Fixing the SpeedStream 5360 DSL to a Router

2005 and Telling Stories

Brent’s dad is signed up with SBC’s Yahoo (SBC Global) for their high speed internet. I had set up our wireless router to the DSL a year and a half ago, but now nothing would make this work. Frustrated from reading tons of helpless help files, I turned to the online support chat at SBC Yahoo. The first tech was helpless, not understanding my request and quickly passing the buck over to Linksys. I kept telling him that I’d been through all the tech support documents related to this at Linksys, and they all say contact SBC for updated firmware. How do I update?

He gave me a link, after 30 minutes of waiting, which turned out to be fine, but none of the links to the firmware from that page worked. I went back 0 seconds passed) and he’d already disconnected me without a “thank you for using” or “bye bye”. So I reloaded the chat page and started over.

This time I got Jina. Man or woman, I can only guess since most of these tech people are not found in the US any more. But Jina was special. I’ll call her a “her” because of the care and determination to help me. She spent over an hour and a half (I’d already spent 4 hours on this) asking questions, denying she could help (admittedly saying the company speech) and then telling me that she would do EVERYTHING to help me figure this out and maybe get past the cog in the machine that is stopping us from figuring out what is going on.

The DSL is a SuperStream 5360 which now seems to have been outdated when they got it. Unfortunately, that is typical of much modem/internet providers. If you are doing this yourself, make sure you ask before they send out the package or the tech if you are getting the hottest, bestest, latest unit. Research it yourself to make sure you have the latest, and insist on the latest firmware or get it yourself.

Eventually, Jina got me the how to from DSLReports, a fantastic site that I should have remembered to search through first myself. At http://www.dslreports.com/faq/6560, she found the step by step process to connect to this “ancient” DSL unit and within seconds I was connected and rocking. Amazing.

So in the future, if you are having trouble with your 5360 or any other DSL, T1, high speed, broadband unit or line, take a moment to stop by DSLReports and see if they might have the answer.

And Jina, you’re a star. A total star. SBC Yahoo will probably lose you because you are too smart for them and will probably go a long way beyond them. Few tech support folks recently seem to go that extra step to make a customer happy. I’d spent two hours trying to get my Tracfone fixed yesterday listening to an Indian trying to “sound” American reading from a screen in a way that made me want to reach through the phone and throttle him. No independent thinking or ability to do anything that wasn’t in the script. When you are working with me, who often knows more than the customer tech (this isn’t an exageration because by the time I get to you, I’ve done tons of research and work to avoid getting to you), I don’t do it by the script. So Jina, you are brilliant and wonderful and bless you!!!!

So if you have the SpeedStream 5360, I hope this helps.

Lorelle
Tulsa, Oklahoma

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  1. James said:
    September 20, 2005

    I found the manual here, its in PDF Format, this may help. My modem didn’t come with a manual so it was exactly what I needed.
    James

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