Speedtouch ST330 Modem nods off to sleep....zzzzzz

[Dave the bass]

Hello,

I have Thomson Speedtouch ST330 modem that came bundled with our ISP package about 4-5 years ago. It's worked fine all these years.... then I got an e-mail from Virgin telling me I needed to update the drivers for it as they were upping (correct phrase?) the speed of the webbynet in our area, to take advantage of this it was important (they said) to go to the Thomson site and DL the file and install new drivers.

If you didn't your house would burn down, your dingle dongle would shrink and someone would nick the peanut butter out your cupboard or summat!!! (I made that bit up, can you tell?)

But seriously, Since DL-ing the drivers the Modem seems to go to sleep if we're online but don't have any web activity for say like 5 mins or thereabouts. The pootar says its still connected and can 'see' the modem and knows that its online but we can't actually carry-on where we left off if we were halway through a message or something.

What I have to do is pull-out the USB connector that connects the modem to the pootar and plug it back in. The modem then goes through its initialisation and ADSL verification hokum then the little icon in the bottom RHD corner of the screen says it OK and ready to connect to the webbynet and off we go again....until I need to go for a wee/have beer/coffee/walk etc etc ....then I come back to the pootar and it's done it again.

I think it gets lonely

Very irritating,

Any ideas?

DTB

 

[Anon_F]

This happened to us after Virgin upped our speed, then then modem switched off after about 5 minutes.
Technical support suggested updating the drivers or by using a newer Modem & Drivers, just ask them!
After many calls to Virgin Support etc we gave up & changed to SkyBB!

This may not help you?

 

[Dave the bass]

Oh.

Its deffo the modem innit (or at least the 'drivers') innit?

If I buy a new whizz bang modem would that solve the problem? I'd like to stay with Virgin. Its been very reliable, BT chucked us of their service in the days of Dial-up as the kids and I tended to download entire C: drives back in the days of Napster and the like.

DTB

 

[JaLing]

My personal suggestion is..... buy a router.
The SpeedTouch330 is an antique now and were being given free with BB years ago.
With a router you'll have a always on connection and will be online via a private IP, which gives the bonus of an extra layer of protection.

On the other hand.... sign up to Sky as recommended.
I swear on my life that I believe it to be the best BB package available.
Sky are fighting for your right to download whatever you want (wink, wink, nudge, nudge), have no form of port throttling or blocking and offer very competitive package deals.

Whereas providers like Tiscali, actually block lots of ports during most of the day so you can't use the internet for many uses i.e. EVE-Online can't be played from 3pm untill 2am. Have implimented a 3 strike and your out system (which is in violation certain rights, as declared by the EU) and throttle your bandwidth.
Virgin isn't as bad but they are implimenting phorm (EU declared it to be a violation of privacy), are rolling out a new throttling system and are also going to use the 3 strike system.

 

[JaLing]

By the way.... the SpeedTouch 330 was origionally designed for below 2Mbs connection, via new firmware and drivers it is able to handle better connections but as always this has negative effects.... you're seeing them now.

 

[Dave the bass]

Aaahhh, thanks Mr Ling.

I REALLY don't want to leave Virgin, locally they seem about the best ISP. We have no cable in our area and don't watch TV so the Sky packages aren't that appealing TBH.

thanks for the tips re-our old antique! We've had 2 of these 330's. The first one died after about a year or so but was replaced as a good-will gesture by Virgin and the latest as I say is at least 4-5 years old.

Ok, a router. What is it, where do I stick it, should I see a doctor and will I be able to sit down?

DTB

 

[floppybootstomp]

Take the blue pill.

Bit of a shame, this, cos I recently sold a 4 port Thomson ADSL router to Fat Guts for a tenner.

You do remember Fat Guts don't you?

Modems connected via usb port are generally a bit crap.

So, I have to ask, does your machine have an ethernet port?

If it does, you're in luck, cos non-wireless router/modems can be had el cheapo.

And if you don't have an ethernet port a network card to suit will only cost about a fiver.

This will do you, a refurbished model: Link

And this is what it normally costs:

Link # 2

And if you're happy with Virgin, stay with 'em but I do have to say they're somewhat low on the totem pole when it comes to ISP's.

 

[Anon_F]

You do remember Fat Guts don't you?

Always nice to see what friends call each other!
Will not tell you what i get called, unless Murdoch spills the beans!!

 

[Dave the bass]

You do remember Fat Guts don't you?

Of course, aka Jabba!

Modems connected via usb port are generally a bit crap.

So, I have to ask, does your machine have an ethernet port?

If it does, you're in luck, cos non-wireless router/modems can be had el cheapo.

And if you don't have an ethernet port a network card to suit will only cost about a fiver.

This will do you, a refurbished model: Link

And this is what it normally costs:

Link # 2

And if you're happy with Virgin, stay with 'em but I do have to say they're somewhat low on the totem pole when it comes to ISP's.

I'm not too sure if I have an ethernet port Mr FBS, is this it?

I know we've got a couple of USB ports at the top of the pootar where the modem plugs in and a separate card where we plug all the other USB shite err... i mean hardware...(see...I'm learning) in but all the other holes (sockets) are for like hi tech schnizzle like a mic or a line out and some pretty colour bits that I've never touched or looked at 'cos it's dusty and scares me...(mummy)...

Top support from PCreview! It's the best computer forum I've ever been on. It's also the only computer forum I've ever been on

13squids is fine if it solve the problems of me hurting my fists on the wall everytime the Speedcrutch 330BC takes an afternoon nap.

Could I plug a laptop into that aswell? I'm toying with the idea of getting a basic webbernettage enabled laptop so I can surf the sooperduper wory highway whilst listening to wonderful music through a backloaded 6ft horn speaker being fed by a Single ended pentode driven 2A3 amplifier in the lounge as opposed to being couped up in the spare room with no mates....

I'm worried about wireless TBH, is it safe. Do them Ruskies know what I'm thinking? or even worse, the neighbours?


DTB

 

[Dave the bass]

Forgot to add, we've got no cable round this neck of the woods Tony, it's all 2 wire telephone stuff.

We've got gas though and we listen to Vinyl lots too.

DTB

 

[guest_9323wk]

Yes you have got an Ethernet port. Next to the USB port in your first picture.


Regards

 

[floppybootstomp]

Yes, that's an ethernet port.

Assuming you're using Win XP go to Control Panel/System/Device manager and look for Network adapter then right click on it, select Properties and see if it's installed ok.

If it isn't there you may have to install the drivers for it from the Motherboard CD.

Underneath your blue vga cable are firewire ports.

I'm not too sure what the bit is with the colour sockets and the phono/rca socket but I'm guessing it's a motherboard add on card to enable 5.1 sound if you want to use it.

The router/modem I've linked to is not wireless. Yes, you could plug a laptop into it via a cable.

The router/modem has five sockets. You stick your phone cable in one and you can connect four computers via cable into the other four. Good eh?

 

[muckshifter]

I'm worried about wireless TBH. Do them Ruskies know what I'm thinking? or even worse, the neighbours?

Yep ... I'll be able to pick up all your out-n-in comings from here.

Wired is fine though, I'd have to park outside your abode to listen in.

 

[Dave the bass]

Yes, that's an ethernet port.

Assuming you're using Win XP go to Control Panel/System/Device manager and look for Network adapter then right click on it, select Properties and see if it's installed ok.

If it isn't there you may have to install the drivers for it from the Motherboard CD.

Underneath your blue vga cable are firewire ports.

I'm not too sure what the bit is with the colour sockets and the phono/rca socket but I'm guessing it's a motherboard add on card to enable 5.1 sound if you want to use it.

The router/modem I've linked to is not wireless. Yes, you could plug a laptop into it via a cable.

The router/modem has five sockets. You stick your phone cable in one and you can connect four computers via cable into the other four. Good eh?

Ooooo, I've got an ethernet port I didn't know I had.

Thanks for the guidance chaps.

Ok, I've followed your instructions Mr FBS and when I right click on the Network adaptor properties a little box appears after a short while headed 'Network Adaptors' with a little icon of a green pcb but there's no blurb, it's a completeley empty box.

Have all the letters fallen out? There's nowt on the carpet, I've checked!

I don't know if it helps but in the task bar at the bottom rhd corner of the screen we've got a little icon of 2 monitors with a cross between them and if I hover the pointer of them it inform me 'Local area connection A network cable is unpluged' ...we've always had it there since the dawn of time. I think it was summat to do with when Rachel (daughter) had a programme called 'Maya' installed on this pootar for Animation stuff she was doing at Uni. Julies bro-in-law is a pootar whizz like you lot and he had to do summat to get Maya to work that has resulted in that icon being there ever since.

^^^ Does that help?

The multicolour add-on board isn't a seperate card as such, I've got the side off the poot and it's just got a link cable that dissapears into the motherboard somewhere.

Cheers for the help again Gents, really appreciate it.

 

[Dave the bass]

Yep ... I'll be able to pick up all your out-n-in comings from here.

Wired is fine though, I'd have to park outside your abode to listen in.

Arrrgghhh, Paranoia Police!!! CSN+Y sang about that on 'Almost cut my hair'!!!

Seriously though, I really am concerned about wireless security hence my leaning towards running a cable to the lounge so I can surf the webbynet on a laptop(which I haven't got yet) in my armchair listening to music which is a major interest of mine, I build Valve Hifi equipmant as a hobby and love music as Mr FBS will confirm.

Whats PCReviews advice on latops? Any recommendations,I'm looking at getting a very basic PC laptop for web browsing and such stuff but I'd like a 'line-in' socket so I can rip vinyl to digital if possible, I've used that function on a laptop I borrowed from work for a weekend. At work I've got a black 'MACbook' laptop that was very spensiff but ultimatley rubbish (IMO) as it's a work supplied bit of kit and as I don't have 'administrator rights' or summat I can't install anything on it!!! They're very hot on security at work which is fairynuff.

DTB

 

[Anon_F]

We've got gas though and we listen to Vinyl lots too. DTB

Do you have mains water or do you have to bath in the Thames?
I remember vinyl, cos i'm getting old!

 

[floppybootstomp]

Ok, you're good to go, your motherboard's ethernet facility has it's drivers loaded and once you plug in a router/modem to the port that icon will lose it's red cross.

Just out of interest, you could have clicked that icon, right clicked the network symbol and clicked on disable, which would have meant the icon wouldn't have shown, but no prob, it's really unimportant.

A wireless connection can be prone to other folk leeching your bandwidth but you'd have to be at the very least a confirmed halfwit not to be able to set up security measures. I have a wireless modem/router here, hardwired to machine # 1 and linked via wireless to 2 other machines, it's secure.

But hardwired is always best, for many reasons, outside interference can sometimes make wireless connections a bit flakey.

I'm almost certain that connector panel with coloured sockets will be for extra speakers were you to use a 5.1 setup, my guess is you're using onboard sound with a 2.1 setup, but it's not important with regards to your current concern (that sounded posh, didn't it?).

Laptops? Toshiba, XP or Vista Home Premium minimum and at least 2Gb RAM.

Have a look Here. That's the place I bought a pair of Toshiba laptops for my identical offspring to use at Uni.

 

[muckshifter]

Seriously though, I really am concerned about wireless security ...

Nothing is 100% secure, nothing ... oh, err, you can get 95% secure by not connecting anything to the Internet.

Taking some simple precautions is all you need to do to keep all but the very determined out of your system ... very unlikely anyone is gonna take an interest in you, unless you work for a high security industry.

You can always line the PC room with tinfoil ... don't forget to do the roof & floor ... them buggers are crafty.

 

[Dave the bass]

Thanks Tony,

Glad its making some sense. I'm very interested in the hybrid approach you've got IE Hard wired big pootar and wireless linky to a laptop.

The MAC laptop I get to borrow on weekends occasionally has a wireless feature on it called 'Airport'. Last time it found about 8 different local wireless networks, all of 'em secured but it made me think about others hacking into mine if I had one.

Hmmm, <rubs chin> I know Juju would use a laptop if we got one for webbernetting a fair bit, she's doing a Degree in Textile Arts BTW, innit great getting the kids off ya back after all these years It's given us a bit spare time now that we fill with moosics and art and booze and food!!!

Thanks for that link, I think a basic cheapo laptop would do us but not one of them with likkle screen.

We;'ll have deep thoughkus upon the subject.

DTB

 

[Dave the bass]

Nothing is 100% secure, nothing ... oh, err, you can get 95% secure by not connecting anything to the Internet.

Taking some simple precautions is all you need to do to keep all but the very determined out of your system ... very unlikely anyone is gonna take an interest in you, unless you work for a high security industry.

You can always line the PC room with tinfoil ... don't forget to do the roof & floor ... them buggers are crafty.

I've got a tinfoil hat already so I'm a free-thinker...

Our whole building here at work is wireless webbernetted up but seeing as I work in a basement we don't get covereage so we have a magic snake thingy that plugs into a hole in the way where the Disinformation Superhardshoulder is

Still aponderin'.

DTB