Im a neewb to dsl. Had cable internet with charter untill they wanted to go way up in rates. Now I am trying bellsouth DSL ultra service. I have the westell 6100 black modem. I just got it all about 2 weeks ago. maybe 3 but closer to 2. I installed all the filters and got myself running.

Heres my problems. DSL light always stays solid unless I restart modem and its resyncing. But otherwise my internet will just drop out. Sometimes im using it, but most of the time, its between the time I finish surfing, and when I want to get on again. I have to repair the network connection(software winxp), or restart the modem or the computer. Then it works good again.

Called tech support many times. What a joke. they read the same cue cards and I followed their advice 4 times now, including setting the modem to always on. The issue is still there.

Im trying to find out, is the modem bad? Is the line not up to par for DSL? Is this just a bellsouth issue that they will fix in time? Should I ditch the DSL idea and go back to cable?

They have checked the line twice. Once they said there was a problem, but they fixed it. Another time they just had a "line tech" do his thing, whatever that was.

I use a freebee avg antivirus, freebee zonealarm, and freebee microsoft antispyware. I dont have a router yet, but will get one soon as my firewall and wireless port.

Any help or ideas? I usally get 1.1 to 1.2m from my 1.5m ultra service when checked at dslreports.

 

don't drop dsl, but do drop bellsouth. i have no experience with bellsouth, as i don't live in an area they server, but i do have experience with another evil baby bell (qwest). all phone companies are the same, they're evil and they don't care about customer service. give speakeasy dsl (speakeasy.net) a call. they may be slightly more expensive (they have to buy the line wholesale from bellsouth and then resale it back to you) but they will have better service, and more importantly better customer service. when you call there, you get an actual tech who knows what's going on. they don't read cards and will work with you to trouble shoot. when i switched from qwest dsl to speakeasy, i had about a week or two of intermittant service (mainly because they of switching who owned the line i was using). when i'd call speakeasy about the problem, they'd alwasy help me out. i've been using them for almost a year now, and i pay the $5 more a month from speakeasy, but the connection is 3x faster than i got from qwest, and minus that first week or two, it's never been down.

 

Bellsouth is my only choice. Any ideas how I can fix this?

 

try getting a different modem first. maybe you have a bad one. If the problem is still there, its the DSL line...have them come out and fix/replace it

 

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/11010 westell 6100 FAQ

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,13694257 Westell 6100 modem question

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/rema...ll+6100+manual

If it's possible go to 192.168.100.1 and report your findings on this thread.

 

One other thing to consider is the cabling in your house. If the cable running in the house is CAT 3 then high speed internet is going to be as slow as dial up, and you might have problems staying connected. It's like trying to drive a Corvette down a dirt road, the road isn't good. Not too sure of your knowledge of cabling, but look and see what colors are in the jacket of the cable....Green,Red,Black,Yellow equals CAT 3
Blue,Orange,Green,Brown equals CAT 5 or better....this is what you want.

 

I would tell BellSouth I wanted someone to come out and fix the problem. If there is a BellSouth office, I would go to the office and make that request. I have had 3 problems with my cable modem service (Charter). Talking to the flunkies on their 1-800 number was just a waste of time and actually compounded the problem. I finally went to the Charter office and "flipped out" on them. They had someone at my apartment within 5 minutes after stopping by their office. I don't normally get upset over things, but it had been two weeks of trying to get it fixed and I had taken off 3 work days on the days they said they would come by but never showed.

Go to their office if you can find it and demand help.

 

fyi. cat-3 only has 6 wires. cat-5 and better have 8

and i dont think that will affect dsl. because dsl runns on standard phone lines, that are just routed to computers and not phones...

cat-5 is an ethernet standard, not tellcom.