 8.8.8.8
Non-authoritative answer:
Name: bbc.co.uk
Addresses: 212.58.244.22
212.58.244.23
212.58.246.79
212.58.246.78
Have fun.
Plusnet support had a good reputation before the BT takeover - try a call.
Get the line tested. Not sure if you will be allowed to use the BT Customers automatic line test. GOD! you need a login now. Try it anyway.
Test the phone. Use a plain old phone if at all possible.
Listen for noise (crackles). Get someone else to do the same on the other side.
If there are phone issues get the phone fixed without mentioning broadband problems. They have to fix the phone, broadband is optional. You likely agreed to a Service level of none.
Get Pingplotter an ping bbc.co.uk, google.co.uk, 8.8.8.8
Look for drops in the various hops. Leave ping plotter running all of the time so that you can look at the history if you experience service problems.
Use the Master Socket (has a split faceplate) to eliminate internal wiring issue/interference from other phone-line-connected equipment. Take off the lower faceplate and plug-in inside. Disconnect the filter if you can (you need a suitable rj11-BT cable) since it won't do anything unless you make phone calls at the same time and you wont be able to if you use the master socket's internal socket.
Try a different filter.
Get the line signal noise ratio from your router
And Bit Error Rate
and power
Check these are OK
If you are on fancy broadband (12M suggests you will be) check that your BRAS is not turned down by asking the ISP.
Reboot your router to make sure that it has not run out of memory or some-such. Be aware that with modern fast DSL the exchange and may interpret frequent router reboots as line noise and turn your speed down (BRAS).
Eliminate your router's DNS management. Set a static DNS server in your PC. Leave the address on DHCP.
Use say google 8.8.8.8 and if you like OpenDNS or other free one.
You could try a decent router to wall cable. I have once found a really nasty untwisted ribbon cable was spoiling things.
To test DNS use nslookup - it always checks with the conigured DNS server.
C: \Users\fred>nslookup
Default Server: google-public-dns-a.google.com
Address: 8.8.8.8
> bbc.co.uk
Server: google-public-dns-a.google.com
Address: 8.8.8.8
Non-authoritative answer:
Name: bbc.co.uk
Addresses: 212.58.244.22
212.58.244.23
212.58.246.79
212.58.246.78
Have fun.
Last edited by jimjim1; 9th Oct 2016 at 22:28. Reason: added a bit
Psychophysiological entity
Thread Starter
Thanks for that. I've been trying to get another router going this evening but it's blocking the supplier. Don't know why, they own PlusNet.
I understand some of your post but will struggle with some of the things but I have to get this resolved as I'm reaching the stage.
It seems there's a lot of folk with the same problem. This was part of an answer that piqued my interest.
Despite the wiring side being easy for me (well, it would be if my scope was not in Texas) I'm not really qualified to do some of these items despite a lifetime of enjoying probing problems. One's determination is fading with each tick of the clock.
Having said that, I'm just about to read this 'Curiosity' report on 'Perceptronium'. I need to get ahead of the game before asking my son what he thinks about it. He'll be on about empiricism again I imagine.
I'll get back to it tomorrow.
Thanks again.
I understand some of your post but will struggle with some of the things but I have to get this resolved as I'm reaching the
stage.It seems there's a lot of folk with the same problem. This was part of an answer that piqued my interest.
Remove all rules for Firefox and the plugin-container from the permissions list in the firewall and let your firewall ask again for permission to get full unrestricted access to internet for Firefox and the plugin-container process and the updater process.
Despite the wiring side being easy for me (well, it would be if my scope was not in Texas) I'm not really qualified to do some of these items despite a lifetime of enjoying probing problems. One's determination is fading with each tick of the clock.
Having said that, I'm just about to read this 'Curiosity' report on 'Perceptronium'. I need to get ahead of the game before asking my son what he thinks about it. He'll be on about empiricism again I imagine.
I'll get back to it tomorrow.
Thanks again.
Psychophysiological entity
Thread Starter
Just running down after a tough day so not much done, but I did just pick up on this:
It certainly seems as though one is uploading stuff at this time which is typically below 1.0 speed test, and sometimes much lower.
Today, PlusNet support
did not know about the reverse circle. Many folk seem to think it's when Uploading. For the first time, I was not at all impressed with the operative. Nice but dim, is how I'd describe him.
Counterclockwise means that Firefox tries to connect to the server. You should see the Looking up and Connecting messages at the bottom of the window. Once a connection has been established and Firefox is waiting for the server then the throbber will rotate clockwise. The colors of the throbber can depend on the Firefox and possibly the Windows theme you use.
It certainly seems as though one is uploading stuff at this time which is typically below 1.0 speed test, and sometimes much lower.
Today, PlusNet support
did not know about the reverse circle. Many folk seem to think it's when Uploading. For the first time, I was not at all impressed with the operative. Nice but dim, is how I'd describe him.
Psychophysiological entity
Thread Starter
Other issues to cope with but I found myself up after only 4 hours sleep so that I could start phoning PlusNet. Finally, I got someone that took on the case.
Much footling. Running wires to router. Comparing machines. Swapping the filter. Now I'm awaiting a new router.
One will see what that brings to the table.
Much footling. Running wires to router. Comparing machines. Swapping the filter. Now I'm awaiting a new router.
One will see what that brings to the table.
Psychophysiological entity
Thread Starter
Had a heck of a job getting the router going. All reported connected etc., but nothing on all three. One hard wired.
Suddenly trying to get Headlines, it offers a last menu. Sign in with old password. I did this, and it gave me a big tick/check, and told me I was set to go.
It's now faster than it's ever been. So long fluffing around with an old router, just can't see how it kicked back into life after the local guru lent me a 10M wire. It was fine for a time. But then, that's the nature of electronics fault-finding, so I should have thought it through a bit better.
Thanks jimjim1 for making me look past my desk.
Suddenly trying to get Headlines, it offers a last menu. Sign in with old password. I did this, and it gave me a big tick/check, and told me I was set to go.
It's now faster than it's ever been. So long fluffing around with an old router, just can't see how it kicked back into life after the local guru lent me a 10M wire. It was fine for a time. But then, that's the nature of electronics fault-finding, so I should have thought it through a bit better.
Thanks jimjim1 for making me look past my desk.
