Verizon Help Desk part two

[jebbypal]

Soo...got home from work today and figured that by god, I was going to fix my internet...considering I'm paying for it, I need to right. So, I did everything that everything said I should....and no luck. Still only getting limited or no connectivity via MY wireless. Went back and checked the westell modem...and sure enough, bridge setting REFUSES to stick. After an hour of fiddling, I gave up and called tech support. Explained it all to a nasaly high pitched guy about what was going on and all and promptly confused the heck out of him. heard the "no we can't provide support for the dell wireless router" and finally got it through his head that I didn't need help on it.

so, he had me go through and do what I told him I'd been doing for an hour of resetting the VC connection to bridge.

Guess what? Even when he told me to do what I knew how to do, it didn't take.

Conclusion: firmware must be fried and his best suggestion is to buy a new modem. Recommends the wireless in one modem, but has no clue how to tell me to check to see if my wireless card is capable of "g" wireless. *imagines bashing more brains into his head cause really he needs them*.

So then I ask the magic question: "Okay, how'd my firmware get fried?"

him: "Well, now, electromagnetic radiation of any kind. Wireless phones (not cell phones)

Me: "Cordless phones you mean? but wait, I've had my cordless phone next to it for almost two years now with no problem."

Him: "Oh yeah, well that would do it. Also speakers or anything of the like need to be at least 30 feet away and remember, walls don't count.

Me---looks around apartment---"Umm, I don't think there's anywhere in my apartment that is 30 feet away unless I put my stereo and phone in the bathroom. And I only have one phone plug anyways"

Him: "silence" Well, like I said, you can call back and get a new modem.

*bangs head*

Soooo, anyone techie out there -- is he right? Did my cordless phone slowly fry the firmware of my modem? Is this destined to happen to any modem I get so long as I have a phone next to it? the TV 5 feet away might not help either. Or the fact the breaker box is within five feet. But my phone jack is RIGHT THERE and putting either the modem or phone or both anywhere else would result in nice fun cords for me to trip over.

*bangs head*

So, I can either cancel DSL and pray that there is always at least one unsecured wireless network around....or I can cross my fingers that if I buy another modem, it waits a year or so before getting fried.

siiiiiiiiiigh.

Comments

[cretkid.livejournal.com]

i personally think he's full of shit, as my cordless phone has worked marvelously near all of my modems for the last 10 years.

does the modem have a hardline ethernet port you can use to plug into to check the modem?

[jebbypal]

Yeah, I've done that and it seems fine. It also will connect when i configure the PPPoE up right. It's just that I can't get the frakking bridge setting to take. I tried a hard reset a while back and all and then attempted to install the firmware update that I had to install when I set it up w/ my wireless router the first time, but it wouldn't accept the install.

[cretkid.livejournal.com]

then it's definately not the modem... anyway to do it without the bridge? I'm not using a bridge at all and it seems to work just fine.

[jebbypal]

*scratches head*

Well, after looking and looking on the internet, the only ways described to use my westell 2200 modem with my dell truemobile 2300 wireless router is to put the westell modem to bridge mode and then put all the other stuff into the dell router.

And if there's a way to put the dell one to bridge, the config screen doesn't show it. all I have to choose from is access mode or gateway. And without instructions to go with, it's pretty much greek to me.

Course, any help would be appreciated to save me the money from having to buy a new one.

[cretkid.livejournal.com]

now this may sound stupid too, but why use a bridge at all? Now, perhaps, I was able to bypass this whole issue because I plug the dsl modem into an ethernet hub (as the upload end), the wireless access point into the hub (as well as my desktop for internet access, as it is not wireless). If there's a bridge somewhere, I've managed to avoid using it/setting it.

so basically, my wireless access point is not directly connected to my modem.

hmm...

and the fact that you're using a wireless router is different than my access point... hmmm...

must think on it.

[jebbypal]

umm, no ethernet hub?

the main problem is the wireless router can't connect directly to the dsl phone line since it's an actual "phone line". So the phone line goes to westell, ethernet comes out and then goes to the wireless.

unless I'm misunderstanding what you are getting at. But from what I can tell from all the internet help places I've been, the deal is that if one isn't set as a bridge, then they both try to get IP addresses, but only one can be assigned one.

[cretkid.livejournal.com]

aaaaaaaaaah

see, hee, with my service, I'm allowed 5 IP addresses at a time, hence, no need for a bridge.

the wireless router should act just like an ethernet hub + access point; are you sure you have the cable plugged into the right ports? it may sound like a really obvious thing, but I've plugged cords into wrong occassions on multiple occasions.

still thinking on it

[jebbypal]

It's plugged into the "ethernet" port. Nothing happens if I plug it into one of the four LAN ports.

and I think the problem is it's a really old and buggy router. No one at verizon knows what it is when I mention it, and even dell doesn't offer support/firmware fixes for it.

[kazbaby]

He's so full of shit about the speakers. I went through the same thing with Verizon with the connectivity. They kept saying that it was my computer despite the fact I told each person that the problem occurred to three separate computers, all with the same settings as before the problem began, I had hooked to the modem.

Finally, they sent a guy out to troubleshoot. He hooked up his laptop. Nada connectivity. The guy went out of his way to make sure it was nothing to do with our wiring and so forth. He was on hold to the Verizon office in California for like an hour himself. When he got someone, he explained everything. The cali office had him go through all the troubleshooting as I had done on my computer, all to no affect until they 'flipped' something there at the office and switched the IP address. I got connectivity, but only barely above what I had before but I no longer got knocked off-line.

You know what we did to fix it once and for all?

Switched to cable internet. :D

Good luck with the ass munches. I'm not the most super techy person, but I can try and help through YIM. But I wouldn't put it passed it that the Westell is cooked, but not for the stupid ass reasons he stated. They're just crap. We had three of them in the two years mom had DSL.

[jebbypal]

Yeah, i don't think it's the line from what I can tell since I can get on with the westell through certain configs...just no go with the wireless. And of course, I have to spend a lot of time arguing it's not the dell one because they refuse to help w/ it and i'm not willing to pay dell for help with an out of warranty product. And it seems to connect fine..it just can't connect to the internet.

*shrugs* but it does seem like the modem is fried...and if I could figure out how to do another way, I'd try. But I remember from when I tried to set it up before, that I couldn't figure out how to use the mac and wan addresses to do it even if you can do it that way. The first guy I talked to had said that it could have been fried by a power outage we'd had even though it's hooked to a surge protector.

*shrugs*

we'll see if I'm willing to pay what it will cost to get a new modem or if I'll just cancel the service and use bootleg wireless.