Alcatel Speed Touch Resets When Using Kazaa/emule

[Koudvuur]

Hi everybody, first post here. Be gentle. :)

I have an Alcatel Speed Touch Home (tweaked into being a Pro actually) ADSL modem for ISDN, and am running Windows XP Home (Dutch edition). As of late, my modem resets when I use programs like Kazaa, eMule, or Bittorent.

It'll run fine for, say, half an hour, and then all downloads freeze (while uploads continue), and then after a minute or two the modem resets, obviously dropping the connection.

Are there some settings I need to tweak? I have no clue where to start.

The modem is running the Gsv7aa3.281 (919162) driver - it was the latest version I could find, as the Alcatel website is rather hopeless.

Any help is appreciated! Thanks in advance. :)

[lynx]

You say uploads are still working. If that is the case I don't think the problem can't be in your modem. You still need to receive acknowledgement packets to continue an upload, so two-way data is still occuring (your modem would not examine the type of packet and block certain ones).

That leaves the problem either at your ISP or in your pc. It is unlikely to be your USB drivers either, for the same reason.

Do you use the standard ports for the P2P programs? It may be that your ISP is restricting them, try using non-standard ports.

[Virtualbody1234]

How do you see if the modem resets?

Btw I have an Alcatel speed touch home modem. Not tweaked, No updated drivers (just pluged it in) and no probems here.

[Koudvuur]

Originally posted by lynx@11 August 2004 - 19:27
You say uploads are still working. If that is the case I don't think the problem can't be in your modem. You still need to receive acknowledgement packets to continue an upload, so two-way data is still occuring (your modem would not examine the type of packet and block certain ones).

That leaves the problem either at your ISP or in your pc. It is unlikely to be your USB drivers either, for the same reason.

Do you use the standard ports for the P2P programs? It may be that your ISP is restricting them, try using non-standard ports.
I should have been clearer, sorry. Uploads will keep on working longer than downloads, but eventually, the modem resets. I can tell because all the LED's fade, and then the power LED turns red. :)

My ISP has been troublefree wrt P2P before, and indeed friends with the same ISP report no problems.

I guess I use the standards ports all right. How do I change them in, say, Kazaa Lite Ressurection?

Thanks again!

[Virtualbody1234]

I really don't know what the problem is. Maybe overheating? Put a fan on it as a test.

Or maybe line problems?

[TheDave]

whats the point in OC'ing a modem? i'd just return it to normal and try :huh:

[Koudvuur]

It had the same problem before I used a well-known "hack" to turn the modem from a Home into a Pro version. The hack didn't solve the problem, nor did it hinder normal operations.

The modem works fine either way, but resets during P2P use. Overheating is not the issue, as it has done this in various temperatures.

[lynx]

Now that you've explained a bit more, it is almost certainly a modem failure, and probably overheating as VB suggests. Did you get the modem from your ISP? If so they should replace it free.

If you bought it yourself and haven't had it too long you should be able to get it replaced free. The only problem will be if you got it from a third party who got it from their ISP, Alcatel will have a record of who it was supplied to and won't replace it in that case.

I recently had to replace one (although in the end it wasn't faulty). After a few minutes chat with the ISP, they put me through to someone at Alcatel. They quickly decided it must be a faulty modem and arranged for a new one. They even gave me a case number and an RMA number to quote to my ISP to hurry things along.

Btw, in that case the ISP (British Telecom) had told them the line was ok, but it wasn't. The customer had moved offices and taken their number with them. In order to move adsl they had to cancel it on the old line and have it installed on the new line. But it was installed on the new line first, then the order to cancel it (on the same number) came through afterwards. BT could find no fault because adsl wasn't even active. :rolleyes: And because the system showed that adsl was already present on the line, they couldn't turn it back on, so they had to go through the process of cancelling it, waiting until it was cancelled, then re-instating it. The whole process took about a month. Talk about inefficient.

[Koudvuur]

Thanks for all the replies, guys, but following my gut feeling (FWIW!), I don't think it's an overheating issue. It'll remain online for days on end, and it will only reset after about half an hour of P2P use, such as KAzaa.

The ports problem described above might be worth a shot. But what should I change?

[TheDave]

p2p is solid upload/download so it could be overheating cos its doing more work than usual

[Koudvuur]

I understand that, but I've had the modem for 3 years, and it's always done P2P work just fine. Would you reckon opening it up and cleaning it might work? Perhaps it's dusty on the inside. :)

[lynx]

Does yours have a separate power supply? The ones I've seen take their power from the USB port, so maybe they are a later model. They only have 2 lights, one for USB and one for adsl.

If yours is different perhaps you could describe the lights for us.

But I still think overheating is likely to be the cause, without looking inside I have no way of knowing but perhaps there is a heatsink on one of the chips, and it has come loose. If you've had it for three years then it is obviously out of warranty, but if you got it from your ISP they should still replace it. Otherwise I can't see what harm opening it up can cause.

[Virtualbody1234]

lynx, I think his modem looks like this:

Click for larger image. Image Resized
http://www.speedtouch.com/img/products/Home.jpg' width='200' height='120' border='0' alt='click for full size view'></a>

Datasheet: <a href='http://www.speedtouch.com/pdf/datasheethome.pdf]http://www.speedtouch.com/pdf/datasheethome.pdf (http://www.speedtouch.com/img/products/Home.jpg' target='image'>http://www.adapter-transformer-charger.com/img/acdc01.jpg

[lynx]

In that case I&#39;m thinking about a different product.

Red light on the power LED indicates POST failure.

Maybe there&#39;s a chip in a chip socket which has worked loose (it happens because of expansion and contraction due to temperature changes), sometimes just pressing them back into their sockets can solve this sort of problem.