Growling about Broadband

[Scapa Wolf]

I am howling with frustration and impotent rage about some broadband issues!

I have done a little digging, and made some growling noises towards my ISP, but I'd love to hear from anyone with similar problems who'd like a whine! And, especially, anyone who might actually know what the problem is, and how to fix it (wishful thinking, I know, but I live in hope).

Just in case any technically minded folk should happen to read this, I'm a bit of a telecoms layperson, but I've done research and have some technical jargon I could share, should you want to...


1 - Our broadband seems to suffer a 'disconnection type event' multiple times a day. When this happens, all our wireless devices still show strong connection to the router, but information transfer over the internet seems to stop altogether - for about 5-15 minutes - after which it comes back on as if nothing was ever wrong in the first place. Then all is well, for about 20-45 minutes, until it happens again.

My ISP cannot, apparently, detect these disconnection type events, but they have been in touch with BT, who say that indeed - there are some potential problems with our connection (as much detail as I've been given). We await an engineers visit, but they've been in before, and there are still problems. Furthermore, I have asked around some of the houses on my street (there's only 20) and at least 5 more are suffering the same thing.

So, in our age of 'Web-Based-Wonders' only being a click away, we cannot enjoy such features as Netflix, online gaming (if you're into that sort of thing), or anything that lasts more than a bout 20 minutes on YouTube or I-Player.


2 - OK, so I'm secretly a total Game-Hound... not so secret anymore!

EVE Online - seems to work well during business hours (i.e. the time when when we're all - yes, me included - at work) and, sometimes again in the late evening, usually after 11:30pm (i.e. the time when were all really tired and want to curl up in bed). But it does not seem to work during peak hours or at weekends (honestly... why would anyone want to enjoy a chosen leisure activity then? - Sarcasm there...).

It's almost as if someone was disabling some sort of key function of web-services during the evenings and at weekends... BT perhaps?

Does anyone know if they can do that sort of thing, and possibly how I might be able to convince them to stop?

[richardj]

I was having a similar issue and sort of solved it by replacing the router supplied by the ISP - that helped a lot, however I am still having constant problems with the browser not bringing up a web page when I click on my favourites list - i.e. going from twitter to the BBC news site, or to Caithness.org

My internet security software is Norton and having looked at the Firewall logs and there may be an issue with the Firewall that is causing the problem I am having.

I am currently with PlusNet - I am planning to change back to BT in the next couple of weeks to see if this solves the connection problems.

... bring on Fibre for Caithness, it would make a lot of difference.

Richard

[Bobinovich]

Same issue with the router 'dropping' our connection so I accessed the router logs and took copious records of when it was dropping & frequency (18 times in one day on more than one occasion, 9 times in one hour within that!) and, armed with that information, contacted my ISP (BT Business). They ran tests, had engineers visit to do tests a number of times, replaced the master socket, re-made connections, and did stuff at the exchange which I won't pretend to know about, and eventually after a few months managed to resolve it, but I'm none the wiser what they actually did to clear it :/. I still get the occasional drop out (my logs show last one was 26th Jan, one before was 8th).

As for the evening slowdown I'm fortunate in that, being a business broadband customer, I don't seem to experience it - even with multiple users streaming, gaming, and/or downloading it seems to cope well at all times, however it does come at a premium cost. My understanding with domestic broadband is that it's down to contention ratios and shaping.

[Niall Fernie]

Things to look at:

Who is your ISP?

Where are you, how far from exchange?

Your router should have a section in its admin that contains some kind of statistics:
- LAN uptime (will most likely be since you last restarted the router)
- WAN uptime (how long your router has been connected to the internet) if this is less than LAN time then there has been a disconnection.

There should also be some information on your connection:
- Connection (sync) speed, upstream and downstream
- Line attenuation
- Noise Margin

those last two will help determine how fast your sync speed should be.

Also check with http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/ and do some speed tests.

If you do one when you know your connection is at its best and compare the result to your sync speed, the result will be lower than your sync speed but should not be drastically lower, if it is then there is an issue that your ISP needs to fix.

If you do a speed test when your connection is bad (likely during peak times, teatime-ish 'til midnight-ish) and it is drastically different from when your connection is good, the chances are your ISP is throttling your connection or the exchange is overloaded. Again something to be discussed with your ISP.

The Wick exchange is in the process of being upgraded (Thurso is already) and you might also find that your router/modem is not going to be fit for ADSL2+, worth a quick google to see.

[appilihp]

Hi I can't see in your post anywhere who are you with. We are with Plus Net and we've never had a problem hope this helps

[gleeber]

It's a nuisance right enough. I'm with BT and it only started about November last year. I tried the helpline a few times but after that just hit the reset button on my router and that works every time.

[Scapa Wolf]

Hi All,

Thanks for your comments! Glad I'm not alone, and that there are folks willing to advise.

Richardj - hear hear for the fibre!

appilihp - We're with PlusNet too... And, clearly, we do have some sort of problem.

Niall - problem isn't really with speed, I speed test quite a bit - cos I'm a little paranoid about it - we're, routinely, up around 12Mb. The trouble is that, when we're not at 12Mb, we're down at 0 - proper 0 - unable to connect to any site at all, let alone browse them...

On Bobinovich's recommendation - I accessed the router log earlier, there's quite a lot of DHCP activity reassigning the IP address of my main computer over and over, unsure if that's normal...

There's also quite a lot of Upnp set event: redirecting of ports, and Add\Deleteportmapping activity as well. Again, this seems related to the main computer as well.

There is one case of LCP down - leading to Internet Disconnected - Followed by 'Initialise LCP' - then LCP is allowed to come up - and, CHAP authentication success - finally, Internet connected and an IP address.

Some of which makes 'a little' sense to me, but the rest is metaphorical 'Greek'.

If anyone can shed light on what that stuff might mean, I'd be very grateful.

Scapa Wolf - Still howling

[kosacid]

bad lines bad network complain all you want it wont help none, you must remember the lines were laid in the stone age, i moved here from 100meg connection to a 56k modem style broadband it totally sucks big style, just as well its a nice place to live and the folk are friendly or i would be out of here lol
i do a lot of programing and that i hate how it takes like 10 min to load a page, or years to upload to site, i phoned last week to complain and was told by sky to go with bt they seem to be a priority so sky gets caped, also im thinking there a bottle neck some where, the only time i get good network it about 1am through the night lol

[Bobinovich]

There is one case of LCP down - leading to Internet Disconnected - Followed by 'Initialise LCP' - then LCP is allowed to come up - and, CHAP authentication success - finally, Internet connected and an IP address.

That's the kind of stuff - in the logs I looked for 'DSL is up' (on the BT Business Hub the light would go orange when disconnected, then turn blue once reconnected), kept a note of the date & time, and that's what I confronted BT with.

Good luck!

[dandod]

Hi I had these exact same problem with my ISP which was sky they never found the problem as each time they tested the line it was fine.the solution? I switched to talk talk my broadband is now at least 3 times faster than what it was with sky and not had a lost connection.you should really consider switching.

[kosacid]

lets see if they match here is my logs also take into account my roughter time is a hour fast
here is my log for today as you see lots of DC`s
Tue, 2014-02-04 00:07:46 - LCP down.
Tue, 2014-02-04 00:07:50 - Initialize LCP.
Tue, 2014-02-04 00:07:50 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Tue, 2014-02-04 00:07:55 - CHAP authentication success
Tue, 2014-02-04 20:05:13 - Initialize LCP.
Tue, 2014-02-04 20:05:13 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Tue, 2014-02-04 20:05:18 - CHAP authentication failed
Tue, 2014-02-04 20:05:18 - LCP down.
Tue, 2014-02-04 20:06:13 - Initialize LCP.
Tue, 2014-02-04 20:06:13 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Tue, 2014-02-04 20:06:18 - CHAP authentication success
Tue, 2014-02-04 20:30:23 - Initialize LCP.
Tue, 2014-02-04 20:30:23 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Tue, 2014-02-04 20:30:28 - CHAP authentication failed
Tue, 2014-02-04 20:30:28 - LCP down.
Tue, 2014-02-04 20:31:23 - Initialize LCP.
Tue, 2014-02-04 20:31:23 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Tue, 2014-02-04 20:31:28 - CHAP authentication failed
Tue, 2014-02-04 20:31:28 - LCP down.
Tue, 2014-02-04 20:32:24 - Initialize LCP.
Tue, 2014-02-04 20:32:24 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Tue, 2014-02-04 20:32:28 - CHAP authentication failed
Tue, 2014-02-04 20:32:28 - LCP down.
Tue, 2014-02-04 20:33:24 - Initialize LCP.
Tue, 2014-02-04 20:33:24 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Tue, 2014-02-04 20:33:29 - CHAP authentication success
Tue, 2014-02-04 21:45:34 - Initialize LCP.
Tue, 2014-02-04 21:45:34 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Tue, 2014-02-04 21:45:39 - CHAP authentication success
Tue, 2014-02-04 21:46:01 - LCP down.
Tue, 2014-02-04 21:46:03 - Initialize LCP.
Tue, 2014-02-04 21:46:03 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Tue, 2014-02-04 21:46:10 - CHAP authentication failed
Tue, 2014-02-04 21:46:10 - LCP down.
Tue, 2014-02-04 21:47:03 - Initialize LCP.
Tue, 2014-02-04 21:47:03 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Tue, 2014-02-04 21:47:08 - CHAP authentication success
Tue, 2014-02-04 21:58:16 - LCP down.
Tue, 2014-02-04 21:58:22 - Initialize LCP.
Tue, 2014-02-04 21:58:22 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Tue, 2014-02-04 21:58:27 - CHAP authentication failed
Tue, 2014-02-04 21:58:27 - LCP down.
Tue, 2014-02-04 21:59:22 - Initialize LCP.
Tue, 2014-02-04 21:59:22 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Tue, 2014-02-04 21:59:28 - CHAP authentication success
Tue, 2014-02-04 22:38:33 - Initialize LCP.
Tue, 2014-02-04 22:38:33 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Tue, 2014-02-04 22:38:37 - CHAP authentication failed
Tue, 2014-02-04 22:38:37 - LCP down.
Tue, 2014-02-04 22:39:33 - Initialize LCP.
Tue, 2014-02-04 22:39:33 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Tue, 2014-02-04 22:39:47 - CHAP authentication success
Tue, 2014-02-04 23:02:36 - LCP down.
Tue, 2014-02-04 23:02:42 - Initialize LCP.
Tue, 2014-02-04 23:02:42 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Tue, 2014-02-04 23:02:47 - CHAP authentication success
Tue, 2014-02-04 23:52:23 - Initialize LCP.
Tue, 2014-02-04 23:52:23 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Tue, 2014-02-04 23:52:28 - CHAP authentication success

[Crackeday]

Had the exact same problems with The post office, switched to Talk Talk and have no drop outs at all and they give me a 16 meg connection was averaging around 5-6 with Post office and BT.
1 Other thing to look at would be your central heating if you have it, was told that his can cause drop outs when it switches on/off.

[The Green Manalishi]

I was having a similar issue and sort of solved it by replacing the router supplied by the ISP - that helped a lot, however I am still having constant problems with the browser not bringing up a web page when I click on my favourites list - i.e. going from twitter to the BBC news site, or to Caithness.org

My internet security software is Norton and having looked at the Firewall logs and there may be an issue with the Firewall that is causing the problem I am having.

I am currently with PlusNet - I am planning to change back to BT in the next couple of weeks to see if this solves the connection problems.

... bring on Fibre for Caithness, it would make a lot of difference.

Richard

I think you will find that PlusNet is owned by BT, although it is run as an independent subsidiary and therefore will be using BT equipment.

[richardj]

I think you will find that PlusNet is owned by BT, although it is run as an independent subsidiary and therefore will be using BT equipment.

Yes I realise PlusNet is owned by BT however they use their own routers and equipment and connect to the BT broadband network within the Watten exchange (for my connection that is). PlusNet use their own servers and other equipment - BT use their own. I have no idea if changing from PlusNet will make a difference however it is also cheaper to change and see to if it does than wasting hours on the phone to a helpdesk.
I was with BT 18 months ago and moved over to PlusNet who I used to use for many years before moving up to Caithness. Unfortunately PlusNet are not as reliable as they used to be, in my opinion.