[fulmer]

my brother's DSL (bellsouth) died after a neighbourhood power outage. The outage didn't last long (a few minutes), but since then (7 days ago), the dsl hasn't worked. It gives us authentication errors or failure to locate PPP host.

Telephone works with no hisses/noises/abnormalities. Bellsouth is being uncooperative--they're turning us in circles to avoid an on-location diagnostic.

Anyone had this happen to them before? What went down? Thanks.

[DBursey]

A friend's DSL modem died during a brief power outage. The voltage surge and/or voltage sag can easily damage electronic components.

A more ominous possibility exists that the mac's ethernet circuitry has been damaged by the power fluctuation. This happened to my iMac. The external DSL modem was fine but the ethernet had died. To get around this, I purchased an Airport basestation and card to connect wirelessly to my DSL, thereby bypassing the ethernet (and believe it or not, saving $$$ over what the ethernet repair would have cost me).

Methinks an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) with a phone line surge suppressor would constitute a wise investment.

[fulmer]

it was originally connected to a base station, so the powerbook's ethernet is fine. thanks for the input, though. I wish they'd get in gear and fix the line, the node, or give us a new modem.

[oscar]

Try unplugging the dsl modem from the wall, and unplugging it, give it 24 hours, and plug it back in, sometimes the dsl line thinks your connected, but your not, its known, ironicly known as a "stuck connection"
Lemme know

[fulmer]

thanks for the hint. will do.

[fulmer]

it was a dead part of the modem. replacing it immediately got the connection up and running.

[ghporter]

Congratulations on your brother getting back online. Now have your brother run, not walk, to the nearest store that has uninterruptable power supplies and get enough of them to handle all of his computer equipment, including his DSL modem. Not only does a UPS protect the equipment against power sags and outages, but it can even isolate the equipment from some lightning problems. Note I said "some" problems. I had a lightning strike on a metal light pole three houses down, and the radiated electromagnetic pulse was picked up through my house wiring and killed a bunch of my equipment. I wish I were making this up-it was VERY expensive, since so many different things were damaged. My TV, stereo, 56K modem (a part inside it literally exploded!), two surge suppressors (the surge actually charred some parts, but they had very odd warranties, so I couldn't collect), and a digital answering machine. The computers were on UPSs, so came through fine.

Today I have everything I can run through a UPS. The prices are coming down rather quickly, so they are often a great deal, too! I really strongly recommend them.

[fulmer]

thanks for the suggestion. several years ago we had a serious power surge and it fried a lot of our equipment, too. a couple of the surge protectors literally melted. ouch.