I installed my DSL modem and am having problems completing the installation process. The little DSL light keeps blinking. I've checked all the connections. Rebooted the computer several times and ...nada. Called the help line, was in the middle of diagnosing the problem and accidentally disconnected myself. Called again, got tired of being on hold and hung up. (I had already been on hold over 30 minutes the first time I called.)

Anyone else have problems on their initial setup? Any advice?

yes. It was harder than peeing with an erection. Eventually, after several days of consultations with some barely audible telephone guy from India (why the hell do they re-route all the customer service lines to some foreign country!?) it got figured out. Then it broke again. Then some guy came and fixed it, free of charge. I don't know what he did. So, no, i can't help you, but yes, i can sympathise with you.

Well, at least I have sympathy. And luckily for me, it was some guy in the US. Well, he sounded American.

This is God's way of denying you the porn you seek.

Anyway, do you have the DSL filters on all of your telephone cords except the cord connected to your DSL modem?

I only have one phone and it's hooked up with its little filter. I have a second phone line but was informed that it does not impact those phones.

Are you in an apartment? I heard that can cause special problems.

It was a nightmare for me... I moved into a new house and had it pre-wired for DSL in several rooms. And it didn't work... audio/visual company blamed the local telco.. the local telco stood by their product. simply a nightmare with no one stepping up.


Anyway, I'm a DSL supporter... since I live outside a major cable companies area and the only other option would be DirectView.

First of all, make sure you have multiple lights on your modem. If so, you're probably dealing with configuration problem rather than a "my DSL provider sucks ass" type problem. If the only green light you see is the power light tho despite resetting it, don't get bum rushed by the help desk... it very well might be them

to recap and add new stuff....

Make sure you have changed your IP address and all the rest to match the settings by your new provider. I think lots of people get messed up on changing providers with what they need to do as for as DNS and IP addresses. That's not a DSL problem, that's a problem that most of us barely computer literate people run into. If you still have access on another account, go through the front door of your new DSL provider as a potential customer to their web site and see if there's any detailed list of instructions that might not have been provided in order to make a change.

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As for my problem, turned out that the audia/visual guys who cabled me selected the the wrong pair of the typical 4 wire telephone line coming into my house. My ma and pa local phone company does it different apparently including putting dsl filters on lines to be used for voice at the central office. What a nightmare because this info wasn't shared...

good luck... make sure your modem works, signal rec'd, you have adequate instructions and are following them.. then call someone who can figure it out. Worked for me.

Yeah, make sure you look at the ISP's website for instructions since they usually update the documentation on the website to correct any errors or to reflect new operating systems. My DSL provider, ALLTEL, has beautiful documentation on its site and a FAQ section where you can search a database for answers to specific problems.

Also, my DSL provider at first gave me the wrong modem, which took a week to resolve. Some ISPs use different modems for different areas. Before you take up too much of your life trying to figure this out, request an ISP employee to come to your home to inspect your specific modem.

Geez, I also forgot to mention that the guy who came to our house to set up our DSL modem wasn't exactly experienced at DSL. I had to figure it out for him that you have to enter specific DNS settings at some point.

Well, according to the installation instructions, I've done everything correctly. It's the configuration (communicating with the network server) that's the problem. I haven't even reached the point of obtaining a new ISP.

Keep in mind I don't have the details for your specific situation, but with Verizon it took 5-7 days after they mailed me the modem to actually turned on the service. They sent an email or left a voicemail to tell me it was on.

Is it possible they haven't activated the service yet? I'll try to think of more things after I wake up a bit.

yeah, i can second that.....it took a few days for my dsl to get started on their end....

Huh...don't mean to rub it in, but I must be the only person to never have a problem with this. I have Earthlink, & was up & running in about 10 minutes. I had a little problem with my emails, but a quick trip to their site & a live chat with a tech guy solved that.

I had no problems either, I just had to wait until it got turned on. When I moved I had some wrangling with the phone lines, but that was because we didn't know which lines went with which number.

Read this you'll know why. Quick synopsis: India can actually solve your problem for way less money to the hardware manufacture. Where as here the cost of living is too much so the tech support gets shipped out to underqualified people who work for co.'s that are used to dealing in telemarketing. They get paid by the call & usually their only goal is to get you off the phone ASAP even if it means lying to you.

Thought I'd give you an update. I called Verizon back and it's been "elevated" to their Engineering Dept. The problem may just be that my actual activation date is February 14th after 6pm. Even though, I received a phone call stating that the 10th was the new date. Though, just in case that's NOT the problem, the Engineering folks may troubleshoot what the issue is.

Whatever. Hope they can take care of the problem.

I had no problems, but then again, I had done it before. Setting it up a on router is a bit more of a challenge.