Modem reports "Failed to get IP address"

[kidzer]

Good Evening folks, i'm a bit stumped!

Right, PC moved into my room, which had no phone socket, so there was an RJ45 trailing through from the Kitchen. Put a telephone socket in today and now we get a dial tone from phones, but the DSL connection...doesnt.

We've disconnected the new phone socket and tried it at the first socket in the house, and keep getting a "Failed to get IP address" - i'm typing this from the folks next doors house, so I assume its not an exchange problem, but given that I cant connect even from the 'first' socket in the house, I dont see how it could be an internal problem.

It connects sometimes, and the Voyager 205's status page will report a connection of around 2/3Mbps, until it drops again, during this time, I can't actually access anything on the WAN.

I'm totally confused, I shall phone BT tomorrow, but I dont know how much help they'll be after the last time i needed help from 'em!

Any help very much appreciated!

David

[Splash]

Possible filters issue? Do the folks next door have the same ISP?

[kidzer]

No, the folks next door are AOL and are connected at their usual 1Mbps.

Am I right in thinking that "failed to get IP address" is an external issue, or could something gone wrong with internal wiring cause it, given that it is connecting?

Filters, i've swapped filters around, have no spares - but theese folks do, I shall borrow it when I head home and try it.

[Splash]

Failed to get IP address could be an ISP issue - have you spoken with them?

Are you connecting to the voyager via ethernet or USB?


EDIT - having re-read your initial post I was wondering if you could clarify something?

My interpretation is that it was working fine with the voyager in the main socket and connecting to the PC via ethernet, once you ran a BT extension through to the other room and connected it to that the problems started - is that right?

[kidzer]

I haven't (I'm with BT), I've sent 'em an email though.

The Voyager goes into a D-Link DI524, which connects to my PC, and sisters laptop.

Has been running in this config for a few weeks now.

I wonder, will BT's phonelines be open tomorrow, I think I shall give 'em a call then and see what they say.

Edit: Clarification for Splash

The situation was that the Voyager connected to the phone line in the kitchen, my father put in a phone line in my room today (connected after the one in the kitchen so it goes kitchen -> my room, its the last one 'on the loop' if you will), and it doesnt connect in it, however after disconnecting the socket we put in today, it doesnt connect in any phone socket in the house, even the ones we hadn't been near with a screwdriver - hes certain he didn't knock anything out in the loft, which seems fair enough given that the phone still works, although im not sure if higher frequencies deal with problems better or worse than lower (telephone) frequencies.

[Splash]

Aha - so to clarify further on the "unable to get IP address" - is that a message from the modem, the wireless router or the PC? If from the PC which box is taking care of DHCP? And can you connect to the management interfaces of the wireless router and the modem??

[kidzer]

I can connect to everything upto the Voyager, being my WAN gateway.

"Unable to get IP address" comes from a telnet session on the Voyager, so it can't get a WAN IP address (it's LAN IP is 192.168.1.1).

Everything behind it is working fine, I can ping the laptop, share files between machines etc.

Both machines have Static IP's - no DHCP enabled, the D-Link router does NAT etc, the Voyager is in 'ZIPB Mode' and is functioning as a modem only, all it does is connect and give data to the D-Link and vice versa.

[Splash]

Cool - just wanted to rule out any LAN side issues. If it's telnet can you do

get dsl params

and post the results?

[kidzer]

I could, I did earlier and everything looked the same as it had for ages - fairly low SNR (6.5ish! but its been hella reliable!).

I shall write it down when I get home and post it when I next have internet access, do you have any figures in particular you are looking for, SNR, Attenuation etc?

Edit: I dont think its a modem problem, but i'm gonna see if I can borrow the router these folks have, I used it a few weeks ago and it worked, so we shall see.

[Splash]

6.5 sounds very low - would suggest to me it may be worth seeing what BT have to say.

[kidzer]

Yeah, it is low...but it's been like that for months and has been (up to now) stable enough.

I shall give 'em a call tomorrow however, and see what they say

[Splash]

Would suggest trying it back in the one in the kitchen as that is/was a known working socket though!

[kidzer]

Im home, with the Belkin router...connected to the internet. how odd, away to try with the Voyager again.

[Splash]

sod's law, isn't it?

[kidzer]

Sods indeed, got the Voyager playing ball now.


hmm, still, troubleshooting was fun

Cheers for the help,
David

[kidzer]

And now i'm on the Voyager plugged into the phone in my room and it works!