[siflippant]

Hi ppl...

went to bed on Wednesday night connected to my broadband circuit (running fine, I hadn't downloaded anything apart from the securiity patch for 10.4) but the next morning I found that my Airport connection had dropped out and decided to fix it when I got home. Things couldn't have been less simple...

Resetting the airport and adsl modem did not work. When the ethernet cable is connected directly from the d-link modem to my powerbook 'it sees' it is connected, it also says the same of the airport. The network diagnostics tells me that all my settings are good (in the green) except for the internet and server which are shown to be red. My service provider BT (here in the UK) said they did not support my '3rd party modem' and it was most prob. that which was at fault. I reluctantly bought myself a new modem but this is also getting the same response. On the web based configuration for both units they tell me that the DSL connection is working (complete with downstream and upstream speeds) but on the status page both modems were disconnected via ppp_o_a and no IP had been assigned. I also did an archive & install back to 10.4 such was my desperation and clutching at straws just to get this problem of connecting resolved but needless to say this was a pointless exercise.

I called tech support for my Linksys and ran through everything with them. My username was correct (no need for a password, just have NA in that field for it to connect). I called BT again they gave me another high rate tech. support no. to call and at the end this guy (based in India I think) told me he could not help me any further as he was unsure about Macs and that my modem was a 3rd party... no support!

Finally under much protest I got them to raise a fault on the adsl circuit as the customer service advisor told me there was a problem connecting/authorisation failure with my username, all this at 1.16am GMT - to say I was p*ssed at the fact this couldn't have been discovered 7 hours earlier was beyond me.

I have had this SP since Jan 2003 and never had any problems... but the stupid thing is they are STILL saying I could get a site visit from a field engineer! But both modems are connecting, it's just that I am not being allowed to go ahead any further with my username and I have no I.P address assigned to me. I just want to save them wasting an engineer's time and I work a lot of hours. Surely this fault can be fixed remotely without the need for a visit. Am I correct on this?

Apologies for such a long post

Thank you in advance to anyone who can help/advise me...

[ghporter]

1) What specific model of ADSL modem do you have right now? How is it configured? I'm particularly interested in whether or not it has a DHCP server that is enabled.

2) Diagnostics aside, how is your computer's ethernet port configured? The details from the Network Preferences pane would be very helpful here.

3) After the security patch download, did you restart your Mac? Some of the more in-depth patches actually require a complete restart to work, and until then they can really mess up your networking.

4) I think it's a requirement in the broadband tech support world to first blame every problem on a third-party device, and second send you to India or Pakistan for tech support. The first is almost 100% false (the telephone drones' script just tells them to say that) and the second is very bad for customer service. Either way, they did not serve you well.

As a broad rule of thumb, anything that "just stops working" without any obvious problem (i.e. smoke and flames, physically broken parts, etc.) is most likely something VERY minor, but usually not very obvious. Take a deep breath and look at one thing at a time, and you can walk through this issue without losing your mind.

[siflippant]

Thank you for your reply

Yep, I did all of that (and trust me, on both the D-Link and the Linksys modems, everything checks out fine) - I called BT back today a very helpful advisor told me there's been a 'major outage' - ongoing from the 6th June... may take until Monday to get fixed with it being the w/end now... but at least I have some temporary dial up software to see me through the basics like chat and e-mail...