is TELKOM SABOTAGING my DSL line????

P

Preacher

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I have a 10meg, stable DSL line.

My problem started when I subscribed to WebAfrica for one of their data and DSL bundles. Before that, I had telkom ISP and it was fine. I had an MWEB data and DSL bundle and it was fine. The day I switched to WA my line starts resetting like clockwork. Almost immediately after first power up, then about 5 minutes after that, then about 15 minutes after that, then about 30 minutes and then roughly every hour. And this doesn't happen every so often, it happens every time I turn on my DSL. This coincidentally started the day my WA account became active. I have had numerous DIFFERENT technicians out (which doesn't help as I have to explain my problem from scratch everytime). I have been moved to different DSLAMS, different racks and ports and same issue. I have tested different routers and the only difference there was how fast they reconnected again. I have tried different ISP details from prepaid accounts to loan accounts and same result.

Has anyone had a similar issue and was it sorted. The common denominator for me is telkom. And I would even go as far as saying that the computer that controls access has been set to reset my connection because as I have said, it happens like clockwork roughly the same intervals, and every time I connect.

This is very frustrating. Admittedly, I don't know how the network gets controlled by seeing as my problem is not random, it seems like it is a controlled fault.

Can anyone shed some light please?
 
Try borrow someone else's DSL modem and test to see if that makes a difference.

Failing that, I dont know, get a Telkom account and see if that helps?

I doubt its Telkom though, because the part of Telkom that sells you your ADSL line is not really connected (as far as I know) to the part that sells the bandwidth (the ISP part). In other words, I'm not sure if the line part is aware that you are not a Telkom ISP customer.
 
Preacher said:
I have a 10meg, stable DSL line.

My problem started when I subscribed to WebAfrica for one of their data and DSL bundles. Before that, I had telkom ISP and it was fine. I had an MWEB data and DSL bundle and it was fine. The day I switched to WA my line starts resetting like clockwork. Almost immediately after first power up, then about 5 minutes after that, then about 15 minutes after that, then about 30 minutes and then roughly every hour. And this doesn't happen every so often, it happens every time I turn on my DSL. This coincidentally started the day my WA account became active. I have had numerous DIFFERENT technicians out (which doesn't help as I have to explain my problem from scratch everytime). I have been moved to different DSLAMS, different racks and ports and same issue. I have tested different routers and the only difference there was how fast they reconnected again. I have tried different ISP details from prepaid accounts to loan accounts and same result.

Has anyone had a similar issue and was it sorted. The common denominator for me is telkom. And I would even go as far as saying that the computer that controls access has been set to reset my connection because as I have said, it happens like clockwork roughly the same intervals, and every time I connect.

This is very frustrating. Admittedly, I don't know how the network gets controlled by seeing as my problem is not random, it seems like it is a controlled fault.

Can anyone shed some light please?
Click to expand...

Ironically this is currently happening to me as well and I am in the Weltevreden Park Area (not to far from you). We had an Mweb uncapped account with our DSL portion going through Mweb. We found that for gaming we were getting better latency through Web Africa and so we were constantly using our Web Africa account rather than the Mweb one. So to save money decided to cancel my Mweb account and switch totally over to Web Africa account with the DSl line. It was a mistake, now our line constantly also disconnects, I am running on a 3Mbps which was fine on Mweb and would only disconnect once (usually around the time the street lights come on) and then would be fine. Now our line often disconnects sometimes it loses sync with the ADSL and other times the DSl light stays steady (and the router says the line is connected) however my internet verification light goes red.

I have also tried it now with my Afrihost account and the line still drops (not as often or bad as with my web africa accounts), currently with the problems that Web africa have been experiencing I cannot really do proper troubleshooting so will wait until the latency issue is resolved and then try troubleshooting again. Personally I just hope it is not on the telkom side because the thought of having to deal with the customer service (or lack of it) makes me physically ill.
 
can't wait for the day telkom checks and says, "well your line isn't with us, kindly go get bent sir..."
what's WA got to say about this? sounds like the problem started when migrating to them
 
It could be.

I had similar issues when relocating from Telkom. I hear the competitor lines are put on the busy exchanges.

Remember also that some ISP's use different transit routes and backbones. For example; Mweb uses SEACOM, which has its own issues.
 
Preacher said:
I have a 10meg, stable DSL line.

My problem started when I subscribed to WebAfrica for one of their data and DSL bundles. Before that, I had telkom ISP and it was fine. I had an MWEB data and DSL bundle and it was fine. The day I switched to WA my line starts resetting like clockwork. Almost immediately after first power up, then about 5 minutes after that, then about 15 minutes after that, then about 30 minutes and then roughly every hour. And this doesn't happen every so often, it happens every time I turn on my DSL. This coincidentally started the day my WA account became active. I have had numerous DIFFERENT technicians out (which doesn't help as I have to explain my problem from scratch everytime). I have been moved to different DSLAMS, different racks and ports and same issue. I have tested different routers and the only difference there was how fast they reconnected again. I have tried different ISP details from prepaid accounts to loan accounts and same result.

Has anyone had a similar issue and was it sorted. The common denominator for me is telkom. And I would even go as far as saying that the computer that controls access has been set to reset my connection because as I have said, it happens like clockwork roughly the same intervals, and every time I connect.

This is very frustrating. Admittedly, I don't know how the network gets controlled by seeing as my problem is not random, it seems like it is a controlled fault.

Can anyone shed some light please?
Click to expand...

Ok, so you tried Telkom and Mweb. Then you moved to WA.

As suggested try borrow a router from a neighbour or friend for a short bit to test. This way you can rule-out if the router is a problem.

You mention that you have had your line+DSL with others without any problems. My GUESS would be that the problem lies in how your current ISP is managing your account & line.
 
And this doesn't happen every so often, it happens every time I turn on my DSL
Click to expand...

Not too sure if I understand you correctly, do you switch your modem/router off when not using the internet?

If so have you tried leaving it on 24/7 to see if that improves things (assuming you're not running in bridged mode)? It's not as though it uses a lot of power.
 
I believe Telkom techies sometimes "steal from Peter to pay Paul".

e.g.:
guy1 & guy2 complain about slow ADSL speeds.
so Telkom techie goes out and swops guy1 and guy2's ADSL ports, phones them both and asks if they're happy. They appear to be (because they're at work and cannot check so they forget about it)

a week later guy 3 and 4 (same area) have the same bloody problem (slow ADSL), so Telkom techie swops ports for guy 1 with guy 3 and guy 2 with guy 4.

so now guy 1 & 2 are back where they started (on a slow "congested" ADSL switch).

(sigh)
I guess with Telkom the illusion of efficiency is sometimes better than the actual product.
 
bubbatentoe said:
I believe Telkom techies sometimes "steal from Peter to pay Paul".

e.g.:
guy1 & guy2 complain about slow ADSL speeds.
so Telkom techie goes out and swops guy1 and guy2's ADSL ports, phones them both and asks if they're happy. They appear to be (because they're at work and cannot check so they forget about it)

a week later guy 3 and 4 (same area) have the same bloody problem (slow ADSL), so Telkom techie swops ports for guy 1 with guy 3 and guy 2 with guy 4.

so now guy 1 & 2 are back where they started (on a slow "congested" ADSL switch).

(sigh)
I guess with Telkom the illusion of efficiency is sometimes better than the actual product.
Click to expand...
It is not that easy for the techie to do a port swop. To start with the techie that visits your house may not touch anything inside the exchange. What could happen, though, is that they swop the physical cable in the street distribution cabinet (as per your scenario above). It is not S.O.P. but some of them are either too lazy or too inexperienced to trace and repair faults properly.
 
MickeyD said:
It is not that easy for the techie to do a port swop. To start with the techie that visits your house may not touch anything inside the exchange. What could happen, though, is that they swop the physical cable in the street distribution cabinet (as per your scenario above). It is not S.O.P. but some of them are either too lazy or too inexperienced to trace and repair faults properly.
Click to expand...
The street box is NEAR me. I've seen them swop ''my cable'' with what they call ''unallocated''. Is that permitted?
 
Venomous said:
It had nothing on it. I was looking what the dude did...

(claimed I'm curious & wanna see :p)
Click to expand...
The problem is the next step... did the techie report the "old" jumper faulty or did he just swop it to get you off his back and then move on to another fault? At some stage all the "spares" are going to be faulty and then a major overhaul will be required. This is when the fun and games (a.l.a. bubbatentoe begins) - swop working and non-working services around to transfer the problem until a decent techie comes along and sorts it out properly.
 
MickeyD said:
The problem is the next step... did the techie report the "old" jumper faulty or did he just swop it to get you off his back and then move on to another fault? At some stage all the "spares" are going to be faulty and then a major overhaul will be required. This is when the fun and games (a.l.a. bubbatentoe begins) - swop working and non-working services around to transfer the problem until a decent techie comes along and sorts it out properly.
Click to expand...
His words ''they'll only replace the cable oneday when there's no more spares''
so i guess he was setting them up for an overhaul ....
:twisted: /hopes they make him do it
 
But since then they had to replace the streetbox.. The rain was giving us lots crap. The box couldn't close due to rust... I guess having a big hospital in the same street helped that proccess along :D
 
Post your line stats. I used to have a 5Mbps stable line, now its barely holding down 3 since the attenuation/SNR has dropped by 5-8. It could be something that has deteriorated over time or perhaps something else they have done (which coincides with you switching your line over to WA).
 
Thanks for the replies.

I have tried 3 different routers and the same line resets occur. I have also tried 3 or so different ISP's and same issue. By the looks of it, I am the second WA account holder in this area to have this problem. I actually contacted them about this to see if they have had other complaints. They couldn't tell me off hand.

It has something to do with telkom not liking the fact that I moved my account over to WA. I can't see what their problem is as WA still use the telkom infrastructure and they still pay telkom for the line :/

I have spoken with WA about moving my line back to test my theory. Will see what they have to say. At the end of the day, I movied my account for the 10meg access, which I can get from telkom now as well so, cancelling my account would be a temporary pain, but if I have to do it, then I will.

Will keep you posted...
 
Preacher said:
It has something to do with telkom not liking the fact that I moved my account over to WA. I can't see what their problem is as WA still use the telkom infrastructure and they still pay telkom for the line :/
Click to expand...
The techies in the exchange and bakkies have no clue who your ISP is unless you tell them. So why would they want to sabotage your line? They get penalised on their performance assessments for repeat faults, which gives them no reason to want you (or WA) to repeatedly log faults.
 
MickeyD said:
The techies in the exchange and bakkies have no clue who your ISP is unless you tell them. So why would they want to sabotage your line? They get penalised on their performance assessments for repeat faults, which gives them no reason to want you (or WA) to repeatedly log faults.
Click to expand...
I agree
"My problem started when I subscribed to WebAfrica for one of their data and DSL bundles. Before that, I had telkom ISP and it was fine".......this is the problem when you have faults it will get bounced from your provider to telkom and back all the time ...you are dealing with two different company's one will blame the other
 
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