Disconnection solving - stay put or switch to O2?

I've been with AOL for years, pay �24.99 pm unlimited (fup) and our line can only achieve about 1 meg as we're about 1.5 miles from the exchange. Had no problem at all until a year ago when I got a Netgear 834g router from them and set up a little home network with the help of a friend who knows more than me. All was well for about 10 days when we found we could no longer take a phone call, or make one, without disrupting the connection. Bought a new cordless phone but that made no difference. Got a phone engineer out to check the lines, it worked once while he was here then went back to disconnection after he left. (!) Re-checked the router settings, tried different frequencies - no change.

So we unplugged the phone - permanently.

Then matters got worse as AOL started losing the connection and going into auto reconnect over & over again. If I pondered over a web page for longer than a half a minute it would lose the connection. I would time my reading or getting a coffee, hurtling into the kitchen at breakneck speed, hoping I would catch the "idle" window in time. Madness. This happens sporadically but frequently sporadically, if you know what I mean. Some days there's no problem, then I'd have a solid week of it happening. Closing AOL and using IE would help only on some occasions. Similar cut offs happened on the other pc's in the house.

So, after endless discussion with Tech help at AOL, and searching Netgear's "support" pages which are a bit too techie for me, no one came up with any answers and I'm still in that uncertain place and started looking at moving ISP. After moaning to AOL they offered �14.99, free router, 18 months but only 10 gb usage. ( I think we need about 20gb)

I like the look of O2 - got good reviews re reliability and cust serv plus it's �12.50 for 12 months, free router, 100 day get out clause, no charge for phone help, up to 8 meg and unlimited (fup) usage.

So I called AOL for my MAC - and, twenty minutes later they offer �9.99, 18 mnths, 8mg and 60gb usage (fup) and a free router. Hmmm. And it was such a pleasure to speak to Eire on this occasion.

My decision is now based on this - is my connection problem going to change at all by moving to O2. Because that's the real root cause of my disatisfaction. That and cost of course, and yes, I would like my speed to be better as I try watching IPlayer but give up but that's not likely to change much even if it is Be who provide O2's link at our exchange.

I've nearly finished, so bear with me lol - THEN, just now as I went to post this, I spotted a thread about Sky+ possibly causing connection disruption.....and I wondered. We upgraded our sky to Sky+ a few months before we changed router. It does have a DSL filter on it and I'm pretty sure the engineer tested it last year. But it made me think. Could it be Sky causing problems? And would moving to O2 (and so to Be) help our lousy speed? (AOL upgraded their stuff at our exchange last Oct - didn't notice any change here).

Sorry for rambling on.

The fact you cannot use your phone at all indicates it is either a noise or line issue not an AOL issue. There really is no point moving until you get to the bottom of the problem.

Have you tried a different router? Can you post your router stats?

I had the same problem and AOL got BT out to fix it - it did take two visits though as first one said there is not a problem. I rang BT back after the engineer visit and insisted there was a problem and escalated it up the ladder.

Turned out to be BT wiring which they replaced and not had a problem since.

As you can't make voice calls, you need to contact BT and tell them, do not mention your broadband issues though because they only come out for voice line faults, not data (broadband.)

You could also try unplugging your sky plus box for three days and see if there is any difference, I am willing to bet there is.

Edited by deleted (Tue 11-Mar-08 11:43:02)

In reply to:

---

As you can't make voice calls, you need to contact BT and tell them

---

The OP implies there is no problem with the phone. Just using it causes the BB to drop.

I think this may be what is called a "High Resistance Fault", though whether the other disconnections would be down to that is another matter.

I suggest the OP does a search on All Forums for "High Resistance" for the last 6 months. There may be something of help there.

I assume the new router is set to "Always on"?

HR faults are usually the other way round, ie you have to use the phone to get the ADSL to work.

This sounds like a combination of a filtering problem and AOL's fixed speed obsession.

AOL have a fixed speed obsession? "Jawdrop". Seriously, I think it IS something to do with that because the non-phone-use disconnections are usually at weekends when all my neighbours are online too. I saw on "Samknows" website that my exchange has but a handful of ISPs so I bet our town of many thousands use AOL, BT or Tiscali. That's why I was looking at O2 because they're new to our exchange - I figured they'd be fresh and less burdened.

By filtering problem, do you mean try better/newer adsl filters on all points?
The routers plugged in to a fresh phone line extension installed, from the original point of entry at the front door, soon after I started getting problems. The Sky box has a filter and the cordless phone downstairs has one too (when in use).

I had a friend, a former BT engineer, check my phone line and he found no fault although he was baffled by that because whenever I did use phone to talk to him it was very crackling. All this started with getting the router. (and Sky plus lol)

I am a total noodle on this stuff - how do I copy my router settings here?

I think it's always on - I know the idle time is set to 0, and I never have to "switch" it on - can't really, as kids are on and off their remote pc's all the time.

Just replying to my own reply - found yur helpful thread on General, re checking connection speed and noise margin. I can't get onto my router page via AOL so will log off later and go to it via IE.
But I did use Kitz and dowloaded the RouterStats-lite which is currently running.
Not that it means anything to me....the graph shows a connection speed of 4700 kbps and a noise margin of -1 (or a set of numbers....2147483646).

Just to clarify something - yarwell is better on this sort of thing than me, so if we disagree - like he contradicted my thought above - he is more likely to be right than I am.

What happens to your stats if you disconnect the Sky box?

As I said, I had the EXACT same problem - as soon as the phone was used, the router lost sync. BT came out at AOL's insistence, the first engineer said there was no issue and refused to do anything.

I got on the phone and they sent another one out who actually spent time locating the problem which was faulty BT wiring from the junction box to the master socket.

That was about 3 years ago , and since BT replaced the faulty wiring, I have never had a problem.

This is not an AOL issue, it is a line noise issue. Plug out your Sky+ for three days and see how it goes.

Edited by deleted (Wed 12-Mar-08 09:52:12)