Weird DSL problems

[Rayzer]

I have DSL through MSN powered by Qwest.. It really has been a rollercoaster ride. I've have had no problems for up to 6 months at a time.
Then for no apparent reason my connection goes down hill. Ive had connections lasting anywhere from 30 seconds to a couple days at a time... I've called support over and over, reprogramed the Cisco router many times. Nothing helps for any length of time. Of course there is never a problem on their end..

Sometimes if we clear any voicemails, or even make a call on our phone the connection seems to become stable for a while..

Any ideas why making a call on our phone would give us a stable connection?


Equipment;
Old house with very old copper. (but I do show very good signal quality with Cisco Commander..)
Cisco 675 DSL router.
Win98SE.
Up to 8 PCs on an internal network using Internet connection sharing.

Thank you for any ideas!
Ray
Seattle WA

[UnitedWeStand]

When you connect to your router it gives you a different IP address per computer without cutting the connection to the other computers.. up to 8 computers sharing one connection to internet could really be a problem if your router doesn't have the latest firmware and also your Network isn't configured correctly. Having your ethernet cards IP bound to your router with the same IP or Auto may well lead to disconnections too.
When you have your network settings to auto detect settings, well it doesn't look at the other computers on your network to find a number when connecting to the router. So assigning the cards to a certain Address on each computer will indefinately solve the problem.

[Rayzer]

Sorry, I should have included this originally..

It is just so weird that when I lose my connection that if I dial out on my phone that router will reconect for varying periods of time..

What is happening is the WAN link light will start to blink, (indicating it lost the connection and is trying to get the connection back). Then it may go solid allowing you to download another web page. Then the WAN link light will start blinking again losing the connection.
Sometimes it may hold onto a connection long enough and allow us to play some Everquest! :D

I did load the latest firmware on my router. With the issues I'm having it has not helped.

IP addresses are being handled by my Internet Connection Sharing PC. It is acting as a DHCP server and assigning individual IP addresses. That is all my ICS PC is doing, I am running no other applications on it.

When troubleshooting this problem I've pulled the other PCs off the network just to narrow it down to one PC directly plugged into the router.

I've had these issues even before using ICS. I was using NT 4.0 Server with MS Proxy loaded. I loved that! One time I had my Proxy server running without a reboot for about 6 months! Then again the connection would go down hill without any changes in my internal network.

Physically the phone line plugs into the router, then to my ICS PC, then to a 24 port hub, then to my client PCs.
I only have one phone connected and it is plugged into the router and it is a 900mhz cordless. I've tried unplugging the phone too and it did not help.

[UnitedWeStand]

If you didn't install the filters for your phone then yes your going to have a problem.. look into that. because when I used the filters for my phone it made my DSL work very well.. I bought the filters seperate .. but some packages for DSL require that you use them. It just appears to me that you havent been using the filters for you phone.

[Rayzer]

I really do appriciate your responses! They are helping me a lot to work through this! :)

The original documentation I've got says that you dont need to put a filter on the phone that is directly attatched to the Cisco Router.. But it wouldnt hurt to try it again.. I'll add it tonight! ;)

Would the filter explain why I can have a good conection for hours even days then my connection only lasts minutes or seconds?

[UnitedWeStand]

Originally posted by Rayzer
I really do appriciate your responses! They are helping me a lot to work through this! :)

The original documentation I've got says that you dont need to put a filter on the phone that is directly attatched to the Cisco Router.. But it wouldnt hurt to try it again.. I'll add it tonight! ;)

Would the filter explain why I can have a good conection for hours even days then my connection only lasts minutes or seconds? What I really meant is that if you have other phones in the building or residence which are hooked up to the same telephone line you would need a filter for those phones if you are using DSL..

I bought a dozen of them I have two left.. the name on them is Z-blockers. Quite easy to hook up..

I have to ask you is all of the PC's on the Network currently using (WOL) Wake on Lan? Just curious.

[Rayzer]

No other phones in the house..

I'm not sure if I have wake on lan enabled.. I do know that the PCs that have onboard NICs, they do not have that capability. But I do have a couple with newer 3COM cards that may. I'll check on that when I get home..

[UnderpantsGnome]

try running a new line directly from your NID to your dsl modem