Connection dropping numerous times since last night

[.Griff.]

I think that speaks for itself.

Anyone else experiencing similar issues?

[Rik]

Is that sync that's dropping, Griff?

[Glenn]

Apart from a drop for planned exchange work, my line has been fine today.  

[.Griff.]

Is that sync that's dropping, Griff?

No idea Rik. I was asleep at the time and obviously with FTTC there's no access to line stats etc and/or logs..

[Rik]

I wonder why BT don't want us to know what's happening. Have you asked support?

[.Griff.]

Looks like there's ongoing issue with the Birmingham and Wolverhampton nodes so anyone else living in the West Midlands should see the same issue as me.

Edit - Yeah just spoke to James Rik.

[Rik]

Presumably, if it's the nodes, it's also affecting ADSL2+ lines.

[jameshurrell]

Hi Griff,

I experienced the same here in Shropshire on my 21CN line. My other 20CN line on a different exchange 5 miles down the road at the office showed no such problems.



No loss of sync, just PPP drops...

[.Griff.]

Thanks for the reply James.

[gyruss]

Here is my activity, note the big red bands i got and the almost 'regular pitches between them.. definitely was something going on last night, but like always not only will we be the last to find out, it will just be one of the many hundreds of such 'tinkerings' that go on like this.  Makes you wonder does it not if its deliberate.. eg.. make everyone else complain about other isps so we go back to their truly sucky BT isp?  well i'm stubborn, i will never go to them

[Reya]

I've been having the same problems as the OP since last night. In fact, they're ongoing even as I type this. I had one big spike of red at about 3am yesterday, then this morning I lost connection completely between about 1am and 3am, and it's spiked twice since 4am (30 mins ago) which you can just see happening on the far right here:



(Ignore the large patch of red over to the left. I power down the computer when I go to work and the router goes off with it. It's the small spikes of packet loss in the evening and things like what's happening this morning that are bugging me. I like to be able to surf the net while I'm trying to force cornflakes down me neck at 4am!)

[Glenn]

Have you checked for engineering works on your exchange?

http://status.zen.co.uk/broadband/

[Lance]

Also, routers are designed to be left on all the time, and you run a risk that the DLM takes a disliking to the power ups and downs.

[.Griff.]

The problem is back again -



Connection up and down but being the weekend support is closed 

[Bill]

I'm not seeing anything untoward on my BQM, but speed tests to the Milton Keynes server are about 3.5Mbps down and pings about 15ms up from where they should be... Midlands routing problems again with BT?

[.Griff.]

No idea what's going on Bill.

The connection is dropping all over the place and it's just taken me 20 minutes to get back on 

[Bill]

Seems not unlike what I was getting yesterday (only worse!):



Looks like BT are sharing it around

[.Griff.]

Got a call from Brian.

Physical fault detected somewhere along the line or at the cabinet. The voice aspect of the line is fine however?!?

[Rik]

That's odd, it's usually the other way round.

[Bill]

Possibly a fault between the voice and fibre cabinets?

[Rik]

That's the only logical explanation, Bill.

[cavillas]

Don't know if this is of any help to anyone BT Faults

[Rik]

Thanks, Alf.

[.Griff.]

Possibly a fault between the voice and fibre cabinets?

Therein lies a problem. Standard Openreach engineers are prohibited from opening the FTTC cabinets.

Last time I had this problem Openreach were here for 4 hours in total and couldn't find any problem with the line in the property or at the cabinet. When the subject of a possible fault in the FTTC cabinet came up he simply said they weren't allowed to open them and there was nothing more he could do.

[.Griff.]

There's something weird about this problem..



As you can see from the TBB QM each time the connection drops it's down for anything from a few minutes to 15 minutes each time.

HOWEVER the DSL light on the OR modem stays on all the time. The router on the other hand shows no IP address, no subnet mask and no default gateway and just shows "connecting"..

I can't work out why the DSL light stays on when the connection drops?!?

[esh]

The DSL light indicates an ADSL connection to the exchange. If you have no IP, no data can flow over the link however. You need both a DSL (physical) link and a PPP (virtual) link for a connection to be 'up'.

[.Griff.]

Cheers Esh but I think you've probably missed an earlier post in this thread.

Idnet said there was a "physical" problem on the line and/or at the cabinet causing the drops. If this is the case why doesn't the DSL light go out?

[.Griff.]

Roll on tomorrow -

[Bill]

That jump in latency at about midday would make me think that it is being caused by a loss of sync, and the DLM has bumped your interleave level in consequence...

You need to be careful about that DSL light- in my experience the modem can re-sync extremely quickly at times, and unless you happen to be watching at the right moment you may not see it. But it can take a few tens of seconds to re-acquire PPP, and if this occurred several times in quick succession (due to an iffy joint, perhaps) it could explain the packet loss spikes you're getting.

But there's a lot of speculation in that theory...

[gyruss]

Sunday 17:00pm for 20 mins approx i had no internet, it degraded out over a period of a few mins, ended up just being able to see the idnetter forums then the router went red light.  tis back now.



My connection speed is still above 6Mb so i'm happy, but its all these outages that are very annoying.

[.Griff.]

I'm a bit disappointed that the phone call I was promised never materialised so I'm still non the wiser at to what's happening.

Granted BTW may be at fault for not updating Idnet but they could have at least let me know something.

[Niall]

I think I'll start using this monitor thing. My connection is like a whore's drawers

How do you get it to show latency? All I see is what I'm downloading.

* Niall plays around with stuff

[Bill]

Sounds as though you're using the tbb usage meter, you need the one variously known as the Broadband Quality meter, BQM, pingmeter... here:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping

[Niall]

Ah you have to turn ping requests on. I don't think I'll bother then. I was hoping it was a stand alone tool to use

[Simon]

I'm a bit disappointed that the phone call I was promised never materialised so I'm still non the wiser at to what's happening.

Granted BTW may be at fault for not updating Idnet but they could have at least let me know something.

A lot of people have said similar, but it's not unusual for them not to call if they have no news.

[.Griff.]

Connection still dropping (maybe OR performing tests??!?!) but still no call from Idnet 

[Gary]

Connection still dropping (maybe OR performing tests??!?!) but still no call from Idnet 

Give them a bump maybe?

[.Griff.]

I would Gary but the last thing I want is to be accused of "hassling" them.

I spoke to Brian on Saturday who said something about getting an update on Monday. As I wasn't sure I called yesterday lunchtime and spoke to James who said I should wait for them to call me back later that afternoon but nothing happened.

I'll probably give it another 24 hours and then call them again.

[Gary]

I would Gary but the last thing I want is to be accused of "hassling" them.

I spoke to Brian on Saturday who said something about getting an update on Monday. As I wasn't sure I called yesterday lunchtime and spoke to James who said I should wait for them to call me back later that afternoon but nothing happened.

I'll probably give it another 24 hours and then call them again.

I know what you mean, its gets like you seem to have an itchy trigger finger, well you feel like people at companies perceive you have one with re-occuring issues. If you have not heard by this time by tomorrow I would be phoning for sure.

[Simon_idnet]

Griff, I'll find out what the latest on your case is in the morning and make sure someone updates you.
Simon

[.Griff.]

Thanks Simon.

[.Griff.]

As Simon promised Miriam called me at 8am this morning with an update and an apology.

It appears that there was a faulty BT router somewhere along the line that was at fault and it's now been rectified.

Hopefully my IP profile, which has fallen from 38,718Kbps to 22,000Kbps, will start to rise again.

[Glenn]

 

[Bill]

Hopefully my IP profile, which has fallen from 38,718Kbps to 22,000Kbps, will start to rise again.

Profiles on FTTC behave rather differently, they seem to follow the sync pretty well instantaneously.

I'd be inclined to reboot the modem and see what it comes back to.

[.Griff.]

I'd be inclined to reboot the modem and see what it comes back to.

I'm tempted to do that Bill but I was told by Idnet not to do that as BT will interpret it as another line drop and it will only add to the problem.

What do you think?

[Bill]

As long as it's been a reasonable time since the last drop (an hour or so?) I wouldn't have thought it would have done that... the other thought is that it can't get much worse!

During the recent shenanigans with the BT router in the Midlands somewhere I had two massive drops in profile (down to about 15,000Kbps), and I'm convinced it was caused by some sort of bug in BT's DSLAM control systems, not noise on the line. Circumstantial, but it's never happened at any other time... and someone over on tbb has had the same problem. A simple modem reboot fixed it.

[.Griff.]

I'm off to reboot the modem in that case.

You're all my witnesses! Bill made me do it! 

[Rik]

 

I wouldn't buy a used car from him, Griff. 

[Ray]

 

[.Griff.]

Well it's been 24 hours and the IP Profile has just changed. From 22,000 all the way up to 25,000 

At that rate it's going to take a week to get back to normal!

[Bill]

That's odd, your DLM doesn't seem to be behaving in the same way as mine

But at least it's moving in the right direction!

[.Griff.]

72 hours later and the IP Profile still isn't rising 

[.Griff.]

The problem has returned 

[Seadog]

The problem has returned 

Hi Griff,

That looks like the exact network problem I had yesterday morning, compare yours and mine, almost identical!! Could be a problem with the gateway to IDNet. Maybe get support to kick someones backside at BT, something has been very wrong the past week, did not have anything this bad with ADSL!!! See Below;

[jameshurrell]

Both, I have exactly the same in my bqm from yesterday morning. Of the four lines I monitor (3 idnet,1 bt), the one on the Shrewsbury exchange had that issue - it's an idnet line and the only 21c line I monitor. A 20c idnet line on a neighbouring exchange was fine. Make of that what you will!!

[Rik]

It suggests a node fault to me.

[.Griff.]

Profiles on FTTC behave rather differently, they seem to follow the sync pretty well instantaneously.

It's been 10 days now since the problem was resolved and I reset the modem but despite a reliable connection my IP Profile is still "stuck" where it was and there's nothing I can do about it 

[.Griff.]

Another two days passes with no line drops or any obvious signs of packetloss yet the IP Profile is the same as it was nearly a fortnight ago.

What do you think Bill? Is it worth contacting support? Can they actually do anything about it if I do?

[pctech]

I thought they could request the banding be removed if it is indeeded banded.

[Bill]

Not sure how much they can do these days, but I think it's worth giving them a call- there might be some other reason that they can see why the line isn't improving.

My profile has been up and down like a yo-yo over the last few weeks, between less than 30K and the full 38717, along with a short spell of fastpath

[.Griff.]

I gave them a call and spoke to James. He suggested turning off the modem completely for 10 minutes and monitoring the IP Profile over the next week.

I'll update the thread next week. (Or sooner hopefully)

[Glenn]

Griff, my line seems to be 'stuck' at 24mb after the problems I had Thursday - Saturday, so you are not alone. I can't get BT speedtest to run. to see what the profile is.

[Seadog]

I gave them a call and spoke to James. He suggested turning off the modem completely for 10 minutes and monitoring the IP Profile over the next week.

I'll update the thread next week. (Or sooner hopefully)

Hi Griff,

I think your on the same Gateway as me, did you have an outage early this morning?? I was in bed when it happened but just checking the BQM to make sure everything was ok and found this!! Does anyone know if some maintenance was carried out perhaps last night See below;



Any comments welcomed, thanks

[.Griff.]

Yup exactly the same 1 hour (ish) outage happened to me last night as well.

[Bill]

I had a brief (<2 minute) PPP drop at about 7:45 this morning, and a loss of service like yours on Tuesday:



BT are probably poking things again

[Seadog]

Yup exactly the same 1 hour (ish) outage happened to me last night as well.

I had a brief (<2 minute) PPP drop at about 7:45 this morning, and a loss of service like yours on Tuesday:



BT are probably poking things again

Bizzare, ok looks like BT were doing some work last night then, hopefully upgrading things

[.Griff.]

I'm not sure if it's anything to do with last nights outage but I've just realised that my IP Profile has gone from 25,859kbps to 33,872kbps at some point in the last 24 hours.

Almost back up to normal now 

[Niall]

You sir, are a git

[Rik]

But he's lovely with it.

[.Griff.]

You sir, are a git

[.Griff.]

Another line drop/resync this morning and I'm up to 36,811kbps 

Almost there now!!

[Rik]

You watch, the next one will change direction. 

[pctech]

smugness will get you nowhere

[Rik]

 

[.Griff.]

Back down again.. 31,060kbps now.

One week, maybe many years in the future, it will stay at the same IP Profile for longer than a few days 

[pctech]

Ya see, I told you.

Anyway, I'm still trying to ascend to the dizzy hights of 2 Meg thanks to BT's DLM.

[.Griff.]

Woohoo...

It's taken just over three weeks but it's back to normal again. IP Profile is 38,717Kbps and interleaving has been turned off too.

Anyone want to place any bets for tomorrows IP Profile?  

[Rik]

What odds are you offering? 

[pctech]

Anyone want to place any bets for tomorrows IP Profile?  

1500 Kbps   

[.Griff.]

Cheers Mitch! 

[pctech]

[.Griff.]

Well it took four weeks to get back to normal and it lasted four days 

Interleaving has increased and the IP Profile lowered.