"Limited or no connectivity"

Hi all. I'm am lurker but not such a frequent poster here. I'm with Plusnet and don't have many problems to speak of (although it seems very slow tonight). However, my mum, who is also with Plusnet, is having lots of problems. I suspect she may have been 'upgraded' without wanting to be and certainly without her knowledge.

The symptoms are, in her words:

"On occasions we get either of two pop ups saying:
Limited or no connectivity
Or local area lan connection unplugged
Sometimes neither just no broadband
Often we get on then a few seconds or minutes later it drops or we can't get on at all"

She's been with Plusnet for at least a year with no problems but has run the lottery of the 'support' with hours in the call queues and some ticket exchanges that left her in a state of confusion/frustration and still no decent connection.

I think she's been upgraded as she does recall my brother saying something about connecting or syncing at 7Mb/s when he was up there last. However, she has definately not been sent an e-mail saying she will be upgraded.

One of the original questions was:20024159 (I know the support don't post here anymore but maybe they occasionally browse). It seems she's been having these problems for 3 months or so now. She's tried doing as much as she can in the fault checker but it's 'difficult to follow'. All the support questions/tickets are currently closed even though her problems still exist.

Is there something really simple she can do (step by step instructions) to help shed light on her problems?

Thanks in advance,

diggydog

What ADSL equipment does she use - a router / USB modem and if a router is it connected via Ethernet or USB?

The error is an indication that you no longer have a network connection. This is a local issue between the PC and the ADSL equipment and not related to the ADSL connection itself.

If you have a router, its possible it has rebooted or has locked up in which case you need to check it has the latest firmware loaded as that may fix lockup/reboot issues.

The only other thing I can suggest is to try another ADSL router/modem, preferably a different make, to see if the problems go away. PN will not be able to help if it is a local equipment problem.

She has a wireless router (a netgear something or other) connected via Ethernet. I think I set it up (or my brother did) when she was first connected. It's not an old one - it was new when she got broadband less than 2 years ago.

I'll get her to check the firmware version and/or try a different router. The latter may be tricky as she lives few hundred miles from me.

Thanks for the response.

If its a DG834G and 2 years old then the firmware will be out of date and earlier versions of that router firmware did suffer from lockups (I have the DG834 - same without wireless).

If it is that router then upgrading the firmware is easy and can be done from the router itself.

The DG834G firmware can be downloaded from here - the latest is 3.01.25 whch I am using in my netgear without problems.

Also get the recovery utility in case it all goes wrong before upgrading the firmware. Available here.

If its a different model, the netgear download site is here.

OK. Will try to get her to do that tomorrow. Thanks again.

On the other matter, if it transpires that your mother has indeed been migrated to LLU without notification, and she finds the service less functional than her previous IPStream service, she can demand a free migration back to IPStream - as stated in PlusNet's Alternative Network Suppliers FAQ.

Should she want to leave PlusNet, her options will be severely restricted if she remains on the LLU network.

Simon

In reply to:

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"On occasions we get either of two pop ups saying:
Limited or no connectivity
Or local area lan connection unplugged
Sometimes neither just no broadband
Often we get on then a few seconds or minutes later it drops or we can't get on at all"

---

Is she connected via wireless? Wasn't quite sure from the posts, if she is, its always possible someone else has setup a wireless hub nearby on the same channel and causing interference.

The other thing to check is the logs on the router to see how long the adsl side of the setup is connected. If you find that is not disconnectng then its more likely the PC side of the setup.

Also when connectivity is lost, can you connect to the router's web interface. If you can you know the connection problem then is pointing to the router/adsl side.

I didnt know that error message has any meaning to being moved to LLU.
Another pointless post by pr100

Have a read through this and see if it helps any.

http://www.pchell.com/support/limitedconnectivity.shtml

Cannot be much more help I am afraid as I am not a Windows user,

Another pointless post by pr100
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I was responding directly to one of the issues raised in the OP, specifically: "I suspect she may have been 'upgraded' without wanting to be and certainly without her knowledge".

I suggest you read and digest more thoroughly before loosing off your cannons because this was, in fact, a pointless post by you - unless you count harrassment of other posters as a point.

Simon