Frequent Disconnects

[#1]

We get frequent broadband disconnects - usually about 3 a day normally lasting about 5 minutes - can someone check our line please. I also note that our monthly bill is well below the expected level for a normal service - is this related to the disconnects?

[#2]

Hi @blandifer, sorry about the disconnections you've been seeing, I've just been running some tests on your line which don't show signs of any obvious issues so it would be best to try following the checks shown here next: https://www.plus.net/help/broadband/connection-troubleshooting/

As for the billing I've just checked on that too and everything looks to be correct for the service you have with us and the latest bill seems to be the same as previous ones. Do let me know if you have any other concerns you need us to look at though.

[#3]

Hi – thanks for responding. The difficulty is that the internet frequently goes down (several times a day) for about 3 minutes, so it normally appears to be working. Switching things on and off doesn’t help because its all working again within a few minutes anyway. A friend suggested running ‘Pingplotter’ which I have now done. The internet has gone down twice so far today, at 9.06 am and 10.10 am, both times for about 3 minutes and I have ‘Pingplotter’ plots during and after the line going down which I attach.

[#4]

I'm not sure whether the Pingplotter file got attached on my previous post so I will try again. It shows the state of things when the internet is down - which it continues to do about 3 times a day, usually for about 3 minutes.

A colleague advised that it might be caused by the router faulting or rebooting. I don't have a spare to test. If the router is a likely cause of my internet dropouts - or needs eliminating as a cause - can Plusnet send me a replacement router to test?

[#5]

Would be interesting to see the WAN tab from your event log.

[#6]

Hi there,

I'm really sorry to see you're having connection issues, and thanks for flagging the billing issue to us.

I've taken a look at your bills and I believe I've fixed that for you now. I've dropped you an e-mail with more information.

Regarding the connection issues, I'm happy to replace the router, but before I potentially do, are your devices connecting wirelessly to the router or wired using an ethernet cable or a mixture of both when things drop out? 

I'd also agree with @jab1, if you could grab the Event Log from the Advanced Settings > Troubleshooting tab of your router's settings at http://192.168.1.254, this may shed some light on the problem.

[#7]

Broadband is not going to work well if the "phone" line is not working properly.

Please perform a quiet line test - dial 17070 select option 2 using a corded phone plugged into the test socket behind the face plate of the master socket. It should be silent. A noisy phone line (or no dial tone) will have a marked adverse impact on the performance of broadband.

If the line is noisy or there is no dial tone, then a PHONE LINE fault needs to be raised with your phone provider. If this is PlusNet, you can report a fault on line using the button below.  From the Q&A list, choose the one which matches the problem, 'open' the 'section' and click the trouble-shooter link.  NB: If you receive a failure message (rather than a log-in prompt) then log-in to the user portal in a different browser tab and attempt to use the trouble-shooter again.

• Phone Faults

[#8]

Thanks for your replies:

1. From Townman - I have performed a quiet line test and the phone line was satisfactory.

2. From jab1 and Gandalf - find attached below (hopefully) a WAN tab event log from 16.46 on 1st March to 9.05 on 2nd March. The internet went down twice in this period,  from around 20.04 to around 20.08 and from around 21.59 to around 22.04. 

3. From Gandalf - There are 2 items currently wired into the router - a PC and a deco mesh. A printer accesses the router wirelessly and other devices (Alexa, internet radio, Humax TV box) access wirelessly via the deco mesh.

[#9]

@blandifer If your land line OK - your reply to @Townman , the fact that you had two xDSL drops in that short time, and the fact that your D/S SNR is so high points me (at least, others may argue) in the direction of a BTw network problem which requires investigation. @Gandalf is having a long weekend, but maybe @adamwalker could comment? These drops, and the high SNR, should NOT be happening in normal circumstances.

The strange thing to me, re-reading those logs, is that there is no 'loss of PPP' reports preceding the re-connections.

[#10]

@jab1  The Op is on a 40/10 service but could obviously sync a lot higher, but is capped to 40/10 that's why the SNRM values are high. as you say the logs give no clue as to why the line is dropping.🤔

[#11]

@blandifer 

Have you copied all the entries of the WAN log as I only see UP messages?

Normally a DSL drop would record the following in the log

hh:mm:ss , dd month. (939125.230000) PPP LCP Send Termination Request [User request] 

hh:mm:ss , dd month (939128.380000) PPPoE is down after <up time mins> minutes uptime [Waiting for Underlying Connection (WAN Ethernet 7 -​ Down)]

hh:mm:ss , dd month,., (939128.380000) PTM over DSL is down after <up time mins> minutes uptime

If the device is turned off or fails for another reason no DOWN events will be recorded in the event.log

@jab1 my thoughts as well.

Dan 

[#12]

Cheers, @RealAleMadrid - keep forgetting VDSL SNR results are always similar to the ADSL I was always used to. 😉

[#13]

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@Dan_the_Van wrote:

@blandifer 

Have you copied all the entries of the WAN log as I only see UP messages?

Normally a DSL drop would record the following in the log

hh:mm:ss , dd month. (939125.230000) PPP LCP Send Termination Request [User request] 

hh:mm:ss , dd month (939128.380000) PPPoE is down after <up time mins> minutes uptime [Waiting for Underlying Connection (WAN Ethernet 7 -​ Down)]

hh:mm:ss , dd month,., (939128.380000) PTM over DSL is down after <up time mins> minutes uptime

If the device is turned off or fails for another reason no DOWN events will be recorded in the event.log

@jab1 my thoughts as well.

Dan 

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@Dan_the_Van looking at those logs, they seem to be in order with no obvious editing.

[#14]

@jab1 

The question has to be asked, to assume......

In that case we need to see all entries across one of the UP messages to determine if the cause has been recorded or if the Op noticed anything at the time.

Dan.

EDIT: maybe a look at System and Boot categories might have something worth looking at.

[#15]

A thought - would a VR be useful here?