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 Post subject: Problem with DSL
PostPosted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 10:30 am 
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Location: Burblandia
My father in law is having an issue with his DSL dropping his internet connection on a fairly regular basis. Reconnecting requires restarting his imac (5,1) OSX 10.6.8 4 gig memory. Any ideas where I can start in trying to resolve this?


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 Post subject: Re: Problem with DSL
PostPosted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 10:37 am 
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Location: NYC
db5owat wrote:
My father in law is having an issue with his DSL dropping his internet connection on a fairly regular basis. Reconnecting requires restarting his imac (5,1) OSX 10.6.8 4 gig memory. Any ideas where I can start in trying to resolve this?

Tell me about it. I live with this from one episode to the next. Keep promising myself I'll get FiOS and then get too lazy.

Are you certain it requires rebooting the Mac? For me, I just power cycle the modem and maybe disconnect and reconnect the DSL line to the wall jack. But I think the priority is getting the ISP involved. Might be the modem is going south, or something haywire at the ISP central office, or anything in between him and the ISP. They really have to run some tests and maybe send out a tech.


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 Post subject: Re: Problem with DSL
PostPosted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 10:57 am 
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Is it connecting via Ethernet or Wifi/Airport, or something else like USB?


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 Post subject: Re: Problem with DSL
PostPosted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 9:06 pm 
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This is going to be a tough question to answer, but did he install any software on his Mac when installing the DSL line? Some old DSL installations required PPPoE software to be installed on the attached system, since the modem was basically a "dumb" DSL modem. Newer modems handle PPPoE within the modem itself, which is likely what WZZZ has.


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 Post subject: Re: Problem with DSL
PostPosted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 1:28 pm 
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Location: Burblandia
BDAqua wrote:
Is it connecting via Ethernet or Wifi/Airport, or something else like USB?

He is connected via airport.


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 Post subject: Re: Problem with DSL
PostPosted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 1:31 pm 
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Location: Burblandia
MonkeyBoy wrote:
This is going to be a tough question to answer, but did he install any software on his Mac when installing the DSL line? Some old DSL installations required PPPoE software to be installed on the attached system, since the modem was basically a "dumb" DSL modem. Newer modems handle PPPoE within the modem itself.

I'm going to check with him on that question.


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 Post subject: Re: Problem with DSL
PostPosted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 1:36 pm 
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Location: Burblandia
WZZZ wrote:
db5owat wrote:
My father in law is having an issue with his DSL dropping his internet connection on a fairly regular basis. Reconnecting requires restarting his imac (5,1) OSX 10.6.8 4 gig memory. Any ideas where I can start in trying to resolve this?

Tell me about it. I live with this from one episode to the next. Keep promising myself I'll get FiOS and then get too lazy.

Are you certain it requires rebooting the Mac? For me, I just power cycle the modem and maybe disconnect and reconnect the DSL line to the wall jack. But I think the priority is getting the ISP involved. Might be the modem is going south, or something haywire at the ISP central office, or anything in between him and the ISP. They really have to run some tests and maybe send out a tech.

I'm not sure if power cycling does the same thing because his logistics don't allow for easy access to power cycling. It's close, but probably easier for him to just restart. It is very annoying. I think i might suggest getting the service provider involved. There are too many variables to solve long distance and the likelihood is that the problem resides with them anyway.


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 Post subject: Re: Problem with DSL
PostPosted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 1:46 pm 
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Oh, if it's connected via Airport then he wouldn't be using PPPoE on his Mac. The device physically connected to the modem may be performing PPPoE, and if his Mac isn't physically connected to the modem then that idea is out of the picture.

He may be getting disconnected from his airport due to interference. See if he can use Airport Utility to talk to the base station when he's having trouble, to see if the base station shows up or not. If not, then he's just plain disconnected from the network.


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 Post subject: Re: Problem with DSL
PostPosted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 2:01 pm 
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Location: NYC
To check for interference, although it's not foolproof, since there may be hidden networks, he can get the demo of AirRadar. This will show where the most congested channels are. But, if it's coming from a device like a microwave, which will be spraying out over a good part of the wireless spectrum, the only thing that will help will be trial and error changing channels. Of course, he should still avoid the most congested channels, especially those with strong signals.

http://www.koingosw.com/products/airradar.php

Besides the regular scanning window, can go to View>Assistant>Network Setup Assistant and enter maybe 10-15 passes.

iStumbler isn't as good, but it's free.

http://www.istumbler.net/


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 Post subject: Re: Problem with DSL
PostPosted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 5:05 pm 
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For 2.4Ghz there really are only 3 wireless channels. 1, 6, and 11. When you set the channel to 1 it uses channels -1 through 3, when you channel 6 uses channels 4 through 8, and channel 11 uses 9 through 13. As a result he really should only try manually setting it to one of those 3 channels, then try another one if it's a problem, then finally try the third if it's still a problem. Unfortunately the only other option is getting off 5Ghz completely, and 5Ghz has far shorter range.

I'd say the first step is verifying whether he can talk to the base station when he thinks his DSL is down. This can be as simple as opening Terminal and pinging the base station's IP address.


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 Post subject: Re: Problem with DSL
PostPosted: Sat Jan 12, 2013 4:31 am 
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Location: NYC
Quote:
For 2.4Ghz there really are only 3 wireless channels. 1, 6, and 11.

I always thought there was some splatter from directly adjacent channels, but never realized it was this bad.
Quote:
Despite its major acceptance, 802.11g suffers from the same interference as 802.11b in the already crowded 2.4 GHz range. Devices operating in this range include microwave ovens, Bluetooth devices, baby monitors and digital cordless telephones, which can lead to interference issues. Additionally, the success of the standard has caused usage/density problems related to crowding in urban areas. To prevent interference, there are only three non-overlapping usable channels in the U.S. and other countries with similar regulations (channels 1, 6, 11, with 25 MHz separation), and four in Europe (channels 1, 5, 9, 13, with only 20 MHz separation). Even with such separation, some interference due to side lobes exists, though it is considerably weaker.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11g-2003

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Still, if there's a very strong signal on channel 11 (or 6 or 1), for example, wouldn't one be better off moving as much to the side as possible? For example, I usually keep myself to 3 or 9. Or would that essentially make no difference?


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 Post subject: Re: Problem with DSL
PostPosted: Sat Jan 12, 2013 10:43 am 
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Hi, this has worked for a few...

Make a New Location, Using network locations in Mac OS X ...
 
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2712

10.7 & 10.8…
 
System Preferences>Network, top of window>Locations>Edit Locations, little plus icon, give it a name.
 
 
10.5.x/10.6.x/10.7.x instructions...
 
System Preferences>Network, click on the little gear at the bottom next to the + & - icons, (unlock lock first if locked), choose Set Service Order.
 
The interface that connects to the Internet should be dragged to the top of the list.

10.4 instructions...

Is that Interface dragged to the top of Network>Show:>Network Port Configurations.
 If using Wifi/Airport...

Instead of joining your Network from the list, click the WiFi icon at the top, and click join other network. Fill in everything as needed.

For 10.5/10.6/10.7/10.8, System Preferences>Network, unlock the lock if need be, highlight the Interface you use to connect to Internet, click on the advanced button, click on the DNS tab, click on the little plus icon, then add these numbers...
 
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
 
Click OK.


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 Post subject: Re: Problem with DSL
PostPosted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 2:14 am 
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Location: Suburbia
Oh. Network Utility contains a ping function. I always forget about that thing. It can be a lot easier to walk someone through using that, over the phone, than Terminal.


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