Broadband Dropping Out Intermittently

[#1]

Hi.

Turning to the forum as service from Plusnet was non existent!

Do they think we have nothing better to do than listen to them tellung us how busy they are?

A consistent problem with broadband with both BT and Plusnet is that it keeps dropping out with red light flashing on the hub.

Possibly once per day but sometimes not at all and occasionally several times in quick succession.

It occured at 12.05 today. Usage should not have been a problem with a Naim Streamer unit and a Windows 10 pc in use.

I have dial tone on phone line.

Does anyone have any previous experience or suggetions on how to resolve?

[#2]

Hi there, to try and nail this down, I would unplug everything (and I mean absolutely everything) from every telephone socket all over the house, plug in my router to the BT master socket with a known good filter (if required) and try with just the router and PC.  If it still plays up, I'd be calling PlusNet, if it doesn't play up, I'd be plugging one device in at a time until I found the issue.

[#3]

Sorry to hear you're having issues.

Our tests are showing that there's a potential external issue.

We've passed this to our suppliers and we'll update you when we know more

[#4]

Thanks for your response.

We only have one telephone in the house and router is plugged directly into main socket.

Have ordered a branded replacement filter to replace the standard one supplied with the router.

Plusnet have suggested an external issue   - assume that means some type of problem with the line???

Broadband fell out at  21.03 last night when nothing was being used  - just noted the router flashing red!

[#5]

Doesn't look like the external issue Matt raised made its way to our suppliers systems.

Line tests aren't showing any problems now for us to be able to report this as an external problem.

Can you try the test socket which is found behind the faceplate of the master socket letting us know how you get on?

If your connection is still dropping we may need to arrange an engineer visit.

Thanks.

[#6]

Hi.

I have plugged the router into the test socket on the BT plate and reset the router @ 18.10 - will monitor coneection time on Hub Manager.

Interestingly, the connection obviously dropped just after midday again  - no one was at home!

Do you have a log of connection times at all? I cannot easily identify Network drops from Windows Event Manager.

Regards

[#7]

Hi @Normarrowsmith

This is your visual connection log for the past 7 days. 

There is obviously something out of place, as the amount of drops we are seeing is higher than average.

I can't see anything which isolates the reason for these drops, I'm afraid. Can I please ask if you are still connected to your Test Socket?

Having said the above, my tests are detecting that your circuit is on a hot VLAN. This basically means that the part of our suppliers network your connection is routed through at the exchange is congested and having capacity issues.

Whilst this does not normally cause drops in connection, it is still something which we need to investigate. 

I've discussed this with our suppliers and they've informed me that they can migrate your circuit to a different VLAN as there are others available. 

I have raised this for them to action. 

Please let us know how you connection holds over the next few days. 

Thanks, 

MoR

[#8]

Dear Plusnet Support.

Thank you for your email / assistance. Nice to know that the drops are not my imagination!

We  have been  / still are on the test circuit since yesterday evening. The drop out at  18.00 is when I switched the socket over. Please advise if you want me to switch back at all?

Not sure I understand the VLAN bit and if congestion locally is the root cause then drop outs seem to be have happened at times when most people are asleep!!

Perhaps you could let me know if I need to take any further action at this end?

Regards

[#9]

We  have been  / still are on the test circuit since yesterday evening. The drop out at  18.00 is when I switched the socket over. Please advise if you want me to switch back at all?

It looks like your connection is still dropping so if you want to move it back you can do, though to be honest if you can I'd recommend leaving your router in the test socket as that's always going to be the best place for the broadband signal.

Not sure I understand the VLAN bit and if congestion locally is the root cause then drop outs seem to be have happened at times when most people are asleep!!

It's possible that the VLAN issue is a different problem to the drops, but i think it may be worth getting that looked at first as we may be able to move you to a cooler one within the next few days and you'll then be able to see whether it's helped.

If we can't move you to a cooler VLAN then we'd need to wait until the planned and estimated resolution date of the 21st December, but as this may not be the cause of the issue I'd be happy with getting an engineer visit arranged sooner.

Let us know how your connection looks over the weekend.

[#10]

Hi

Our connection status monitored over the weekend as requested.

The good news is that it does not appear to have dropped connection for over 3 days. The longest uninterrupted connection that I can recall and leads me to conclude that something has changed at the exchange / your end???

The bad news is that it drop our rather inconveniently on Saturday lunch time!!

The router is still plugged in to the test socket and I plan to move it back to the standard socket and replace ADSL filter  sometime this afternoon so expect a planned drop in connection.

Thoughts  / comments?

[#11]

It's good to see that there's been some improvement whilst we've been waiting for the VLAN move to go through. It is realistic that any connection can drop at any time but if it's dropping frequently or remaining disconnected for a while before reconnecting that would then constitute an issue could look into further. Let us know if you've swapped the filter/socket around yet and we'll check the connection logs with you again to see if that's had any impact.