Disconnects

There are many reasons why you might get disconnected, ranging from crappy equipment to noisy phone lines.

Here's a check list of things to do before you start pulling apart your computer ...

Is your modem using the right power supply? Support staff has spent hours in the past with particular modem problems, only to find that the incorrect power supply is being used. 

Is Internet Explorer set to disconnect after 20 minutes idle time? From within your browser, click on View => Options => Connection. The 'disconnect if idle for more than..." setting can be found here. If you open a connection using Internet Explorer and use another program for 20 minutes or so, Internet Explorer will consider idle time as time that Internet Explorer is not being used. Even if you're downloading a file using Internet Explorer for longer than 20 minutes! 

Is the modem the only device connected to your phone line? If you have a phone connected to the phone line as well, this could be causing a problem with disconnections too (especially if you have call waiting).

Phone Line Problems

Do you have more than one phone in use? One very obvious reason for a line drop out if someone in your house picks up another phone that is on the same extension (like a double-adapter) as the modem. Informing other family members not to pick up the phone will fix this problem.

Just because you didn't ask for it? If you didn't ask for call waiting then it is not unreasonable to assume that call waiting is not enabled to your phone number, or is it?. Ensure that call waiting is disabled (even if you don't have it) whenever you use the Internet. Call Waiting will cause your connection to Harbornet to drop out if someone tries to ring while you are on the Internet.

Line Noise: Any line noise is more likely to cause the modem to hang up (drop out). Try to remove all devices such as telephones, portable phones, FAX machines and answering machines from the phone line, except the modem. As a test, it pays to attach a phone to the line and make a voice call; listen carefully to noise, crackles and hum - if any is audible, it will most likely affect the modem.

Rural locations: If you are in a rural location and can hear a "tick-tick-tick" during a voice call (no it's not a bomb), then you or a neighbor have an electric fence problem (earth leakage in a big way).

Party lines/Radio links: Something that we must be aware of in rural New Zealand is good old fashion party lines (not many left). If you are sharing your phone line with your neighbors and a neighbor attempts to dial out while you are connected to Harbornet then this will drop your Internet session.

Faxes are a big culprit as well. Most faxes are used to being on their very own phone line for incoming and outgoing calls and will send a current along the line to detect if the line is in tact (some faxes will inform you if there is no line attached). If you are connecting to Harbornet using your fax line, it is recommended that you remove your fax from the line also.

Radio towers and CB radios: Having these nearby can cause problems, especially in the case of ''Internal modems''. External modems are less affected by HF interference because they are not housed inside of a computer case, which acts as an Antenna.

Very slow computers: If an application on your computer takes longer than 50 seconds to start up, you will find yourself disconnected. If a connection is idle, we send out an ''echo'' every 10 seconds which expects to get a response. If, after 5 consecutive echo ''fails'' has occurred our system assumes that your modem is no longer connected, and hangs up the telephone line. This mainly affects 486 or older computers that have less than 8MB of RAM - e.g. Netscape takes forever to start up on the machine.

Poor quality modems: Some ''El Cheapo'' modems have trouble under most circumstances. If you have a Telecom approved modem, you have a good chance of having a decent quality one.

Modem Problems

What's the score? Most modems will keep a record of all of the errors they receive whilst in each session. It's like a scoreboard. You lose points when the signal is bad and then slowly gain points as the signal improves. Once you lose too many points the modem decides that there is no point in continuing and it hangs up the line, game over you lose.

A marginal modem? Your problem could be a marginal modem, poor phone line or old phone exchange or some incompatibility at the ISP's end in regard to Harbonet's equipment.

Try some simple detective work yourself: Harbornet support staff employ as many troubleshooting techniques as possible to eliminate your modem as the culprit for causing your disconnections, however there are a few things that you need to try yourself.

• Using your modem at a friend's house and with another computer to isolate if your modem is the problem.
• Borrowing another brand of modem to use at your home and see if the problems go away.
• If a different modem works fine at your place then you can experiment with the modem settings or consider selling yours and buying another one.
• Some modem drivers can tend to cause problems as well, and we have noticed that by changing the driver to the Windows 95 Standard driver, some problems tend to go away.

Before starting:  If you have a 28.8 kbps or higher modem and use Windows then you must have a suitable UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter) chip driving the COM port in your computer. If your computer was manufactured after 1995 this will almost certainly be the case. With older computers you must ensure that the chip is a 16550. The older UARTs have only a one byte (not kb) buffer which is inadequate in a multitasking environment such as Windows.

Network Settings

Important: we are assuming that your computer is NOT connected to a  local area network and you are using a modem (external or internal) to  access Harbornet Internet.

If you have been connecting to Harbornet and experiencing connection drop-outs anywhere in between two to twenty minutes, the reason could be due to incorrect Network settings. Network settings are found at...

Click Start, Settings, Control Panel and then double click Network

A clue: If you have noticed an icon called Network Neighborhood located on your desktop and always wondered why it was there, well this is why. When windows installs a dial-up networking client it also installs some extra protocols and clients, the function of these extra protocols and clients is to give your computer the ability to connect to a Local Area Network. They will also cause your connection to Harbornet to slow down, not negotiate or drop out after a short period of time.

Two things for success: To connect to Harbornet from your computer you will only need two items here in your network settings. They are Dial Up Adapter and TCP/IP. The remaining protocols and clients should be removed by following these steps:

• Select the Protocol/Client to remove with a single click.
• Remove the selected Protocol/Client by clicking on the remove button, just below the Configuration window.

These items are safe to remove:

• Family Logon
• Client for Novell Networks
• IPX/SPX-compatible Protocol
• NetBEUI
• File and Print Sharing for Microsoft Networks

Once the extra protocols and clients have been removed, you will need to view the Properties of TCP/IP. To do this, select TCP/IP by clicking on it Once, then click on the Properties button.

IP Address: Select the IP Address tab. IP Address should be set to Obtain an IP Address Automatically.

WINS Configuration: Select the WINS Configuration tab. Your connection to Harbornet does not require WINS Resolution, so ensure that WINS Configuration is set to Disable WINS Resolution.

Gateways: Select the   Gateways tab. There should be no Installed Gateways listed here. If there are any here, you will need to remove them. Leave it blank if there are no Installed Gateways.

DNS Configuration: Then click on the Tab marked DNS Configuration. If you have had a connection with a previous ISP, depending upon how their systems were set up, your configuration here could be incorrect. DNS Configuration should be set to Disable DNS with no values left in ANY of the fields.

Click OK, and click OK on the Network Configuration window, your computer will sense System Settings have changed and request a restart, please respond YES.