AT&T (ATT) / BellSouth DSL Dropping internet intermittently, advice?

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Level 1

4 points

AT&T (ATT) / BellSouth DSL Dropping internet intermittently, advice?

My internet connection drops every now and again (possibly when idle) and the time capsule indicator turns amber. Cycling the power on the Westell modem corrects the problem and the time capsule reconnects. This happens about twice per day.

Time capsule is configured to connect via PPPOE with an automatic connection and westell is in bridged with DHCP disabled.

more details:
I have converted from a linksys-based network to a Time Capsule and was working pretty well until AT&T disconnected me by mistake (fools). When I reconnected 3 weeks later, I set my Westell modem in Bridged and disabled DHTML (as instructed by AT&T tech support). I then configured my Time Capsule and everything worked great. ...until the internet dropped. Time capsule remains available on the network and wireless but the internet is not connected. Again, cycling the power on the Westell modem (unplug and plug back in) corrects the problem. When the model finishes booting up, the time capsule sniffs it out and reconnects (as it is responsible for pppoe).

I read somewhere about someone who set up a periodic ping to keep the connection live but that smalls like a hack. Is there any way to tell the Time Capsule to attempt a reconnect if the connection is not present?

thanks in advance

(Sorry if this is posted already but I couldn't find anything)

macbook pro, Mac OS X (10.5.4), one XP left, time capsule, apple tv

Posted on Jul 7, 2008 4:51 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 7, 2008 6:58 AM in response to levous

It may be worth swapping out the Westell modem for another brand and model (or it may just be a bad modem).

The Motorola 2210 works well with AT&T PPPoE DSL here in California but maybe not in Georgia. You might want to query BellSouth.

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Answer 2

ra-man

Level 1

0 points

Aug 23, 2008 2:37 PM in response to levous

I'm having exactly the same issue. I've tried everything I could think of. The TC is configured fine and running as it should, but every few hours the light changes from green to blinking amber and it looses PPPoE connection (according to the Airport software that's what the Blinking Amber light is indicating). If anyone knows any way to fix this please post! I'm also on AT&T DSL and using a completely different DSL modem (Efficient Networks). This DSL modem worked just fine with my Linksys router and Linksys never dropped PPPoE.

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Answer 3

Jan 22, 2009 4:24 PM in response to levous

Im having the same problem but im using 2wire modem with AT&T. The internet light goes out and the dsl light flashes red and a minute later it reconnects like nothing happen. I check my router for errors and it reports that there is no errors. This a very annoying problem and i've been thinking about switching providers. They have sent out a tech but he can't figure it out, he says the lines are good modem is good but there is something telling the modem to restart or reconnect. This is my second router from them, the first one was a westel but they thought the 2wire would fix the problem and it did not.

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Answer 4

Feb 22, 2009 8:40 AM in response to levous

Unbelievable, I thought I was the only one here in the New Orleans area we had moved one of our offices one floor down and now have the same problem without any change in hardware. ATT has been out once and phone tech support says everything is fine on her end. I have tried switching ethernet cables and routers and have the same problem. The intranet linksys wireless connection is always up though as a all the laptops can connect to the main desktop iMac serving as a file server. Also, the secondary iMac that is also hardwired does not lose connection. So that narrowed it down to the ethernet port on the router or iMac file server versus a problem with the iMac file server having a fixed IP that is causing problems. Today, I will go back to the office and try changing the IP from fixed to dynamic and see what that does.

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