Tag Archives: ethernet

trend pc-cillin rivalling norton in quality…

Computer Aid Posted on by

Trend is starting to annoy me almost as much as norton.

I saw another customer, whose internet connection dropped out. I ask if he installed anything new, or changed any settings… nope.

I look at a few things, but I just cannot connect to the modem to see if its connecting to the net correctly.

Ping doesn’t work, and vista is falling back to the 169 ip address.

He is connecting using a usb cable… so I try ethernet, but I get the same problem.

He happens to have a work laptop (which he couldn’t connect to the internet, since he hadn’t installed the usb drivers… well, with ethernet, that is no longer an issue.

The XP laptop connects to the internet perfectly.

Back to the main vista PC, I decide to disable everything within Trend (firewall, spam filtering, the lot). But still no internet.

At this stage, my only options are: either uninstall trend (and maybe run a cleanup program), or reinstall vista.

I uninstall trend, and after a reboot, the PC can finally get to the internet. I reinstall Trend pc-cillin, and everything is working normally again.

We briefly discuss creating a business website, and I’m on my way again.

I’m starting to encounter so many trend problems, its starting to look like trend is trying to out bid norton in the bad-quality software stakes!

Noisy telephone line (and spyware)

Computer Aid Posted on by

Another customer with a difficult ADSL internet connection.

I do my usual spyware check & fix a few nasties (but I don’t need to work on the PC from the office).

The internet connection still doesn’t work, so we ring the isp & ask for a password reset.

We are back on the air, but the connection will still drop out every minute or two… client says she has noticed that the internet became unreliable 2 weeks ago, and she also noticed the telephone line was “noisier”.

So we call the ISP again & ask about the line noise, & they ask how long is the telephone line? (about 6 meters). We are told that it is probably long enough to cause some adsl length problems. I don’t believe it but I give it a try…

I connect a very short telephone cable from the wall outlet to the modem, & a 12 meter cat5 utp ethernet cable from the modem to the PC.

The noise is still there, the internet connection is still flakey.

Client comments that there is a new housing estate being built nearby & it is possible that telephone work on the estate has caused problems in the neighborhood. Customer is happy to ring the ISP herself & give them hell until they fix the problem, and I don’t want to increase my fee by just waiting on the phone, so we leave it at that & I’ll check back in a few weeks.

Telstra cable internet

Computer Aid Posted on by

A gentleman called saying that he got a new PC, but he couldn’t connect to the internet. He has cable internet a few weeks ago, but his PC broke down & he only just plugged in the PC. He also tried the PC at his brothers place, & he was able to connect without a problem.

I wonder if this is just a faulty cable, or a faulty modem.

Once I get to the house I ask a few more questions & I find his brother has ADSL internet, not cable internet, & his brother also has a router, so he can connect a few PCs, whereas my client connects directly from PC to cable modem.

The ISP is telstra, & I’ve used cable internet before (with Optus), so they should be similar.

After an hour of trying to “ping” the modem , trying different ethernet & USB cables, I couldn’t get to the modem “configuration” web page… unless I unplugged the modem from the “thick” cable… it just didn’t make sense!

I call telstra & I quickly find out that “Telstra does it differently”… You cannot communicate with the modem unless your pc runs a special “monitor” program in the background… So I ask the obvious question: what if I connect the modem to a router… the router cannot run the “monitor” program. But the tech assures me that as long as 1 PC on the router network is running the “monitor” then everything should be fine.

What a strange setup!

Anyway, after some confusion about passwords, everything is working fine. I help setup the email, & then go my merry way.