ADSL drop fixed by user password change

[Galacticos]

I have an adsl 2 internet connection that has been dropping for the past week. The adsl light on the (netgear) router has been blinking constantly.

I spoke to my isp and he suggested I changed the password (from the login details the isp gave me) from something complicated to brand1234, and what do you know, the Internet connection is now stable.

If anyone knows why something seemingly so simple could be causing the connection to drop in and out I'd love to know the reason

 

[Superspeed500]

Sounds very strange. A flashing DSL light and no internet light means that the modem have problems connecting to the DSLAM. Such issues could be caused by a faulty port, invalid settings in either end or faulty cabling. It's more likely that someone altered the settings or pushed out an update. It could also be that they have reduced the internet speed or that your change of password forced an update. Modems are more likely to sync on lower speeds. Some DSLAM's do still use PPPoE instead of DHCP which can result in strange behavior on some modems.

 

[Galacticos]

Sounds very strange. A flashing DSL light and no internet light means that the modem have problems connecting to the DSLAM. Such issues could be caused by a faulty port, invalid settings in either end or faulty cabling. It's more likely that someone altered the settings or pushed out an update. It could also be that they have reduced the internet speed or that your change of password forced an update. Modems are more likely to sync on lower speeds. Some DSLAM's do still use PPPoE instead of DHCP which can result in strange behavior on some modems.

Thanks for your reply.
The phone line works fine, the connections in the house too. The isp tells me that they 'rebuilt' the port and I have reset the modem. It's a d6200.

My password was 'complicated' and it was dropping out whenever I tried to load a page. I change it to basic, and it seemed to work (left for a short time). Tried to change the password to something not so basic and it stopped working, changed back and it worked. It's worked fine on the same setup for the past year up until the past 10 or so days.

The tech support guy said something about the basic password being validated easier or making a more stable connection..

Id just love to know why changing a password which is nothing more than an x number of character keys impacts the connection.

 

[Superspeed500]

Thanks for your reply.
The phone line works fine, the connections in the house too. The isp tells me that they 'rebuilt' the port and I have reset the modem. It's a d6200.

My password was 'complicated' and it was dropping out whenever I tried to load a page. I change it to basic, and it seemed to work (left for a short time). Tried to change the password to something not so basic and it stopped working, changed back and it worked. It's worked fine on the same setup for the past year up until the past 10 or so days.

The tech support guy said something about the basic password being validated easier or making a more stable connection..

Id just love to know why changing a password which is nothing more than an x number of character keys impacts the connection.

No problem. Probably some limitation in their equippment then.

 

[Mikael H]

Ouch, that doesn't sound very comforting at all. I hope you have a good firewall behind your ADSL "modem".

 

[Galacticos]

Ouch, that doesn't sound very comforting at all. I hope you have a good firewall behind your ADSL "modem".

The isp got the suppliers to 'rebuild the line' and the speeds and stability are normal again.
I know embarrassingly little about firewall settings...

 

[Mikael H]

The isp got the suppliers to 'rebuild the line' and the speeds and stability are normal again.
I know embarrassingly little about firewall settings...

Sorry, I misunderstood your original post; I got the impression that they had you change a system password on your network equipment rather than your password with their service. The latter is only bad if others can somehow freeload off your subscription on your expense.

What probably happened is that they have some option for password expiry in their systems, and it happened to be (or to get) ticked at some point, resulting in your credentials being rejected at some point. Giving you a new password solved the problem. Why a complex password didn't work is anyone's guess. It may be that their system doesn't allow certain characters in the password (which the tech you spoke to didn't account for when generating it), or it may be that there was a miscommunication between you when passing on your new password, for example.

 

[Galacticos]

Sorry, I misunderstood your original post; I got the impression that they had you change a system password on your network equipment rather than your password with their service. The latter is only bad if others can somehow freeload off your subscription on your expense.

What probably happened is that they have some option for password expiry in their systems, and it happened to be (or to get) ticked at some point, resulting in your credentials being rejected at some point. Giving you a new password solved the problem. Why a complex password didn't work is anyone's guess. It may be that their system doesn't allow certain characters in the password (which the tech you spoke to didn't account for when generating it), or it may be that there was a miscommunication between you when passing on your new password, for example.

The more complicated password was one with one extra letter basically. So not complicated. That's why it is interesting. Maybe after rebuilding the line it's more stable