Telkom isp accounts not working, but other isp's work fine on line

Grouter

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Good morning gurus, I have a weird problem.

I have a client on a 2 meg adsl line who has been having 3 months of grief trying to get their internet to work. Multiple calls to 10210 and multiple technician visits have failed to sort the problem.

Client has a telkomsa account which appears to connect, pings to google or telkom are successful, some sites load (very slowly), most timeout. Account is 40 Gb softcap, useage is 3 gb, so it's not capped. 10210 says account is paid up, in good standing, and there are no issues their side.

I was only called in yesterday. I look at various things: SNR, attenuation, noise, etc, all good. Tried 2 different modems, same issue. Then I put a vox account on the modem. Internet flies - 100% working. Tried an Mweb account - ditto. Afrihost free - ditto. Back to client's telkomsa account - dead.

Called 10210 again. They did a port re-create and changed the password. No difference, internet dead. The said internet username and password works as it logs in to the various telkomsa portals like titracker and password management, although only when the internet is connected with an isp account other than a telkom account.

I even tried my own telkom internet account and the same, which really messed with my head as now it looks like the line just doesn't like telkomsa accounts.

WTF can this be? line is connected to the Pine Lake Marina remote isam 2km outside of town. SNR was 36 downstream and attenuation 21, which is about right as there is about a km and a half of copper between the isam and the premises. Telkom call centre has admitted the issue requires specialist attention but they couldn't say when, how or where this would come from.

My theory is that there is some sort of radius authentication issue somewhere, maybe at the isam, that is having hissy fits with telkomsa accounts. AFAIK there are minimal users on this isam, possibly less than a dozen.

Ranger? MickeyD?

In the meantime I have left my own vox account on their modem so they at least have internet for a week or two until the problem can get sorted.

Thanks for reading.
 
So why don't they just ditch TelkomSA and get an Afrihost data account? Simple solution.
 
So why don't they just ditch TelkomSA and get an Afrihost data account? Simple solution.

I suggested that to them. Firstly they want to keep their telkom email addresses. Secondly they said it would be unnecessary extra expense (they are a retired couple in their 70's), and thirdly, and I agree with them here, why should they? Telkom are charging them for internet, they should be providing it.
 
Pine Lake Marina... is that not a remote DSLAM?

Any firewall settings?

Looks like a problem @ranger can solve.
 
it's definitely an @telkomsa.net problem, struggling with some sites also using the telkom dsl account, Axxess on the same line, no issues
 
Good morning gurus, I have a weird problem.

I have a client on a 2 meg adsl line who has been having 3 months of grief trying to get their internet to work. Multiple calls to 10210 and multiple technician visits have failed to sort the problem.

Client has a telkomsa account which appears to connect, pings to google or telkom are successful, some sites load (very slowly), most timeout. Account is 40 Gb softcap, useage is 3 gb, so it's not capped. 10210 says account is paid up, in good standing, and there are no issues their side.

I was only called in yesterday. I look at various things: SNR, attenuation, noise, etc, all good. Tried 2 different modems, same issue. Then I put a vox account on the modem. Internet flies - 100% working. Tried an Mweb account - ditto. Afrihost free - ditto. Back to client's telkomsa account - dead.

Up to here I would have asked you to check if the account had the "prioritisation" feature enabled with a very low speed.

Called 10210 again. They did a port re-create and changed the password. No difference, internet dead. The said internet username and password works as it logs in to the various telkomsa portals like titracker and password management, although only when the internet is connected with an isp account other than a telkom account.

You mean that they can't reach our tools when on our account? Or that they get an authentication error in this case (impossible, so I assume not).

I even tried my own telkom internet account and the same, which really messed with my head as now it looks like the line just doesn't like telkomsa accounts.

WTF can this be? line is connected to the Pine Lake Marina remote isam 2km outside of town. SNR was 36 downstream and attenuation 21, which is about right as there is about a km and a half of copper between the isam and the premises. Telkom call centre has admitted the issue requires specialist attention but they couldn't say when, how or where this would come from.

My theory is that there is some sort of radius authentication issue somewhere, maybe at the isam, that is having hissy fits with telkomsa accounts. AFAIK there are minimal users on this isam, possibly less than a dozen.

Ranger? MickeyD?

RADIUS is from the NAS/ESR/BNG for the PPPoE session from the modem to it, so I don't think it's anything like that.


In the meantime I have left my own vox account on their modem so they at least have internet for a week or two until the problem can get sorted.

Thanks for reading.

Did you take a traceroute?

Does the problem occur all/most of the time or only sometimes?

You can PM me the username, but with the symptoms you describe it would be easiest to investigate while the account is online and having this problem.
 
Thanks for replying Ranger.

Their account is currently not online - my vox account is on their modem.

Didn't do a trace, no. The problem has been ongoing for some months they tell me.

Telkomsa.net and telkom.co.za not reachable with a telkom account on their line, but reachable with other isps on their line.

I can only pm you their phone number at the moment. I will not be able to get back to their house for some days - probably only thursday or friday.

In the meantime the call centre may action something as a result of the fault reported by us on saturday.

Thanks again.
 
it's definitely an @telkomsa.net problem, struggling with some sites also using the telkom dsl account, Axxess on the same line, no issues
We have heard of some complaints (directly from employees), mainly News24, which seems to be due to News24 having started using Cloudflare, and Cloudflare not having sufficient capacity at JB1 and so taking their JB1 down frequently (resulting in this content being served from an international node). We are not sure why this serms to result in the site not working.

But the call centre hasn't sent us anything about this issue ...
 
@Ranger:

I have pm'ed you the client's telkom internet username & password.
 
Feedback:

Client's username and password back on their modem. Internet working fine.

Total mystery to me, as nothing else was changed - I simple removed my vox account from their modem and replaced their Telkomsa account.

Perhaps something happened on Telkom's side in the interim.

Thanks to Ranger, perhaps?

BTW, I guess you can ignore my PM now Ranger, thanks.
 
Client called me today. After nearly 3 weeks of internet being OK, he says problem is back again. Exactly the same as before. (See my OP). I told them to just keep calling 10210 as there was nothing more I could do.

And no, they are not capped:

not capped.jpeg
 
I think i've just run into the same problem.

telkomsa.net works
telkom.co.za doesn't
teamspeak to a hetzner host in germany works if already connected when switching accounts


Most sites in firefox return instantaneous "server not found" except a few.

Strange that most of 4chan fails except a few subdomains that load forever.

I tried google's dns and direct ip connections but nadda. Could it be their routing for my account?

20gb package 19.9 available.

The integrated sim is displaying the same problems.

Edit:
wow ok, you work fast. Thanks.
 
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OK, a follow up on my OP, now I have one seriously annoyed pair of septuagenarians! Their problem is back. Their telkom account stopped authenticating on their line on December 1. Saix stats show no connection since then, even though line remained synced and modem on.

I enter their details on a modem at my premises and I get a connection, I get internet, and suddenly saix stats show a connection for 8th December.

Screenshot from 2016-12-08 12-00-37.png

I have resorted to putting my personal vox account on their modem and they have internet. Their line is excellent: 2559 down / 511 up, 45 dB SNR and 17 dB attenuation.

I cannot figure this one out. My only idea was that the account was somehow "black-flagged" but the fact that it connects from my premises OK and also it logs in to telkomsa's portals ( password management, titracker, etc) as well suggests the account is in good standing. Usage stands at 40 Mb of 40 gb for December. (That was used on Dec 1st)

I have suggested to them now they just get another ISP account, keep paying for the telkom account (they want to keep the associated telkom email addresses) and just use the other ISP's data. Telkom seem unable to fix this issue.

Ranger, if you're seeing this, I can PM you the username and password, if you're interested / if you can help.
 
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I have suggested to them now they just get another ISP account, keep paying for the telkom account (they want to keep the associated telkom email addresses) and just use the other ISP's data. Telkom seem unable to fix this issue.

They can keep their Telkom e-mail address for a yearly fee of R 156.90 (2016 fee, may be more next year) if this is more cost effective than keeping their present account.
 
They can keep their Telkom e-mail address for a yearly fee of R 156.90 (2016 fee, may be more next year) if this is more cost effective than keeping their present account.

Good to know, thanks.
 
I have suggested to them now they just get another ISP account, keep paying for the telkom account (they want to keep the associated telkom email addresses) and just use the other ISP's data. Telkom seem unable to fix this issue.

Ranger, if you're seeing this, I can PM you the username and password, if you're interested / if you can help.

Please do. Please also send the number where their account doesn't work.
 
@ Ranger: Thanks for the info via PM. I will only be able to get to my client on Monday. I'll try what you suggest (password change) and see what happens and revert.

I am not 100% confident the password change fix will be a permanent solution however, as it has worked for a while before and then after a month or so the problem (the account not authenticating) returns. The client is looking for a permanent fix.

We discussed upgrading to another package (100 Gb Softcap) which would trigger a new username and password, then after a month putting them back on 40Gb Softcap (their current package) with yet another new username and password.

Is this the long-term solution I wonder?
 
@ Ranger: Thanks for the info via PM. I will only be able to get to my client on Monday. I'll try what you suggest (password change) and see what happens and revert.

I am not 100% confident the password change fix will be a permanent solution however, as it has worked for a while before and then after a month or so the problem (the account not authenticating) returns. The client is looking for a permanent fix.

Well, the password you provided works everywhere we tested, but the modem is sending an incorrect password.

Have you tried running a pppoe session from a different device behind the same modem on the same line (to rule out all other issues)? Maybe the modem is corrupting the password over time.

We are investigating some other enhancements that will make it easier for customer to work around or resolve issues like this ...
 
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