Trying to help a neighbour-no broadband for 2 years....

An elderly gent living near me signed up with TT 2 years ago but after paying vaious "technicians" to help getting him connected - step in Captain Marvel.

First of all,he has a Huawei HG520b modem with the ADSL light flashing.

I can talk to the router via a browser and every thing seems to work OK but still no BB connection.

I transfered the router to my home and managed to get sound connection within minutes. I also used his filter,ethernet cable and phone cable to minimise any faulty parts.

I managed to talk to a very pleasant lady in India, bypassed the script and was told there would be an esculation of the fault to a line test - no more heard....

Should the ADSL light be ON with just the router connected to phone line?
I ask because he has aquired a number of Passwords and not sure which is correct.
I did however managed to retrieve one using the special phone number to TT

I really would like to get this gent up and running and feel very close to the outcome.

By the way, I have tried straight to Master Socket

Is it possible there may have to be a reset at exchange considering there has been no BB for 2 years - he is fully paid up to the service....

Appreciate any logical replies

Peter -(soon to be an ex Plus Net customer)

If the ADSL light keeps flashing then it is not getting synch iirc. I don't use the TT supplied router.

The username should be [email protected] (iirc) and tghe password seems to be a random assortment of characters. When you connected the router to your line did the ADSL light stay solid. If so then you have your answer, ie the router is not making synch with the exchange.

Do you have another router you could try??

Found this http://www.talktalkmembers.com/forums/archive/index....

Sounds like the router settings have become corrupted, or broadband has been removed from the line.

As mentioned, tried the router in my home and found it to be perfect - ideally I need to know if a router has to be connected to computer for the ADSL light to stay steady

Peter

No it doesnt need to be connected to anything but the telephone line and power socket to beable to have a solid (not orange or flashing) sync light.

Additionally, even if you have the wrong username/password, the router should still be able to obtain sync if broadband is active on the line. Maybe somebody else can confirm, but if the TT help pages are correct about the HG520b, the ADSL light indicates sync and the INTERNET light will indicate if the username/password are correct (this won't light unless the ADSL light is lit, of course), which is usually the norm for most routers.

This sounds like it may be a line problem. You'll need to ask TT to check the line. Initially they can run some tests (a woosh test IIRC). Sometimes this will resolve a problem, but more likely they'll need to refer it to BT. It's important though to rule out any internal wiring issues, so make sure you've plugged the router into the master test socket before calling in BT.

You don't say whether you're close to the exchange or not, but if you're some distance away and the problem is down to line quality then trying a different router may help. In my experience (I live in a very rural area) the Netgear DG834G version 3 is good at holding sync on longer lines. It must be a V3 as a different chipset was used in later versions I believe.

Could you plug your router into his line and see if it syncs? It won't connect to the internet as the login details will be wrong, but you'll at least be able to test the line.

I have HG520b and just to add what has already been said, the lights that should be on (steady green) are POWER, WLAN (if he has wireless enabled), LAN (any one of the four - unless he is using another PC), ADSL and INTERNET.
When in use (browsing or downloading) only LAN (or WLAN) and INTERNAT should be 'blinking' which indicates that the data is been recieved.

You may wan to check that the following settings are correct:
Under 'WAN Settings'
VPI = 0
VCI =38
Active = Yes
Mode = Active
Encapsulation = PPoA
Muliplex = VC

Under 'Login Information'
PPP Authentication = CHAP

Under IP Address
'Obtain IP Address Authomaticaly' is selected

Under 'Connection'
'Nailed-Up Connection'


Hope this helps, shout if there is anything else i can check for you.

Regards
Mike

Nope, does not need connected to the computer (as stated elsewhere). As long as the ADSL light keeps flashing there is no synch to the exchange.

If, as you say, connecting it to another, known working line, gets synch then the router and cables are fine and there is a fault on the line. Time to get onto customer support.

To the OP. Don't forget to check at the test socket behind the master faceplate, in case your neighbour's internal wiring is faulty.

Horay we have lift off

Managed to convince TT there was no other connections in the house so they sent an"engineer" out with the provisor the customer (80 year old) would sign there was no extra internal connections in the home.

Even when the engineer came I showed him the BT box with only the new router plugged in.He still insisted on the directive being signed no matter how I tried to show him what was connected to the box.

By now, again, I could see the customer looking very concirned about the charge involved.so I did my best to explain there was no problem in front of the TT man.

Anyway, off he went still insisting there may be an internal fault.

The next day a very pleasant BT engineer arrived = did line checks between various boxes came back and said eveything OK now you should have at least 4 mb downlosd.

Sure enough, the DSL light was now ON- after 2 years.....

What bothers me is - every phone call to TT suport, a line test was performed with the reults being "there was no falt whatsoever to the house".How can this be?

Neither the line testing system TalkTalk use nor the Openreach line tester provided to CPs/ISPs can detect every single fault condition on the copper pair. Mainly because they are single ended i.e. they rely on bouncing signals down the copper from the exchange and interpret what returns.

The BT (Openreach) engineer has test equipment that performs double-ended tests and if used correctly can detect much more marginal fault conditions.

Edited by deleted (Thu 10-Mar-11 21:23:04)

Has this guy been paying TT for 2 years, without even having sync to the exchange? Disgusting! He's should have his charges refunded.

An update - the gent in question had a go using thr CD supplied (dsl light OK now)

Got as far as "connecting to TT but got the dreaded red cross. So on his behalf I managed to get through to 2nd level support and tried yet again to explain the problem

Believe me, I was quoted the "send out an engineer & the £99 surcharg if a fault is fault in the premises. Tried to explain that all these procedures had gone ahead last week and given a clean bill of health from BT. Am at a loss now as to what to do - nobody is capable of listening...

The time has come for this chap to cancell the broadband but that will probably open another can of worms.

Peter

call 08700 875562 from the TalkTalk line to get the correct login details.... if DSL has synch but cannot login I suspect this may be the problem.

[edit] err, did you change the logon details when trying the router on a different line??

Edited by deleted (Sat 12-Mar-11 17:41:42)

Hi Peter,

if your friend registers at www.talktalkmembers.com, we would be happy get this resolved for him.


Ady

Finally, the gentleman is up and running...

That was some marathon for him - he still cant believe
he can use the internet after all this time

Peter

Hi Peter,

out of interest how did you finally get this resolved?


Ady

Ady, In a nutshell - After the TT engineer visit and managed to convince him there was nothing else in the house connected left with still no DSL connection.


BT man arrives - did nothing in the house - spent some time between "Green Box" visits tnem pronounced every thing OK - "it was TT fault".....

The next day, the lDSL light was flashing but a different pattern.Logged in for him
and voila - Internet.

So in the end we are no wiser.
Now he has another worry. The new router has to be returned but the power lead is missing. Seems to think the first tt man may have picked it up by mistake.

Having said all this he has 4 Mbts downoad as opposed to my 1.2 Mbts and living next door - MAYBE I SHOULD MOVE TO T.T.

Peter - 2 Bottles of wine richer,