Small Office DSL Problem...

[Skyy God]

Long story short, we have 6 people at our office running off of one 3 Mbps DSL line. 1 wired, 5 wireless. We're running into frequent disconnects and error messages. My gut tells me that there are too many users for 1 line and that we need either more bandwidth or a 2nd line.

Any chance this is the AT&T 2Wire modem and not the lack of bandwidth?

[phisherman]

2wire modems are notoriously unreliable. splitting your connection that many times shouldn't be an issue at all.

[ElGringo]

I used a 2 wire modem in my own business, and thought it was weird that connections kept dropping. That modem has since completely quit working and been replaced, not a single dropped connection since.

[Blindside58]

Anything is possible. have you tried resetting the modem and waiting for the lights to all come back green?

[Otis Day]

3MB should be plenty of bandwidth unless you are transferring big files or doing streaming video.

[InChiefsHeaven]

Quit letting your users download all the pron...

Seriously, 3MB is fine for that many people. A T-1 line is like 1.53 MB and for a long time our whole office of over 15 users...

[htismaqe]

Disconnects? Like you mean within your application?

Even if 3Mbits wasn't enough for 6 people (and it likely is in terms of bandwidth) you wouldn't get "disconnects" - you'd get slow response or application timeouts.

Chances are it's your modem. Most broadband termination devices are simple routers that do Network and Port address translation and both of those have limits to the number of simultaneous sessions they can keep track of.

So while 3MBits is probably enough bandwidth, your modem doesn't have enough horsepower to handle all 6 of you looking at 14 different webpages, checking email, streaming video, etc.

[jidar]

Users usually don't differentiate between disconnects and application timeouts.

With that in mind.. saturation is still a high likelihood in my experience. Look for torrents and/or virus infected pcs.

[dtebbe]

I've got a similar sized office running off a similar DSL line and don't have any problems. But we limit access to the internet for strictly business use, except for one PC used in the break room. We don't have any problems. I would also suspect your modem/router, especially if it's over a few years old.

This may be a stupid question, but did you power cycle your modem? This will usually release the IP your provider assigns you (assuming your are dynamic IP) and frequently will fix problems like this as well.

We are running an old Netopia Caymen modem (setup as a bridge) and it has been rock solid all these years.

DT

[Duck Dog]

Depending on what you all are down/up loading 3 megs is plenty of bandwidth. The next time you encounter the problem direct connect a laptop to your dsl modem and bypass the router.

[Skyy God]

Originally Posted by Blindside58

Anything is possible. have you tried resetting the modem and waiting for the lights to all come back green?

I haven't tried it personally, but apparently it's been tried several times.

Originally Posted by InChiefsHell

Quit letting your users download all the pron...

Seriously, 3MB is fine for that many people. A T-1 line is like 1.53 MB and for a long time our whole office of over 15 users...

What's funny about your comment is that the users are 2 female secretaries, a 70-ish receptionist, my dad, and another professional.

Originally Posted by dtebbe

I've got a similar sized office running off a similar DSL line and don't have any problems. But we limit access to the internet for strictly business use, except for one PC used in the break room. We don't have any problems. I would also suspect your modem/router, especially if it's over a few years old.

This may be a stupid question, but did you power cycle your modem? This will usually release the IP your provider assigns you (assuming your are dynamic IP) and frequently will fix problems like this as well.

No, but I'll give it a shot after work today. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Skyy God]

Here's one of the error messages:

Can’t Contact Internet Service Provider

The system could not contact your Internet service provider to create an Internet connection.

This can occur due to emergency network maintenance or other unforeseen temporary service disruptions. The BROADBAND LINK light on the front of the system will automatically turn green once the problem has been resolved, typically within a short period.

If this condition persists, you can also try restarting your system by clicking the REBOOT SYSTEM button below.

["Bob" Dobbs]

Originally Posted by Pittsie

Here's one of the error messages:

Can’t Contact Internet Service Provider

The system could not contact your Internet service provider to create an Internet connection.

This can occur due to emergency network maintenance or other unforeseen temporary service disruptions. The BROADBAND LINK light on the front of the system will automatically turn green once the problem has been resolved, typically within a short period.

If this condition persists, you can also try restarting your system by clicking the REBOOT SYSTEM button below.

This error message sounds like it's coming from the modem itself. First I'd check with AT&T to make sure the connection back to the DSLAM is good. If it's not that, dollars to doughnuts it's a bad modem.

[JOhn]

probably is your Modem. Had a very similar problem here at home with my modem. Had it replaced and been smooth sailing since

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by jidar

Users usually don't differentiate between disconnects and application timeouts.

With that in mind.. saturation is still a high likelihood in my experience. Look for torrents and/or virus infected pcs.

Both of those could cause bandwidth congestion. But they'd both also be more likely to max out the TCP or NAT session limit on the router, too. So yea, those 2 things would be something to look for.