Hi Mike, That is a good idea about the notebook but I write to slow to do that while I am talking, I just tell them what I have done and let them go from there. each will have a diff idea of what is wrong, soon I'll get the one that has the answer, Maybe this one checking the phone line will do it. Sincerely Yours, Hank My home page http://members.fortunecity.com/hdka Radarmatrix http://www.radarmatrix.com Songs http://hdka.stormpages.com/index.html Chemtrails http://members.fortunecity.com/hdka/menact.html ----- Original Message ----- From: Mike To: pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2004 10:39 PM Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- Re: Earthlink DSL Hi Folks, what I do is keep a notebook handy. Every trouble call I make I star by writing down the number I'm calling and the time I start the call. I log how long it takes to get to a live person and all the #'s I have to enter as I go through their press 1 for help ect. Log the time. I ask the help persons name, and explain I have trouble hearing <G> I use one of those cordless headsets so I can move around as required. I write down everything they have me try or instruct me to do so I can tell the next person I talk to what I have tried. I also have a ready made list of what I tried before I call them. I have learned from experience that they will want me to; Clear cookies, clear temporary internet files, reboot. Un plug modem wait 5 min then plug it back in. Unplug and remove Router from the system as they don't troubleshoot networks. Disable firewall, they don't support them ! I have XP so I have to go to comand prompt and type in "ipgconfig" and do a release all and renew all. I have High Speed ADSL I try to avoid letting them know that I have some idea of what may be wrong, as they will quite often talk 'techspeak' if they think you can understand the networking and configuring of the system. I like the KISS principle 'keep it simple stupid' No offence meant to anyone. Don't forget to log the time you finish the call. Mike ~ It is a good day if I learned something new. Editor MikesWhatsNews see a sample on my web page http://www3.telus.net/mikebike <http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/mikes_virus_page.htm> A Technical Support Alliance & OWTA Charter Member *********** REPLY SEPARATOR *********** On 11/01/2004 at 11:08 PM T. Hunt wrote: Hank- Be patient and go through the menu when you call Earthlink. It's the only way to get to talk to a person and get them started on solving your problem. BS will not even talk to you since your DSL is provided by Earthlink; they will ALWAYS refer you back to Earthlink. The only people that can talk to BS and get anything done are the level 2 techs from Earthlink. So call Earthlink and wait through the menu to talk to a tech. Have all your info at hand and understand that they don't know you from Adam's housecat, so each one will start from scratch. Bear with them as this is about the only way it can be done. Explain that you've power cycled the modem and rebooted your computer and still no Sync. If they ask you to unplug any other phones on the line, do it once anyway. They will ask you if you have a 900MHz phone near the modem. Make sure you don't. The one thing that WILL help is to move the DSL modem as close to where the phone line enters the house as you can. I've had the Earthlink techs ask me to do a number of strange things but moving the modem is the first one that actually made a difference. Nothing else on the phones has changed in well over a year but I started to get dropped connections. Now, I don't know if a filter went bad or a phone started putting out static or what but moving the modem 9" from the NID has had me connected for over a week with nary a drop. Obviously, something in my wiring/phones/filters has changed; I have no idea what. But moving the DSL modem to the nearest point to the NID made the difference. Hang in there; it'll be worth it. Tom At 03:01 PM 1/11/2004 -0600, you wrote: >Thank you Milady I will try it. People say not to talk about DSL to the >phone co, What could I ask them to check on to see if it is set up or >being set up when. >Sincerely Yours, >Hank To unsub or change your email settings: //www.freelists.org/webpage/pctechtalk To access our Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PCTechTalk/messages/ //www.freelists.org/archives/pctechtalk/ For more info: //www.freelists.org/cgi-bin/list?list_id=pctechtalk --- Outgoing mail is certified as Virus Free as AVG can do it. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.560 / Virus Database: 352 - Release Date: 1/8/04 To unsub or change your email settings: //www.freelists.org/webpage/pctechtalk To access our Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PCTechTalk/messages/ //www.freelists.org/archives/pctechtalk/ For more info: //www.freelists.org/cgi-bin/list?list_id=pctechtalk