Disconnect Every 5 Days at Same Time

[#1]

Hi @strefan

Can you private message me your account username so I can take a closer look?

[#2]

No. Mine is still disconnecting every 5 days, regular as clockwork. 

BT Engineer visited and said I had one of the most stable lines he had seem for a long time. He checked everything and assured me there was nothing wrong with the line. 

Plusnet continue to also assure me that there is nothing at their end which could cause this to happen. 

I know it is nothing at my side as the only change was moving from Plusnet Unlimited Fibre to Unlimited Fibre Extra. Nothing else changed, but the disconnects have happened ever since. 

Strefan: If you manage to find a solution with Plusnet please post an update. Thanks.

[#3]

I am not currently using Plusnet but am on unlimited fibre (FTTC). I was originally told by my provider it was probably something on my home power supply which was causing the problem, and advised to switch off any electrical device at the expected time of disconnection.  No change. Next to look for any radio interference around 612Khz.  None found. Apart from the regularity of the disconnections, the other strange thing has been that it did not happen when the 5th day fell on a Bank holiday.  I know users of BT, Zen and Talktalk have all experienced the same problem but no one seems to have come up with an explanation.

This has led me to believe that it must be something which Openreach do, update, DHCP reissue or TTL or similar.  I just wish someone would say yes, it's because we have to ........?  At least we would know why and be resigned to the fact that we have to put up with the inconvenience.

Good luck

[#4]

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@strefan wrote:

Apart from the regularity of the disconnections, the other strange thing has been that it did not happen when the 5th day fell on a Bank holiday.  I know users of BT, Zen and Talktalk have all experienced the same problem but no one seems to have come up with an explanation.

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[my bold]

Hmmm, that's intriguing.

A quick Google for "every 5 days" shows that customers of various ISPs. including TalkTalk, BT, NowTV, Utility Warehouse and EE experience the problem, and it only seems to affect FTTC and not ADSL.

Perhaps something to with MSANs then? I don't know enough about the tech to speculate further.

I'm not personally affected, but I'd love to know the answer.

Maybe our resident wizard would like to have a crack at it?  @Gandalf 

[#5]

I genuinely don't have the answer and due to how far apart the drops are, we'd struggle to investigate further as our suppliers have a rough tolerance of 3 drops within 24 hours or 6 drops within 72 hours as an acceptable limit for an intermittent connection, and to an engineer, it'd be like looking for a needle in a haystack. 

If upgrading from Unlimited Fibre (40/10) to Unlimited Fibre Extra (80/20) had caused this then it's likely down to the increased speed being pushed down the line, causing it to fall over itself every so often, albeit regularly at 5 days. It could be something that doesn't like that much speed potentially, or some sort of interference. 

The DLM policy is currently on the middle stability (Stable) so I could push it up to Super Stable for @Nemo154, if they're happy with this, which may help.

[#6]

Hi @Gandalf 

I really don't think it is a speed issue. The BT engineer who visited said I had the most stable line he had seen for a long time, and between the disconnects it is rock solid, not matter how much I download. 

It happens so regularly - within a 10 minute window every 5 days - that I am sure it must be some piece of equipment somewhere in the system which is doing something on a timed schedule. Just no one seem to have any idea what it could be. 

If it happened at another time of day it would be easier. It is just difficult as it happens at a time when I am regularly on Zoom meetings so I get disconnected while the connection reboots. 

From what I have read, DLM seems to be to limit regular dropouts. I am not seeing any regular dropouts, so I don't see that this would help, and I don't want to permanently reduce the line speed. 

Question: What physically happened when I moved from Unlimited Fibre to Unlimited Fibre Extra? Was my connection routed through different equipment? If so, would it be possible to move the connection to another line or connection to the exchange (very non-technical, sorry) and see if that makes any difference?

Many thanks.

[#7]

@Nemo154  The change to Fibre extra would have nothing to do with the 5 day disconnect problem. You asked...

What physically happened when I moved from Unlimited Fibre to Unlimited Fibre Extra?  The answer is nothing.

No line or routing changes, just the sync speed cap on the line increased to the 80/20 speeds.

I have never seen anything like this 5 day cycle in many years on broadband forums so I cannot offer any useful help.

[#8]

Hi @Nemo154 

Appreciate what you’ve said but (in my opinion) it’s either co-incidence that the problem started after upgrading your fibre service, or it’s down to how much speed the equipment at the cabinet is pushing to your router, because the only change in upgrading from fibre to fibre extra would be an artificial one to lift the speed cap.