My guess is that your ISP has switched your line to C&W wholesale (because it is cheaper than BT) just like Demon have been doing and like thousands of other people you are now suffering. Probably best to switch to an ISP that uses BT wholesale, or at the very least avoid any ISP that is doing you the disservice of providing LLU from C&W.

AOL means a LLU switch to TalkTalk

If it was bad before the switch and the same now it does not point to a fault. Presume the phones are working. Who was the engineer that attended working for - Openreach. Question would be what speeds did he see when connected

300/64 for a 27dB attenuation line is what any sensible engineer would consider bad. So suspect you may have just had the line checked for voice.

Solution for me would be this, give ISP an ultimatium, i.e. 7 days further to resolve issue of not getting a connection, and then to be released from contract and migrate using a MAC to an ISP willing to help liase.

Have you tried new microfilters? A bad one may be giving this problem. Also check the ADSL hardware on another ADSL line if you can, routers can fail.

I've seen short connects before when the router's Connection Settings are wrong for AOL. Time to look at these. What are they?

II'll try and get that information from my Dad, however when he tried using their router with their setup disc it just reached a 'no DSL connection check everything is plugged in' stage.

the brief connections I am currently getting are via a zyxel that he was using before as it has a built in vpn and that is setup to what used to work, sort of standard pppoa setting, although the zyxel also supports 'zero setup', but I'm not sure how well that works.

Don't bother with any setup CDs!

Let him access the router using its browser interface (addy something like http://192.168.x.y) and look at its Config or Setup pages. At the same time see if there is anything significant in its Status pages. Don't just take the word of the setup s/ware that there is no DSL connection.

Thanks will ask him to look at the settings, although I can confirm that that on the routers status page whenever anyone has looked it just says 'DSL Down' and the DSL light on the router confirms this... although it did breifly connect again at 11:45

Hi, ok my Dad now has a connection, but its still rubbish.

368 kbps / 66 kbps
DSL Mode: ADSL2+ Mode

No stats yet as I can't seem to remotely talk to his router, but will try and get them shortly.

looks like it may have taken a while negotiating the connection.I almost wish it hadn't as it would have been easier to persuade that aol something is wrong.

thanks
Steve

ok got my dad to switch the router off and on again and the vpn is back up, but it is really painful

connection is now at
DSL Up 861 kbps / 66 kbps

so looks consistently 2kbps upstream more than before.

what really concerns me is the upstream speed, which now makes it impossible to help my dad sort out any problems using remote desktop software etc.

it used to be 512 up so it should be possible..

line stats are now

noise margin upstream: 9 db
output power downstream: 16 db
attenuation upstream: 12 db

noise margin downstream: 10 db
output power upstream: 9 db
attenuation downstream: 31 db

what do these say I should be getting ?

thanks
Steve

Thanks for the reply. will ask my dad about the engineer,
Yes have tried different micro filters and routers. all give consistently bad results.

main problem is that he now does have a connection, although its dire, especially the upstream speeds, which I need to be higher so that I can provide support to my dad, and it did used to be almost 10 times faster.. hmm

Steve

Edited by deleted (Mon 20-Sep-10 21:49:29)

P.S. sorry about the monologue, but just noticed it now says
DSL Mode: ADSL2 Mode
where as before the router reboot it said
DSL Mode: ADSL2+ Mode

no idea if that means anything

Steve