Hi - Hoping Brisky tech support will do better than MUMBAI bloody tech support Orange insist on using! :grumpy:

Quick lowdown on issue

I use a belkin dongle (reliable) and an orange livebox to talk to it.

Usually have a full 54 mbps, but it drops every few minutes, sometimes stays on for some time.

Have ruled out ADSL filter by trying 3

Have disconnected the cordless phone from the filter to rule that out

When the phone is used, you get a distinct click noise followed by a BEEEEEEP! Even BT heard it over the phone, but a line test proved nothing was wrong.

The livebox displays a flashing (!) light, going fast, when the line first drops, then slowly they come back to normal - then drop again later.

Any ideas? Orange won't help me unless I can hardwire to the box, but I will struggle to do that without perhaps pinching a work lappie for the night....

Orange are useless aren't they , sorry, thats no help but I know how useless they are. I'm thinking of moving as the call centre clearly just read from a sheet and not use any brain power.

Oh and if you're coming my way soon, I can lend you a router so you can check your connection if you wish.

http://help.orange.co.uk/categoryBrowse.do

Have you tried this - their broadband help FAQs etc

I had it for a while, lost connections and service down for a while, but all is good now.

Customer services is terrible, but free broadband so im not complaining.

have you played with the settings:http://configuration.adsl/

Does it drop the connection with no computer connected or only with the computer connected ?

Is it the ADSL link dropping or the wireless link to the router dropping?

Chris

Im having the same problems, My N95, Wii and laptop all drop wireless while my wired connection stays fine, I'm putting it down to my livebox and having heard all the ****ty comments about orange CS i am considering just getting a new decent quality router on my own.

If it's the wireless dropping all the time it could be interference from other wireless networks so you could try switching channels and see if that solves it....

Chris

I'd see if you can borrow a laptop from work and try that to rule out your dongle(oo-er missus). They do have a habit of being 5hite

HTH

If it's the wireless dropping all the time it could be interference from other wireless networks so you could try switching channels and see if that solves it....

Chris

Did that and eventually found channel 7 was for me

If it's the wireless dropping all the time it could be interference from other wireless networks so you could try switching channels and see if that solves it....

Chris

I'd agree with that for a start.

Those automated line tests prove nothing, they are useless!!

We had a customer who had no broadband for 3 months because BT said the line was fine, ran about 20 whoosh tests in total and around 5 PSTN line tests, all came back with no issues. It wasn't until BT came out for the 4th time that the engineer found a tree was resting on the line and caused it to fray.

Everyone will fob you off im afraid, BT engineers are now paid per job and not based on time, so they just want to get to as many places as possible, Complete joke!

Well, I'm going to nick my work laptop and hardwire it and then ring up CS. Last night was pretty bad. It goes through stages of it dropping, then coming back, then dropping again, and then it might come back for a couple of hours. Each time, it's the livebox which has all the flashing warning lights, so I'm ruling out the Belkin dongle (which weakly pics up a wireless network ok down the road, so I think it's OK )

Might try some channel swapping when I hardwire to the livebox tonight.

The easiest way to see if it's the wireless or the router is does your wireless icon (you're on XP?) report that the link has gone away. If the problem lies with the ADSL connection, the wireless should remain connected .... assuming that it's not the wireless receiver in the livebox which is the problem!

If you're picking up another wireless device, then my first suspicion would be channel clashing as I think most devices default to channel #1. You could try installing NetStumbler.com to see what channels are being used by other networks....

Chris

I'll second Netstumbler it's a good little tool for seeing signals and channels

This is what helped me cure my mates wirless issue last night

The easiest way to see if it's the wireless or the router is does your wireless icon (you're on XP?) report that the link has gone away. If the problem lies with the ADSL connection, the wireless should remain connected .... assuming that it's not the wireless receiver in the livebox which is the problem!

If you're picking up another wireless device, then my first suspicion would be channel clashing as I think most devices default to channel #1. You could try installing NetStumbler.com to see what channels are being used by other networks....

Chris

Actually, you might be on to something there. When I was messing around with it a couple of weeks ago, I remember going into the livebox (when the link WAS up ) and it said I'd been connected to ADSL for several hours, yet in this time I'd had numerous signal drops. Starting to head toward a faulty livebox methinks?

I'm still thinking try it with a wire as that confirms it isn't the DSL link that is bad.

Have you tried connecting to the router admin page via the wireless as if you can't get this the wireless is at fault.

I've seen plenty of wireless cards pick up networks say it is all good but not be able to transmit the data packets successfully.

If you can Jase see if you can find out how to change to an uncongested channel so your not getting interference from other WIFI networks.

Well, not sure if this helps but I spent a bit of time yesterday "at the foot of our stairs".

Work laptop in hand, hardwired at 100 mbps to the livebox. Observations!

Whislt connected, everything was fine. However, when it was dropping/reconnecting I could hear an audible CLICK from the livebox itself. And the laptop said "network cable unplugged" then 20 seconds later "connected at 100mbp/s" - So I'm guessing this is indicative the whole livebox is losing the ADSL connection, then finding it again.

This audible CLICK is also when the lights start going nuts on the top. Sooooo "something" is clearly making the livebox lose the ADSL signal. Suspicion now points to the BT line, or the livebox itself. Dongle cannot be at fault as there's another PC in the house using one, and it suffers the same time I do.

Cordless phone also seems to not affect it as I have tried removing them from the ADSL filter and moving them away, turning them off. Still does it.

Getting there.... Orange are at least escalating the problem with BT. Have to wait 48 hours though.

The ADSL connection, wireless connection and wireless connection are not linked.

You can have a wired/wireless connection and the ADSL can go up and down without breaking that connection.

Sounds to me like the box is resetting itself as a whole unit in some way rather than just the ADSL.

If I was orange I would have sent you out a new live box first, then worried about BT.

Sounds to me like the Livebox is resetting.

Losing the ADSL line won't drop the link to your PC, wired or wireless.

I think the whole thing is restarting. Dodgy power supply maybe?

EDIT: bah, beaten to it!

Have you tried the livebox in another power socket and is it plugged in (via a filter) to the BT master socket into the house? Does the livebox/PSU get overly hot?

As Mark says, it sounds more like something is rebooting the livebox (or at the very least the LAN and WLAN part of it)....

Chris

I will get my mate to bring the livebox home from his workshop tonight. That might then indicate the livebox is at fault.

I certainly would Jason.

From what you say BT will say to orange.. no fault found, thanks for the money Kerr Ching

If you ever have to call tech support don't even bother with the person who answers your call, ask for 2nd tier support or a supervisor and you should get more success.