Internet connection cuts out once or twice a day.

[HenrykG]

I’m a Swisscom customer for Internet access and Swisscom TV for several years. I was working fine till last September when the internet connection started interrupting. Swisscom technicians came to my place four times. They changed router twice, last time for the ‘model_centro_business_residential’ type, apparently better but the problems persist. Since then the internet connection keeps dropping every day or even twice a day. It lasts a couple of minutes and comes back by itself. It is just a small annoyance if you are browsing the Internet but of course any live connection like Skype or TeamViewer are interrupted and must be re-established. The Swisscom TV stops too.

I checked the System log on the Diagnostic tab of the router home page and could find entries like the following:

Date	Time	Component	Severity	Details
08.01.2014	07:41:25	Swisscom	Information	WAN IP address changed
08.01.2014	06:50:39	Swisscom	Information	WAN IP address changed
06.01.2014	05:52:18	Swisscom	Information	WAN IP address changed
05.01.2014	19:39:50	Swisscom	Information	WAN IP address changed

The router IP address, in contrary to the log message details, remain the same. It looks to me that the connection on the Swisscom server side is set up to cause this interruptions. Could anyone help me on that, please?

Thanks.

[Smokie Smokerson]

Hi,

I've been having the same issue with Swisscom for the past couple of months.

The connectiond drops multiple times per day at times, some times it comes back on its own after few minutes and some times i have to manually turn off/on my router. Very annoying since i have a couple of home servers im running to access from the outside world.

I ran some tests at home to make sure that its not my local network thats messing up by removing Switches, replacing Switches and so on with no go. Problem still presists..

When i called customer support they said they can see some irregularity in my vDSL line and will send a technician to check my line here at home next week.

But from your post, its not giving me much hope.

Im using a Zyxel P-870HN-51b which i do not recommend anyone to use.

It is the only modem Swisscom has that supports multiple static IP's and it hasnt been very helpful.

If the technician does make a difference, ill report back here and let you know.

Fingers crossed.

It would be nice if people with similar problems can report here to know if its just affecting some models/users/areas or its wider then that.

[Smokie Smokerson]

Hi,

I've been having the same issue with Swisscom for the past couple of months.

The connectiond drops multiple times per day at times, some times it comes back on its own after few minutes and some times i have to manually turn off/on my router. Very annoying since i have a couple of home servers im running to access from the outside world.

I ran some tests at home to make sure that its not my local network thats messing up by removing Switches, replacing Switches and so on with no go. Problem still presists..

When i called customer support they said they can see some irregularity in my vDSL line and will send a technician to check my line here at home next week.

But from your post, its not giving me much hope.

Im using a Zyxel P-870HN-51b which i do not recommend anyone to use.

It is the only modem Swisscom has that supports multiple static IP's and it hasnt been very helpful.

If the technician does make a difference, ill report back here and let you know.

Fingers crossed.

It would be nice if people with similar problems can report here to know if its just affecting some models/users/areas or its wider then that.

[PRPuk]

How would you determine your Public IP address if you don't have a direct local connection to the router?

Because Swisscom doesn't offer a static IP address for DSL lines, I don't know how one goes about doing this if it gets dynamically reassigned when you are not connected locally.

Anybody have ideas, as it would help with diagnostics in this case?

thanks

[POGO 1104]

---

PRPuk wrote:

How would you determine your Public IP address if you don't have a direct local connection to the router?

 

---

At your customer center (http://sam.bluewin.ch) , you can find out our actual WAN IP:

-Start the Quick-Check from the Customer-Center startpage (top Links)

-After a few seconds, press the "Internet" button

 

-After some more seconds, the IP will be displayed at the "Subscriber line" on the right side

have fun!

POGO 1104

[PRPuk]

Thanks Pogo,

I tried it and I got this

---

Faults have been detected in your router.

No Internet connection (1/1)

1. Check that all the (power) cables are correctly inserted.
2. Reboot the router: Switch the router off, wait 10 seconds and then switch it back on.

In the Centro Piccolo and Grande models of router, the white "Globe" pilot light must be permanently illuminated.
In all other models of router, the green "Sync" pilot lamp must be constantly illuminated.

Please note that it may take up to 10 minutes to establish the connection.

If the router cannot establish a connection, please contact Swisscom.

---

I used the "My Swisscom" app to try to turn it off and then on, but it did not seem to help.  In the Update WLAN status on the app I get the green bar for on, but not in Quick Check.  Does this mean my app is talking to the router but not Quick Check?

[POGO 1104]

Take the public IP from Quickcheck - forget the other stuff 😉

[PRPuk]

The "My Swisscom" app says the Netopia router is On, but the customer center says this:

"Your DSL modem (router) cannot be reached. Therefore, it is only possible to view or print your data at the moment. If you would like to change your data please ensure that your DSL modem is switched on.

If this warning also appears when the DSL modem is switched on, please log in to the Customer Center to make changes later."

Quick Check (see previous message) also says there is no Internet connection.

So it looks like the router has been turned off completely and cannot be restarted.

The app is apparently giving misleading information about the router status is what I can deduce

[POGO 1104]

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PRPuk wrote:

The "My Swisscom" app says the Netopia router is On, but the customer center says thi

---

Do you have really a (old) Netopia Router ? Which type no. ? 3397 or 7347 ?

Because the actual Routers are from Motorola or ADB/Pirelli, called Centro Piccolo/Grande

Maybe the Quickcheck don't works correctly with the old Netopia Routers, only with the actual Centro Routers...

[PRPuk]

Pogo,

It's a Netopia 7347-84 router according to MySwisscom app. 

QuickCheck says it's a Motorola 7347.

Do you think a new router will fix the problem?

By trial-and-error, I noticed that when the  WLAN indicated OFF it was actually ON, and vice versa. 

Thanks for your help.

[POGO 1104]

I don't know, how works the QuickCheck with the old Netopia 7347 Router.

But you don't have really a problem with the router operation? right?

one more: take the public IP an forget the diagnostic from Quickcheck with your old Netopia

[PRPuk]

I am back to square one as neither QuuickCheck nor the MySwisscomm app will tell me the public IP.

[Smokie Smokerson]

I like to update on my main issue that i had.

The tech came to my home and he switched the wall plug with a new one and gave me a new Zyxel router (same model).

The connection has been stable since then, it only cut off just once for few minutes and came back on its own.

So i suggest calling Swisscom and ask them specificly to check your DSL line signal if there are any interruption.

One weird thing though, they asked me to pay 80 francs for all that, is this normal? i thought if the problem is from their end i dont have to pay anything?

[Smokie Smokerson]

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PRPuk wrote:

I am back to square one as neither QuuickCheck nor the MySwisscomm app will tell me the public IP.

---

Just out of curiousity, what do you need your public IP for?

and do you actually have internet or not?

[PRPuk]

• "Just out of curiousity, what do you need your public IP for?
•  
• and do you actually have internet or not?"

I use my public IP so I can access my computer remotely, and yes I do have internet. I recorded the public IP when I had the computer connected locally to the router.  But if the DHCP decides to generate a new public IP for me, the old one is useless, and I can no longer access the computer remotely.   I then will have to connect locally again, which kind of defeats the purpose of having a remote connection.

Right now, I can't tell if the router is off or that the SwissCom services to access the Public IP do not work with my rather old Netopia, even though is is a SwissCom device.

thanks for allowing me to spell out my issue.

[HenrykG]

Hey Guys,

You are sqatting my topic, would you mind to move your discussion somwere else, please?

Thanks.

[Smokie Smokerson]

---

PRPuk wrote:

• "Just out of curiousity, what do you need your public IP for?
•  
• and do you actually have internet or not?"

I use my public IP so I can access my computer remotely, and yes I do have internet. I recorded the public IP when I had the computer connected locally to the router.  But if the DHCP decides to generate a new public IP for me, the old one is useless, and I can no longer access the computer remotely.   I then will have to connect locally again, which kind of defeats the purpose of having a remote connection.

Right now, I can't tell if the router is off or that the SwissCom services to access the Public IP do not work with my rather old Netopia, even though is is a SwissCom device.

thanks for allowing me to spell out my issue.

---

Its all good.

In the old days DynDNS would have been the perfect solution or you, but now they decided to make it as a paid service after they managed to implement their service in so many routers.

For a free alternative you can use www.noip.com, its the same principle. Only thing is you need a device at home acting as a client and on all the time so ot updates the hostname with the new ip. Since you said you want to acess your home computer remotely, I assume it will be on at all times when youre out, so you should be able to run the client from there.

Once you have it running, you should be able to point it to a hostname or a subdomain so you always have the latest IP from Swisscom.

If you dont own a domain, you can use afraid.org to create a free account and gives you access to create a subdomain and use it with your noip.com client. They have litterally thousands of domains to chose from.

I hope that helps.

[Smokie Smokerson]

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HenrykG wrote:

Hey Guys,

You are sqatting my topic, would you mind to move your discussion somwere else, please?

Thanks.

---

I think my post answered your question in some way. I had the same issue. Called Swisscom, they found an irregularity in my DSL line, they sent over a technician, changed my phone line plug, did something in my building telecom box outside and exchange my router (was under warrenty) and since then (its been about 2 weeks i think) it only cut once few days ago and was quickly back and been solid since.

The only downside is I have to pay them 80 Swiss Francs for some reason i did not understand.

So I suggest you do the same.

[HenrykG]

Dear Smokie,

I'm happy it worked for you. I also called Swisscom many times. Technicians came to my place five times. The router has been changed twice. The cabling has been verified each time the technician came. They charged me much more than 80 Francs because my router was not under warranty. And still my connections is being interrupted once or twice a day. They even have been monitoring my line and fiddling with the its transmission speed. No help.

Finally I received announsment of availability of a fiber optic in my building. I went for it and in a couple of weeks - fingers crossed - my problems will be over.

But stop discussing how to get the router IP addsess here anymore - please. 

Happy smoking :-).

[PRPuk]

Smokie,

Clever suggestion.  So an alternate idea would be to have a program running on the remote computer that would email out the current public IP.  Then you would avoid the Catch-22 of not knowing what the Publc IP is when it changes.