MattW

Friend of mine has a problem with his dsl connection.

Long story short, just moved to dsl from dial up, new house previously out of range.

PC was unprotected, have run spyware and removed over 2000 issues, installed anti-virus and removed 80 infected files

When attempting to dial ADSL (usb modem) get error line busy.

Same thing happened last week and aol had announcement saying problems in area, and it was fine next day.

AOL have run through with him, uninstalling and re-installing, so I assume they don't think he has a line issue. He waited on the phone for 2 hours last night and got cut off.

Please no, this isp is better type comments, I know there are better isp's out there, this guy is an ex international footballer and doesn't have a clue about pc's, he just wants it to work.....lol. He now has up to date av but no firewall, because it would be too complicated.

I use NTL cable, so adsl is not something I'm familar with, and aol is like a black box that I don't want to delve into. Tell me, does this sound like a line fault?

class_A

Friends don't let friends use AOL

You didn't want to hear this, but encourage him to try another ISP. I'm not being blindly ignorant or arrogant; I just think it would be the best solution in the long term.

He wants it to "just work" and you don't want the support hassle. Pick up a £30 Ethernet firewall/router, set it up and forget about it.

No firewall + broadband is asking for trouble. Explain simply what a firewall is: it puts up a barrier and stops hackers getting in. He will then want a firewall

Seriously, a little user education is needed otherwise he won't know how to avoid repeating the mistakes.

It doesn't sound like a line fault, more likely that AOL are having problems. ADSL modems don't 'dial' like a traditional modem, they simply contact the server, authenticate and receive an IP address. The line and DSL hardware at the exchange are provided and managed by BT. BT simply handle the transfer of data to AOL.

stevem2k

sounds like AOL's radius servers aren't authenticating properly.

Steve

MattW

Class A - I know, I know sounds simple doesn't it.

Steve - I've asked him to turn his pc on and lkeave it on (the modem is usb powered) and see whether it eventually syncs as the data light is just flashing at the mo.

stevem2k

If it's not syncing with the dslam , then AOL need to report it to bt who will look at it ... it's not getting as far as I suggested ^ up there

Steve

MattW

As I thought, line issue then. I'll get him to call AOL when he has a spare couple of hours

cheddar bob

As a fellow AOL user I have to say it's no where near as bad as people make out, it doesn't use internet explorer so less security problems, I can count the total amount of problems I've had with them on 1 hand and thats been over 5 years through dial-up then 512k ADSL & now 1MB ADSL. No bandwidth caps or limits, in the last year and a half I haven't once had a problem connecting and I've used the internet a lot in that time usually daily. Sounds like problems with his phone line/connection/area.

Nicks VR4

Agree with Bob here
Use AOL for my business and cant remember the last time I lost Connection

I do use IE and as long as your patch etc AV , Firewall and dont click on things that look iffy dont see a problem