CenturyLink Wants to Blame Telo for Modem Problems

[henkejs]

I apologize in advance for the long post, but I want to provide as much information as I can upfront. Since porting my phone number from CenturyLink to Ooma in July, I've had ongoing problems with my CenturyLink DSL modem refusing to lease IP addresses to devices (cell phone, iPad, Roku, etc.) trying to attach to WiFi. This problem did not happen in the two weeks or so I was test driving the Telo with a temporary phone number before deciding to port my regular number. The Telo and my desktop computer are attached to separate ethernet ports on the modem.

When I reboot the modem it runs fine for a while, and any/all devices attach and operate perfectly. Eventually, the modem begins a cycle where it refuses to attach to new devices (the same ones that worked the day before). Within an hour or two, it gets to the point where already attached WiFi devices get dropped. If I don't reboot then, it eventually gets to the point where my ethernet-connected desktop computer also loses its connection to the modem (Windows 10 network diagnostics reports "Ethernet doesn't have valid IP configuration"). Curiously, the Telo continues to work normally the whole time, and all status lights on the modem show normal green.

Now I am power-cycling the modem twice a day to keep everything working. To their credit, CenturyLink has been taking this seriously. They've sent a technician out to check the physical line (excellent), their phone support people have verified system functions and tweaked modem settings repeatedly during my many phone calls, and finally they've sent me two replacement modems all without fixing the problem.

The support person I talked to this morning suggested the Telo may be causing the problem. Has anyone seen this particular issue before? Have you found a solution?

[murphy]

Terminology correction. You don't have a modem, you have a gateway which is a modem and a router in the same box. There is only one output connection on a modem and they don't do WiFi.. I can't think of any way that a Telo could cause a problem unless it has failed and is sending out a continuous stream of garbage packets.

I have a cable (Comcast) modem followed by a router. I own both devices. At last count I have 85 devices, including two Telos, connected to the router via hard wire and WiFi. The only time I have had a problem with this system was when the modem started to fail. It was dropping 17% of the upstream packets. I suspect it was damaged by a nearby lightning strike. Replacing the modem solved the problem.

Are there any friends or relatives that you could take your Telo to to test it on their system?

Disconnect the Telo to see if the problem stays or goes away.

Presumably you are renting the gateway from CenturyLink. Ask them to replace it with a new one.

[henkejs]

Murphy is correct, my device has a modem and router with WiFi capability all in the same box. For the sake of brevity, I'll continue to refer to the device as the modem. It has been replaced three times with the same results.

A few hours ago I disconnected the Telo to see whether the problem persists. If the problem goes away, then I'll have to figure out whether the Telo is actually defective or possibly something is configured wrong.

[henkejs]

After leaving the Telo disconnected since 12:00 p.m. yesterday, I was unable to connect to WiFi at 6:30 a.m. this morning. About an hour later, I was able to connect to WiFi. This type of spontaneous recovery without rebooting has happened before, but has never lasted more than a day before the troubles began again. I'll leave the Telo disconnected for a while longer and see what happens.