Regular connection drops overnight ("user request") - why?

[#1]

I have fibre ADSL and a stock Plusnet Hub One router. Every couple of nights, the connection drops briefly at some point between midnight and about 5am, with log messages like these (taken from the router web interface):

00:36:37, 07 Jan. (137514.720000) PTM over DSL is down after 2290 minutes uptime
00:36:37, 07 Jan. (137514.700000) PPPoE is down after 2289 minutes uptime [Waiting for Underlying Connection (WAN Ethernet 7 -​ Down)]
00:36:34, 07 Jan. (137511.340000) PPP LCP Send Termination Request [User request]

I wouldn't notice but my night-owl children have complained 🙂 and I'm intrigued by the "user request" message. I am the only person who has the router admin password and I'm asleep at that sort of time, so it wasn't me. What causes these disconnections?

I had a support question open about this (220596017) which was closed with the message "Your fault should now be resolved" but clearly it's not. Any ideas about other diagnostics I could look for?

Thanks,

Dave

[#2]

Thanks for your post @davebiffuk

I'm really sorry to see you're having connection issues. 

I've tested your line tonight and the tests aren't showing any issues though I can see the drops you've mentioned.

Unfortunately it's hard for us to investigate single sporadic drops especially those that happen overnight as they can often be due to maintenance or the automated software at the cabinet (the green box in the road) making profile changes.

As a general rule though can be bent on a case by case basis, our suppliers would consider an intermittent connection worthy of investigation to be 3 drops within 24 hours or 6 drops within 72 hours, because it's normal for broadband to drop occasionally due to the way the systems and infrastructure works.

Perhaps there may be other folk in the community who are able to offer further advice to help. 

[#3]

These disconnections may be down to a number of issues:

- DSLAM adjusting, as part of DLM (digital line management) 

- Powerline networking interfering with the Internet connection, resulting in connection drops

- Electrical equipment at home or in the vicinity powering on/off 

If the connection drops briefly between midnight and early hours in the morning, one of the probable options is DSLAM adjustments, as part of DLM. In such cases, DLM adjusts your line's parameters to ensure that the circuit remains within the set threshold. Have you noticed any errors on the line? What's your stats?

Plusnet routers aren't that great and especially with Broadcom-based cabinets (Huawei), though this very much depends on the quality of the line. 

[#4]

I seem to think this is normal as I see similar drop between the hours of 2-5am every 2-3 days or so and I've read somewhere that the DLM makes the optimisation decisions at the time of the day to improve your line sync rate when you're tucked up bed.

I'd also had my DLM profile resetted recently and notice that my sync rate has been dynamically adjusting itself at that time of the morning to give you the maximum optimised line speed.

[#5]

My router always get this error "PPP LCP Send Termination Request [User request]"

The WAN connection gets drop few times a day. Can't use the plusnet connection fro WFH.

PPP LCP Send Termination Request [User request]

Apparently, this is a widrespreadh issue. Anybody know the official response from Plus Net?

The solution is to use non plusnet router?

01:16:11, 09 Jan. (4488623.290000) PTM over DSL is up
01:15:38, 09 Jan. (4488589.900000) PTM over DSL is down after 1938 minutes uptime
01:15:38, 09 Jan. (4488589.900000) PPPoE is down after 1937 minutes uptime [Waiting for Underlying Connection (WAN Ethernet 7 -​ Down)]
01:15:33, 09 Jan. (4488585.340000) PPP LCP Send Termination Request [User request]

16:57:20, 07 Jan. (4372292.700000) PTM over DSL is up
16:56:45, 07 Jan. (4372257.930000) PTM over DSL is down after 262 minutes uptime
16:56:45, 07 Jan. (4372257.910000) PPPoE is down after 261 minutes uptime [Waiting for Underlying Connection (WAN Ethernet 7 -​ Down)]
16:56:40, 07 Jan. (4372252.680000) PPP LCP Send Termination Request [User request]

12:34:31, 07 Jan. (4356523.790000) PTM over DSL is up
12:33:57, 07 Jan. (4356489.600000) PTM over DSL is down after 279 minutes uptime
12:33:57, 07 Jan. (4356489.600000) PPPoE is down after 278 minutes uptime [Waiting for Underlying Connection (WAN Ethernet 7 -​ Down)]
12:33:52, 07 Jan. (4356484.590000) PPP LCP Send Termination Request [User request]

07:54:21, 07 Jan. (4339714.270000) PTM over DSL is up
07:53:46, 07 Jan. (4339679.110000) PTM over DSL is down after 7507 minutes uptime
07:53:46, 07 Jan. (4339679.090000) PPPoE is down after 7506 minutes uptime [Waiting for Underlying Connection (WAN Ethernet 7 -​ Down)]
07:53:41, 07 Jan. (4339674.230000) PPP LCP Send Termination Request [User request]

[#6]

Hi @damindaperera,

I've responded to your PM. 

[#7]

Hello @Gandalf @Edinburgh_wg @leew88 

Thanks all for the feedback.

It sounds like this behaviour is mostly normal/expected, and the "user request" text is a red herring. My children will have to accept it 🙂 

I'm not too sure what to offer for "what's your stats" - this page from the router seems like a plausible summary.

I've noticed that my connection is occasionally "lumpy" but never really got into diagnosing what it's up to. I have noticed that the data rate as reported by the router varies between ~22Mbps and ~32Mbps which seems rather a wide range. I don't remember it ever being as high as the 40Mbps which it suggests is possible. Is that significant?

1. Product name:	Plusnet Hub
2. Serial number:	+081441+NQ01000415
3. Firmware version:	Software version 4.7.5.1.83.8.289.1.3 Last updated 07/12/21
4. Board version:	Plusnet Hub One
5. DSL uptime:	0 days, 09:19:37
6. Data rate:	6900 / 23830
7. Maximum data rate:	6899 / 40634
8. Noise margin:	6.1 / 14.1
9. Line attenuation:	26.6 / 23.9
10. Signal attenuation:	26.7 / 21.5
11. Data sent/received:	10.3 GB / 124.4 GB
12. Broadband username:	[Removed]@plusdsl.net
13. 2.4 GHz Wireless network/SSID:	[Removed]
14. 2.4 GHz Wireless connections:	Enabled (802.11 b/g/n (up to 144 Mb/s))
15. 2.4 GHz Wireless security:	WPA2
16. 2.4 GHz Wireless channel:	Automatic (Smart Wireless)
17. 5 GHz Wireless network/SSID:	[Removed]
18. 5 GHz Wireless connections:	Enabled (802.11 a/n/ac (up to 1300 Mb/s))
19. 5 GHz Wireless security:	WPA2
20. 5 GHz Wireless channel:	Automatic (Smart Wireless)
21. Firewall:	Default
22. MAC Address:	64:66:24:d0:5e:ea
23. Modulation:	G.993.2 Annex B
24. Software variant:	AA
25. Boot loader:	1.0.0

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Personal information removed from a public forum.

[#8]

Thanks for your post @damindaperera

I'm sorry to see you're having connection issues.

I've tested your line today and the tests aren't showing the cause for the drops. I also can't see anything which suggests this is a wide spread issue as there's no reported major service problems affecting your connection.

I'd recommend going through some troubleshooting steps to try to get to the bottom of the issue by firstly connecting your router into what's known as the test socket explained Here to rule out any issues with internal wiring.

Let us know how you get on.

[#9]

@Gandalf 

Are those drops present on the VR plot?

@damindaperera 

Can you associate those drops with anything in the home?  Use of the phone?  Central heating switching off / on?

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

[#10]

@Gandalf @Townman 

@damindaperera has posted on two other threads the same information.

https://community.plus.net/t5/Fibre-Broadband/Router-keeps-resetting-irritating/m-p/1850596#M131374 

https://community.plus.net/t5/Fibre-Broadband/Regular-connection-drops-overnight-quot-user-request-q... - this one was responded to by @TheMightyAJ 

This highlights the danger of cross posting across many threads, which is against the forum rules

Dan.

[#11]

@Strat  / @Mav  / @dvorak 

Might the mods merge these threads please?

@Dan_the_Van  - thank you for the heads up!

[#12]

Hi @davebiffuk thanks for getting back to us

The max date rate is the speed your router could in theory achieve. Upon further investigation testing your line, I can see your current speed looks to be artificially restricted by the automated software at the cabinet for one reason or another.

As this may very well be holding your speed back from being closer to the 40mbps target your router's calculated, I've arranged for your line to be reset, which should removed this restriction within the next 3 working days.

Let us know how it goes. 

[#13]

The line is capped probably due to an issue. Given that the OP stated that they experience disconnections, this would suggest a problem somewhere between the OP's router and the cabinet. 

Resetting the line is likely to increase disconnections until it's capped again. Let's hope this is not the case, though.  

[#14]

Potentially but given the relative infrequency of the drops, I’d say it’s worth resetting the line and if there are further issues, we can arrange an engineer to investigate.

[#15]

Moderator's note(s):

Two threads merged,