Internet connection keeps dropping, ISP claim its not their fault

Question

Internet connection keeps dropping, ISP claim its not their fault

Hi all, im having a few problems with airport express and virgin media.

My set up is: Mac mini and macbook using airport express connected to my virgin modem via ethernet.

Every day (more and more frequently) im surfing the net and then it just freezes and stops loading pages. i do the diagnostics and it keeps telling me to reset my router. After doing this the internet works fine (until it fails again).

The reason i think virgin may be at fault is because i can continue to listen to music over airtunes even when the internet is down.

Virgin are refusing to offer me any support because when asked what the router was (answer: :airport express") they said that they dont provide support for this. They supposedly did a line test which couldnt detect any problems.

Any advice greatly appreciated

Apple Mac, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Mar 11, 2009 10:23 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 11, 2009 11:29 AM in response to awintersdaybythesea

I have experienced similar issues in the past with Virgin Media.

In the end I pressed the point - they (quite rightly I suppose) insisted I tested the connection by connecting directly to the cable modem and then downloading some large files from their server.

This was done by connecting the ethernet cable directly to the MacBook.

What this did was prove that the issue was with their connection, and they then had to investigate, and indeed found a problem (intermittent) at the top of the street in the switchbox.

So, it is possible that it is the Airport, but they won't support that.

The only way you will get them to investigate their end more is to prove it is them by taking the Airport out of the equation for the time being. A pain I know, but the only way to prove where the problem lies.

Good luck with those long calls to Bangalore!

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Answer 2

Mar 11, 2009 12:48 PM in response to Adam Getliff

Ha ha, I had the joys of the long distance calls yesterday, and more to come by the sounds of it!

thanks for the suggestion, seems the best way to prove the point

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Answer 3

May 22, 2009 1:54 PM in response to awintersdaybythesea

well the saga continues. midway through email discussion with virgin as i got so hacked off with speaking to the muppets at virgin medias call centre. i made the fatal error of mentioning i was using airport express and they then proceeded to keep telling me that it was nothing to do with them. ive told them the modem is connected directly to the mac via ethernet and now they seem to be trying to blame my mac! will keep you posted (or if anyone has had any joy, please let me know how!)

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