There are Far too many posts on This Forum referring to Dropping Connection or similar

[#1]

Looking through this Forum, the number of posts referring to dropping connections spread through it shows this to be an ongoing topic, and one that seems to have got worse.

It is very frustrating when you are working online, surfing, watching You Tube, Working from Home, or whatever when your connection hangs. Retsetting your newtwork card or WiFi card to get the connection restored many times a day is wrong. We pay for a permanently on Connection with unlimited downloads, and it seems too many are not getting them at the moment.

What is wrong with the system? What is being done to get it back up to normal operation? How long will it take?

Looking at the Forum, it's been a problem for a while so presumably the repairs are close to completion.

[#2]

Moderators Note

This topic has been moved from Fibre to Plusnet Feedback 

[#3]

@danludlow Looking at a couple of other ISP forums, PN are not unique. I think the whole internet infrastructure is creaking under the load that CV19 has created, plus of course the fact that reduced numbers in call centres means that more people are turning to the forums to report things that they would normally call up about.

Personally, I can't see a return to 'normal' until the current situation is resolved.

[#4]

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@jab1 wrote:

@danludlow Looking at a couple of other ISP forums, PN are not unique. I think the whole internet infrastructure is creaking under the load that CV19 has created,

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It just isn't.

Daytime usage has increased due to lockdown, but It's still barely half that of evening peak time usage....

[#5]

Not that many 'working from home' then.

[#6]

Lots, but work applications just aren't nearly as bandwidth hungry as VOD services..

[#7]

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@danludlow wrote:

Looking through this Forum, the number of posts referring to dropping connections spread through it shows this to be an ongoing topic, and one that seems to have got worse.

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"Seems" is the operative word here.

Witness the number of reports of this problem from users with a post count of one.

In normal times these cases would be reported by phoning the call centre, and we wouldn't be seeing them on the forum.

[#8]

@danludlow 

What you have to understand is that the connection between an exchange/street cabinet and a property is a very clever bodge to get high rates of digital data over often very old and generally unsuitable analogue telephone lines never intended for that purpose. I find it incredible that for most it works as well as it does but it is still a bodge that is liable to drop out from time to time.

Until this 'broadband' element is removed from a DSL connection there will always be drops due to problems with this element. Roll on FTTP.

Obviously if you ring Plusnet to complain about this issue and you receive a recorded message to report it via this forum then these complaints will end up here.

[#9]

Thank you all for replying. I get the message. My experience "seemed" to show that using the old original BT mobile and seperate Router originally supplied appeared more stable, but it was largely over Sunday. I am back on my Hub One Connection and will see how that  fares today.

Yes Baldrick1 roll on FTTP and a more reliable service (as well as a faster one). So far PlusNet do not offer such connections generally I understand, but one day soon I think they will have to or they'll get left behind.

[#10]

Sadly Plusnet is in direct competition with Talk Talk so if and when they get an FTTP option you can bet Plusnet will be there also.

[#11]

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@Baldrick1 wrote: Until this 'broadband' element is removed from a DSL connection there will always be drops due to problems with this element. Roll on FTTP.

Obviously if you ring Plusnet to complain about this issue and you receive a recorded message to report it via this forum then these complaints will end up here.

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Yes, we might all want FTTP but I suspect many get a fairly reliable connection with that copper element in the mix. I certainly have no cause for complaint at all. Last months download usage.... 1025.80 GB (with 4 people using the internet, sometimes all at the same time). I've seen no solid evidence of any real slow downs or drops in performance for the last 3 months at any time of the day (even with the increased usage). I click and it appears / plays etc.

Oh, just remembered, I moved ISP. 😀 Have fun.

[#12]

I can see no reason why a service expected and paid for cannot be delivered. After all if it isn't reliable with one supplier yet reliable with another that cannot be a fault with the technology so much as the technology or equipment used by one ISP compared to another.

Frequent drop outs is not providing an always on unlimited use service is it,  by any stretch of imagination, we know the technology works, so it should be made reliable.

[#13]

But do we? Can you be sure that the drops are really drops and not your PC messing around?

Of recent times I’ve seen internet connectivity failure on one of my laptops which never used to happen. After a lot of investigation it rather looks as though the ‘culprit’ is the WiFi NIC driver / settings. Power save settings can give the appearance of a connection issue. There are numerous reports of my NIC disconnecting and reconnecting ... maybe I’m only noticing it now because I’m on the PC more?

If it were not for the fact I’ve other devices which do not appear to exhibit issues, I might be blaming BT or something else .... ?

[#14]

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@Baldrick1 wrote:

@danludlow 

What you have to understand is that the connection between an exchange/street cabinet and a property is a very clever bodge to get high rates of digital data over often very old and generally unsuitable analogue telephone lines never intended for that purpose. I find it incredible that for most it works as well as it does but it is still a bodge that is liable to drop out from time to time.

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Describing the hard work of many telecoms professionals over a few years to produce a system that exploited existing cable technology and the POTS network far beyond its original purpose as a "bodge", even a clever one, seems a little unfair to those engineers!

[#15]

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@mechanic123 wrote:

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Describing the hard work of many telecoms professionals over a few years to produce a system that exploited existing cable technology and the POTS network far beyond its original purpose as a "bodge", even a clever one, seems a little unfair to those engineers!

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On the contrary I am not criticising the engineers who have developed this bodge at all, I admire their clever techniques to get this concept staggering along.

However some-one somewhere had to make a choice. The first option was to lay fibre to every household and create a fast modern fully connected country with reliable, new components.

The alternative was to kick the can down the road a few years and it was decided to adopt the idea of FTTC street cabinets, stuff them with electronics bought from overseas (I don't know which telecoms professionals you are referring to, presumably those at ECI or Huawei) to convert the fibre to broadband, transmit this broadband over, in many cases decades old wiring to properties, many with totally unacceptable old extension cables and there introduce more electronics to convert the broadband back to digital data. Surprise, surprise this led and will continue to lead to connection problems.

Billions was spent, is still being spent on installing it in more properties and will continue to be spent on keeping this staggering along for years to come.

To rectify this the latest national plan is to rip it all out and do the job properly by spending more billions on FTTP.

You may think that this makes sense but to me that this is a massive waste of foreign currency and a bodge. In my view it makes the UK the laughing stock of forward looking countries.