Virgin Media Technical Support - a Cautionary Tale, and a question
Martin D. Pay
customer just upgraded his Virgin Media broadband subscription,
to their new 10MB service. An engineer duly came and installed a
cable modem, apparently necessary for 10MB...
And then the problems started! To cut a very long story short, my
friend could access the broadband service on his wife's laptop
but not on his desktop PC (both running Win XP). No router
involved - he just swapped the cable over between the 2 machines
(a router comes later, when I go and set it up for him). The only
thing that VM's ex-NTL technical support drones in India could
suggest from reading their scripts was to 'delete the TCP/IP
stack as it was obviously faulty' (although this of course isn't
actually possible in Win XP, although you can 'repair' it using a
command line instruction). After 3 days of frustration he finally
managed to get through to someone at VM in the UK, who suggested
he install a new NIC in his PC as the one on his Asus motherboard
might have failed. He duly trotted down to PC World (I know!) and
spent £15 on a NIC and £30 on a new 15-metre Belkin Cat6 cable to
replace the Cat5e one that had been in service between set-top
box and PC since he originally signed up to NTL's half-megabit
service several years back. When he got home, he decided to swap
out the old cable from the modem to his PC, as the simplest
option not requiring that he open the case - and voila! he
instantly had a working connection on both desktop and laptop...
I guess there are several morals to this story:
Don't assume that just because a cable works with one PC it will
work with a different one. I would love to know the reason the
original cable suddenly only worked with the laptop but not with
the desktop machine, where it had worked with both the previous
day (yes, before the engineer's visit)
Never assume that a company's technical support staff always know
what they're talking about
Don't buy your parts from PC World!
Martin D. Pay
Not a cable broadband user - but who would be genuinely
interested if anyone can offer a sensible explanation for the
sudden anomaly in the behaviour of the original cable...
dennis@home
"Martin D. Pay" <mar...@starship-excalibur.co.uk> wrote in message
news:07k3v2t5atudmghfc...@4ax.com...
You do know that you need to reset the cable modem if you switch it to a
different PC?
This because they only supply one address and it knows it has allocated it
to one PC and won't work with the other.
If you power cycle the cable modem it forgets this allocation and allows the
other PC to work.
You will have to do this when you install the router.
Meggahurtz
"dennis@home" <den...@killspam.kicks-ass.net> wrote in message
news:essmtt$i77$1...@news.datemas.de...
> You do know that you need to reset the cable modem if you switch it to a
> different PC?
Beat me to it :0)
Jono
> and voila! he
> instantly had a working connection on both desktop and laptop...
I bet he doesn't.
Dennis Ferguson
> and voila! he
> instantly had a working connection on both desktop and laptop...
I'm thinking he didn't actually try connecting the cable back to the
laptop afterward to see if that would still work.
If you want to change the equipment attached to your cable modem
you need to either wait until the network forgets about the MAC
address on the old box or, if you are in a hurry, change the MAC
address on the new box to match the old one. The network doesn't
want to see more than one MAC address at a time, or in quick
succession.
Dennis Ferguson
stephen
news:07k3v2t5atudmghfc...@4ax.com...
> customer just upgraded his Virgin Media broadband subscription,
> to their new 10MB service. An engineer duly came and installed a
> cable modem, apparently necessary for 10MB...
>
> And then the problems started! To cut a very long story short, my
> friend could access the broadband service on his wife's laptop
> but not on his desktop PC (both running Win XP). No router
> involved - he just swapped the cable over between the 2 machines
> (a router comes later, when I go and set it up for him). The only
> thing that VM's ex-NTL technical support drones in India could
> suggest from reading their scripts was to 'delete the TCP/IP
> stack as it was obviously faulty' (although this of course isn't
> actually possible in Win XP, although you can 'repair' it using a
> command line instruction). After 3 days of frustration he finally
> managed to get through to someone at VM in the UK, who suggested
> he install a new NIC in his PC as the one on his Asus motherboard
> might have failed. He duly trotted down to PC World (I know!) and
> spent £15 on a NIC and £30 on a new 15-metre Belkin Cat6 cable to
> replace the Cat5e one that had been in service between set-top
> box and PC since he originally signed up to NTL's half-megabit
> service several years back.
so Pace STB originally? 10 Mbps half duplex only, and may not have been
Cat5.
When he got home, he decided to swap
> out the old cable from the modem to his PC, as the simplest
> option not requiring that he open the case - and voila! he
> instantly had a working connection on both desktop and laptop...
Did the new modem come with a new cable? (AFAIR my new Samsung STB was
different RJ-45 socket to the Pace, and the old cable wouldnt work).
There are several ways of wiring RJ-45 connectors, and a miswired cable
might marginally work with a port on 1 device, but not on another.
maybe 1 PC interface is "auto crossover" and the other isnt? (or he might
have 10/100/1000 ports which dont care for some). If so, replace the cable
with one crossed (or not) and both devices will work (but 1 at a time as
another poster mentioned).
and if he had had a modem - then there would have been enough ethernet ports
to try different combinations before getting all upset.....
>
> I guess there are several morals to this story:
>
> Don't assume that just because a cable works with one PC it will
> work with a different one. I would love to know the reason the
> original cable suddenly only worked with the laptop but not with
> the desktop machine, where it had worked with both the previous
> day (yes, before the engineer's visit)
>
> Never assume that a company's technical support staff always know
> what they're talking about
>
> Don't buy your parts from PC World!
i would suggest one - which is start from the basics, and check the
instructions before trying complicated fixes........
>
> Martin D. Pay
> Not a cable broadband user - but who would be genuinely
> interested if anyone can offer a sensible explanation for the
> sudden anomaly in the behaviour of the original cable...
--
Regards
stephe...@xyzworld.com - replace xyz with ntl
Mark McIntyre
Ferguson <dcfer...@pacbell.net> wrote:
>If you want to change the equipment attached to your cable modem
>you need to either wait until the network forgets about the MAC
>address on the old box or, if you are in a hurry, change the MAC
>address on the new box to match the old one. The network doesn't
>want to see more than one MAC address at a time, or in quick
>succession.
Incorrect on ntl. It can handle several MACs, but you need to power
the modem off between swapping cables.
--
Mark McIntyre
Ian
"Martin D. Pay" <mar...@starship-excalibur.co.uk> wrote in message
news:07k3v2t5atudmghfc...@4ax.com...
>I have a friend
OH NO - not another "A FRIEND" message!
> To cut a very long story short,
He forgot to tell you that he phoned again because he thought you were
talking rubbish - then followed instructions on registering his other
computer. That's why it suddenly worked. He probably doesn't want to make
you feel a bit of a fool, although he knows you bluffed your way through and
asked on here!
The only cautionary tale is not to trust someone who thinks they are an
expert but constantly asks for help on a newsgroup in order to bluff their
way through !
Eeyore
"Martin D. Pay" wrote:
> Don't assume that just because a cable works with one PC it will
> work with a different one.
Nonsense. You'll have the likes of PC World selling gold plated cables to make
ethernet go faster with that attitude.
Graham
dylan30
"Eeyore" <rabbitsfriend...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:45F202F4...@hotmail.com...
They sell pc's running mac os x !
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/03/09/pcworld_macosx_on_pcs/ to go with
your go faster gold cable.
adam
>
Graham Murray
> You do know that you need to reset the cable modem if you switch it to a
> different PC?
So should that not have been the first thing suggested by the
technical support people?
Mark McIntyre
You're having a laugh, right ?
--
Mark McIntyre
dennis@home
"Graham Murray" <news...@gmurray.org.uk> wrote in message
news:876499b...@newton.gmurray.org.uk...
That would depend on what the user said in answer to the questions.
They may get a different answer if they said "my computer doesn't work"
rather than "I have just swapped my computer over and it doesn't work".
Martin D. Pay
<den...@killspam.kicks-ass.net> mangled uncounted electrons thus:
<snip original description of problem>
>You do know that you need to reset the cable modem if you switch it to a
>different PC?
>This because they only supply one address and it knows it has allocated it
>to one PC and won't work with the other.
>If you power cycle the cable modem it forgets this allocation and allows the
>other PC to work.
>
>You will have to do this when you install the router.
Thanks for that. I didn't make it clear in my original post,
perhaps, that I know d*mn all about cable services - I'm on
standard ADSL with F2S. My friend asked me for help because he
knows nothing about networking at all and he knows that I set up
my ADSL home network myself...
I wasn't aware of that fact about cable modems, but I will bear
it in mind when router time arrives (which won't be any time
soon, as I'm geographically far enough away that it's
more-or-less a full day to help him out 'on site'...
Martin D. Pay
Grateful for the input...
Martin D. Pay
<noth...@blueyonder.invalid> mangled uncounted electrons thus:
<shrug> That's what he said to me, but I wasn't there. It's
possible that he *assumed* that the laptop would still work when
his PC's connection 'went live' but that he hadn't tested it when
we last spoke (his wife doesn't do much internet work, I
believe).
It may also be of course that he's been rebooting the modem on
each swap, on the advice of the original installation engineer.
I shall have to ask him!
Martin D. Pay
No .sig comes to mind
Martin D. Pay
<stephe...@xyzworld.com> mangled uncounted electrons thus:
<snip cable woes>
>so Pace STB originally? 10 Mbps half duplex only, and may not have been
>Cat5.
Quite likely, I assume. I've never looked at his cable box in
that sort of detail (heck, I've never looked at it at all except
from the front) nor have I ever had any reason to examine the
cable in detail.
>When he got home, he decided to swap
>> out the old cable from the modem to his PC, as the simplest
>> option not requiring that he open the case - and voila! he
>> instantly had a working connection on both desktop and laptop...
>
>Did the new modem come with a new cable? (AFAIR my new Samsung STB was
>different RJ-45 socket to the Pace, and the old cable wouldnt work).
No, and this is definite - the engineer left the old cable in
place, because of the complicated way it winds from one end of
the room to the other around the furniture and so on.
>There are several ways of wiring RJ-45 connectors, and a miswired cable
>might marginally work with a port on 1 device, but not on another.
>
>maybe 1 PC interface is "auto crossover" and the other isnt? (or he might
>have 10/100/1000 ports which dont care for some). If so, replace the cable
>with one crossed (or not) and both devices will work (but 1 at a time as
>another poster mentioned).
Indeed. Thanks for the sensible suggestions. I'm used to
auto-crossover devices and sometimes forget that not every NIC is
so user-friendly...
>and if he had had a modem - then there would have been enough ethernet ports
>to try different combinations before getting all upset.....
Not having seen the modem myself I don't know without asking
him...
>> I guess there are several morals to this story:
<snip>
>i would suggest one - which is start from the basics, and check the
>instructions before trying complicated fixes........
<grin> I'm assuming that he followed what instructions were
provided, as he's quite thorough in that respect, so whatever was
there was either very basic (likely, from what I know of the
cable companies) or they simply didn't cover the scenario he
encountered.
Martin D. Pay
Still not much tempted by cable broadband himself...
Martin D. Pay
<i...@audiothreetwo.co.uk> mangled uncounted electrons thus:
Pfui. Believe what I originally posted or not, as you choose.
Others on this newsgroup have been kind enough to provide both
useful information and helpful suggestions, and your boorish
behaviour and lack of manners are entirely irrelevant.
Martin D. Pay
Tommy
> I have a friend who after many years as an NTL TV-and-broadband
> customer just upgraded his Virgin Media broadband subscription,
I think I've found the cause of your friend's problem
