Constant packet loss since 25/4/22

[#1]

As subject - since approximately 2:00 pm on 25/4/22 I've been seeing packet loss 24/7 on my FTTP (trial) connection.

Not a major problem but something seems to need looking at to eliminate this new 'feature' on my TBB BQM graphs.

Neither graph below includes any heavy downloading which sometimes does result in some packet loss; present activity is just background stuff, including many browser tabs open, but that doesn't normally result in packet loss.

I'm on a static IP if that's relevant (which I wish to keep).

First image below is todays, showing said packet loss, below that is what it normally looks like.

I can provide the live BQM link by PM if required.

EDIT: My router has been rebooted a few times and I've even rebooted the ONT

[#2]

It's probably not a coincidence that following my post above, after 8 days of constant packet loss it has now stopped.  I presume someone from the PN team intervened, so a big "thank you" to whoever that was.

This morning at about 7:30 my Internet wasn't connected so I assumed something was being done, and although the lights on the ONT looked normal I decided to reboot it.  After a few minutes I realised whatever had been done had confused my router which normally reconnects automatically, so after rebooting it all was well.

It'd be interesting to know what the problem was.

I hope I'm not speaking too soon, but here's a screenshot of todays BQM graph showing no packet loss since reconnecting.

I'm not sure what the activity is between 20:00 and 22:00 which seems to be a fairly regular occurrence recently.  I don't think it's caused by usage on my connection, so perhaps contention kicking in due to a heavy user on the same splitter as me, or a hot VLAN?  I'll watch out for that disappearing now the dropped packets issue has been fixed.

Edit: typo

[#3]

@RobPN  Very unlikely that Plusnet had anything to do with the change you have seen. They have hardly any diagnostic information for FTTP services. Openreach had probably detected a network problem and done something to fix it. Hope it's OK now and the congestion you have seen goes away.😁

[#4]

@RealAleMadrid 

Thanks. 

I didn't make it clear, but my reference to someone from PN intervening was intended as someone from PN reporting the problem to Openreach, which of course us mere mortals can't do! 

[#5]

Did someone say Gandalf? But seriously I put my shoes on one at a time just like everybody else.

As you can see from the 'in-depth' testing I've attached below (:D), the tests aren't showing any issues and they'd generally only show an issue if something was completely broken. 

GEA Test Detail
Circuit ID	NA	Service ID	[redacted BBEU]

Test Outcome	Pass
Test Outcome Code	GTC_FTTP_SERVICE_0000
Description	Service is OK in the Openreach network. Please check the customer home environment set up.
Main Fault Location	OK
Sync Status	Up
Appointment Required	N
Fault Report Advised	N
DP Type	External

RRT Report Summary
Confirmed FRC from RRT	TOK
Parameters	MIN	MAX	AVG
Transmitted Traffic	0.0 Mbps	4.8 Mbps	0.0 Mbps
Received Traffic	0.0 Mbps	73.7 Mbps	0.3 Mbps
Downstream Policing Discards	0.00	0.00	0.00
Upstream Policing Discards	0.00	0.00	0.00

Also the S-VLAN is showing as green with no congestion seen, so seems to rule that out. 

I'd recommend keeping an eye on it and if you get issues again, it may be worth calling out the true immortals (Openreach). At this stage if I were to report the fault to Openreach, we'd need to arrange an engineer visit.

[#6]

@RobPN 

I seem to recall from a post a while back that @Gandalf stated it took a few days for posts on this Forum to feed through to support. You need someone like him or @bobpullen  to have a look. They at least know something about the FTTP Trial.

Brian

Edit : Sod's law - Gandalf posted while I was typing.

[#7]

Jono fixed that issue and the posts now feed through a lot quicker!

[#8]

All seems to be sorted now thanks @bmc (see my post #2 above) 

[#9]

---

@Gandalf wrote:

Did someone say Gandalf? But seriously I put my shoes on one at a time just like everybody else.

As you can see from the 'in-depth' testing I've attached below (:D), the tests aren't showing any issues and they'd generally only show an issue if something was completely broken. 

GEA Test Detail
Circuit ID	NA	Service ID	[redacted BBEU]

Test Outcome	Pass
Test Outcome Code	GTC_FTTP_SERVICE_0000
Description	Service is OK in the Openreach network. Please check the customer home environment set up.
Main Fault Location	OK
Sync Status	Up
Appointment Required	N
Fault Report Advised	N
DP Type	External

RRT Report Summary
Confirmed FRC from RRT	TOK
Parameters	MIN	MAX	AVG
Transmitted Traffic	0.0 Mbps	4.8 Mbps	0.0 Mbps
Received Traffic	0.0 Mbps	73.7 Mbps	0.3 Mbps
Downstream Policing Discards	0.00	0.00	0.00
Upstream Policing Discards	0.00	0.00	0.00

Also the S-VLAN is showing as green with no congestion seen, so seems to rule that out. 

I'd recommend keeping an eye on it and if you get issues again, it may be worth calling out the true immortals (Openreach). At this stage if I were to report the fault to Openreach, we'd need to arrange an engineer visit.

---

Thanks @Gandalf 

I appreciate my connection wasn't completely broken, but is there anything by way of test results or logs to distinguish any differences in the status of my connection before and after approximately 7:15 this morning when the BQM graph in post #2 shows my connection was interrupted?

[#10 · Accepted solution]

The most I can get for you is our RADIUS logs below, because there's no RRT data for FTTP as there's no DLM.

[#11]

Thanks @Gandalf 

The number of connection drops is probably nothing to do with the service but more than likely down to my ageing DrayTek router which seems to reboot for no apparent reason, although there are a lot of browser tabs open so maybe it doesn't like the number of sessions.