Timothy Murphy wrote: > I'm having terrible problems with my modem/router at the moment. > The WiFi connection on my Thinkpad laptop drops every 10 minutes or so. > I have to restart the network service to get the connection back. Just to keep the story up-to-date, a third modem/router from TI (Telecom Italia) seems to have solved the problem completely; the connection has held up for a day so far. The history is a little puzzling to me. The connection worked perfectly for a couple of years, until last December when it suddenly stopped completely. A technician came round (a very rare event) and tested the line. He said the line was fine and told me to change the modem at a TI agent in a neighbouring town. I did this, and the new modem could at least make a connection, but it kept dropping the line, on both WiFi and ethernet. I rang TI innumerable times (a painful business on each occasion), and they replied each time that the line was fine, and "the problem lies between modem and computer" (a phrase they seem to like). I didn't really believe them about the line, as it goes along a rather odd route, down a pipe (like a drain-pipe) for about 5 metres, and then under a road. It seemed to me very likely that there was water in the pipe, and this was the cause of the problem. However, I have been proved completely wrong; the line _is_ good, as TI repeatedly told me. My present conjecture is that TI changed their feed in some way, perhaps from ADSL to ADSL2, and the first modem was unable to cope. All 3 modems look the same; they have no marking except TI, but research leads me to think that the model is Pirelli AH4021. I was amused to find a site devoted entirely to rants about TI <http://www.beginningwithi.com/comments/2006/08/30/share-your-experiences- with-telecom-italia/> which leads me to think that I have been relatively lucky. Though I have had similar problems communicating with ISPs about modems in Ireland and England (Telecom Eireann and Onetel). I'm not sure which of them was the worst. One would think that companies involved in communication would be good at communicating, but the opposite seems to be the case. Sadly, I've come to the conclusion that the ADSL modem is just another neuron in the brain, and its failure is tantamount to a minor stroke ... -- Timothy Murphy e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366 s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland -- users mailing list users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
