Consecutive PPP drops on BT in MK?

[pctech]

Probably only Rik can answer this one but just posting here in case anyone else is affected.

Since Friday I've had to reboot the router each morning to restore connectivity as the Internet light has gone red, DSL sync light is steady.

Can't find any fault report on Zen or by the ever watchful automated checking at AAISP so am wondering if its just me.

My connection is currently being routed to Zen's POP in Manchester so there could of course be an issue on the route up there but just thought I'd ask before I raise an issue with Zen.

[JB]

Not sure if it helps Mitch but I'm with Zen via the MCR pop and all has been fine.

[pctech]

connection is routed via wh-man?

[Simon]

I've just been speaking to Rik on the phone, and he did say that when he first turned on his iPad this morning, he had no connection, but then it came back.  I can't recall whether he said he had to reboot the router.

[pctech]

Must be BT at fault somewhere then, surprise surprise.

Cheers for the reply.

[JB]

connection is routed via wh-man?

Yes it is.

[pctech]

Must be between there and MK then.

[JB]

Must be between there and MK then.

Are you still experiencing problems?

[pctech]

Its been up all day since I rebooted this morning (been logging into the router from work every so often) but the drops have occurred in the small hours it would appear and I've only noticed them when I got up and I noticed the red light.

If it drops again I'll pop a mail into Zen to see whats happening.

[pctech]

Seems my router is playing tricks on me, big red light again this morning, went to log into the web interface and it did a firmware update check and it came back, grrrrr!

[Rik]

No problems here, Mitch.

[pctech]

Weird.

Also not receiving responses from Zen's DNS sometimes but the problem goes away if I use OpenDNS,

[Rik]

Zen/BT backhaul problem?

[pctech]

I think so Rik

Its been ok today and I've not gone near my usage allowance (I upgraded to the 100GB this month as watching lots of stuff on Netflix and downloading Portal 2)

[JB]

I know I shouldn't say this because it might be the kiss of death but my Zen connection remains perfect, including Zen DNS resolution.

It does sound like something funny is happening with PCTech's connection or routing. I may have missed this in all the noise but have you another router you can try for a week or so. Maybe borrow one. I'm in Cheshire so can't be of much use to you in MK I'm afraid.

[pctech]

I'm going to try a factory reset of the router at the weekend and see if that has any effect.

DNS resolution has been ok since switching to OpenDNS but it could be a gremlin in the process that is responsible for auto detecting the DNS servers so resetting it should get that out.

Netgears seem to do lots of weird stuff when the software goes off the rails.

I may look at the Fritzbox in time.

[Gary]

I'm going to try a factory reset of the router at the weekend and see if that has any effect.

DNS resolution has been ok since switching to OpenDNS but it could be a gremlin in the process that is responsible for auto detecting the DNS servers so resetting it should get that out.

Netgears seem to do lots of weird stuff when the software goes off the rails.

I may look at the Fritzbox in time.

Just download the firmware from the website, I was told that its always best to update this way rather than letting the router do it, no idea why. That should sort it out without a reset.

[pctech]

I'll prob do both Gary as I've found that overwriting a corrupt file with a clean copy sometimes causes the clean copy to inherit the corruption so on a PC I always delete the file and on a device will do a reset before reflashing the firmware.

[Gary]

I'll prob do both Gary as I've found that overwriting a corrupt file with a clean copy sometimes causes the clean copy to inherit the corruption so on a PC I always delete the file and on a device will do a reset before reflashing the firmware.

It's only a flash Rom so it should wipe it, I only do a factory reset if its a major change, but its always worth doing it to be sure if you have issues and you don't want to muck your line up

[JB]

The instruction manual that comes with my router recommends a reset after a firmware upgrade to cure any possible corruption.

[Gary]

The instruction manual that comes with my router recommends a reset after a firmware upgrade to cure any possible corruption.

Some do some don't, I'm not sure there is a right or wrong with this, as some ISP routers update on their own without interaction from users anyway.

[JB]

A lot of routers are *nix based and store the user parameters in non-volatile memory. Upgrading the firmware usually leaves that intact so that if there is any corruption it's likely that it will remain.

I feel that the safest way is to restore the user data area to factory default and start again. I must admit that I find it rather a bind as my router has over 20 individual entries in the NAT and routing tables over and above setting the normal security, user and line parameters.

[pctech]

I think there's something going on with BT between here and Manchester but the drops are getting more frequent so I've requested my MAC and am going to go with Freeola who use Entanet who terminate the BT link in MK.

Zen tell me connections maybe rerouted back to London sometime in the future but they don't know when, I can't really wait for sometime.


I did look at IDNet but the off peak wouldn't suit me and the peak allowance is too small for my needs now.

[Steve]

I suppose if the problem is solved the move was correct.

[pctech]

The connection keeps dropping now Steve which has only started to happen since the rerouting.