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I have computer and internet problems. Since January this year, my internet access has slowed to the point where I can not use it. I have had the VNN support staff, and two IT consultants, come out several times and while they acknowledge that it is very slow, they have not fixed it. The wifi connection recogises the DSL modem, but when I attached an Apple Airport Extreme it did not recognise the DSL connection. I feel there may be the regular slow internet issues that everyone has, but there also seems to be something wrong with the DSL/wifi system. Does anyone know of a highly-qualified IT specialist with a good understanding of DSL connections and the internet that I could contact for help?
answered about 17 months ago by grubby
there's a simple solution to your speed problems: ditch VNN. While they were acceptable until this year, they've never been fast, and yours is far from the first complaint about VNN I've heard. You're better off with FPT internet. It's more expensive, but it's anywhere from a little to a lot faster, and they have fewer outages than VNN. I'm not sure what you mean by "the wifi connection" - can you describe your setup in more detail?
answered about 17 months ago by mrdaveman
Dear Grubby, Thank you for the advice. I have looked into changing from VNN, but unfortunately the management of Ciputra made an agreement with them for the whole building. If the problem was just the internet, I would be only frustrated about the speed; but I also think the configuration of the ADSL modem also affects the connectivity. I was vague in my description of the Wi-Fi connection, because I am not very familiar with WiFi, but this is what I have: the DSL line connects to a Zoom X5v DSL modem and the associated software is on my windows XP PC. Connected to the DSL modem is a TP-Link (TL-WR542G) Wi-Fi router which the other computers use in the flat (when the internet is working.) I purchased an AppleTV which requires Wi-Fi 802.11b, 802.11g, or 802.11n (wireless video streaming requires 802.11g or 802.11n) so I bought an Airport Extreme Wi-Fi router to be sure of compatibility with the AppleTV. I intended to set up the Airport Extreme with my MacBook and then connect to the AppleTV. Although the TP-Link router recognises the Ethernet connection to the DSL modem, the Airport Extreme, connected by Ethernet cable to the same DSL modem, does not. Additionally, the MacBook’s Wi-Fi can be set at ‘automatic’ everywhere except at home where I need to create a ‘home’ location and specify the IP address and DNS server. I have not been able to get the Airport Extreme Wi-Fi to recognise the DSL connection and with AppleTV’s Wi-Fi connection, it acknowledges the TP-Link but can not connect to it. I feel like some settings prevent the MacBook in automatically recognising the TP-Link, the AppleTV to recognising the TP-Link, and the Airport Extreme recognising the DSL connection. If the internet speed ends up being very, very slow with VNN, I can explore that with the building management, but the internal connections should be able to work. I am not sure how I described this makes sense, but I definitely need qualified help.
answered about 17 months ago by cheapie
Is the TP-Link set to restrict access by MAC address? It is possible that was one of the security measures and the AppleTV cannot access it, even though it "sees it," because of it.
answered about 17 months ago by fidsteve
First, There are really two separate issues here: 1) WAN/Internet connectivity and 2) LAN configuration. In order to get your local equipment set up, it doesn't matter if your Internet connection is up or down. Of course, it would be fairly limited in it's application, but LAN configuration would not be affected by Internet connectivity. I'm not going to tackle the VNN issue, because as it has already been pointed out, they are flaky as best. LAN Considerations: Does the TP-Link Wifi Router have any sort of wireless security (WPA or WEP) set up? This might prevent the AppleTV, if not explictly configured, from joining the wireless network. When you say " the MacBook’s Wi-Fi can be set at ‘automatic’ everywhere except at home where I need to create a ‘home’ location and specify the IP address and DNS server." is there a possibility that whichever Wifi Router displays this behavior is not set to use DHCP (which automatically configured IP and DNS for any connected Ethernet nodes) When you say "Although the TP-Link router recognises the Ethernet connection to the DSL modem, the Airport Extreme, connected by Ethernet cable to the same DSL modem, does not." what exactly does this mean? Is there a light on the Airport Extreme at the uplink port that doesn't light up? Depending on what you mean by this, it is possible that the DSL modem is also set up with DHCP turned off. Or, there is a chance that the subnet for both the DSL modem and the Airport Extreme are set up to use the same range (e.g. 192.168.1.x) Unfortunately, this is the kind of thing that would be much easier to troubleshoot when one was sitting in front of the equipment as there are many possibilities.
Good points from cheapie and fidsteve re: things to check on the wifi routers. Unless I'm missing something, though, I don't think you need to have two wireless routers at all. Sounds like the Apple router has some configuration issues, but if you can get that one working right you should probably use it because I don't think the other one can do 802.11 n (the fastest protocol). Either way, things would be a lot less confusing (for you and for your macbook) if you were only using 1 Wifi router.
answered about 17 months ago by Steve
Bear in mind recent fibre optic cable theft linking Vietnam to the hubs has caused a 70% drop in speed on average.
Steve speaks the truth; I must admit, I missed this little gem of news: http://www.intellasia.com/news/english/articles/info-tech/111229855.shtml http://www.thanhniennews.com/society/?catid=3&newsid=28390 Ah, Vietnam, 3 steps forward, 2 steps back...
Exciting news in that first article about a SE Asia - US cable, though. Also, I'd heard about the cables being nicked but hadn't realized the idiotic back story, so thanks.
I first would like to say thank you to everyone for the advice and suggestions. I am still working on it and will let you know the results. So far, I disabled the firewall on the DSL modem and my internet access improved considerably. I guess my security is worse though. As for the wifi connection and the Airport Extreme, I am still not sure how to make it work. The DSL modem says that DHCP is enabled. I have not found an option to restrict access through MAC addresses. I know that one IT guy set up our wifi with WEP for security, but I asked another to get rid of it because we seemed to have problems accessing it. Maybe some settings are still in place, but I am not sure how to access them. When I type in the default IP address – http://192.168.1.1 – it does not access the settings of the router. I would like to make the Airport Extreme the sole wifi router, but it keeps blinking yellow. I would have thought that I could get the AppleTV to recognise the Airport Extreme, but have not been able to so far. I will keep trying. Thanks!
One thing you might check is to make sure that the wifi-router and the DSL modem are on different sub-nets. For example, make sure that the DSL modem is in the 192.168.0.x range and the wifi router is in the 192.168.1.x range. If both network devices are trying to operate in the same sub-net, there will be problems. Network devices are often defaulted to 192.168.1.1, so if you are using more than one device (which you are), there is a good chance there might be a problem. You might try http://192.168.0.1 or http://192.168.2.1 or http://10.0.0.1 to see if those addresses allow you to access the router settings. If not, you can always reset your router with the "reset" button on the back and try to re-configure it to be sure there is not a sub-net conflict with the DSL modem.
answered about 15 months ago by QUYDA
Hi, Dont know if you still working around with your problem. I think I can fix your problem, even tho I dont have much experience working with Mac box, I do have extensive skills setting up SOHO networking devices (including wifi networks) Please take a look at my website (http://www.quyda.com) to check out my range of services as well as my contact number. Cheers, Quyda
