[8/7/05] There's something odd going on with my computer. All of a sudden it stopped connecting to the internet. I traced back the connection to the hub (which is connected to the DSL modem) and everything looks OK to me. I reset (unplugged and plugged back) the modem and hub. I hooked up one of my other computers to the hub (with a different cable) and it connected to the internet. So apparently the problem is either with the computer or the cable connected to the hub.
However when I connected the cable directly to the DSL modem, the connection worked. So evidently the cable and the computer are OK. Beats me what's going on.
I think the next thing I could try is to bring this computer over to where the other computer is and see if it connects using the same cable as the computer. If it doesn't then I'll know it's something odd going on with the computer. Funny though. It was working all this time.
[8/15/05 AM] It looks to me that it's a problem with Verizon. I tried two other computers using and not using the hub and they all had problems connecting eventually. I first suspected that Windows ME was at fault because my WMC computer seemed to connect better. But then later even that lost connection. As I'm typing this, I'm now (Monday AM) on a newly installed ME on my HP computer (on a new partition) and the connection has been working from about 3:00 AM to now (5:00 AM). It also worked about this time on Sunday morning, then died later that morning after I went back to sleep. I'm still getting only about 500 kpbs on the connection though. But I'll take it.
[8/15/05] Later that same morning, the verizon tech called, a nice lady named Raynella from California. My connection was still up when she called, but she ran some tests anyway. Everything looked OK from her end, but my speed seemed a little slow (like 600 kpbs). Then we switched to my other computer (Paula) and the speed ramped up to like 1.1 mbps. So my first computer became the suspect. But then the connection died again. Since the connection tested OK when we first tried, Raynella thought the problem was with my computers. But I maintained that wasn't necessarily the case since it would be unusual to have two computer having the same problem. (Not to mention my third (WMC) computer which I had tried earlier.)
Anyway, she agreed to send out a tech saying maybe it might be my modem. Scheduled for tomorrow morning.
Later that afternoon, the guy from Hawaiian Telcom surprisingly came early. (Another pleasant guy.) My DSL was still down. I told him the problem was intermittant and I hooked up WMC to show him. I think it worked at first but died a little later. He checked the line and it looked fine. But he went to retrieve his test modem and laptop to double-check. Luckily for me, the connection was dead on him too. So they can't blame my equipment any more. He made a call to the mainland. In the meantime, I hooked up his computer to WMC and tried. It didn't work. But while he was on hold (for quite a while), the connection finally took just before they answered his call. And I got pretty good speed from the infospeed and midco tests. Anyway they're going to try to change my circuit or rebuild my circuit (whatever that means) to see if that helps. I hope it works because I think we've eliminated the computers (the problem occured on three of my computers and the guy's laptop), the hub (the problem occurs even when plugged directly into the modem), the network cables (the problem occurs on both network cables that plugg into the modem), ZoneAlarm (if the connection works it also works with ZoneAlarm running) and the modem (the problem occured on his modem too). Don't know what else is left. Maybe the phone cord?
After the guy left, I plugged back my modem after it cooled off and still got no connection. So I don't think it's a overheated modem problem. I'm typing this on a dialup connection. Stay tuned.
[8/17/05]
connection seems to be working at 730 28,27 ms (ping)
slowing down again at 1030 68,69 ms w/ some time outs
but still connecting
1039 27 mixed with 69 trouble connecting (marginal)
[8/18/05]
302 - default gateway 4.16.84.1
getting 27,14,28,27,14,14 (good)
sleep
845am still looking good
851 spoke too soon, slow again
907 looks good again
908 bad again
913 ok again
915 bad again
1133 ok
1134 bad again
1146 ok
1149 bad
1152 ok
1154 bad
517 working
520 bad
628 working (yahoo is down)
down later
[8/19]
230 working fine
705 still good
nap
856 still good
1240 hey still working!
[9/15/05] So what was the problem? The Verizon guy was supposed to reset my connection or something. But when they called back a couple of days later, I still had the problem. I asked the tech guy who I asked how he would get an IP address. He said there were various ways and I told him I was using IPCONFIG. That seemed to trigger something and he told me to use IPCONFIG and ping the gateway. I was getting lost packets once in a while and the ping time was slow. After that he found that there were a lot of people with connection problems and they thought that the problem was an overloaded switch which was to be replaced. It seemed to get a little better after that but was still sporadic. Then a day or so after that, the problem went away. So it was a problem on their end after all.
The good news is when I called them to see if I could get credit for the lost service, their computer was down. So they're going to give me a month of credit (or was it two) when I was hoping for a week. I'll take it.
[4/20/10] - I don't think I ever got that credit
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