Speedstream 4200 & Windstream

I’m sick of Windstream DSL. We’ve had issues “connecting” in the past here and there. Every time it was a reset to the modem that allowed us to connect to DSL again, only after trying it a few times … I wrote about it when it was happening in 2009. Someone commented, basically saying that resetting the router to factory wouldn’t help, and would hurt and wouldn’t make it work, blah, blah, blah.

The past few weeks things have gotten bad again. Reboot everything a few times, then at some point, router is able to establish a PP0e session all by itself as it usually does.

After a few of those sessions we found that our router wouldn’t allow wireless connections anymore, something was messed up, there was nothing that fixed it (factory reset didn’t help) and it’s unsupported by D-Link anyhow now. No firmware updates, no fixes of any kind worth doing. So we got a new router.

It works differently to connect to PP0e through the speedstream 4200 modem. I mean, it controls it, keeps it going differently, the D-Link router allowed me to connect and disconnect and the new one, a Belkin, is just a solid connected or not automatically without any interaction possible.

So we had the new router and things were fine for a little while. Then one morning we woke up to “no internet” and bouncing back and forth to this and that allowed no connection to the internet.

If we called Tech support they’d force us to connect the modem directly to a computer before they’d “help” … I mean, they sometimes will say “yeah, there’s a problem” and that’s it, they fix it where ever that is, and we can connect. That happens occasionally, but rarely. So most of the time we just wait and wait and wait, while I reset, turn off/on, etc. Until finally, the Belkin has blue lights all the way down.

Now the last few times, since it’s happened more and more of late, I have taken the ethernet cord connected to the desktop computer and router, unconnected it from the router and connected that to the ethernet port on the speedstream 4200 modem (obviously unconnecting the ethernet from modem to router first.) Then I get into the speedstream by going to 192.168.254.254 in my browser. It always has PPP setup with “windstream” as user name, and “connecting” with those credentials usually makes a seemingly good connection, but you can’t browse the internet.

If I put my username and password into the modem interface I can also connect. Sometimes I can then click one of my Fast Dial (firefox add-on) links and the page loads and anything on the internet is available. But I don’t want to connect like that, I want my router to control things and distribute the internet to my home network.

So when I can get that to connect like that, I reset to factory the modem, and hook everything back up the way I want it, router behind the modem. Sometimes the router then is able to connect, but not every time. It doesn’t matter what I do, what method of when to connect what cable, it either works or doesn’t.

The other thing that sometimes happens when I have the modem connected to the computer directly, when the router can’t connect, I “connect” but trying to load a web page it goes to Windstream Broadband Activation Installer, and in Firefox it just twirls around forever looking for whatever it is looking for.

I don’t want that, I want my internet connection to be there and that’s that.

Today I got sick of the song and dance and when the last action above was happening, and no real internet presenting itself to me at all, I right clicked that stupid Windstream page and opened it in IE with my IE view Firefox add-on. The same action occurred, but continued forward and resolved to present me with the opportunity to do more.

In the future I will click something else. This time I did click “cancel” and I loading any web page only brought up that Windstream Activation thing. I didn’t want to do it, but I finally did click through and enter a few things. At the end, Voila! I was able to load twitter.com, etc.

That wasn’t what I wanted to see, but it gave me a clue about the stupid whole thing I’ve been dealing with. Somewhere on their end Windstream is doing something or something happens which causes this behavior, but the 4200 has activation software in it that forces this issue, and the fact that it doesn’t always require this is quizzical (sometimes I can connect with my router controlling the PPOe eventually, when I haven’t done anything with this Activation Installer in the browser) but I do know that others online talk of this activation stuff, but I can avoid it and reconnect eventually, but today I got SICK of it and went with it.

I did then re-set to factory the speedstream 4200 then connect it to the router. The router promptly connected to the internet.

NEXT time this happens, I’ll load the darn thing to the computer, click on the “3rd party” thing and see if it’ll let me connect at THAT point.

So the future will let us know, I just despise this thing, I have a router that I want to act as my managing agent, I just want a DSL modem, I don’t want a modem/router. I want to connect to my DSL that I’ve had for a long time. I’m no new customer. I never had to go through that before, but I do know that the last month or so I’ve seen that Windstream Broadband Activation Installer when I have done the “I don’t want to but OK I’ll connect the modem to the computer directly” deed. Truth being truth, I don’t recall if I have seen it before for real, I do know I have seen a graphic of the thing before, when searching for info about windstream and not being able to connect, and if I have seen it in a browser before would have only happened if a Tech on the phone forced one of us to put the modem to the computer directly … but … it goes all back to how we use the system in the first place.

At no time ever did we input info into the modem directly. We have always had a router between computers and the modem. In any case, I can’t say how come the internet is gone sometimes and I can’t get it back even when I reset the modem to factory default and leave everything connected as usual. Or take everything apart and do this and that and the other and still nothing, or sometimes it comes back right away, or later, or much later.

So today I did that activation thing and I was back in. It’s not a hoop I want to have to jump through, and I will try the other link on the page if it presents itself again. I am also going to start a log sheet for marking down when and what happens when what is done or not. I have only spent to many hours of late trying to get the internet back. Every single time the darn “dsl” light on the modem is present and solid, bill paid, etc.

I test my speeds often enough and my speeds are fine up and down. FWIW I am have currently been connect to the internet for about 1:45 hrs:mins since connecting modem to activation in IE & letting that do it’s thing, having internet browsing available then unconnecting modem from computer, then resetting it to factory default and connecting it to router and having it connect immediately. Man I am tired of this circus.