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ADSL connection loss and slowdown, last two days.

Fat_Leonard
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Posts: 48
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Registered: ‎23-03-2021

ADSL connection loss and slowdown, last two days.

Can any Plusnet people look at this from the other end and tell me if there's any line peculiarity, as I've seen on other threads?

Yesterday the Internet dropped numerous times, though the router's light was still on. The router's (TP-Link Archer VR2800) log is impenetrable to me, but referred to PPP disconnections seemingly every other report.

I've changed back to a supplied Plusnet router and the problems remain. Attached are the BT Speedtest results just now from the Plusnet router, and the status from the browser page of the TP-Link router before I disconnected it.

Previously, we have reliably got 4-5Mb download speeds with 30ms ping. I can't do a packet loss test as the Plusnet router prevents pings.

Nothing has changed inside the house - no movement of the router, no new devices, no work.

Quietline has a hiss when the router is on, but is quiet with it off and there are no crackles or pops.

Any further information much appreciated!

13 REPLIES 13
adam945
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
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Re: ADSL connection loss and slowdown, last two days.

Thanks a lot for reaching out @Fat_Leonard

 

First thing I'd recommend here is to avoid resetting / switching routers so often, these disconnections are apparent on our end and can trick DLM into assuming that there's issues on the line. Interleaving will be switched on and the DS speed will decrease.

 

I've run some tests on the line from my end which appear to show that the line is syncing at around 3Mbps - lower than what you were previously getting, but within estimates given the line length. Our tests have picked up on a potential issue though, which is within the "customer's domain". If you can, try connecting directly into the test socket, this lies behind the face place of your master socket.

 

Run another speed test (wired) and let us know how you get on.

 

I'll attach my test results to this most for your reference Smiley

 

KBD



xDSL Status Check
Circuit ID: CBUK76619261 Service ID:  
Telephone NO.: NA Test Executed On: 14-07-2021 14:33:37


xDSL Status Test Summary
Sync Status: Circuit In Sync
General Information
NTE Status:   NTE Power Status: PowerOn Bypass Status:  
 
  Upstream DSL Link Information Downstream DSL Link Information
Loop Loss: 29.3 52.5
SNR Margin: 11.0 5.0
Errored Seconds: 0 0
HEC Errors: 0  
Cell Count: 1064081 7238422
Speed: 800 3040
43
 
Maximum Stable Rate (KBPS): 4000 Fault Threshold Rate (KBPS): 3200
Mean Time Between Retrains (Seconds): 86400 Mean Time Between Errors Upstream (Seconds): 3927
Indicative Line Quality: G Mean Time Between Errors Downstream (Seconds):  
 
       
       
 Adam
 Plusnet Help Team - Leeds
Fat_Leonard
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Re: ADSL connection loss and slowdown, last two days.

Thank you for that, adam945!

That's interesting you're seeing the router as being reset. It's never turned off, as we are aware of how they connect to the exchange and train. You should have seen a reboot for a firmware upgrade on the TP-Link, but this was after a number of disconnections and I was in the router's browser pages looking for problems. Another reset would have been shortly afterwards when I changed the TP-Link router for the Plusnet one. There may have been one more by accident as I can't remember if I pulled the wrong plug or not, but whether it was reset two or three times this was all in a short period as I was testing the connection, and all after the disruption had started.

There would have been another reset just now as I removed the cover and used the test socket as per your instructions. The faceplate is a Mk4, and this is the only socket in use in the house (one modem router, one cordless landline base station). Apart from these unavoidable restarts for testing purposes there should be nothing.

There was also a dropout that I noticed as I was on the computer in the last hour or so, and the Plusnet router webpage said 'your broadband is down, wait 10 minutes' before reconnecting. Nothing had been touched.

The latest BT speedtest had a ping of 120ms and a download speed more like what we're used to, of approx. 4Mbps. There's obviously something awry though, as the connection this morning was still abnormally slow. I can't test the connection quality, or run a BQM chart when using the Plusnet router as it won't allow pings to check packet loss and jitter.

Can you be more specific as to what sort of fault is in my domain? The cable run from the master socket where the router and telephone are connected, to where the line arrives in the house by the electricity meter is all visible and I can test for broken pairs. A previous intermittent problem was solved by the engineer resealing damp joints on the poles to the cabinet, and since then we've had the most reliable connection since we've lived here, with the normal ADSL being no constraint on competitive online games or on-demand streaming.

adam945
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
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Re: ADSL connection loss and slowdown, last two days.

Thanks for your response @Fat_Leonard

 

The disconnection within the last hour may have been caused by me testing the line. When intrusive tests are carried out on an ADSL service, this can be the case.

 

Thanks for letting me know that you're only reset the router a few times, our tests are picking up a lot more disconnections than that, especially throughout yesterday evening and this afternoon, as you'll see on the visual radius that I'll pop below.

 

Unfortunately, when testing the line on our end, we aren't provided with any further information other than the fault being within the customer domain. There's a couple of things we could explore here:

  • I can place an order with our suppliers to provide extra stability on the line, though this might have a slight impact on the DS speed
  • We can raise a fault with Openreach and arrange an engineer appointment
  • I can arrange for an upgraded router to be sent out to see whether the router is the source of your issues at the moment

Personally, I'd suggest having a new router sent out, which would arrive within 3-5 working days, we'd try this prior to placing an order to increase the stability of the line, as your initial query was down o the recent drop in DS speed.

 

Let me know if you're happy to go ahead and I'll get this sorted on my end Smiley

 

 

 

 Adam
 Plusnet Help Team - Leeds
Fat_Leonard
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Re: ADSL connection loss and slowdown, last two days.

Thanks for the suggestions!

I'm intrigued by this disconnection record. Is it possible to tell the difference between a synchronisation loss of connection, and a power off/reboot disconnection? Certainly the latter hasn't been happening through any action of ours, except in the last day or so testing.

I did notice a problem playing online a couple of days ago, when my ping as recorded by the server jumped from its usual <100ms to >800ms and hung around above 500ms for a few seconds every few minutes. I wonder if there's some intermittent packet loss problem, perhaps from a poor connection in the house, though I didn't check the Quietline when that occurred.

Hold off on the new router for now, save that plastic etc. I've just connected a brand new Plusnet router (I don't know why we've got another one, but there you go). If you could monitor the connection and see if we still have a problem, then if it's still there and I've tried three routers then it's unlikely to be the router!

The last couple of speedtests have been relatively normal and there haven't been more disconnections (at least that I've been online to notice) since the one that could have been your test a few hours ago.

Edit: you mentioned a 'visual radius' - did you mean to attach an image of your test results?

BD
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Re: ADSL connection loss and slowdown, last two days.

Thanks for getting back to us @Fat_Leonard. I can confirm looking over your connection from this side today it looks like the drops in connection have stopped for now shown by the graph below although usually with drops occurring more in the afternoon/evening we can't be sure if the new router has helped just yet.



When testing your connection from this side currently I can see there's a large amount of errors showing which very well could be behind the drops and large ping spikes you've been seeing that side. As the errors are showing at the moment then I've made a change to your lines profile to bump up your signal strength given the length of your line which hopefully helps reduce the errors moving forwards.
I'd advise then, monitoring the connection moving forwards and should the ping spikes or drops look to continue then as our testing isn't highlighting any underlying fault locations behind this then I'd recommend running through a few internal checks your side that will help rule a number of further things out as the cause.
 


I'd recommend starting with basic checks here: http://goo.gl/p2tpvL
(By all means skip past any checks you may have already done)
 

And if that doesn't help the next thing would be to rule your internal wiring out by plugging the connection into your test socket which is under the faceplate of your master socket and seeing if the drops stop. This rules out internal wiring, face plates and extension sockets as being the cause. How to locate the test socket and set your connection into it can be found here:
https://community.plus.net/t5/Library/Testing-From-The-Master-Socket/ba-p/1322242

 

Let us know how it goes and if the issues look to persist even in the test socket set-up. We look forwards to hearing from you further.

Fat_Leonard
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Re: ADSL connection loss and slowdown, last two days.

Thank you for the comprehensive reply, BD.

The Plusnet router (the new one we already had, the third of the routers in my test) is still connected and nothing's been touched since last week. I don't know if the view from your end has improved. The two BT speedtests I have just done had 30ms and a 218ms pings. Download is still about 1Mb less than we had been used to.

The router has been plugged into the test socket with a microfilter for the telephone since the tests last week, so the data in your graphic are from the test socket. There are no extensions, so the router previously was plugged into the filtered two-socket faceplate over the test socket.

Are your tests able to tell whether errors are accumulating because of problems before or after the test socket?

adam945
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Re: ADSL connection loss and slowdown, last two days.

Thanks a lot for your response @Fat_Leonard

 

While the line does appear to have stabilised over the last three days, errors are still viable. I'd suggest an engineer appointment at this stage for further investigation as to what's going on here.

 

I've opened a Ticket on the account which we'd kindly ask that you respond to. Feel free to give us a nudge on here and we'll be happy to get the fault raised for you. I'll pop another visual radius graph on this post for you to have a look at.

 

Unfortunately, our graphs cannot determine whether you're connected to the test socket to be honest, so we wouldn't really know.

 

You'll be able to respond to the open Ticket here

 

 
 Adam
 Plusnet Help Team - Leeds
Fat_Leonard
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Re: ADSL connection loss and slowdown, last two days.

The engineer came yesterday and couldn't find a smoking gun, but said there were a few errors. He ran some tests, changed some wires and advised checking on it for a few days. I've put the TP-Link VR2800 router back as I can see the logs and the stats on it.

He said that there would be two disconnections soon after his visit; one from him testing the job and one from those back at the ranch when he completes the job ticket. The router this afternoon reports an up time of only several hours, with this in the log: "DSL Link Down, remote disconnect detected". Is that one of these tests, or should I rootle around that time for any further log entries?

The speed is significantly down today (2.97Mb by BT's reckoning, though the router's reporting a downstream 4600kbps) but packet loss tests suggest it's OK. Perhaps this is caused by the extra SNR margin line profile put on in an attempt to reduce errors.

adam945
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Re: ADSL connection loss and slowdown, last two days.

Thanks a lot for reaching out again @Fat_Leonard

 

I think it's too soon to tell whether the engineer was able to resolve the intermittent connection on the line, though my speed test results do differ to yours.

 

I'm seeing the line syncing at around 4.6Mbps, though our system is capping this at 3.4Mbps to preserve the stability on the line. We could try decreasing the SNRM on the line to 6dB however I wouldn't like to compromise oi stability at this stage.

 

Please monitor your connection over the weekend and let us know if the intermittent issue reoccurs.

 Adam
 Plusnet Help Team - Leeds
Fat_Leonard
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Re: ADSL connection loss and slowdown, last two days.

Well, the second engineer couldn't trace any errors either, despite us apparently having one day with 108 registered from the logs on his machine. Our speed hasn't returned to the heady heights of 4-5Mbps we got before the dropouts which started this thread. We now get 3-4Mbps. I'm not sure if stability has improved at all, but I haven't noticed many dropouts, though Skype calls have been noticeably poorer quality. I couldn't say if that's my end or their end, though.

I've changed the router back to the TP-Link VR2800 so I can see the stats. It's been left on as usual, and is showing an uptime of four days and twenty hours, which suggests it's holding synchronisation for a while now. It's registered 4590 packet errors in that time, which includes spells of online multiplayer games and video calls. Perhaps one instance of on-demand streaming, but lots of surfing. I can't find a total data sent/received value in the router to get an estimate of packet loss rate. How does it look from the other end?

Gandalf
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Re: ADSL connection loss and slowdown, last two days.

Thanks for getting back to us @Fat_Leonard

I'm sorry for the issues you've had and engineers haven't been able to get to the bottom of the fault.

Line tests are passing and showing your router's been running at 4.6mbps with no drops for the last 4 days as you've said. 

I've reset the SNRM target on your upload speed to try to bring it down to 6dB which may increase your upload speed and help with Skype calls, although I suspect interleaving (a form of error correction) might stop DLM from bringing the SNRM down. I can remove interleaving, but this might cause your connection to start dropping again.

Also, do you know that FTTP is available for you to order at your address? You'll be able to get superfast speeds by upgrading to fibre, although we don't yet offer a FTTP package however if you move to BT or EE for the service, we'll be happy to waive any termination fees. You'll just need to call our Customer Options Team on 0800 013 2632 to arrange.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
Fat_Leonard
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Registered: ‎23-03-2021

Re: ADSL connection loss and slowdown, last two days.

Hello again,

 

I wonder if I can prevail on you to check the line from your end again. I noticed some real trouble buffering a 480p YouTube video and on checking the router stats I get the attached. As it says it's only been connected for 8 hours, could this intermittent problem be raising its head? I had no problems with online games last night.

 

Yes, we're aware that fibre is available, but since the 4-5Mbps we've been getting is fine for our needs, the significant extra cost isn't worth it. Besides, we moved from BT because Plusnet offered mobile call minutes from the landline, while BT didn't. We haven't got mobile signal and the landline is in constant use.

adam945
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
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Posts: 2,319
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Registered: ‎01-12-2020

Re: ADSL connection loss and slowdown, last two days.

hI @Fat_Leonard

Thanks a lot for reaching out. I think it's a bit too early to tell whether there's an underlying issue with the line itself. Dropouts can be seen today, though before that the line looks pretty stable, and is syncing within estimated speeds. If the issue does persist though, do let us know and we'll be happy to investigate. For now though, I'd assume that this could be an isolated event.

 
 Adam
 Plusnet Help Team - Leeds