On 5 Jul, 11:26, Mark McIntyre
wrote:
wrote:
My friend shares her flat for economic reasons. Flatmates come and go.
Due to these personnel changes, the original Telewest, now Virgin,
cable TV and broadband equipment has been shunted from one room to
another. At this stage, cable TV not working and single PC cannot
access Internet via LAN cable to Surfboard 5101 modem.

All the modem lights are green and steady except the "PC activity"
one, which is orange and flickering constantly.

Cable or ADSL? What modem? is it also a router? Is it Wireless? Is it
the original TW/VM one ? What did VM's CS team say when you called them
to report the TV and BB fault? Who moved the cables and were they
competent?

Thanks for the advice Mark, it's appreciated but F**k Me! I've been
embarassing myself with the amount of detail I've been asking readers
of this thread to plough through. I admit that my descriptive skills
are less than perfect but couldn't you glean the answer to any of your
questions from what was written before? Even the quoted text you
included in this very message must answer most of them?

Even so, I appreciate the reassurance about the responsibilities of
the ISP.

During each attempt to connect, Windows Network Connections shows an
initial "Connected" message which then soon falls back to "Limited
Connectivity..." Windows Firewall is off.

You're using wireles, correct? Try with a wired connection first. If
this fails then your cable or modem is toast.

Any advice on where to begin please?
Would it be better to circumvent the individual troubleshooting
processess and get Virgin to come in and sort the TV and cabling out?

Absolutely.

Is their customer entitled to have a Virgin engineer attend to this
without incurring significant cost?

The service isn't working so as long as you dont admit you moved their
stuff (eg white boxes) without their permisison you sohuld be ok.

--
Regards,
Dick Treen

In ,
opined loudly:
My friend shares her flat for economic reasons. Flatmates come and go.
Due to these personnel changes, the original Telewest, now Virgin,
cable TV and broadband equipment has been shunted from one room to
another. At this stage, cable TV not working and single PC cannot
access Internet via LAN cable to Surfboard 5101 modem.

All the modem lights are green and steady except the "PC activity"
one, which is orange and flickering constantly.
During each attempt to connect, Windows Network Connections shows an
initial "Connected" message which then soon falls back to "Limited
Connectivity..." Windows Firewall is off.

The ipconfig command doesn't show the:

"Connection-specific DNS suffix . : surfboard.com"

as manual suggests but is blank.

Any advice on where to begin please?
Would it be better to circumvent the individual troubleshooting
processess and get Virgin to come in and sort the TV and cabling out?
Is their customer entitled to have a Virgin engineer attend to this
without incurring significant cost?

signal for both TV and BB come into the house using one cable ( Tv and BB at
different RF freqs)
Go back to the first place the Coax comes into the flat and test from there
either STB or Cable modem
Ex Telewest BroadBand uses 331 or 339 Mhz
--


Yddap

wrote:

of this thread to plough through. I admit that my descriptive skills
are less than perfect but couldn't you glean the answer to any of your
questions from what was written before? Even the quoted text you
included in this very message must answer most of them?

You would be amazed at how many people post misleading info here, and
expect people to diagnose their real problem.

Is their customer entitled to have a Virgin engineer attend to this
without incurring significant cost?

The service isn't working so as long as you dont admit you moved their
stuff (eg white boxes) without their permisison you sohuld be ok.

Note this.

From a later post I see you have tried running a really long bit of
coax to the modem (presumably with short length of ethernet), /and/
tried running a really long bit of ethernet to the modem (presumably
with a short length of coax).

my advice: you have either knackered service or knackered cables.

First throw away all the coax and ethernet cables you have, get a short
(3m) length of F-terminated coax from a supplier (ie not homemade) and
a 1m patch cable from maplin. If it doesnt work with that setup, then
phone VM and tell them their system is hosed.

If the above works, then you have proved its just defective cabling so
its time to experiment with different lengths and setups.

Personally I'd run coax underfloor to a communal place where I'd keep
the modem plus a router. Then it never needs to get fiddled with again.
Worst case I'd get VM to do it for me (£££).

On 5 Jul, 18:07, Mark McIntyre
wrote:
wrote:
of this thread to plough through. I admit that my descriptive skills
are less than perfect but couldn't you glean the answer to any of your
questions from what was written before? Even the quoted text you
included in this very message must answer most of them?

You would be amazed at how many people post misleading info here, and
expect people to diagnose their real problem.

Not *very* amazed though. Still I expect most of us do our best. After
all, it's in the enquirer's interest to do so, in most cases.


Is their customer entitled to have a Virgin engineer attend to this
without incurring significant cost?
The service isn't working so as long as you dont admit you moved their
stuff (eg white boxes) without their permisison you sohuld be ok.

Note this.

From a later post I see you have tried running a really long bit of
coax to the modem (presumably with short length of ethernet), /and/
tried running a really long bit of ethernet to the modem (presumably
with a short length of coax).

The most recent attempts have been made using a short coax and a
moderately short Ethernet cable.
Neither of these were brand new as you recommend, but the
disappointing results may inspire someone to go shopping.

my advice: you have either knackered service or knackered cables.

a knackered service would put the ball nicely into someone elses
court.
I wonder on what aspect of the "knackered service" problem to put the
emphasis so that Virgin will act positively, quickly and least
expensively?

First throw away all the coax and ethernet cables you have,

Oh no! Straight to my Achilles heel in one fell swoop. Can I just put
them into an old Tesco bag and get them back out later. :-)

get a short
(3m) length of F-terminated coax from a supplier (ie not homemade) and
a 1m patch cable from maplin. If it doesnt work with that setup, then
phone VM and tell them their system is hosed.

Clear, positive advice which I look forward to taking.

If the above works, then you have proved its just defective cabling so
its time to experiment with different lengths and setups.

Already well into that process without any pleasing results so far.

Personally I'd run coax underfloor to a communal place where I'd keep
the modem plus a router. Then it never needs to get fiddled with again.
worst case I'd get VM to do it for me (£££)

I agree with getting the cabling out of harms way and getting VM to do
it will be a last resort.
As I said before I'm just trying to decide on the key factor that will
get VM to take responsibility and make quick a personal appearance.
--
Regards,
Dick Treen

wrote:

My friend shares her flat for economic reasons. Flatmates come and go.
Due to these personnel changes, the original Telewest, now Virgin,
cable TV and broadband equipment has been shunted from one room to
another. At this stage, cable TV not working and single PC cannot
access Internet via LAN cable to Surfboard 5101 modem.

If it has been shunted from one room to another, shunt it around again
until you find the room in which it (TV for starters) works.

YES.

Advice here, I have 3 rooms cabled by VM but the 'splitter' in the cable entry
box only has 2 outlets (cheapskates - also may be to do with avoiding
unterminated cable reflections that could degrade the signal ) so only any 2
outlets of the 3 can work at the same time.

Graham

The most recent attempts have been made using a short coax and a
moderately short Ethernet cable.
Neither of these were brand new as you recommend, but the
disappointing results may inspire someone to go shopping.

If it is coax with screw on F-connectors, I'd certainly
check this out for starters.
Everyone thinks he is an expert on such things and
given something that looks easy to fiddle with they
usually end up with braid shorting out to centre conductor,
in some cases no braid connection, because that was the
only way to get it to screw back on, too thick and
too much strain on the fingers otherwise, then there
are those who cut the inner too short so it don't mate
with the recepticle.
Retail ethernet connectors are fairly robust, and
well over 10M no problem, but there are the two
types, straight and crossover, quite a few
don't know that, or even worse which one they
are selling.
Getting the TV fixed first sounds like your best
option.
VM boxes (eg Scientific Atlanta) I've met
have a cable feed input, TV
feed out, an RJ45 WAN (usually to a router)
connection, and a USB connection (the
latter needs their setup disk with USB drivers.
The drivers do an excellent job of screwing up
your PC. Go for the RJ45 connection.

wrote:
On 5 Jul, 18:07, Mark McIntyre
wrote:
wrote:
of this thread to plough through. I admit that my descriptive skills
are less than perfect but couldn't you glean the answer to any of your
questions from what was written before? Even the quoted text you
included in this very message must answer most of them?
You would be amazed at how many people post misleading info here, and
expect people to diagnose their real problem.

Not *very* amazed though. Still I expect most of us do our best.

For some definitions of the word 'best':

"Hi, I have a dlink and my windows says the internet is poor, I tried
usb but it didn't work at all, how do I fix it?"

After
all, it's in the enquirer's interest to do so, in most cases.

You'd think so, wouldn't you?

I wonder on what aspect of the "knackered service" problem to put the
emphasis so that Virgin will act positively, quickly and least
expensively?

Something along the lines of

"we pay you to provide TV and internet, we're not getting either, we're
stopping the direct debit unless an engineer shows up AND fixes it"

tends to do the trick.
Without causing offense - how hard is it to call CS? Ok, they'll ask you
to plug your pooter directly into the modem (you tried that) and then
remove all cables for 30 sec (ditto). So you spend 5 freefone mins
repeating the tests you already did, then book an engineer.

First throw away all the coax and ethernet cables you have,

Oh no! Straight to my Achilles heel in one fell swoop. Can I just put
them into an old Tesco bag and get them back out later. :-)

Sure - as long you don't come back here whinging that your internet is
sh*gged again... :-)

(snippage)
Clear, positive advice which I look forward to taking.

You're welcome!

--
Mark McIntyre

wrote:
The most recent attempts have been made using a short coax and a
moderately short Ethernet cable.
Neither of these were brand new as you recommend, but the
disappointing results may inspire someone to go shopping.

If it is coax with screw on F-connectors, I'd certainly
check this out for starters.
Everyone thinks he is an expert on such things

Hence my point about shop-bought cabling.

I make my own but then I already spent a period demonstrating to my
clients all the common ways to screw up (568A vs 568B.. plug held wrong
way up.. accidental swapping of c/w and c... short core to shield...
nicking insulation... nicking core... etc). I now have a shed full of
screwed up cat5 patches I retain as salutory lessons for any trainees I
might stupidly employ...

On 5 Jul, 21:53, wrote:
The most recent attempts have been made using a short coax and a
moderately short Ethernet cable.
Neither of these were brand new as you recommend, but the
disappointing results may inspire someone to go shopping.

If it is coax with screw on F-connectors, I'd certainly
check this out for starters.
Everyone thinks he is an expert on such things and
given something that looks easy to fiddle with they
usually end up with braid shorting out to centre conductor,
in some cases no braid connection, because that was the
only way to get it to screw back on, too thick and
too much strain on the fingers otherwise, then there
are those who cut the inner too short so it don't mate
with the recepticle.
Retail ethernet connectors are fairly robust, and
well over 10M no problem, but there are the two
types, straight and crossover, quite a few
don't know that, or even worse which one they
are selling.
Getting the TV fixed first sounds like your best
option.
VM boxes (eg Scientific Atlanta) I've met
have a cable feed input, TV
feed out, an RJ45 WAN (usually to a router)
connection, and a USB connection (the
latter needs their setup disk with USB drivers.
The drivers do an excellent job of screwing up
your PC. Go for the RJ45 connection.

Thanks. That's given me a lot to consider. I'm already aware of some
of it but it does no harm to introduce a check-list every now and
again, just to be on the safe side.
--
Regards,
Dick Treen

On 5 Jul, 21:15, Eeyore
wrote:
wrote:
My friend shares her flat for economic reasons. Flatmates come and go.
Due to these personnel changes, the original Telewest, now Virgin,
cable TV and broadband equipment has been shunted from one room to
another. At this stage, cable TV not working and single PC cannot
access Internet via LAN cable to Surfboard 5101 modem.

If it has been shunted from one room to another, shunt it around again
until you find the room in which it (TV for starters) works.

YES.

Advice here, I have 3 rooms cabled by VM but the 'splitter' in the cable entry
box only has 2 outlets (cheapskates - also may be to do with avoiding
unterminated cable reflections that could degrade the signal ) so only any 2
outlets of the 3 can work at the same time.

Graham

The cable box in this situation has only one outlet, which may reduce
complications.
--
Regards,
Dick Treen