Authentication problem

[Simon]

I came home this afternoon to find that my internet connection had dropped.  After rebooting the router, to no avail, I rang and spoke to IDNet, who said it looked like my connection dropped out around 1:50pm, and that it appeared that BT were doing some work on the exchange. 

It is now 9:25pm, and I still have no connection.  The DSL light is on, but it's refusing to authenticate.  I tried another router, and that did connect for a while, but it was only a matter of minutes, then the connection dropped again.

Both routers are indicating an authentication issue.  I have checked and my settings are correct, and nothing else has been altered.  Is there anything else I can do, or should I just contact IDNet again in the morning?  Incidentally, I did also speak to the out of hours service about 7pm, and I'm still waiting for them to come back to me.

[Lance]

Sounds like BT have messed something up so you'll need to call support in the morning.

[zappaDPJ]

I can't really suggest anything I'm afraid. I've found it's not that uncommon to have no connection but still sync with the exchange. It could be an authentication issue but my experience would suggest it's probably an unresolved fault.

[Steve]

My only advice is to leave it disconnected over night and then try again in the morning

[Simon]

Still the same this morning.  Emailed IDNet last night so will wait to hear back from them.

[Gary]

Still the same this morning.  Emailed IDNet last night so will wait to hear back from them.

I would call them tbh

[Simon]

Well this is ridiculous.  I've been told that BT were doing work on my exchange yesterday, coincidentally at the time my broadband connection failed.  Today, I have disconnected everything for BT testing, as instructed, and they say they can't find a fault, so IDNet have advised that I will have to have an engineer out, even though it seems obvious to me that this is an exchange issue.  The first day I have any chance of being in for them to call is Friday, and I am now awaiting confirmation of that.  So I now have no broadband until at least Friday, on which I will have to take time off work and lose earnings for the engineer visit, and all this is under the threat of a charge. 

[Clive]

I hate BT with a vengeance! 

[Gary]

I hate BT with a vengeance! 

Why do you hate BT? Since its BTOR that maintain the network, and considering the issues that effect Broadband its amazing it even works, you have Rein, distance from cab, cross talk, reflection where copper meets aluminium, winter and summer cable changes due to cold and heat, water ingress, hell nature hates cables, and then issues with exchanges and cabs which are just the same as your electronics going pop.

The other night I had a power outage, now my modem and router and Mac is kept going by a UPS so I did a speed test as my whole village was in blackout. My attainable went sky high, I hit 100Mbps (from 63Mbps) all because no power, no electricity cables running no lighting interference, no crosstalk, the list is huge, and that test shows how well it works when you don't have tones of RFI etc humming away so that shows it works under great duress which is pretty amazing tbh,. After all it was designed for telephony and has had loads of add ones plugged in to gives us the speeds we have now. Yes its annoying as hell when it goes down, hell I hate it but I also know how fragile it is, so if you want a fast turnaround when you have a fault then pay for enhanced care. If not you have to wait, its not a vital service even though we are so glued to our devices we think it is.

I feel for Simon but he cannot know for sure its the exchange, he is guessing. Maybe he is right but it still takes an engineer to physically go there only to find its locked sometimes so they cant get in, they have to call for an assist. Productivity drives have ruined many areas of business where quality counted and BTOR engineers are under such a tight schedule that its hard to get it done when they are limited by how long that can spend at any one job without being berated by management.

  As to the 'threat' of cost that's standard and if Simon has made sure its not his equipment which I'm sure he has he wont be charged. IDNet stand by their customers over that. If it is his gear then so be it, he did not test properly, sounds hard but its the way this business runs. All in all just a first world problem that I don't like as much as Simon when mine goes down. However I also look at the bigger picture. I know which I would rather be without for a few days and that's Broadband rather than electricity or gas for my heating... and I have great 4G on my tablet and phone so its not that much of an issue anyway.

[Clive]

Sorry Gary, but nothing on this Earth will make me change my mind about BT.  They will never ever admit that they are at fault. I suffered from a 104kb/s broadband speed for years and BT were adamant it was 4Mb.  I switched to IDNet and they forced BT to change a box outside my house and voila!  I had my 4 meg.  They are doing exactly the same to friends of mine including two who are on fibre and have dial-up speeds.  I hate BT with a vengeance!

[nowster]

The exchange to premises link could be totally fine, and test fine to BTOR, but the exchange to ISP part (establishing the tunnel back to the ISP, authenticating, etc.) might be broken.

[Simon]

The exchange to premises link could be totally fine, and test fine to BTOR, but the exchange to ISP part (establishing the tunnel back to the ISP, authenticating, etc.) might be broken.

Why can't BT or IDNet check that before insisting on an engineers visit to the property, which is proving to be extremely difficult to arrange, given that I have commitments which mean I cannot be at home for the whole of their offered time slots?  If I have to take time off work, and also farm out contracts, this will cost me money.  Can I claim those loses back off BT if the fault is found to be on their side?

[Simon]

The exchange to premises link could be totally fine, and test fine to BTOR, but the exchange to ISP part (establishing the tunnel back to the ISP, authenticating, etc.) might be broken.

Presumably, if the exchange to ISP part was broken, that wouldn't just affect me?  I have friends in the area also with IDNet who have not been affected.

[nowster]

Presumably, if the exchange to ISP part was broken, that wouldn't just affect me?  I have friends in the area also with IDNet who have not been affected.

Depends on whether they've mucked up the association of your DSLAM port with the ISP you're with. (Has been known to happen.)

BTOR may still do configuration "pushes" at or around 6am. Something going wrong suddenly in the early morning (5am-7am) is an indicator of an admin thing, rather than a physical thing.

[Simon]

The connection dropped about 1:50pm on Monday.

[Simon]

Well, very oddly, I now have a connection.  I tried the default router once again, after a factory reset, and it was still displaying the same issue, so I then tried the second router, again after a reset, and this time it seems to be working!  Only problem is, the WiFi is a bit flaky on this router, so I may have to look at getting a new one, providing the connection now holds steady.

[Clive]

Let's hope it continues to work!   

[mervl]

BT, I think like every big organisation, isn't consistent in its working practices. None of us are. We seem to be lucky with my local BTOR engineers who seem, whenever practicable, to repair faults without visiting the EU (and even to have access to some monitoring that allows them to detect  a lot of them them without the EU even being aware). Others I suspect will make a visit routine (or at least make the appointment first before they do anything else). Until we are all replaced by robots nothing will change it. A trusty neighbour, relative or friend who can allow access is invaluable. Be prepared, as the old scout motto says. I agree with everything Gary says in the above post (for once!). We're all using a residential service for business purposes. And taking the risk. When things go wrong it's as annoying as hell. But we get what we pay for. What level of service would any of us offer to customers for a tenner a month subscription - unlimited calls outs on demand? There'd be more caveats that you could shake a stick at.

[Simon]

Still having connection issues.  I can be connected one minute, then it drops the next, or it could last for 24 hours.  I still have the DSL light on the router, but no Internet light (PPP session?), and no DNS showing in the router.  A router reboot seems to work for a while.  Annoying, to say the least.  Makes me wonder if the ADSL service is deliberately being degraded, so as to force people on to fibre.   

[zappaDPJ]

It sounds like my gremlin has up sticks and set up home in your cabinet. I would try and get your BQM up and running again. I've found them to be very useful when it comes to diagnosing intermittent faults.

[Simon]

Yeah, I'm not sure why that isn't working.  As far as I know, the router is pingable. 

I was wondering whether to get a new router (and which one to get), but I'm a little reluctant to spend out on new equipment, effectively to diagnose what seems to be a fault not on my side of the wire.

[zappaDPJ]

I'd probably delete the one you have running and set up a new one. I'm not really sure why it's not working but it appears it's not even being pinged which suggests it's not looking at the correct IP. If it was being pinged but the router wasn't open to receiving ping request it would show as 100% packet loss rather than nothing at all.

[Simon]

I'll have a go at it this evening.  However, I seem to recall trying to set up a new one before, and it wouldn't allow it, as there was already one running on the IP, even though it was disabled.   

[Simon]

As it happens, the connection is up and and running at the moment, which presents the quandary as to whether to poke about any further, or to leave well alone.