topic Re: Internet drops every night between 8pm and 9pm in Broadband

Internet drops every night between 8pm and 9pm

jastra — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 17:49:39 GMT

I have been on Fibre extra for about 6 months, and I noticed that the internet keeps dropping out mainly in the evenings. I have changed the Wi-Fi extender, as well as changing my Plusnet One Hub to a BT Hub 6 to no avail. The same thing happens. It appears every evening between 8 and 9pm generally whilst watching catch-up TV. All connections to the internet drop (Wi-Fi is still connected). It lasts about 5 minutes, and then reconnects. I have not watched the router when it happens, as it is not a time when I can check on the router. It has happened occasionally at other times as well.

I am using a powerline extender with Wi-Fi for one of my TVs, and the other connects directly to the router. The Wi-Fi bands on 2GHz are very congested around here, with up to 15-20 other APs visible.

Any help would be appreciated, as it is extremely annoying. I do get about 70Mb download speeds when it works, so am not complaining about speed.

Re: Internet drops every night between 8pm and 9pm

jab1 — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 17:56:22 GMT

@jastra Welcome to the forums.Do the logs of either the Hub1 or HH6 reveal anything at those times?

Re: Internet drops every night between 8pm and 9pm

Gandalf — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 07:53:17 GMT

Thanks for your post @jastra and welcome to our Community Forums.

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

I've tested your line today and the tests aren't showing any definitive issues and I can't see a drop in your broadband connection for the last two weeks, apart from at 3am this morning.

Could you post up a copy of your router logs from the Helpdesk / Troubleshooting page within your router settings at 192.168.1.254? This may help shed some light on the issue.

Re: Internet drops every night between 8pm and 9pm

jastra — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 11:45:06 GMT

I have attached the full log.,

As you say, there was a drop at about 3am this morning. The only other thing I can see is lots of:

Lan IPv6 Neighbour Discovery events: NEIGHBOR_SOLICIT

It is looking like an issue with Wi-Fi or the powerline causing lots of connections and disconnections. The odd thing is that the FireTV keeps saying that it has a Wi-Fi connection, but no internet connection - i.e. no onwards routing. Last night it happened at about 7.30pm, but generally it is between 8 and 9.

Any other suggestions are very welcome!

Re: Internet drops every night between 8pm and 9pm

Gandalf — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 14:27:29 GMT

Thanks for the logs @jastra

Yeah apart from the drop at 3am, it looks like the drops are happening somewhere between your router and your devices.

If you connect a device onto the 5GHz wireless frequency, does that drop out too?

Also do you have a laptop or computer you can plug into the router or powerline using an ethernet cable to compare?

Re: Internet drops every night between 8pm and 9pm

jastra — Tue, 03 May 2022 10:23:43 GMT

I have been getting the same thing again over the past week. Last night I couldn't keep a connection for more than 5 minutes before dropping out. I didn't check the router itself, but my phone showed the internet connection had dropped, and the TV showed the router "No connection" page instead of Youtube.

I am using a BThub, as the Plusnet One hub was rather unreliable. (i.e. same hardware). Log is attached.

Thanks,

Re: Internet drops every night between 8pm and 9pm

Townman — Tue, 03 May 2022 10:32:00 GMT

There are a few losses of the PPP session reported there, but no details of the xDSL status.

I suggest that you cover all of the usual basics please...

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

How is your line performing?

Please post your router stats; for PN routers use the buttons below, for other routers look at the Kitz link.

Also run a BT Wholesale speed test (ideally using an Ethernet wired PC with the WiFi turned off) then run the further diagnostics, download the .PDF report and post the results here. DO NOT REBOOT the router!

Check the Plusnet user portal for the "Current Line Speed" which is relevant to users with static IP addresses.

Re: Internet drops every night between 8pm and 9pm

adamwalker — Tue, 03 May 2022 10:43:02 GMT

Hi @jastra, sorry to see that there's an issue with connection drops again. I've just taken a look into this and line tests aren't showing up any obvious causes so it would be best to look at arranging an engineer visit to look into it further. Please take a look at the update I've added to your account when you can and let us know when you've responded: https://www.plus.net/wizard/?p=view_question&id=224110572

Re: Internet drops every night between 8pm and 9pm

jastra — Wed, 04 May 2022 09:56:13 GMT

Here are the stats from the BT Hub 6 (attached).

I tried the quiet test, and it didn't seem noisy, but the phone itself is a bit noisy (old caps!)

BT Speed test came out as

Ping 26ms

Down: 69.79

Up: 18.64

PN: Current Line Speed (Download): 73.2Mbps

I have no real issues with the speed, only the dropouts

Re: Internet drops every night between 8pm and 9pm

Townman — Wed, 04 May 2022 07:12:23 GMT

Those line stats look very odd!

Data rate 19Mbps/75Mbps

Maximum Data rate 19 Mbps/76 Mbps

Noise margin 60/30

Line attenuation 181/155

Signal attenuation 177/155

@Gandalf What do your stats report for the SNRM please? Might this be a suspect router issue? The SNRM, attenuation and sync rate figures together do not look credible.

@jastra

There might be some merit in switching back to the Plusnet Hub One here - it is a BTHH5a which will work well with router stats (see the link below) for detailed monitoring during the time you have issues. If nothing else, it will confirm or deny the above odd looking stats.

Re: Internet drops every night between 8pm and 9pm

Edinburgh_wg — Wed, 04 May 2022 07:08:58 GMT

You seem to have a problem with your WiFi. Where is your router located? Any metal objects near it or other WiFi emitting devices like Arlo or Eufy?

Disconnect your WiFi extender and test again. If you use Arlo or Eufy, ensure that its base station is moved away from the router.

If this doesn't help, with the WiFi extender still disconnected, change your WiFi channel on the router to one that is not used by your neighbours, if at all possible. If not, change it to one that has fewer neighbouring networks. See if this helps.

If it doesn't help, separate 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks (two separate ones) and try to use the latter only. See if this helps.

Re: Internet drops every night between 8pm and 9pm

RealAleMadrid — Wed, 04 May 2022 08:51:32 GMT

@Townman It would seem that the csv file presentation has removed some decimal points from the values

Noise margin 6.0/3.0

Line attenuation 18.1/15.5

Signal attenuation 17.7/15.5

Is that better? Numbers look sensible now.

Re: Internet drops every night between 8pm and 9pm

jastra — Wed, 04 May 2022 09:07:51 GMT

Noise margin:6.0 / 2.3

Line attenuation:18.0 / 15.4

Signal attenuation:17.8 / 15.4

Re: Internet drops every night between 8pm and 9pm

jastra — Wed, 04 May 2022 09:09:23 GMT

I have tried various WiFi configurations, but this issue is not about wifi - it is the internet connection itself, as I have a strong wifi signal and no internet when it drops

Re: Internet drops every night between 8pm and 9pm

Townman — Wed, 04 May 2022 14:50:57 GMT

In that case, consider the Plusnet Hub One and routerstats monitoring option to find out what is happening.

Re: Internet drops every night between 8pm and 9pm

adamwalker — Wed, 04 May 2022 15:13:56 GMT

Hi @jastra, glad to see we've got an engineer visit booked in for Friday, we'll do our best to follow things up with you as soon as we can afterwards.

Re: Internet drops every night between 8pm and 9pm

jastra — Fri, 06 May 2022 10:47:49 GMT

The engineer has been, but didn't find any issue. He changed the master socket, but all the stats look the same.

He couldn't get BT to run a line test, as he didn't know how to contact Plusnet. Could you run a line test again please?

Also, is it possible to get a log from the last week from the BT fibre side to see whether there was any issue at the cabinet or exchange?

Thanks,

Joel

Re: Internet drops every night between 8pm and 9pm

Townman — Fri, 06 May 2022 11:11:56 GMT

@jastra wrote:

He couldn't get BT to run a line test, as he didn't know how to contact Plusnet. Could you run a line test again please?

Also, is it possible to get a log from the last week from the BT fibre side to see whether there was any issue at the cabinet or exchange?

Thanks,

Joel

Really?

An Eclipse Exit test, run by the BT Engineer from the exchange remote test system is standard operating practice before leaving the user's premises. Did you notice if the engineer was a "real" BT Openreach engineer or one of the sub-contractors (JC Quin or Kelly's) who operate on behalf of BT Openreach?

Re: Internet drops every night between 8pm and 9pm

adamwalker — Fri, 06 May 2022 11:29:42 GMT

Hi all, FYI for anyone unaware it was a Qube engineer, line tests aren't showing signs of any issues at all but I know the engineer replaced the master socket so it might be best to monitor things over the course of today to see if the connection remains stable.

Re: Internet drops every night between 8pm and 9pm

Townman — Fri, 06 May 2022 13:43:19 GMT

@adamwalker

Cheers Adam - it is interesting to learn that a Qube Engineer can replace a NTE yet not have the means of running a line test. Whilst not technically challenging, it is somewhat surprising that a non-BT Openreach party is permitted to make changes to Openreach's network at the demarcation point.