Voyager adsl modem software - help required

[#1]

I have lost my CD for my Voyager 105 adsl modem.  I have tried to download the drivers from the BT Voyager site, but the setup does not work.  Even though I am logged on as administrator, the setup programme justs aborts with the message "This software needs administrator rights".  Anyone got a clue how to get round this or where to find an alternative version ?  The download is a zip file with about thirty files in it.
I have never used this modem but it came when I signed up to Plusnet many years ago.  At present, I am having serious problems with my internet connection.  I have reported the fault but Plusnet have done nothing during the last two days despite requesting feedback on the ticket and making several calls to the help desk.  I am certain that the fault is external, because two of my laptops were working A1 last week using another broadband connection when I was away, but now neither my desktop nor my two laptops will connect to sites without several attempts - they just hang with just the header tab displayed most of the time.  I have been lucky to get onto the forum.  Most of the day I have been vainly trying to use dial-up which is painfully slow but at least works reliably.  That tends to show that the three pcs are not to blame.
But while waiting for Plusnet to do something, I thought that I would check out the modem by trying the Voyager in place of my Linksys wireless router.  I am certain there is nothing the matter with that either because the dsl and the internet lights are constantly lit, and if I reboot the router, they re-light fairly quickly.  Nevertheless I cannot get on with anything until Plusnet does something (so far I have had three messages telling me they have referred the fault to someone else but still nothing happens), so I thought it would be worthwhile trying out the second modem.
So if anyone can help with the software for the router or better still if someone from customer services is reading this and could get some feedback / action, I would be eternally grateful.
Thanks

[#2]

I'd like to be able to help you, because I've been having a similar sort of problem. I actually still use a Voyager 105, and it lost dsl connection on Wednesday night. I tried to uninstall the driver with a view to reinstalling (I still have the CD the modem came with), but got the same message as you about needing sdmin rights. The modem wasn't actually the problem. The dsl light came back on on Thursday evening, and I was able to find a BT Service Status saying my exchange had been defunct!
It might be worth you checking your exchange status?  Have you done a BT Speed Test to check your connection speed and IP Profile?
I have had continuing problems with line stability and downstream connection speed.  This has just gone back up, but left me with an IP Profile of 378 kbps!  Like you, I'm waiting for Plusnet to respond to a ticket raised on Thursday.
Sorry not to be more use.
Chris

[#3]

Thanks for the reply which is interesting.
What I am thinking of doing is to try to install the Voyager in Safe Mode which might address the admin rights business ?  Anyway think that it might ?
Also, if I do install the Voyager, then presumably the Linksys modem will still be installed.  How do I tell the system which modem to use ?
Thanks.

[#4]

Hi Nick
Sorry to see you're having problems.
Do you have to use a USB modem? Do you have a NIC on the PC to try a router?
Also one of our faults team is working on your fault as I type.
Scratch that Nick. I can see your using a router
Any way one of the faults guys is on the case and will get back to you shortly.

[#5]

ChrisL
Your ticket is sitting in a generic customer service pool and not with the faults team. If your raising an ADSL fault in future, its better to use the appropriate path in the support section or go to faults.plus.net directly. If you raise a generic ticket it may not be seen by the people with the appropriate skill set and may not be prioritised correctly.
I'll get someone to pick it up and move to the appropriate team.
Mark

[#6]

Mark
Thanks for your interest and help.  I have indeed now had a call on the phone from one of your specialists, and am grateful for the assistance.  However, despite at first being hopeful, it did not solve the problem.  By a stroke of luck, I have just managed to access the Plusnet Forum, and hence am able to reply - or not as the case may be !
The strange thing is that some websites are accessible all the time, usually smaller ones or ones accessed through Google search.  But sites like the BBC and Plusnet are very hard to get, and the browser just hangs, especially when loading new pages from links.
The one thing I did not mention on my ticket is that for the last two days, BT Openreach have been up an down the poles along our lane - we are very rural, at the end of a cul-de-sac, a mile from the village with perhaps only 10 houses.  It seems a very strange coincidence that this has only happened since they have been up and down the poles all along the lane, and it begs the question whether they have not connected something adequately.  I am really very suspicious.  The fault is intermittent, and just when I think it has been resolved, everything hangs again.
Having said that, I have also had trouble accessing the router occasionally, with the browser hanging just like when it is is trying to access a website.  It often takes two or three attempts to access it.  So my suspicions inevitably are directed also at the router itself - the only common denominator for the three computers on the network, which all behave the same way (actually an old Windows 98 laptop is the most reliable of them all).  I am very surprised that the browser should have difficulty communicating directly with the router to check / change settings.  Incidentally, I have re-installed Internet Explorer just in case the problem lay there, but I have the same thing with Firefox, so that is not the cause.
I have no way of checking the router (a Linksys WAG354G) but I have even re-set it to factory settings -  to no avail.  It is about four years old and has previously been reliable.  The lights for the dsl and internet are always stable.  I use it both on a LAN hardwired around the house, and also occasionally WiFi.  The only way to be sure is to replace it with a new one.
I believe that Plusnet supplies routers - what would it cost to get one from Plusnet ?  It is an expensive test, but I do not see I have any alternative because one of your colleagues has advised me that the Voyager 105 router, which originally came from Plusnet, is not compatible with Windows XP Service Pack 3 - that may explain why ChrisL is also having problems.  It makes me wonder whether the latest Service Pack updates have anything to do with my Linksys problems -  I have checked and there is no firmware update available for my model.
I would be grateful for any suggestions  / help and advice about the cost of a replacement router.
Thanks for your help.
Nick

[#7]

What Anti Virus product are you running.
I have seen the same behaviour with AVG version 9

[#8]

win7XP
Thanks for the reply.  How very interesting.  I upgraded very recently to AVG 9, and I began to think myself that the trouble started after the upgrade.  I did go into Safe Mode Command prompt and rename the folder to disable it, but it made no difference, so I named it back to AVG again.  However, there may have been other files from the AVG 9 which were not disabled by that attempt to do so. 
So following your report, I am now gong to uninstall AVG 9 altogether and see what happens without any anti-virus.  I can always reinstall it if necessary, although I will probably play safe by installing AVG 8 instead.
Thanks for the tip.  I will let you know.

[#9]

Do not connect to internet without AV.
Download a program called REVO uninstaller and get rid of AVG using it.
It should get rid of all traces in the registry and folders.
Re-boot and install Avast Free version 5.
It did the trick for me

[#10]

and me, i downloaded the avast pre prog before I uninstalled AVG9,
I am typing this on a Win7 and AVG9 no problem

[#11]

win7xp
All I can say is "Bless you".  The cause is very definitely AVG 9.  After days and hours of toil trying to get to the bottom of this,  I am actually quite furious about it.  Having uninstalled AVG, things went back to normal and speed improved dramatically.  And I had blamed Plusnet  :-[, Linksys, BT, HP and goodness knows who else.  The clue was there of course with my old Windows 98 laptop - AVG no longer supports Windows 98, so it was not affected by the problem.
I have since Googled for the problem and found the following thread on the AVG forum :
http://forums.avg.com/ww-en/avg-free-forum?sec=thread&act=show&id=71457
Would it not be worth Plusnet's while to put a warning sticky on the forum about this ?  I know that the support staff have wasted an aweful lot of time and telephone calls to me tryting to resolve the problem, and in fairness have taken some flak from me, for which I publicly and sincerely apologise.
But the problem does not end there.  In the process of trying to solve the problem, I did a full computer scan and AVG identified about 10 trojan horses which were put into the virus vault.  Fortunately they are still there, because in the meantime, on the AVG forum, many people have complained that these files are not infected at all but are HP system files (recovery and restore fles) which have been identified as false positives.  So now I can no longer restore my system to a previous restore point unless I restore the files to where they were before !  But with AVG uninstalled and replaced by  AVAST, I don't see how I can do that.  In other words, AVG is its own virus !  Can anyone advise what to do ?
In the meantime, a million thanks to win7xp

[#12]

HI Nick

Quote

Would it not be worth Plusnet's while to put a warning sticky on the forum about this ?

Not sure about the sticky but I'll ask the mods and see what can be done. I will ensure that the CSC and the faults team are aware tomorrow and ensure we cover this off in first line diagnostics.
Good spot from win7xp. Nice work.

[#13]

Nick
Were you using Zonealarm alongside AVG9?

[#14]

Mark
The answer is Yes indeed !  But I had stopped Zone Alarm as a precaution while all this was going on.  And as I said in my previous posting, I renamed the "AVG" folder to "GVA" in Safe Mode to stop AVG loading.  But, although it stopped it from loading, it made no difference because evidently other AVG activities were running in the background and still playing havoc.  Notably, when I started Outlook, I got a message that Outlook could not find AVG, so there must have been a plug-in which was still active.  It was only by completely uninstalling AVG this evening, that things started to work properly - I followed the advice of win7xp again and uninstalled using revo uninstaller which worked a treat - got rid of all traces of AVG in the registry.
I have now installed Avast! on two computers and Zone Alarm is running perfectly happily alongside.  And what a difference in speed !
Hope that is useful to others.  Now I can start work - at last !

[#15]

Hi there,
I'm glad you got things sorted, however AV software should always be near the top of the list of things to investigate within the CSC, as we do see a lot of problems caused by this.
For future reference to other Voyager 105 users, you can get the drivers from our site here.