Is ISP 'help' messing with me?

[trof]

Lately I've had a problem accessing the net.
Intermittent.
Worse early in the morning...5 a.m.
Better later.
Many times I get a page loading and loading and then..."Server not found".

I talked to 'Help' (Centurylink, DSL, using Firefox).

"When's the last time you rebooted your modem/router?"
"This morning."
"Did you disconnect the phone line?"
"No."
"Try that. Shutdown your computer, unplug your modem and wireless router for 3 minutes. Unplug the phone line on your modem. In fact, REVERSE THE PLUGS ON YOUR PHONE LINE.
Then plug your modem and wireless router back in, and the phone line, wait 3 minutes and reboot your computer."

I did all this and it's working well now.
But REVERSE THE PLUGS ON YOUR PHONE LINE?
What could that possibly accomplish?
I think he was messin' with me.

I await your answers with bated breath.

[steve2470]

1. my guess: doing that would somehow help things

Maybe contacts on one end of the line are better than the other one ? I dunno. Never heard that advice before.

[Sentath]

8. Exactly

That is why I ask that trick of customers.

[Kali]

3. your one-way electric valves had reversed flow

the internet is a series of tubes and sometimes the valves get clogged with spam

[ChromeFoundry]

4. ISPs DNS servers usually suck

Try using a DNS providers that are not from your ISP.
I use a combination of OpenDNS, Google's DNS, and DNS Advantage servers.

208.67.220.220
8.8.4.4
156.154.71.1

[steve2470]

5. thanks for the DNS Advantage address, never seen that one before nt

[ChromeFoundry]

6. You should try DNS Benchmark

if you have not already. I had noticeable improvement.

http://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm

I believe DNS Advantage resolves to an UltraDNS's owned address... All I know is that it's free and fast.

[trof]

7. Well, now I'm in over my head. But thanks.

I didn't know you had any choice in the server you use.
Saw the Benchmark site below.
If I don't chicken out I might try it, but I don't really understand it.

[ChromeFoundry]

9. Assuming you are on a Windows workstation

Your computers IP address is probably assigned by either your Broadband modem or if you also have a Router, that will usually assign your address automatically. This is called Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)... When you are assigned an IP Address, you are also assigned other characteristics, such as subnet mask, default gateway and DNS Server addresses... this give your computer simple driving instructions to get out onto the Internet - a Route.

You can either configure your Router to automatically send the DNS servers it received from your ISP, down to your clients.. or you can configure your own, statically. This is where you would put the addresses I provided in the previous post.

If you are not comfortable changing your router configuration, you can also hard-code your Windows workstation's configured DNS Servers in your Network Settings.

If you need assistance, we will need the following info:
Broadband type: Cable, DSL, FiOS, U-Verse, etc...
Modem model/manufacturer: Siemens m5648, Motorola x100, etc...
Router model/manufacturer: There should be an ethernet cable going from the Modem to another device.. Like a LinkSys, NetGear, +model number.
Client OS and Version: Windows 7, XP, Linux RedHat v#, etc...

If using Windows, open a Command Prompt and type "IPCONFIG /ALL" and provide us with the first three octets of your IP Address (192.168.1.), All four octects from the Subnet Mask (255.255.255.0), and all DNS Servers listed....

NOTE: Don't provide more information than asked for above on a public forum because there is a chance that you will be providing your current Internet address on the Internet and not your internally translated address (If your IP Address starts with "192.168." or "10." it is safe to post the entire address)!

[Dan Ken]

11. Question: would these work welll with a laptop that moves around a lot?

Like between E. Coast locations and the midwest?

Or should this be run and DNS Nameservers re-configured when in a new location?

Just curious. I don't really have a speed problem, but the test listed below showed a slow response to current configured DNS's.

[ChromeFoundry]

13. Your mileage may vary...

Generally, If you pick Google, OpenDNS or one of the other major players, they use a technique called AnyCast which routes your queries to the fastest/closest server farms to provide redundancy and increase performance. I like to use different DNS providers in the event that one of the services goes down or starts serving bad addresses for common addresses.

If you manage any of these location's networks, you would be better off having your router configured as a DNS-Forwarder with caching turned on, the clients would only need to be configured with their DNS Server as the Router's address (192.168.1.1) and the router would perform the query for you and cache the result for subsequent requests from any other clients. The only problem I have found with this technique is that you need a fairly decent router with enough memory for storing the cache (if you have a lot of clients). The cheap home-routers tend to be under spec for multiple clients and software that establishes a ton of connections (like Bit-torrent). Another option would be to setup a small Linux box to be your DNS-Forwarder, DHCP server, DynDNS and Network Time server - and just let your router perform gateway routing. This may be a bit overboard for most users, but it never hurt anyone to learn how stuff works.

[Sentath]

10. IFF this continues to be sluggish in the early morning

You can either approach it honestly and see if you can get DSL to do something about a possible condensation condition in your local cable box (either the one on the side of your house, try opening it and using a hair drier on cool, or the one that that box is cabled to, is it damaged? Open to the morning dew?) OR you can be a little dishonest and take the risk of being wrong about my diagnosis and report to voice service that you have 'bacon frying noises' on the line in the early morning..

[steve2470]

12. Opendns.com has very detailed instructions on how to use its service

https://store.opendns.com/setup/device/linksys

This is for a very common brand of router, Linksys. Might not be your brand.

[Worried senior]

14. I had to contact Centurylink too

with problems with DSL, wireless using IE10. They suggested I reverse the phone lines too, made no differenct but gave myself a huge bruise trying to access the back of the computer desk.

We had a lot of trouble with them when we first got the wireless and were trying to set it up for a printer and a laptop. Finally they admitted that in our area the wireless was new and they had to get it up and running quickly, after about 50 calls and I don't exaggerate husband finally got a tech that knew what he was talking about.

Now, we just have issues with how fast our service is because we are over 12,000 feet from the box. Hopefully we might have better luck this summer as they are adding additional lines. Still much better than dial up or satellite so won't complain too much.