Sudden unresponsive AT&T service - AT&T Broadband (2025)

haddiscoe

Member

2002-May-15 1:46 pm

My AT&T service in Sammamish, WA has suddenly become unresponsive. DHCP renewal times out and I can't ping anything from my machine. In short, it looks like a router up-stream went bad. I've rebooted the modem and checked the cables and everything seems fine my side. We spoke with an AT&T support person who claimed the problem was our side.

Is there any way I can get somebody at AT&T to check out their hardware? Any magical way of escalating the issue to a technician? Or has anybody had the exact same problem and gotten some kind of fix?

Any help appreciated. Thanks!

ihaddsl

Member

2002-May-15 2:06 pm

what OS are you running?

have you rebooted your PC?

do you have solid lights on your Cable Modem?

Can you ping your gateway?

haddiscoe

Member

2002-May-15 2:12 pm

OS is Windows XP Pro - PC has been rebooted several times - solid green lights on the cable modem (seem to be flickering but LAN status connector showing that data is being sent but not being received.)

No response when pinging gateway - just times out.

Thanks!

BlitzenZeus to haddiscoe

Premium Member

2002-May-15 2:17 pm

haddiscoe

Member

2002-May-15 2:28 pm

Not that I'm aware of. This is a very static system - the hub is a 2Wire gateway through which all machines in the house are connected (LAN and wireless), and all machines are unable to get through. Checking the system log on the 2Wire only indicates that it was unable to get a DHCP refresh and could not connect the 2Wire server.

I plugged the modem directly to one of the XP machines, changed the machine name to the cryptic AT&T cable modem name, rebooted and did a DHCP refresh from there. No luck. Data seems to be going out but nothing coming back.

earlejones8
join:2002-05-15
Portola Valley, CA

earlejones8 to haddiscoe

Member

2002-May-15 8:04 pm

Are your modem lights flashing when you are idle?

Can you use an IP monitor to see what the Ethernet traffic looks like (in and out).

We are undergoing a "denial-of-service" attack here in northern California, which has cause our machines (including all my neighbors) to slow to a craw. We are being pinged continuously at a rate of about 20k bps around the clock.

I think that ATTBI doesn't understand what is going on.

Good luck!
earle

rastamonsta
join:2002-04-21
Seattle, WA

rastamonsta to haddiscoe

Member

2002-May-15 10:57 pm

HTBruceM to haddiscoe

Member

2002-May-15 11:10 pm

said by haddiscoe: could not connect the 2Wire server ...

What exactly is this? Is this some URL the 2Wire goes hunting for on its own? Or do you really mean the 2Wire's DHCP server on the local LAN side?

Do the PC's behind the 2Wire still have connectivity to each other and the 2Wire? I.E. can you ping the 2Wire and the other computers?

Try and access the cable modem log. You didn't specify the cable modem model, they have different URLs for their internal status pages. The cable modem should be able to tell you what it's signal strengths are, and possibly show you some logged data about the HFC interface (to ATTBI). Did you try power cycling the modem? The modem should also have an IP address on the HFC side, something like 10.x.x.x.

How long have you been working before this happened? Did you change anything? New modem? New gateway?

They might not like it, but if you remember what your IP addresses were before, when it worked, you might "try" to hardcode an IP address to something on the same subnet. If that gets you in, then there are DHCP problems in your area. Could be somebody in your subnet has hardcoded an IP address that conflicts with your DHCP-assigned address.
[text was edited by author 2002-05-15 23:11:16]

haddiscoe

Member

2002-May-16 12:41 am

brucem - the 2Wire server seems to be the Homeportal identification server. The 2Wire logs show:

Unable to connect to HomePortal identification server

I also just noticed:

DHCP lease acquired in Requesting phase

so it seems to be getting DHCP info from the AT&T server just fine. All the machines on the local LAN can see each other just fine and I can ping the 2Wire OK, so I know that the network behind the hub is not the problem.

The cable modem is a RCA DCM215 model. How do I access the log?

This setup was working fine for months beforehand. No, no change of modem or gateway, no new software installed that I know of.

Thanks for your input so far, folks! Hopefully I'll get this sorted soon enough!

calathea
join:2001-12-29
Scio, OR

calathea to haddiscoe

Member

2002-May-16 12:53 am

HTBruceM to haddiscoe

Member

2002-May-16 1:29 am

said by haddiscoe:The cable modem is a RCA DCM215 model. How do I access the log?

»192.168.100.1/moreInfo.html

I think it's case sensitive, but I don't remember if the M or the I is supposed to be in CAPS.

Was there any construction, new homes, etc in your local area? Notice any new wires being strung along the utility poles?

I would check the signal strength into your modem. It should be on the moreinfo page. You want something between -15dbmV and +15dbmV. SN Ratio >= 29. And upstream power should not exceed 57dbmV. You might be running right on the borderline on signals, and with the warmer weather, you could be just over the limits.

Look for loose cable connections. Do you use cable for your TV? Has the TV looked OK? No changes to any of the cable runs from outside?

haddiscoe

Member

2002-May-16 5:12 pm

LUNAR6866
join:2001-06-08
Joliet, IL

LUNAR6866 to haddiscoe

Member

2002-May-16 5:46 pm

HTBruceM

Member

2002-May-17 1:12 am

said by LUNAR6866:I was having almost the same problem.

His modem is docsis compatible.

haddiscoe

Member

2002-May-17 4:51 pm

cablejoe

Member

2002-May-20 12:32 am

said by haddiscoe:. One interesting thing - the tech support person said they could "see" our modem from their end so I presume this implies that the cable from their box to the modem is fine, right?

Right...but that only rules out a few possibilities, namely RF issues. Even though they're all connected to the same lines, the modem itself reside on a completely different subnet than the computers, so it's quite possible to have a network issue that prevents customers' computers from connecting while the modems work perfectly. (To illustrate, @Home had their various IP ranges... 24.x.x.x, 65.x.x.x, 67.x.x.x, etc...but the modems' IP addresses were always 10.x.x.x, which is a completely different range, one which is reserved for internal use.)

Can you ping your router, or your modem? If so, then your computer is probably okay. If you can ping those, but can't ping beyond your modem, then it's probably a misconfigured access list on the ATTBI router, which is obviously something they'll need to fix. (Trying to get tech support to escalate the issue will be the hard part.) However, if you can't ping out to anything, even on your own network, then the problem is probably in your computer. You might try swapping NICs, or even changing it to a different PCI slot.

You could also try going into Network Properties and changing the MAC (hardware) address of your ethernet adapter; if the DHCP server sees a different MAC, then it usually assigns a different IP address, which may come from a different range of addresses that aren't affected by the router issue. Just make sure you reboot the modem after assigning the new MAC; otherwise, it will still look for the old one. (I don't know about ATTBI, but I know for a fact that Comcast's system works this way...it's worth a shot, at least.)

haddiscoe

Member

2002-May-20 11:35 am

The_Tinkerer$ to haddiscoe

Member

2002-May-20 1:59 pm

said by haddiscoe:I plugged the modem directly to one of the XP machines, changed the machine name to the cryptic AT&T cable modem name, rebooted and did a DHCP refresh from there. No luck. Data seems to be going out but nothing coming back.

Why are you still using the old @Home computer names anyway? They aren't necessary anymore. It probably won't fix your issue...but I wouldn't use it, as I've heard mumblings that it hinders connection sometimes.

arthur_dent
join:2002-05-16
Englewood, CO

arthur_dent to haddiscoe

Member

2002-May-21 8:45 am

Using the old @home names could hinder connection. You can try changing the computer name to just "computer" without the quotes.

If that does not work then call in to Tier1 support and go through troubleshooting. I know that you have gone through most of the steps already, but they need to do that in order to escalate to Tier2.

It's not much of a solution, but it may help.

Arthur

arthur_dent to haddiscoe

Member

2002-May-21 8:49 am

Haddiscoe,

The cable modem ip is 10.x.x.x not the 192.x.x.x. This is an equipment IP address assigned by the computer (I believe) and this is how the techs know that you are running a hub or a router.

Arthur

haddiscoe

Member

2002-May-21 5:50 pm

OK, problem fixed.

The tech came out and declared the modem bust, and replaced it. He didn't seem to know what actually caused the failure or how we could have recognized the problem though. But he didn't even charge for the standard call out fee. So everything is working fine now!