Help please! Internet connection problem

dizzydux

In August I had to ring Wanadoo as my internet connection kept dropping after a couple of minutes, or 5 or 10 minutes. So they made some suggestions and it was a bit better.
For the last week or so the problem is worse than ever. I spend ages trying to get on and when I get on i may get kicked out any minute. I am on dial up Anytime with Wanadoo.
The last couple of nights I have found I could get in after a few goes, and stay in - after midnight!!
Today I have tried all day. I rang Wanadoo at 50p a minute, did what they said. Then I couldn't get on at all.
Got page unavailable before it even dialled.The chap in the computer shop said it must be a virus, AVG is no good - lets every thing in-I was taking it down there tomorrow.
Then I used an April Tiscali CD to try & set up a Pay as you go but as soon as it connected it went off again. So I unistalled it.
I was trying to se if it was the computer or the provider.
I fiddled around looking at settings where Wanadoo had told me to do things, and guess what - there was a dot in a box that said Never dial connection!
So I took that out & got back to getting in & getting chucked out again almost immediately. AND then I got in and I've stayed in- so I thought I'd ask for help.
Is it Internet exporer - my computer, wanadoo or what? Or could I have a virus?
AVG scan says not.

Mr_Skint_2

Are you on dial-up?

dizzydux

Yes, I did put that on line 6!!

and reasons are various- timed out, page cannot be displayed, can't verify name & password, RAS error 720, 'Your server has unexpectedly terminated connection, blah, blah, Error No 0x800CCC0F' etc
Also when I double click on the little blue windows for status the bps varies between 2400 bps and 24000 bps. Currently it is running at 14,400 bps if that means anything.

I delete my cookies, done a cleanup, & a defrag. I have tried!

Mr_Skint_2

How long is your phoneline, as anything over 5mtrs is a no-no as you get
file degredation over a long extension lead, thus resulting in loss of connection
or no connection....

Line 6 just says midnight!!!

dizzydux

It's not very long!
(On my screen it's line 6 - I must have a smaller screen.)
I have now actually been on here for over an hour after not being able to get on all day - but if I go off I may not get back on.

Mr_Skint_2

One thing to try is phone your phone provider i.e BT or whatever
and ask them to boost the gaine..............

smcicr

do you have anything else on that line (as in incoming line to the house):

answer phone
fax machine
several other phone extensions
sky box
any sort of call waiting / inline answering service from your phone provider
splitters

if you have any of the above the first thing i would suggest is take it all out. leave just the pc connected to the phone line, physically unplug everything else so there is nothing else on the line, call BT or whoever if you have an inline style service for call waiting etc and get it disabled temporarily. (oh and do not connect the pc through a splitter plug that makes a standard phone socket into two)

then try again with the internet. if it's better then the chances are that you have too many things running on your phone line and it's making the signal to the pc either too weak or too 'noisy' for it to be stable. at which point calling the provider and asking them to up the gain on the line as mr skint suggests might help.

other things to check include swapping the cable between the pc and the phone socket for another one, try connecting the pc through a different phone socket in case the one you're using is a bit dodgy. maybe swap the modem out too - is it inside the pc or an external one?

any anti virus needs to be up to date to be effective (i use AVG personally, have done for years and never had any problems) so make sure that's the case before scanning if you haven't already.

try the stuff above and let us know how you get on - i'd be wary of taking it to a pc shop before doing the above - if it's the line and not the pc (or even a faulty modem / cable) then you're going to get stung for something you can sort yourself pretty easily.

dizzydux

At last - got back in again. All day I have been at this. After I got kicked out at past 5 oclock ( I'd actually been on for 2 hours!) I havn't been unable to get in again. As soon as it connects it goes off, but it's now the magic hour - I got on very late last night. Trouble is as soon as I log in it's gone again.
Thank you for replies.

What's 'upping the gain'? is it anything to do with the
'connected at 44300 bps' that comes up in the details box? This varies between 2400 & 44333 which is current.

I have two phones , so I unplugged them, I've taken out a split thing, but no obvious result ( I know I'm on now, but I have been able to get on around midnight for the past couple of nights!)

I'll send this before I go off again.

dizzydux

I'm confused by all the different messages I get when it goes off. It just went off but left a box saying did I want to reconnect? So I've clicked reconnect .
Still here but connection looks tenuous. And my head aches.

I have a built in modem, not an external.
Now its 32000bps but hardly any bytes recd or sent.

Mr_Skint_2

dizzydux wrote:

What's 'upping the gain'? is it anything to do with the
'connected at 44300 bps' that comes up in the details box? This varies between 2400 & 44333 which is current.

It means the phone company will boost the line signal strength..

Chippy_Minton

OK, you seem to have ruled out the ISP as being the problem.

Assuming Windows XP, I would try the modem troubleshooter: Control Panel - Phone and Modem Options - Modems tab - Properties - Troubleshoot.