Earthlink ADSL Support trip report
 

I finally got fed up with losing my DSL connection 3 times a day and emailed Earthlink support with a very nice description of my problem and a DSL event log that showed all of the disconnects in tha last 24 hours. They sent back a form letter saying that they don't respond to emails. Fck! No, I have to go to their site and fill out a "form". I filled it out and sent it in and went to make lunch. I come back to the computer after 10 minutes or so and there's a "live chat" box open on the desktop. Whoops.

I respond "whoops, didn't know it was going to live chat." Timothy M. responds "How can I help you?"

I describe the disconnect problems and he suggests that I try everything I've already tried, you know, shut down computer, shut modem off, wait 3 minutes.

I let him know that I don't think I should have to waste 30 minutes a day shutting everything down and turning it all back on again and can he suggest something else? He suggests that I "swap the ends of the Cable between the Modem and Phone Jack and Modem and Computer." I say "I'll try that." Then, just to be sure I'm not having a shroom or acid flashback, I say "just flip the cord around?" he says "Yes, you are correct." I can't do it right this second (screaming baby) so I thank him for his help and tell him I'll have to contact him later if I'm still having problems.

I immediately felt like asking him if it's because the 1's only go one direction in cords while the 0's will go either way. Then I want to ask him if I've just been Punk'd, but I don't know if they get that show in India so it might be a big waste of time to write all that.

FWIW, the problems that dumps my connection is always a PPPoE connection failure. But that problem will be solved as soon as I flip my cords around!

Re: Earthlink ADSL Support trip report
 

why are you using pppoe?

Re: Earthlink ADSL Support trip report
 

[ QUOTE ]
why are you using pppoe?

[/ QUOTE ]

Earthlink is using it and I'm stuck with it. I don't know enough about it to speak intelligently. What do you know about it?

Re: Earthlink ADSL Support trip report
 

If you get a seperate linksys router (like a wrt54g), it can handle the PPPoE interface instead of having to do it through Windows XP.

The disconnects could be related to a numerous amount of issues. If you are having packet loss, your dsl could be dropping all the time that could be causing you always to re login with PPPoE.

A good way to test, try a unlimited ping to a popular site.

Go to run, type cmd, get to a prompt then type ping -t www.yahoo.com . Let that run for 20-30 times. If it does randomly drop off (no ping reply) copy that and email that to earthlink (if they will accept that email). You could at least copy/paste it in the chat.

If you get a Linksys router you can have it handle the PPPoE and it will take care of constantly relogging in your DSL. You will still need to use your dsl router (so you'll be running 2 routers).

Either 2 main possibilites. Your DSL is dropping packets so the connection is hanging up, or something screwy on their side or your windows box is making you have to constantly relogin by PPPoE.

Give more info to see if the status improves.