Stellenbosch Disconnect issues?

Ahoy,

I've been having issues the last couple of days with internet disconnecting - well, router synchs fine, connection just dies. Now it seems my connection is totally gone - No matter which account I use (WebAfrica or Telkom)....

Basically my router (Netgear) synchs fine, but gets stuck on the "Initialize LCP" stage.... Webafrica mentioned that its probably the exchange (couldn't get Telkom on the line, after waiting more than 40 mins I gave up).... I'm really close to the exchange (basically 20m outside my window)... Does "Initialize LCP" mean its not even getting to the authentication stage for user/pass? Not sure what msg Netgear router normally gives if the user/pass is simply incorrect...

So, if anyone has any suggestions it would be greatly appreciated.

ARg.
:/

Did firmware upgrade on Netgear DG834G(V3), no use. Tested with old ADSL modem, also no use. Hmm, anyone know if the following is within normal?

NETGEAR Down/Up
Line Attenuation: 47db/15 db
Noise Margin: 12db/13 db

D-LINK Down/Up
Line Attenuation: 49db/30 db
Noise Margin: 12db/13 db

Also, no other devices connected to phone line, only Router/modem.

WEll, if anyone has had anything similar, please bestow upon me rays of knowlege. And if its the line... what is the quickest way to get Telkom's sorry sooooorrry ass out here? (apart from entering the building with a grenade... which I might resort to....) Thanks.

Exact same problem! Same router, same error msg but diff area. I'm in Parow. My line went down at 6pm yesterday and has been down since. Logged fault with Telkom (after holding on for 35 mins). My line synchs but can't get IP address assigned to me, even if I use the telkom guest acc. Using GPRS on cell to write this! Nightmare

If possible, log the fault with Telkom because... when I spoke to them they were immediately disinterested since I was the "only one with the problem" even though I clearly explained to them that there were others that went down at the same time and get the same errors when trying to connect. Hopefully I'll get a call from the technician tomorrow.

Zefram has the same problem: http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=92982

Please post time when you're up again as well as reason for the fault. If I'm still down at that time the info can help me find the problem at my end. Thx

I've had disconnection problems for at least a week now.

Yes, like Globetrotter said, I have the same problem. Also, sorry about duplicating the thread, didn't see this one.

@Alpha_Geek: In answer to your question: You are correct, the "Initialize LCP" is before any authentication is done. I'm sure of this, because in linux, it starts complaining before I even get a chance to pick a username & password.

I'm at a friend's house less than 5km away and her ADSL did its regular 24-hour reset around 18h50. It then said 'initialize LCP" for almost 20 minutes and then it suddenly proceeded to "LCP allowed to come up, Authenticated etc...." and the IP address was assigned.

This whole process of re-assigning a new IP address is supposed to take only a few seconds after the 24-hour reset, but now it clearly is anyone's guess how long it will take before this happens.

My own ADSL is still down of course.

In my case, the disconnect was suppose to happen around 02:00, instead it happened at 18:35, 5 Nov. Router has been "initialize LCP"-ing ever since.

My disconnect was supposed to happen at 04h00 and I got disconnected somewhere between 18h00 and 19h00 on 5 Nov.
Zefram, when the Telkom technician (eventually) calls you, just tell him that you know about other people with exactly the same issue down to the same starting time of the problem. I have no doubt that our issues are related. Maybe that will make the troubleshooting process on their side a bit shorter, who knows.

Same problem here. I'm in PE though. Also got a Netgear router(WGR614v6). All the right lights are showing but when you want to load a page it says 'server not found'. I don't think it is the router though because if i try using a PPPOE connection it still doesn't work. In the network connections section in XP it shows an internet gateway but by received packets it says 'not available'

I phoned telkom and reported the fault. They told me they tested the line and from their side everything is fine, but obviously it isn't.

Also using phone to send this. Thank goodness for Opera Mini

Same problem.

I phoned Telkom, got to tech support, they "tested" my line and then told me to do a "10217 - 2 - 4", so I did that and the lady said "There's something wrong at Stellenbosch...". And I asked for an ETA, "No ETA.".

So I thanked her and hung up...

I doubt it'll take longer than the weekend, I hope not!

I'm getting the following on my D-Link 300T

Nov 6 20:23:07 | pppd 2.4.1 started by root, uid 0
Nov 6 20:24:47 | PPPoE Exit Status = 1
Nov 6 20:24:47 | PPPoE Send a Interface Delete Event Below
Nov 6 20:24:47 | System Call Error
Nov 6 20:24:47 | Connecting PPPoE socket: 00:00:00:00:00:00 0000 0x1000d378
Nov 6 20:24:47 | Couldn't get channel number: Transport endpoint is not connected
Nov 6 20:24:47 | Doing disconnect

Telkom responds....duh duh duuuuuuuuuuh

Well I finally got hold of someone (After another 30+ minutes) and was told (in a tone that suggests I am an IDIOOOOT for NOT knowing) the exchange is fscked. This is how it went down:

Me: Hello, my ADSL line is faulty, could you send someone out please?
Telkom: Oh.... pause.... What ISP?
Me: Webafrica.....
Telkom: Contact WebAfrica
Me: I Have, they said to contact you... my telkom account doesn't work either.... I have tried other router, same prob...
Telkom: Oh.... what is your number
Me: Number...
Telkom... Well, that exchange is down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Me: Oh. When will it be fixed.
Telkom: I do not have that information.
Me: Could you find out?
Telkom: No.
Me: Why not? Is there no way for you to consult your technicians?
Telkom: No.
Me: So must I just sit here and pray that it comes back on? Will this be in a month or two days.
Telkom: No.
Me: Can I speak to someone who has contact with your stellenbosch technicians?
Telkom: No.
Me: I hate you.
Telkom: Have you got a router?
Me: Die!
[Hangup]

Still down. At least this doesn't appear to be a router issue (as has been the case in UK with this Netgear model)....

Alpha_Geek said:

No matter which account I use (WebAfrica or Telkom)....

:/

Click to expand...

Did you try an IS account? The only thing I can think of is that Telkom's radius server was down that time. Do you know WebAfrica (Depending on package) is Telkom?

I also experienced the "Initialize LCP" message today in Kempton Park, but it only took 1 min max to get connected.

The other thing is, there is a problem with internet in SA. We had a 20min disconnect on our diginet last week and we are on the IS backbone, on that same backbone in the data center we have a server. I pinged it a couple of times and got 20-400 or ping timeout (normaly 10 ms).

At home I have a local IS account and 2 international accounts (IS and WebAfrica). With the international i do load balancing (50/50), but it seems that more international connections go through th IS account. Maybe my load balancing isn't setup correctly OR Telkom is feeling some pain.

That is not always the case. In some cases WebAfrica is faster.

Internet in SA... a BIG problem at the moment.

Alpha_Geek, well, clearly not a router issue. I've been online with a Netgear DG834GT router without any hassles since day one; this is the first time ever that I've been down in any way, and this for longer than 24 hours now.

Incidentally, see Telkom's SLA released today... they will fix everything in 24 hours (clearly not), and they will give credits if they can't fix it in time. I don't want credits, I just want them to fix the problem ASAP!

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/ADSL/1872.html

At least you guys got official info now that the exchange in SBosch is down, so that means that they're at least aware of it and acknowledging the problem. That doesn't help me in the N subs..... (still down here too)

marjo said:

I also experienced the "Initialize LCP" message today in Kempton Park, but it only took 1 min max to get connected.

Click to expand...

You're supposed to get "initialize LCP" but our problem is that we can't get further than that. You're supposed to get "LCP is allowed to come up" and then after that you get authenticated and assigned an IP address. Yes,all of this is supposed to happen within 1 minute. But I've been waiting 24 hours.....

LOL, maybe I did not say it correctly. I had the "initialize LCP" for a log time. Thought it was settings i missed while setting up their new router (Netgear), but it wasn't. Turned it off and back on again, probably 10 times before I got it to connect.

Previously there was a, piece of crap, Telkom router there (The white big square one)

Globetrotter said:

You're supposed to get "initialize LCP" but our problem is that we can't get further than that. You're supposed to get "LCP is allowed to come up" and then after that you get authenticated and assigned an IP address. Yes,all of this is supposed to happen within 1 minute. But I've been waiting 24 hours.....

Click to expand...

marjo said:

Did you try an IS account? The only thing I can think of is that Telkom's radius server was down that time. Do you know WebAfrica (Depending on package) is Telkom?

Click to expand...

It isn't ISP related. The "initialize LCP" needs to happen before authentication can. As far as I know, the ISP can only help if you get some kind of authentication problem.

Also, just to be sure, I tried a Verizon, SAIX and IS account.

Dodgy DSL

I have the same problem in Benoni. It all started at the weekend. I had the line upgraded from 384kb/s to 4Mb/s. My line attenuation and SNR are pretty dismal, so I think that is the cause of the problem. But why are the numbers so bad? At the risk of falling prey to the fallacy of composition; the "research" I've done points to the rain. I think that one of the junction boxes, or whatever they call those things where the wires come together on the street corners, is not properly weather-proofed.

Can you guys post your line attenuation, SNR and sync speed and also whether it has rained recently. Maybe we can spot a trend.

Thanks

BTW, my stats are:

Line Attenuation up: 37
Line Attenuation down: 60
SNR up: 10
SNR down: between 3 and 5
sync speed: 640/384 or 3850/384, randomly changes

zefram said:

It isn't ISP related. The "initialize LCP" needs to happen before authentication can. As far as I know, the ISP can only help if you get some kind of authentication problem.

Also, just to be sure, I tried a Verizon, SAIX and IS account.

Click to expand...

Telkom technician called this morning at 08h30, arrived at my place 10 mins later. Friendly guy, tested the line, confirmed everything was fine on my side. The line synchs 100% but when he tried to connect with his own adsl modem, he also could not get to the authentication level, no IP address was assigned to him using the Telkom guest account. Yet the line syncs correctly.

He then tested the SDC (big box outside the building) and on the exchange side of the box (therefore not the line to the box since that worked anyway) and found the same problem, line syncs but can't authenticate.
So that confirmed that it was a network problem.
When I told him that I specifically told the people at 0800 375 375 that the line clearly syncs he was quite annoyed that he was sent out because that is all he does, the field technicians just test whether the line syncs or not. So Support basically passed the buck. They should have elevated it to the network support people. I also told them that there were at a few people (you lot ) that also went down at around 18h00 on 5 Nov which was simply ignored (because they will only take it seriously if fault reports exist for all the users).

What was also quite ironic (and irritating) is that when the technician made his own internal phone calls to his people at Telkom... he also had to join in a queue for 30 mins!! Unbelievable.

Anyway, he promised he would escalate the matter. 10 mins later, just for luck, I tried to connect my ADSL again... and it worked!

So I'm back up again but unfortunately I have no idea whether it is because they did something specific or whether it is pure coincidence. The reason I say this is because the connection is now quite unstable, unfortunately.

I deliberately disconnected the connection and where it normally re-connects and assigns a new IP address within a minute or so... I had to wait almost 15 mins and repeated forced reconnects to eventually get online again.
So clearly there is still something wrong because if I'm going to have to sit and look at a dead screen 30 mins every time I go through the normal 24-hour reset... I'm not going to be happy.

Problem solved it seems.

My line came back up again, also have the dismal "Initialize LCP" -> "Authenticate" time... we should get a name for this phenomenon, as with Telkom I'm sure its bound to become thematic. Maybe its a new feature that helps people save on bandwidth by disconnecting you for a couple of days at a time - Always had trouble not "abusing" my R70/gig, tsk tsk.