topic Re: Devices connected to router but intermittent issues with no internet in Broadband

Devices connected to router but intermittent issues with no internet

LisaR — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 12:19:15 GMT

Hi, looking for some help with broadband connectivity issues as we seem to have exhausted all avenues with Plusnet support.

Basically, we're getting issues with devices having no internet, even though they show as being connected to broadband with full signal strength. We're seeing 'no internet' or 'server cannot be found', or 'site cannot be reached' errors on multiple devices at the same time.

We've connected a laptop directly into the ethernet port on the router and have the same issues, so we've ruled out it being just a wifi issue.

The Hub2 is all blue lights as normal and plusnet are saying there is no issue or dropout on their side and we’ve had continuous uptime for 24 hours.

We have experienced outages in the last 3 weeks, one lasting over 36hrs and I have the visuals from Plusnet to show this. Plusnet are saying this is now resolved and service is stable, but this is not what we are experiencing. It's happening so frequently it's unusable and impacting ability to work.

Any ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I'm tearing my hair out here. There's clearly something causing an issue but I'm struggling to prove to the person at the end of the phone ,and the engineers, that something is wrong.

Thanks.

Re: Devices connected to router but intermittent issues with no internet

jab1 — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 12:27:00 GMT

@LisaR Welcome to the forums. From what you are saying above, this sounds like an internal issue to you.

To rule out one - very doubtful - possibility, can you connect the Hub to the test socket of your master socket, using a filter?

How confident are you if we need to go down some further checks?

Re: Devices connected to router but intermittent issues with no internet

LisaR — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 12:42:31 GMT

Thank you for the welcome

The engineer that came out yesterday changed the front panel of the master socket and removed the filter (which we still have). We've put the filter back in the line and plugged it into the test socket.

We're good to go and fairly technical if there's other things to check/try.

Lisa.

Re: Devices connected to router but intermittent issues with no internet

jab1 — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 12:48:33 GMT

OK, @LisaR . I don't want to disturb that setup for a while, just on the off-chance that it is a socket problem, which I doubt, to be honest.

While it is being tested, however, a couple of questions - which OS is being used, especially on computers/laptops, and is your 'username' on the Hub in the form of 'yourusername@plusds'net'?

Re: Devices connected to router but intermittent issues with no internet

LisaR — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 13:18:40 GMT

We're still seeing perfomance issues with that set up @jab1

Device OS is a mixed bag: computers/laptops are Windows10 and macOS (Catalina & BigSur), others devices are iOS or Android.

And yep, that's the right format for the username.

We're switching back to the hub one (hub 2 was re-installed yesterday). We found that with the hub one it was reverting to orange lights when we had an issues (even though plusnet weren't seeing this as a drop on their side). Hub 2 is staying constant blue even with intermittent connection issues, so we're switching back to see if that makes a difference or gives us anything more in the event logs.

Re: Devices connected to router but intermittent issues with no internet

jab1 — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 13:23:30 GMT

OK, Lisa, thanks for eliminating two possible easy(ish) fixes.😉

I assume you have reverted to the normal setup - Hub plugged into the DSL slot on a (presumably) 5C faceplate?

The only other simple check I can suggest at the moment is to reset the Hub (pin or similar into the rest hole on the rear until the light goes green).

Logs from the times around these issues would be good, BTW.

Re: Devices connected to router but intermittent issues with no internet

Dan_the_Van — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 13:26:59 GMT

@jab1

I suggest exporting the event log before the Hub is factory reset as they will get erased as part of the reset process.

Dan

Re: Devices connected to router but intermittent issues with no internet

jab1 — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 13:31:56 GMT

Good thinking, @Dan_the_Van . Hope @LisaR picks this up before the reset.😀

Re: Devices connected to router but intermittent issues with no internet

LisaR — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 13:49:32 GMT

Well @jab1 I picked it up before the reset, but not before we switched out the routers... 🙄

*however*, I do have logs I exported this morning, going from midnight to around 8:30am (i was seeing most of the issues around 8am this morning).

I can certainly send those and can pinpoint times when we had issues, which are linked to screenshots showing connection to router but no internet (can you tell I was trying to build out the story this morning?!)

Just need to figure out how to attach the files here.....

Re: Devices connected to router but intermittent issues with no internet

jab1 — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 13:51:24 GMT

Lisa, to attach files, click the paperclip just outside the reply box.

Re: Devices connected to router but intermittent issues with no internet

LisaR — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 14:15:46 GMT

So @jab1 , slight delay in reply here as it bombed out again mid way. I've pulled and attached the event log from when we switched to this hub at 13:16 up to the latest interrupt. This is on the hubOne.

I have logs from the the Hub2 that covered most of the issues we had first thing this morning so can add these too.

Re: Devices connected to router but intermittent issues with no internet

LisaR — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 14:28:48 GMT

Hub2 log from this morning - sorry the formatting is a bit off with this one.

At the time of this log, Ethernet port 1 was my iMac - not sure if anything is going on with that, It wasn't scheduled to do updates.

I started trying to connect devices from 07:17 which you can see in the logs, and I have screenshots of ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT issues timed at 07:41, 07:42, 08:03, 08:10, 08:11, 08:18.

I've also attached the graphics we got from plusnet that show the recent outages and uptime.

Lisa.

Re: Devices connected to router but intermittent issues with no internet

jab1 — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 14:31:14 GMT

Something strange going on there, @LisaR - the lease is being renewed numerous times, your machine is losing its LAN connection, and now you are getting fragmented packets.

The Hub2 logs may be interesting as well, please, but it may take @Dan_the_Van to interpret what we have/get. My thoughts are some kind of issue with the Hubs, but I can't comment easily - I'm only an amateur at this kind of thing, albeit a fairly well educated one. 😀

BTW - I like people who present evidence , instead of us having to try and drag it out of them.

Re: Devices connected to router but intermittent issues with no internet

jab1 — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 14:37:38 GMT

From the big Radius log you provided, I suspect an issue in the BT/OR network, which may have cleared but it isn't (or wasn't) helping.

I also suspect your Mac is having problems, too.

Re: Devices connected to router but intermittent issues with no internet

Dan_the_Van — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 14:54:53 GMT

@LisaR

do you by chance still have the original CSV file you exported from the Hub, the conversion to a PDF file has truncated some of the lines and made them hard to read.

What is the device that is connected to LAN 1

Other than the Hub Two are you using any powerline adapters and/or a second Wi-Fi access point?

From what I can see there has not been any broadband disconnects in period this log covers.

Edit: a factory reset would be a good plan.

Thanks

Dan.

Re: Devices connected to router but intermittent issues with no internet

jab1 — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 15:11:03 GMT

@Dan_the_Van I suspect the LAN1 device is the Mac - but I could be wrong.

You are correct, there have been no DSL drops recently, but the long Radius graph certainly showed a great wodge on Tuesday Wednesday, which, from their frequency, suggest there were a lot of xDSL connection issues - could these have led to any issues for the users devices?

Re: Devices connected to router but intermittent issues with no internet

Dan_the_Van — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 15:16:26 GMT

@jab1

Hopefully the broadband connection is now stable, so with that in mind a factory reset would be a good suggestion. Start the Hub from a cleared state and fresh broadband connection.

Re: Devices connected to router but intermittent issues with no internet

jab1 — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 15:19:55 GMT

Hub2, I would suggest being the one to use, as well.

Re: Devices connected to router but intermittent issues with no internet

Dan_the_Van — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 15:41:31 GMT

I missed the Hub One event log had been attached, apart from a busy firewall I note that some devices are switching between 2.4 and 5 GHz WiFi signal.

For improved wireless performance I would recommend using the Hub Two. Be warned the Hub Two only has three LAN sockets!

When you switch between Hubs (One and Two) I would suggest disconnecting the wifi from all the smart devices and rebooting any desktop or laptop before attempting to use the internet.

Let us know how you are getting on.

Re: Devices connected to router but intermittent issues with no internet

LisaR — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 16:28:19 GMT

@jab1 In a former life I spent a lot of time in forums, databases and Unix platforms mostly, so you learned pretty quick that if you wanted a decent level of help then you needed to put the grunt work in yourself first

@Dan_the_Van Thanks for the suggestions. We're going to disconnect everyththing, switch to the Hub2 router and power everything back and see how it goes. I'm going to leave the iMac offline for a bit, that was in ethernet1, just until I can figure out if there is anything weird going on with it. I'll bring the rest of the devices on, leave it a couple of days and then bring the imac in and see if anything changes.

We did notice the reduced number of ports on hub2, the engineer that came out yesterday morning plugged our security cameras into it though and said it would be fine. The guy we spoke to late last night made sure we disconnected it again 🙄

Thanks for the comments/help so far, 'll keep you posted. We may yet end up with the hub being launched the length of the garden, as the husband has sent a few garden strimmers to meet this grisly fate (which is what I am trying to avoid).