# Broadband Connection



## mattjg01 (Jul 3, 2006)

Don't know how many of you are PC gurus but hoping for any assistance possible. I have broadband at home through Freedom 2 Surf. I'm on one of their rate adaptive packages. All has been working well until the weekend when I suddenly lost the ability to access any websites.

I am able to upload information at normal speeds but when I try to view a webpage or download information I do not get any throughput. I have contacted Freedom 2 Surf and they were hopeless, they eventually said they'd contact BT Wholesale who have come back and said the line is fine it must be my equipment. I can't believe it's a problem at my end because I have:


Tried 2 modems (1 wireless, 1 wired)
Reset the modem
Tried 3 different adsl filters
Tried 2 different PCs
If any of you have any ideas what might have happened please shout as its driving me barmy. As I said above it's worked perfectly for a long time and then suddenly nothing. No extra software or hardware has been installed, so I'm at a total lost.

Please help!

Matt


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

What happens when you try a tracert to a remote site?


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## mattjg01 (Jul 3, 2006)

What's a tracert?


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## murph (Aug 14, 2006)

mattjg01 said:


> What's a tracert?


just open a command line window and type tracert (trace route) followed by the address or ip number.


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## pugster (Nov 22, 2004)

goto start>run>programs>accessories>command prompt

then type 'ping www.freedom2surf.net' no qoutes and hit enter

you will see a list of the route it takes, what you need to look at is the packets sent/lost etc


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## mattjg01 (Jul 3, 2006)

Cheers guys, not at home at the moment but will try this as soon as I can and let you know what it comes up with. I'm guessing it will just time out.

Matt


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

As others have pointed out, tracert (Trace Route) is a kind of enhanced ping command. When you ping a remote machine, ICMP packets try to make their way to that machine and some kind of response is sent back to you. There are actually several different responses which I shant go into here, but basically you either see a postive response confirming that you can reach that machine, or you don't.

tracert manipulates the TTL (Time To Live) property of the packets you send so that, rather than just getting a response from the final destination (the remote machine you're trying to connect to) you actually get to see all the hops in between









Here's a screenshot showing all the hops between me and Rolex's website:










I've blurred the first three hops because they show my internal IP addresses and the external IP address of my network! Beyond that, you can see the ICMP packets making their way across the Internet and finally timing out when they reach Rolex's network (probably their border router or a firewall).

So, Matt, what you can discover from all this is the point at which your Internet connection appears not to be working. If you tracert to a remote address and it starts failing at your PC, or the gateway (your modem/router) then the problem is at your end. If it gets out to your ISP and stops somewhere there, the problem is probably theirs.

Hope this helps


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## limey (Aug 24, 2006)

Pugster,

If he types what you wrote he will just see four lines like this:

C:\Documents and Settings\MartinP>ping www.freedom2surf.net

Pinging server0006.freedom2surf.net [194.106.56.5] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 194.106.56.5: bytes=32 time=80ms TTL=51

Reply from 194.106.56.5: bytes=32 time=80ms TTL=51

Reply from 194.106.56.5: bytes=32 time=82ms TTL=51

Reply from 194.106.56.5: bytes=32 time=82ms TTL=51

Ping statistics for 194.106.56.5:

Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:

Minimum = 80ms, Maximum = 82ms, Average = 81ms

C:\Documents and Settings\MartinP>

Now if you replace the ping with tracert then you will see something like this:

C:\Documents and Settings\MartinP>tracert www.freedom2surf.net

Tracing route to server0006.freedom2surf.net [194.106.56.5]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms X.X.X.X

2 14 ms 10 ms 10 ms X.X.X.X

3 11 ms 11 ms 12 ms gbr6-p51.n54ny.ip.att.net [12.123.1.166]

4 12 ms 12 ms 12 ms tbr2-p012401.n54ny.ip.att.net [12.122.11.29]

5 11 ms 10 ms 10 ms ggr3-ge90.n54ny.ip.att.net [12.123.0.101]

6 11 ms 11 ms 11 ms nyk-b2-link.telia.net [213.248.83.97]

7 11 ms 11 ms 11 ms nyk-bb2-link.telia.net [213.248.83.229]

8 78 ms 82 ms 80 ms ldn-bb2-pos7-1-0.telia.net [213.248.65.93]

9 83 ms 79 ms 82 ms ldn-b2-link.telia.net [80.91.249.189]

10 78 ms 79 ms 79 ms pipex-104657-ldn-b2.c.telia.net [213.248.100.94]

11 78 ms 78 ms 83 ms g3-19.cr05.hx2.bb.pipex.net [62.72.143.38]

12 80 ms 80 ms 80 ms ae0-0.cr10.hx4.dsl.pipex.net [62.72.143.14]

13 82 ms 85 ms 82 ms i-194-106-32-16.freedom2surf.net [194.106.32.16]

14 80 ms 84 ms 82 ms server0006.freedom2surf.net [194.106.56.5]

Trace complete.

C:\Documents and Settings\MartinP>

[i replaced my IP address in the first two lines with X's]

Matt,

Does your computer have a static IP address or is it dynamic? Go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, Network Connections and right-click on Local Area Connection, choose Properties. On the General tab select Internet Protocol TCP/IP and hit Properties. On the window that comes up, if it is set to obtain an IP address automatically then it is dynamic, if there is an address in there then it would be static.

Now, reason for asking, most providers assign dynamic addresses and they change occasionally. Resetting the modem should take care of this, but not always. Not familiar w/ UK equipment but are you sure you reset the modem and not the router (you said you tried two 1 wired and 1 wireless, leads me to think it's a router).

Also if static the DNS addresses are usually static too, and if these change your computer will not be able to connect because it can't find the address for the site you enter.

So, if it's dynamic try this from that command prompt.

ipconfig /release (wait for it to come back to the command prompt0

ipconfig /renew

There's more to it, but that should work...

Martin


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## Ironpants (Jul 1, 2005)

You haven't reached your bandwidth limit for the month have you?

Toby


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## mattjg01 (Jul 3, 2006)

No bandwidth limit not even close yet.

I'm pretty sure I have a static IP, but will check and will give the other ideas a go. Fingers crossed its something simple.

Just noticed, what a way to get to 200 posts!


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

Just hope your 201st is to tell us you've fixed it


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## pugster (Nov 22, 2004)

> Pugster,
> 
> If he types what you wrote he will just see four lines like this:


i know, the aim was to see if his modem transmits and recieves


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## murph (Aug 14, 2006)

mattjg01 said:


> No bandwidth limit not even close yet.
> 
> I'm pretty sure I have a static IP, but will check and will give the other ideas a go. Fingers crossed its something simple.
> 
> Just noticed, what a way to get to 200 posts!


Are you sure it's static and not just sticky i.e you didn't pay or ask for an address or block of addresses?

We are talking about your external address here not your internal - probably a 192.168.x.x address or maybe a 10.x.x.x.

Don't worry if the ping or tracert commands don't work on some sites as some will be configured not to reply. Just ask here if anyone else can get a response from the same site.

What make of router/modem are you using? This might give someone an idea of common problems with the device. I know you said you tried two but you never know and the software you installed for the usb modem might have altered your setup or the equivalent vice versa. Confused now?


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## mattjg01 (Jul 3, 2006)

Just got the missus to run tracert for me, and it went all the way to the Freedom 2 Surf website with similar times as previous posts, it didn't time out at all.

The thing is uploading is fine and isn't the tracert command like uploading as its sending information outwards. The problem I am having is receiving the information. If I try and access a website and watch my connection the received data increases bby maybe 100 bytes and thats it nothing else comes through.

For extra info I have a BT Voyager 2000 wireless modem/router, and I also tried with an old Speedtouch USB modem (stingray).

Cheers

Matt


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## pugster (Nov 22, 2004)

do you have a firewall ? if so try it turned off incase its blocking incoming.


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

mattjg01 said:


> Just got the missus to run tracert for me, and it went all the way to the Freedom 2 Surf website with similar times as previous posts, it didn't time out at all.
> 
> The thing is uploading is fine and isn't the tracert command like uploading as its sending information outwards. The problem I am having is receiving the information. If I try and access a website and watch my connection the received data increases bby maybe 100 bytes and thats it nothing else comes through.
> 
> ...


ping and tracert involve both sending _and_ receiving data.

So, you have basic connectivity and the line is at least up.

As pugster mentioned, I thought about the firewall too, but I'm guessing it's not that as you tried different modems/routers and 2 different PC's. Worth double-checking though.

What happens if you try a different browser? If a different browser works, try deleting all your Temp Internet Files, cookies etc. and try connecting again with your normal browser.

I'm off to the pub now, will check-in again later


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## mattjg01 (Jul 3, 2006)

Now I am confused. Just got home and fired up the PC for a go at sorting this problem and what do I find, it's sorted itself!!?!









I have no idea why its started working again, I figure someone at BT or Freedom 2 Surf has realised there was a problem at their end and sorted it without notifying me, but who knows.

Anyway, thanks for all the help guys.

Matt


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