Disconnecting every morning

[#1]

Well the brand new modem, nor changing DNS settings has fixed the problem. It's dropped out again this morning at the same times as yesterday.Plusnet are now apparently sorting an engineer visit. They've tested the line again and it's fine and agree in principle that it's an external routing issue

[#2]

So I'm getting this on my connection, however mine is constant drop outs with some showing on the router logs, some not.  Yesterday the internet was unusable.

[#3]

Getting what ? - I can't see anything.

[#4]

They sent an engineer on Saturday morning. He had been given completely the wrong information by Plusnet with regards my equipment, even though Plusnet had been told, had photos and the video from the 3rd time I contacted them. 

He couldn't see any fault with my equipment and wasn't impressed with the wrong info given to him which was also that Plusnet had remotely reset my router. Err no they hadn't nor are they able to! and one of my contact numbers was an 0800 number!

It dropped out again approx. an hour after he left. Since then (touch wood) it's been okay. I will be making a complaint to Plusnet regarding the wrong infomation.

[#5]

Something does not add up here.

The line tests out fine.

The router and the modem apparently remain connected.

... you restart the router and all is then fine ... take a look at this - https://community.plus.net/t5/Broadband/Inbound-traffic-suddenly-stops/m-p/1964539#M364761 - are there any similarities?  That is a long thread, but I am wondering if there are similarities, even though the kit is different.

On a different tack, are there any ethernet over power adapters in this setup?

[#6]

I'll have a read. No, I've got no powerline plugs on the network

[#7]

Just read the thread and no it does not apply to the issue I've had. As I said previously, not all traffic stops, no error lights showing etc

Just got off the phone with Plusnet after having to ring them for an update! Also logged a complaint regarding the wrong info given to the engineer. Alas the person I spoke to wasn't great at dealing with my call, had to constantly keep repeating myself and explaining. Asked for a manager to call me but that will be very unlikely to happen. So much for being a long-time customer.

[#8]

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@rockposer wrote:

As I said previously, not all traffic stops, no error lights showing etc

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If the connection stays up - neither the router nor the modem indicates a line issue - this is far more likely to be an internal LAN issue than something in Plusnet's domain.  The only glimmer of some traffic being stopped being down to Plusnet would be connection profiling on traffic passing through their data centres: (a) that could only happen if you had a static IP address and (b) AFAIK all traffic profiling has been removed from the network.

If some traffic continues, then the connection would appear to be fine and a Qube or BT engineer would investigate only a failing (dropping) connection.

"Not all traffic stops" - is the still working / not working traffic specific to specific devices or specific to service connected to?  To ask the question differently, for a device which encounters the symptoms, is ALL traffic for that device stopped, or just some?  For a service which is stopped, is that service stopped on all devices?

Are all devices configured the same in respect of DNS - that is solely via DHCP or do some have hard coded DNS settings?

Are the devices which appear to have stopped using VPN services?

Do the devices which appear to have stopped upload significant volumes of data at those times (scheduled cloud back ups)?  Heavy uploads can interfere with downloads due to delays with pack acknowledgements.

@willcutforth - are there any indications of high spots in upload utilisation please?

[#9]

DCHP only, no not got VPN enabled, as previously posted Spotify & Xbox Live continued to work although Spotify artwork disappeared and it wasn't because of Spotify buffer. No scheduled cloud backups.

Until last week never had one issue, no configuration changes, new equipment connected. Plusnet can see when it dropped out, so they know there was an issue. 

Not impressed with customer service. The occasional interactions in the past, and I've been a customer for quite a few years, have been professional.

[#10]

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@rockposer wrote:

Plusnet can see when it dropped out, so they know there was an issue.

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That would imply that the PPP session dropped out ... in which case ALL connections would be lost, some services might recover their connections quicker than others when the PPP session is restored, giving the impression that some continue to work, whilst others do not.

You have not answered the question on the perceived characteristics of the "loss of connection" across devices / services. 

What do the router logs show at these times?  Generally the usual cause of a PPP drop is the loss of sync ... but you report no indication of an issue on the modem.  Therefore the router thinks that modem has gone to sleep ... which very much matches the profile of the issued I linked to.

In the absence of a clear indication that the xDSL session is being lost, this is a far from simple / obvious issue and could well be down to OEM kit.  The most proficient way of progressing this is to sun with a Plusnet supplied Hub Two.

You state that "nothing has changed" does that include the OEM router and modem having not updated their firmware?

Have a read of this ... Asus Router dropping Fiber connection periodically, but only this router and only with this ISP? : r...

"The same issue was happening with my asus gt-ax6000, also the ping in CSGO was constantly bigger than the ping of my friends....they did some crappy firmware update and the latest version is just pure [-Censored-]."

"... sounds like a WAN DHCP renewal issue. Could be the ISP has a 12 hour DHCP renewal and for some reason the router isn't renewing your IP, then when you toggle the internet on/off, it's starting a fresh DORA and getting an IP"

[#11]

A Hub2 is of no use to me as my modem and router are in different locations. To explain in simple terms the connection drop on the laptops and PC for example caused webpages to fail to load, the connection icon on the taskbar changed to the offline globe. Normally if the router was to lose internet then a red LED lights up. I'm not toggling anything off and on. The Openreach modem is not something you update firmware on, and I still got the issue when the modem was changed. The router is using the latest firmware. By saying nothing has changed is simple, the connection has been rock solid for 5 years then suddenly develops a fault and I haven't just updated anything etc etc etc.

I think we're going round in circles, Plusnet say the fault is fixed without actually knowing 100% if it is s they don't know what caused the issue.

I guess I'll have to put it down to 'one of those things' and wait for full fibre in a few months! Ho hum

[#12]

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@rockposer wrote:

A Hub2 is of no use to me as my modem and router are in different locations.

To explain in simple terms ...

I'm not toggling anything off and on.

I still got the issue when the modem was changed.

The router is using the latest firmware.

Ho hum

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To explain in simple terms...

• You are not using the supplied and supported equipment (which delivers rich diagnostics to Plusnet support) thus making the elimination of the source of the issue more difficult
• For diagnostic purposes a telephone extension lead could be used between the master socket and the location of your router - you need to eliminate some of the unique complexity here
• Other users report issues with the "latest firmware" on your OEM modem family
• Still having the issue with a different modem suggests that the issue is not with the BT Openreach modem or xDSL ... which along with Plusnet's observation of the 'drop' implies that this is a loss of the PPP session as described in all of the referenced advice
• It is your prerogative to ignore the advice from others who found the methods helped to profile their issue

If nothing else, a PlusNet Hub Two run in bridge mode (as used for FTTP connections) would eliminate the possibility of the issue being the Asus router with the latest firmware.

[#13]

I didn't ignore anyone's advice, steady on that high ground