BSNL DataOne ADSL Connection – follow up

See also:
BSNL DataOne Connection Configuration Summary

after many attempts last Saturday I finally managed to get an answer on the support help line (25555555/25555554).

One lady asked what the problem was, and I started explaining about the modem settings, IP address and so on. Then she kept saying “uh-huh” every now and then very attentively – so she mustve taken some communication training or something I guessed. But after 2 minutes of explanation I got a
doubt. Esp when I asked a question and she still said “uh-huh”. Then I had to repeat the question and say that I’m asking a question and would like an answer. Then it dawned on her, and she said “ok let me check” I wondered what technology they were using that she was able to check something, just
based on the information I had given her.

But she came back after a few minutes with a very polite “thanks for staying on the line” to ask for a clarification – “are you able to access the internet?”.
“NO”.
She said “ok fine”.
I had to say “No, its not fine, thats the whole problem” (and thats why I called in the $^&^* first place )
Then the award winning question – “are you unable to access the internet, or the web pages”

Anyway to cut a very long story long, much later I got hold of the Malleswaram number and finally managed to beg and plead and somehow convince one of the staff to come home (though they said some staff are on leave, others are still busy installing new connections and would take a seperate week to troubleshoot existing ones).

Finally they came in the evening, and they tried all kinds of things for over an hour with no success.

They seemed to be doing almost exactly the same things I had tried myself for the past 2 or 3 late nights, but one extra thing they did was set a DNS address which didnt help either.

I empathised with them that this could be quite frustrating to debug such elusive problems, and we too sometimes face similar situations in the software profession. They were really glad that atleast someone understood them, they had said they have faced ire from people earlier. (Such a casual comment, it was really amazing to see how happy it made them! It reinforced my feeling that one should be more liberal in voicing one’s positive thoughts)

They told me that it should work with no settings at all, and told me to either reinstall Windows 2000 or install XP.

They finally had to leave, saying they’d try out a new modem on Monday. Even while they were leaving they were talking about some possibilities and I kept saying “oh I’ve tried that too”. Then he suddenly said “either we should go with the ready made settings without any configuration at all, or we should configure it exactly the way its supposed to be done, but not a mixture of the two, please undo whatever you have tried so far”.

Well obviously the first option hadnt worked for me – I had never been able to access the net so far even without trying out any configuration at all. But while departing, he almost kind of magically procured a BSNL User Manual. (like the way that guy hands out the Messiah’s Handbook in the book Illusions by
Richard Bach!)

I was quite surprised to see this. Then when they had departed, I went and tried one more time… I compared the manual’s settings to the one I had made. There was one radio button called “Default Route” Enable/Disable. I hadnt changed it, and the default had been Disable. I selected Enable, and
then selected Save and Restart Modem.

After that, I’ve been able to access the net – and so far havent had any problems – high speed access (several bandwidth tests reported close to 250 Kbps). The best part is it works on the existing BSNL phone line (unlike other private ISPs, theres no need to take a seperate phone line or cable unless of course you already have one). I’ve esp been delighted to be able to speak on the phone while browsing!

(I called them up this morning to let them know the problem was finally solved).