Month: July 2016

How to power cycle a device

If you have a computer in your home, you probably have at least one other device that works alongside it, such as a modem, wireless router, or printer. These devices have a tendency to stop working from time to time, and it’s not always immediately clear why.

Before assuming anything is actually broken, you should try to run a power cycle. To do this, you’ll want to turn the device off, and all devices connected to it, then turn it back on. This will force it to reset, which can fix a lot of basic problems. It is important to turn the devices on in order.

Here are the steps to power cycle a typical Sky Muster setup:

  • Turn off ALL devices. If you have a nbn Sky Muster connection unscrew the white cable from the SAT port (see blow photo) that goes from the wall into the nbn box (NTD).
  • Wait at least 5 minutes.
  • Turn the Devices on in order
    1. Screw in the white cable, then turn on the NBN box first (also known as the NTD or modem). Wait until all the lights are on and indicate an active connection (this may take a few minutes). Active connection for NBN Sky Muster is a blue light.
    2. Then turn on your router. Wait until all the lights are on the router indicate an active connection.
    3. Then turn on all your other devices.

S-NTD Router cable connections

Web Page Optimisation (WPO)

nbn SkyMuster uses a system called Web Page Optimisation (WPO).
Web Page Optimisation is designed to help speed the loading of pages, as you browse.
A downside of WPO is that nbn counts all the data that WPO pre-fetches, including data collected to speed up your page loads even if you never see them.
Some providers (if asked) will disable (turn off) WPO.
You may experience some pages loading a little slower, but for many there is little change in speed.
Disabling WPO will stop the addition of the WPO overhead to your account.
The amount of additional data that WPO uses will vary with the the day to day internet activity of your household.
For those on SkyMuster who are struggling to keep within their account quota, disabling WPO may be something to consider.

*Please note, while all care has been taken in compiling BIRRR documents, we recommend that you check with NBN or your ISP regarding your own connection issues.

Kindly prepared for BIRRR by John Kitchener 21/7/2016

Complaining to the TIO

Complaining to the Ombudsman WHEN the fault is not the providers; does absolutely nothing, zip and zero … except damage and create more work for a provider. All that the provider can do is ask you to swap providers – it won’t solve the problem – you take your problem with you.

  • You can only lodge a claim citing your provider.
  • You cannot lodge a claim against Hills, SkyBridge, Ericsson or nbn

Your service provider most likely gets an automatic fee  and if you may find that they will ask you to try another provider. It will be one option offered by the TIO (and probably also mentioned in the RSP’s Terms & Conditions).

If I was a provider … I’d dump you if it was not my fault and I had already explained that it wasn’t my fault and that it was out of my control.

Much better to lodge your problem very forcefully with a Government politician. Contact details for a government politician are here

See how to make a complaint here, https://www.tio.com.au/making-a-complaint
You need to have made a complaint to your telecommunications service provider and it is unresolved, before you can complain to the TIO. You also need the relevant information when you lodge your complaint; for example, dates of important events and names of people you have spoken to.

The TIO will investigate landline, mobile and internet services, including:

  • contracts
  • connecting new services
  • transferring services
  • SIM unlocking fees
  • faults, dropouts and poor coverage
  • billing mistakes
  • billing and supply of mobile premium services
  • debt collection
  • services provided over the National Broadband Network (NBN)

Full details of all that the TIO will investigate are listed here

The TIO will not investigate (among others) the following:

  • ADSL internet not being available to you because there is no infrastructure
  • NBN services not being available to you because there is no infrastructure

 *Please note, while all care has been taken in compiling BIRRR documents, we recommend that you check with NBN or your RSP regarding your own connection issues.

Kindly prepared and illustrated for BIRRR by John Kitchener 12/7/2016

Temporary fixes to Sky Muster internet connection problems July 2016

Problems include

  1. Unable to visit certain websites, especially HTTPS ones.
  2. Unable to do any form of remote logins (Reckon, Phoenix, Microsoft Remote login etc)
  3. Short term dropouts, especially noticeable in any forms of chat.

Possible solutions that have worked for SOME people (see below for more details)

  1. Clear the browser cache.
  2. Turn off iPV 6 on your computer and/or router (Note SkyMesh has done this for their Sky Muster service so no action is required for SkyMesh customers)
  3. Ask your provider to turn Web Acceleration OFF
  4. Test using a VPN application called Tunnel Bear
  5. Enable TCP Timestamps
  1. Clear the browser cache.

    See here for instructions http://www.refreshyourcache.com/en/home/

  2. Turn off iPV6 on your computer and/or router

    Instructions here for Mac OS X https://kb.iu.edu/d/aqig
    Instructions here for Windows https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/kb/929852
    Y    ou will need to read your router’s manual to determine how to turn off iPV6 in it.

  3. Ask you service provider to put a request into NBN to have web acceleration turned OFF
    for your connection.Browsing will be slower, but you should be able to visit the problem websites.
    Ask Service Provider to get NBN to disable the Transparent Performance Enhancing Proxy (TPEP)
    Web Page Optimisation to OFF, Transport Protocol to OFF
  4. Trial a VPN application called Tunnel Bear (first 500Mb is free)https://www.tunnelbear.com/
    Download the Tunnel Bear extension in Google Chrome
    Visit the website via Chrome with the tunnel bear extension turned on
    If your secure website or Remote desktop is now working, let your Service Provider’s Support know.
  5. Enable TCP Timestamps (this has now been done at the NBN end of SkyMuster, so you shouldn’t have to do this)The following was worked out by technical support at SkyMesh. Original Workaround provided by SkyMesh  here  

 

sky muster 3

Detailed below is a temporary workaround for customers with Sky Muster services that are having issues browsing some websites. Some operating systems do not have the TCP Timestamps extension enabled by default. By enabling this extension on each affected computer, customers can overcome the problem. The workaround temporarily resolves a certain class of issues. If you continue to experience browsing issues after enabling timestamps, you might be affected by a different problem.

You must run the command prompt as the Administrator.
This is how you do it
Windows Vista and Windows 7 http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/windows-elevated-command-prompt/
Windows 8 and 10
http://www.howtogeek.com/194041/how-to-open-the-command-prompt-as-administrator-in-windows-8.1/
Apple computers
http://www.wikihow.com/Get-to-the-Command-Line-on-a-Mac

WINDOWS INSTRUCTIONS
These instructions are not suitable for Windows XP. See below for dedicated instructions.

How to Check the Status of Timestamps

  • Click Start.
  • In the Start Search box, type cmd, and then press ENTER.
  • In the Command Prompt window, type netsh interface tcp show global and the press ENTER.
  • Check if RFC 1323 Timestamps is listed as enabled or disabled.

How to Enable Timestamps

  • Click Start.
  • In the Start Search box, type cmd, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER (the command below requires administrator privileges).
  • If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.
  • In the Command Prompt window, type netsh interface tcp set global timestamp=enabledand the press ENTER.

How to Disable Timestamps

  • Click Start. In the Start Search box, type cmd, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER (the command below requires administrator privileges).
  • If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.
  • In the Command Prompt window, type netsh interface tcp set global timestamp=disabledand the press ENTER.

WINDOWS XP INSTRUCTIONS
How to Enable Timestamps

  • Click Start.
  • In the Start Search box, type cmd, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER (the command below requires administrator privileges).
  • If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.
  • In the Command Prompt window, type reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Tcpip\Parameters /v Tcp1323Opts /t REG_DWORD /d 2 and the press ENTER.

How to Disable Timestamps

  • Click Start. In the Start Search box, type cmd, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER (the command below requires administrator privileges).
  • If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.
  • In the Command Prompt window, type reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Tcpip\Parameters /v Tcp1323Opts /t REG_DWORD /d 0 and the press ENTER.

How to Check the Status of Timestamping and Window Scaling Features

  • Click Start.
  • In the Start Search box, type cmd, and then press ENTER.
  • In the Command Prompt window, type reg query HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Tcpip\Parameters /v Tcp1323Opts and the press ENTER.
  • Check if
    Tcp1323Opts is listed as 0x2 or 0x3 (enabled) or 0x0 or 0x1 (disabled).

MAC OS X INSTRUCTIONS
Please note that these instructions may not work with El Capitan:https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7408993

How to Check the Status of Performance Extensions (including Timestamps)

  • Run sysctl net.inet.tcp.rfc1323 from the command line.
  • Check if net.inet.tcp.rfc1323 is listed as 1 (enabled) or 0 (disabled).

How to Enable Performance Extensions (including Timestamps)

  • Run sudo sysctl net.inet.tcp.rfc1323=1 from the command line.
  • Modify the /etc/sysctl.conf file with net.inet.tcp.rfc1323=1 to make the setting permanent.

How to Disable Performance Extensions (including Timestamps)

  • Run sudo sysctl net.inet.tcp.rfc1323=0 from the command line.
  • Modify the /etc/sysctl.conf file with net.inet.tcp.rfc1323=0 to make the setting permanent.

GNU/LINUX INSTRUCTIONS
How to Check the Status of Timestamps

  • Run sysctl net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps from the command line.
  • Check if net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps is listed as 1 (enabled) or 0 (disabled).

How to Enable Timestamps

  • Run sudo sysctl net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps=1 from the command line.
  • Modify the /etc/sysctl.conf file with net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps=1 to make the setting permanent.

How to Disable Timestamps

  • Run sudo sysctl net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps=0 from the command line.
  • Modify the /etc/sysctl.conf file with net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps=0 to make the setting permanent.