Hils a few questions?

1) are you a long way from your exchange?
2) what ADSL sync speed do you get?
3) When you lose you connection do all the other users on your network also lose theirs?

A better modem or router-modem, (its the modem bit that important here) can hold a connection with a worse noise margin for longer but the affect is likely to be fairly minimal. MM is completly correct about noise margin and wireless connection BUT its may just be semantics thats the problem here, if the noise margin (or whatever else) causes you to lose your ISP connection then you will lose internet connectivity however you should still keep your connection from PC/mac to the router and you shoudl still be able to use any other devices you have on your home network (printer etc), you wont be able to see any web pages or send emails etc.

Opps I was writing at the same time as MM.

Hils last thing, dont get hung up on these numbers, If your losing your connection with the ISP and if your within service parameters (e.g not to far from the exchange) then they should fix it.

Re 100% stats from provider, I asked talktalk about that once when mine wasnt working and they siad they dont count a problem unless a certain number of people have reported it but they would not tell me how many that was.

Hil,

One more question: which Sky package are you using? Reason for question: some Sky connections are rebadged BT, others use SKy's own exchange equipment (LLU).

DelBoy,

What you've said is logical, and that's how I understood it should work.

When the WAN connection is lost, however, wired devices will stay on the LAN and regain their internet connection straightaway, but wireless devices can also drop their LAN connection and struggle to reconnect. They sometimes need to be restarted in order to connect back onto the network and sometimes one of the wired PCs will show a balloon in the taskbar saying that there's an IP conflict as the mobile device tries to reconnect to the LAN..

Because this isn't meant to happen, I'm partly inclined to think that there might indeed be a router problem.

Spacie,

I'm only a mile or so from the exchange and sync speed is 18,015/1,015 Kbps which seems OK to me. The problem as I see it is with the upstream noise margin which seems to spiking to zero several times a day, albeit the downstream noise margin stays at a constant level.

Because of this, I'm also inclined to think that there is a line problem.

Confused???

DelBoy,

I don't think Easynet/Sky unbundled our local exchange, but I don't know for sure. How can I find out?

Hils do you have more than 1 router on your LAN?

Re unbundling have a look on samknows for your exchange. http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search

This has a list of Local Loop unbundled exchanges. I gather it is kept pretty much up to date.

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/llu/exchanges

Thanks for the link - yes, my exchange is unbundled. I've only got 1 router, Spacie, plus a 5-port switch which was only added at the weekend when we switched a couple of wireless PCs to wired as a temporary fix to the problem because they wouldn't connect to the LAN.

I did have Sky broadband for several years (I now have Be Unlimited). I had quite a few problems towards the end with resyncing. It was with a Netgear WiFi router. Sky eventually sent me a new router and the problem was cured. There are times now that my broadband link resyncs, but the WiFi stays up. The kids usually tell me, "broadband has gone down but I have WiFi connection". It is odd that you mobile devices are reconnecting. It is almost as though your router was resetting itself.

It certainly seems as though something like that is happening, Haystack.

Because Sky withhold the ADSL username and password and download their own router firmware, I'm wondering if it's a router problem of their making. My husband is talking about flashing the router with Netgear's own latest firmware to see if that changes anything, but I've persuaded him to refrain for the moment.

Umm will sky give you the ADSL user-name and password if you get a new router?

What Sky might do is downgrade your speed a but to hold sync if they think its a noise issue. They will have different profiles and they will drop down to see if it stabilises.

If it was me I would borrow another router to test but as already said unless the router is actually faulty I dont think it will help with the noise margin and if Sky wont give you the login details you will have to work via them anyway.

I belive you can get the username and password out of the router. Sky do load their own modified version of the router's software into it. There are various forums that tell you how to jail break the router.

I've already got the Sky username and password saved, so that's not a problem. As Haystack says, there are forums which tell you how to do that.

:o)

Hil,

I think we've got to the nub of the problem - Sky's own firmware in the Netgear router. I wish they wouldn't do stupid things like that. They never upgrade it to fix problems, unlike the router manufacturers.

I should attempt to dissuade your husband from flashing.

You'd be better off splashing out on a new Netgear DG834G v.5 router (which has the latest ADSL chipset in it.) Less than 50.

On edit: the v.5 does a better job of the link to the new 21CN DSLAMs used by BT - I don't know about Sky's kit in LLU exchanges, but I wouldn't mind betting that the same is true.

That's apparently a discontinued model MM:

DISCONTINUED - USE DGN1000

I have windows 7 and I have hit some thing causing my toolbar to disappear and only shows when I hover my mouse above it does any one know how I can rectify this so the toolbar is showing on screen all the timethanks

Lots of people are reporting this. It looks like a glitch in Windows 7.

If a 'double click' doesn't solve it here's a solution.

(Q. Temporary? Permanent? A. I'm not sure)

Call up the Task Manager (shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+Esc)

Then:

File
New Task (Run), explorer.exe

Also make sure auto hide is not enabled for the Taskbar. Right click the Taskbar, Properties, uncheck the auto hide button.

I need a decent (ie better than Talk Talk's standard offering) modem router with wi fi. I like the sound of some of the netgear stuff, particularly those with software that can limit access for different machines at different times of the day, and with safe filters built in so my kids don't see anything inappropriate.

Has anyone any recommendations of wireless modem routers that they think fit this bill? Not too worried about the cost, just want a bit of quality kit that doesn't keep dropping the broadband signal.

ExecLine and jonuk76 thanks for reply......had a fiddle on and f10 sorted it out