Broadband dropping connection quite frequently

[Glendo]

Hi all I'm new here hope you're all well.
I'm having a problem with connection drop outs every few days.
I've contacted idnet to see whether there is a problem on the line
and they seem to think the line is fine after doing line tests so I'm thinking maybe
I have a faulty router.
I bought the router from Idnet it's an Asus DSL-N16 I've had it since June
Any help much appreciated.

[Simon]

Hi, and welcome to the forum. 

Not sure if they still do this, but if you don't have a spare yourself, it might be worth asking IDNet to loan you a test router, then at least you'll be able to see if your router is faulty. 

You might also find some useful suggestions in this thread:

https://www.idnetters.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,34125.0.html

[Glendo]

Thanks for your reply Simon. I don't have access to a spare router unfortunately but as you said I could ask idnet if they could send out a test router for a few days. I'll keep you posted.
Thanks again

[zappaDPJ]

It might help diagnose the problem if you could set at a Broadband Quality Monitor (BQM): https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality I think there are further details contained in the thread Simon linked above.

Welcome to the forum

[Postal]

Might also be worthwhile finding out if you are on Zen backhaul.  The Zen network has generated a lot of complaints over the last few months as their capacity is not aligned to their retail and wholesale customer base.  It is not hard to find discussion topics on the internet referencing their problems.

If I have understood things correctly Zen have two gateways, in Manchester and London.  Gamers look for low latency (the time the signal takes to get backwards and forwards between themselves and the server running the game they are playing).  The lowest latency will be achieved if the user is connected to the closest gateway.  However, Zen have more customers than capacity in the southern half of the country and vice versa in the north.  Therefore some customers in the south are connected to the Manchester gateway.  Gamers quickly spot this as their latency will typically rise from less than 10ms to over 20ms.  When this happens, the keen gamers will manually drop the connection then re-connect in the hope that their new connection hits the London gateway.  They rinse and repeat until they succeed.  That means that the London gateway gradually fills until it is at full capacity.  The Zen system then disconnects a sample of users on the London gateway and re-connects them to Manchester to load balance.

I've no idea whether this is your particular problem but it is one possibility.

[Glendo]

Hi all sorry for the late reply.
Thanks for your suggestions. Idnet sent me a test router on Monday, but only just managed to set it up this morning
as all the details in the test router were wrong, absolute pain, but all good now. Will keep you posted. Thanks again.

[Glendo]

Might also be worthwhile finding out if you are on Zen backhaul.  The Zen network has generated a lot of complaints over the last few months as their capacity is not aligned to their retail and wholesale customer base.  It is not hard to find discussion topics on the internet referencing their problems.

If I have understood things correctly Zen have two gateways, in Manchester and London.  Gamers look for low latency (the time the signal takes to get backwards and forwards between themselves and the server running the game they are playing).  The lowest latency will be achieved if the user is connected to the closest gateway.  However, Zen have more customers than capacity in the southern half of the country and vice versa in the north.  Therefore some customers in the south are connected to the Manchester gateway.  Gamers quickly spot this as their latency will typically rise from less than 10ms to over 20ms.  When this happens, the keen gamers will manually drop the connection then re-connect in the hope that their new connection hits the London gateway.  They rinse and repeat until they succeed.  That means that the London gateway gradually fills until it is at full capacity.  The Zen system then disconnects a sample of users on the London gateway and re-connects them to Manchester to load balance.

I've no idea whether this is your particular problem but it is one possibility.

Interesting info that Postal. My problem is my connection dropping out every 2 days or so. Think it's going to take a while to figure this one out unfortunately.
Thanks for your reply mate.