broadband connection problems (intermitent connection)

[dangerousmouse]

my problem is that every day i get up and have no connection to the internet, yet when i come home from work in the evening (11pm onwards) there is an active connection. this has been ongoing for over 2 months now. during the past fortnight there has been periods of over 24 hours where i have had no connection.

my isp is virgin.net i am on their plan 2 - 2meg with 6gig d/l allowance
using a linksys WAG354G wireless adsl gateway.

throughout this period i have made numerous 25p/min phone calls to virgin and they say there isnt any problem, it must be something of mine.
here is what i have attempted to fix the problem: -
used their recommended speedtouch 300 modem
changed microfilters
reset and rebooted my router
changed rj-11 cables
plugged my microfilter directly into the BT test socket
phoned bt and had a line test performed (nothing wrong)
re-installed speedtouch software

it has only been a problem since i moved the router next to my phone socket, rather than having it in the next room (with a huge 10m cable trailing trhough the house). if it makes any difference it is next to my cordless philips phone base unit.

can anybody help me, and suggest anything else i can do as this is becomming more of an annoyance every day. otherwise, recommendations for another isp will be considered (i dont want to have to sign up for a 12 month contract though)

thanks in advance

 

[tolien]

Phoning BT's a complete waste of time - all you'll get is a test of the voice service.

In what way is there "no connection" - the modem doesn't sync up (probably BT given what you've tried), or doesn't authenticate (could be lots of things), or what?
Extracting stats (ie attenuation, SNR margin, sync rate) would be useful - ideally when it's working (and not working, but if it isn't synching up there won't be anything to extract).

Zen's probably more money than you'd want to pay (£24.99 for IPStream Max with a 20GB limit/mo), or there's Nildram (all sorts of options including PAYG). Both have more of a clue than Virgin.

 

[dangerousmouse]

dont really know much about what you are asking me, so...

when i get up the modem dls light is flashing, and the internet light is out (linksys router). generally speaking it is mornings/afternoon that i dont have a connection. and as i say i finish work after 11pm, when i get home i can usually get online.

i have managed to hold a connection for about 1 hour now. i just keep changing the microfilter, unplugging dsl cable etc... and it seems to do something that works. but i dont feel i should have to do this everyday. although this makes it seem as though it is a hardware problem with my equipment i am confident everything of mine is fine and there is some sort of problem with the line/virgin as the exact same setup was working for over 8 months (until i moved it).

EDIT: just looked on my router and there is a tab for reporting, in this i can view logs. do i need to look at any of them?

 

[tolien]

when i get up the modem dls light is flashing, and the internet light is out (linksys router).

So it isn't synching up.

EDIT: just looked on my router and there is a tab for reporting, in this i can view logs. do i need to look at any of them?

Not really.

Extracting stats (ie attenuation, SNR margin, sync rate) would be useful - ideally when it's working (and not working, but if it isn't synching up there won't be anything to extract).

They're in the router's web interface somewhere...

 

[dangerousmouse]

ok, i cant seem to find anywhere that these stats are at. i have just been on linksys live tech support, and specifically asked if they could tell me how to get to it. everytime i asked i was just asked another question about my problem.

they have given a selection of sizes to try for the mtu and told me if none of them work i should update the firmware.

it has been on since i got home (12:30) until now, without a problem. so i have my fingers crossed that whatever was the problem has rectified itself. if not i will have a go with this stuff linksys has told me to do.

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Ok,

I have had a simular issue the last few days..

Over the last few days some wires came out the back of the master socket thanks to a tree annihilating the main box outside, and since then my Netgear router (DG834PN) is reporting severly low stats to the point that it drops connection quite frequently.

I tried ringing BT.. no luck, so in the brief 2 minutes I managed to get online I reported a fault via their site. That seemed to do the trick, because yesterday an engineer came to sort the problem.

Now, I'm not an engineer but all he did was fix the box outside, but for the inside he basically disconnected the wires on the master socket, and reconnect then perform a line test

I explained my SNR was always 13->15dB but never dropped below 12, and now since he 'fixed' the issue its constantly below 8, mostly dropping down to <5dB and if i'm lucky I can get 6dB - he said that's because it's a busy time of day .

I was told to ring back if the problem persisted, so they could check the internal wiring a little more closely, but to be honest my parents spent a fortune wallpapering the main living room and I can't allow them to go ripping the walls to shreds.

Just wondering, where do I stand on this.. will they be able to sort the wiring without damaging the walls, or is there no hope?

 

[MAllen]

Don't start randomly messing around with the MTU. Just leave it on the default one for the UK. It's only AOL that is different here.

Simplify your setup. From what you are describing I guess you are new to this broadband stuff. So I am going to check a few of the "obvious" things. Appologies if you already done this...

1\ How many phone sockets are in the house? Unplug EVERYTHING except your broadband router. Just have your ADSL filter and router attached. Nothing else. Does this work?

2\ Which is the BT Master socket in your house? Does it work reliably there?

3\ Who wired up your extension sockets? Are they a DIY job? I have seen an old house where some of the sockets would not allow the ADSL Router to logon, whereas other sockets behaved fine. Nothing obviously wrong with the sockets. (Bizarre really as it would happily synch with the ADSL signal, just fail at the logon...)

4\ IMPORTANT - remember for every phone socket in operational use in your house you MUST have a filter attached. And this filter must be attached to the socket FIRST before any Sky box, phones, fax machines, alarm systems. (I have lost count of the number of houses where I have found Sky boxes attached directly to the phone sockets which then break the ADSL connection.)

5\ If your router is a WiFi one, then that DECT phone will cause it problems. Try plugging the DECT phone in a different room.

6\ If your router works fine in the "other room", then you know your router is configured correctly. You also know that there is no major problem with the ADSL supply to your property. I would start questioning the extension socket you are trying to use.

 

[Richdog]

my problem is that every day i get up and have no connection to the internet, yet when i come home from work in the evening (11pm onwards) there is an active connection. this has been ongoing for over 2 months now. during the past fortnight there has been periods of over 24 hours where i have had no connection.

my isp is virgin.net i am on their plan 2 - 2meg with 6gig d/l allowance
using a linksys WAG354G wireless adsl gateway.

throughout this period i have made numerous 25p/min phone calls to virgin and they say there isnt any problem, it must be something of mine.
here is what i have attempted to fix the problem: -
used their recommended speedtouch 300 modem
changed microfilters
reset and rebooted my router
changed rj-11 cables
plugged my microfilter directly into the BT test socket
phoned bt and had a line test performed (nothing wrong)
re-installed speedtouch software

it has only been a problem since i moved the router next to my phone socket, rather than having it in the next room (with a huge 10m cable trailing trhough the house). if it makes any difference it is next to my cordless philips phone base unit.

can anybody help me, and suggest anything else i can do as this is becomming more of an annoyance every day. otherwise, recommendations for another isp will be considered (i dont want to have to sign up for a 12 month contract though)

thanks in advance

I was on virgin until last week... I suffered horrible connection dorps and sometimes my internet would be off for up to a few hours... other times it would be solid as a rock. I helped the issue immensely by buying a new router... the Belkin 7633 as seen ehre http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProd...rking/WirelessNetworking/80211gWi...tworking/ This helped stabilise my poor conenction and drop-outs were less frequent, and for less time... however they still occurred so I decided to pull the plug and move to another ISP.

Now i've moved to Ace Internet and ADSL Max and am giving it a month before I move again as Mistral (provide Ace with bandwidth) have just implemented massive throttling on P2P, and the service I signed up for is about to rapidly change.

I hear Newnet are a great ISP (won a fe awards) with a generous 60GB/s limit so will likely migrate to them if things don't improve.

ISP providers... pah.

 

[tolien]

I explained my SNR was always 13->15dB but never dropped below 12, and now since he 'fixed' the issue its constantly below 8, mostly dropping down to <5dB and if i'm lucky I can get 6dB - he said that's because it's a busy time of day

You're wasting your time - unless your ISP asked for it, you wouldn't get an ADSL-trained engineer.

 

[dangerousmouse]

Don't start randomly messing around with the MTU. Just leave it on the default one for the UK. It's only AOL that is different here.

Simplify your setup. From what you are describing I guess you are new to this broadband stuff. So I am going to check a few of the "obvious" things. Appologies if you already done this...

1\ How many phone sockets are in the house? Unplug EVERYTHING except your broadband router. Just have your ADSL filter and router attached. Nothing else. Does this work?

2\ Which is the BT Master socket in your house? Does it work reliably there?

3\ Who wired up your extension sockets? Are they a DIY job? I have seen an old house where some of the sockets would not allow the ADSL Router to logon, whereas other sockets behaved fine. Nothing obviously wrong with the sockets. (Bizarre really as it would happily synch with the ADSL signal, just fail at the logon...)

4\ IMPORTANT - remember for every phone socket in operational use in your house you MUST have a filter attached. And this filter must be attached to the socket FIRST before any Sky box, phones, fax machines, alarm systems. (I have lost count of the number of houses where I have found Sky boxes attached directly to the phone sockets which then break the ADSL connection.)

5\ If your router is a WiFi one, then that DECT phone will cause it problems. Try plugging the DECT phone in a different room.

6\ If your router works fine in the "other room", then you know your router is configured correctly. You also know that there is no major problem with the ADSL supply to your property. I would start questioning the extension socket you are trying to use.

i just spent about 30 minutes replying to every question, then i read the last one and suddenly a penny dropped...

previously i had a 10m rj11 cable plugged into the microfilter (in main box) running into another room. my computer was connected by lan to the router. since i have moved the router into the front room (where the phone socket is, i only have 1 in the house) it sits on the same stand as the base station for my dect phone. i feel that this may well be the cause of my problem.

if anybody can confirm that this is[/] or would be near the top of the list of suspects then i can go from there.

thanks peoples/

 

[MAllen]

There is a very easy test then... either turn the phone off for a few days and replace it with a "classic" phone while testing the theory out.

Or, temporarily put the long 10m cable back in and move the router to a different location in the front room.

(Just for background, this is what I do for a living. Fixing PC problems in the home. I have seen DECT phones interfere with things before. Or there was the one customer who had been trying to balence his router on top of his big TV. He couldn't work out why he got a bad signal whenever the TV was turned on.... until I moved that router away from the electrically noisey TV.)

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Ok, just a question..

Is it possible to get BT to rewire the ADSL line, because I believe that the quality of the IDC connection in the master socket is having a significant effect on SNR (and the wire has been 'attached' so many times it looks like hell)

... the master socket is directly opposite the box outside, so I'm thinking it will be a case of running fresh wire through the wall

 

[tolien]

Yes, but you'll have to pay for it (unless you can get an ADSL engineer out with a fault).

 

[dangerousmouse]

There is a very easy test then... either turn the phone off for a few days and replace it with a "classic" phone while testing the theory out.

Or, temporarily put the long 10m cable back in and move the router to a different location in the front room.

(Just for background, this is what I do for a living. Fixing PC problems in the home. I have seen DECT phones interfere with things before. Or there was the one customer who had been trying to balence his router on top of his big TV. He couldn't work out why he got a bad signal whenever the TV was turned on.... until I moved that router away from the electrically noisey TV.)

ok, it was working for about 3 days fine, then it disconnects and wont stay connected for more than a minute. i have put the extension lead back in, and moved the router into the next room. it has been fine since.

im not really keen on having the cable router throught the house though, and would really prefer it if i could have the router in the front room. what sort of distance does it need to be from the phone in order to function properly?

thanks.

 

[MAllen]

My next suggestion would be to try the router in the front room, but still on the end of the long lead. That way you can experiment with where is lives. Maybe the router is happiest on top of a cupboard? Still hidden, but away from the phone.

Did you test the front room socket out when using a "classic" phone instead of a DECT one? (Just in case it is a socket issue)

 

[dangerousmouse]

ok, just when i thought it was all ok... i had no internet connection this morning. its up now, so i'd best make the most of it.

i havent moved it, as yet. my router was still in the other room (in the same place it has been all week) yet i couldnt connect. another phone call to virgin, as it was on friday of last week i lost my connection for 2 days.

"leave your computer (or router if that is what you are using, instead of recommended modem) on and i will fill in a fault report. tech services will be able to check the line/connection etc... according to your log, in the whole of the last week there has been only 1 user disconnect request, and 6 random disconnects."

so, i will be leaving it there until virgin get back to me. otherwise, while i have it connected i have found these stats you were asking for tolien:

DSL Status: UP
DSL Modulation Mode: GDMT
DSL Path Mode: FAST
Downstream Rate: 2272 Kbps
Upstream Rate: 288 Kbps
Downstream Margin: 23 db
Upstream Margin: 25 db
Downstream Line Attenuation: 36
Upstream Line Attenuation: 19
Downstream Transmit Power: 0
Upstream Transmit Power: 0

is that of any use?

thanks

 

[tolien]

The power values are nonsensical.

Attenuation and SNR margin are good though. Assuming they're accurate.

 

[gamesaregood]

Maybe i missed something but:

speedtouch 300 modem does the problem happen with this as well? If so i would say deffo line / extension to line / BT related problem.

If make sure linksys firmware is up-to-date.

 

[dangerousmouse]

happens both with the linksys gateway, and the speedtouch 330 modem. BT have performed a line test, i have used 2 different microfilters, and 2 different rj-11 cables (each on both filters). when it is down there is nothing i can do to get it back. well, usially changing the microfilter works, and i connect, but only for a minute (not much longer)

tolien, those values are straight from the dsl connection page in the status bit on my router, so i can only assume they are accurate. unsless there is another way to access them?

going to update the firmware on sunday, now that i have found it.