Help - Cannot connect to Bt Broadband

[confusedbt]

I hope someone can help me. For the last two days I have been unable to connect to my BT Broadband service. I keep getting a message saying “Unable to connect to server, please check our connection”.

I am using a Zoom USB ADSL modem. I tried uninstalling the software/drivers and disconnecting the modem. I then reinstalled everything, but this made no difference.

When re-installing the modem software I was asked the following 3 questions:

Enter service Provider selection: UK_(PPPoA VCMUX) or UK_(PPPoE LLC)
Enter Username and password
Enter service Name (Optional)

I emailed BT from work and asked the to confirm the correct answers. They said I should enter:

UK_(PPPoE LLC)
Username should be same as my email address and password
Service name left blank as its Optional.

I asked them if they could do a line test as well. They advised me that seems to be a line fault and I should contact BT Broadband Technical Helpdesk on 0845 600 7030 and ask the advisor to refer to line faults department.

So, when I got home I rang them. They asked me to look at the “Network Connection” under “Control Panel”. In there under “Lan or High-speed internet” I had a “Local Area Connection “ which showed that a cable was unplugged. I told then that my modem connected through a USB connection, but he seemed to be hung up on this unplugged LAN cable. My PC is about 7 years old and did not have a PCI card with a LAN socket, so I bought a Belkin PCI card and installed it in my PC as I intended to get a wireless router, but never got around to it and continued to use my USB ADSL Modem. I told him this but he kept banging on about my PC not talking to the modem so it was either my pc or modem at fault. He said he could not see a fault with the line, even though the first guy said there was one.

So, after I spoke to him, I uninstalled the Belkin PCI card and removed the hardware from my PC (so as not to muddy the waters!). I uninstalled/re-installed my Zoom modem again, but still cannot connect.

I also stopped the firewall/anti-virus software, but still made no difference.

Under Network Connections, I have two icons: One is under “BROADBAND”, and icon is called “BT”. When I double click this, it tries to connect to the internet, but fails with “ERROR 678”.

The second icon under Network Connections is listed below under “LAN or HIGH-SPEED INTERNET”. This is called “LOCAL AREA CONNECTION 3” and refers to my ZOOM modem.

What I really want to be able to do is to prove there is no fault with my modem and PC before going back to BT. I know they say there is no fault with the line, but that is what they said a year ago when I couldn’t connect. Then someone told me to take the front of my phone socket and plug into the test socket and everything has been working fine (well, up until now!). So, can anyone tell me how I can be sure there is not a fault with my PC or modem? How can I be sure that when I click on my BTYAHOO icon, it is pointing at and trying to use the modem?

Just to complicate matters, a few things happened the day the connection stopped working, which may or may not be ‘red-herrings’:

1 -The BT-YAHOO icon on my desk-top mysteriously disappeared (not a problem as service could still be used by finding BT-YAHOO) on the list of programs). My wife assures me that at this point she could still connect to the internet.

2- The ZOOM icon on the desk-top ‘locked up’. Clicking this did nothing. Once again, my wife assures me that she could still connect. Reinstalling seemed to sort it out.

3 – There was an automatic windows update at 17:00 in the afternoon. I have no idea if this was before or after the connection stopped working. I tried to restore my PC to an earlier time just in case this update had something to do with it, but for some reason my PC would not restore to an earlier time, no matter what day/time I picked.

4 – In the morning, there was some sort of power cut or surge. My wife said that the pc rebooted and the lights dipped/smoke alarm sounded. However, this was about 10:00 and she could still connect to the internet at 14:00.

Sorry that this is so long-winded, but I’m really at my wits end trying to get this bloody thing working! I think you can tell this type of thing is not exactly my area of expertise, so I wanted to include as much information as I could in the hope that someone can spot something I’m not seeing.

So any suggestions/advice/things to check and try – all comments gratefully received!!