Telkom Line Problems; Loss at what to do

[Phenie]

Hi all,

My internet has been playing up in a very annoying way for just over a week or so. Some of the time it is fine, but a good 60%+ of it is spent at such snail speeds, that even loading a simple website becomes a mission.

I phoned my ISP (axxess; I have the uncapped fibre+) and sent some tracerts and pings for them to look at, they told me they can confirm that the problem was not with them or with IS, it was a problem with the Telkom line.

So I phoned Telkom, they beat around the bush resetting ports and checking with exchanges and whatever, and eventaully sent someone to check the line here, he completely replaced a large portion of the telephone wire along with removing old unused wire that might have been interfering. The line was perfect that day, ironically.

The next day it came back, and now a test at http://speedtest-rba.isdsl.net/ either fails to ever finish or ends with a "line speed" of 0kbits/s to 5kbits/sec. ie: non-existant speed. I called Telkom back and they repeated all the useless steps, its just not getting me anywhere.

What can I possibly do now? I rely on my internet very heavily as all my work is based overseas. I'm on the verge of considering Iburst, and I have been a nay-sayer against them for ages.
I'm located in Ferndale, Randburg - is anyone else hacing any problems there?

 

[InTheCube]

Problem could be with your modem. Try testing a friend's modem on your line, and try testing your modem on a friend's line. That we you can help isolate the problem. I've heard of lots of weird things happening with people's ADSL, and 90% of the time it is the modem that is the culprit. Alot of people complain to Telkom, who tend to listen, and do all the necessary stuff on their side, but still the problem persists. Most of the time the problem is due to a faulty modem.

 

[Phenie]

Thanks for the input, I'll definitely try it out.

I assumed it would not fluctuate fast/slow if it was the modem; so I ruled it out. But I'll borrow a friends and check it out, my knowledge of how these things work is not the highest.

 

[Eonblack]

This happens to me sometimes but not very often, usually it's because my Ethernet cable isn't making contact with the router properly or there is just something up with my router (it usually just fixes itself if I switch it on or off again).

 

[InTheCube]

Try swapping the modem with someone else like I said, then also try upgrading your firmware. This helps sometimes...