cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Intermittent connection problems

AlexPlus
Newbie
Posts: 2
Registered: ‎07-04-2008

Intermittent connection problems

After many months of happy PlusNet usage, an annoying problem has appeared in the form of frequent inability to connect to PlusNet via broadband. It began about 3 months ago, at the same time as some scheduled maintenance work on the local exchange so I didn't think too much of it, but it's been continuing off-and-on ever since and is beginning to drive us mad!
The symptom is that, although the connection to the router is picked up fine, there's no broadband available (no Internet or email, no DNS servers, nothing). Checking the router logs shows "connection refused - invalid password or user". This tends to happen more during peak times than off-peak (although not always). Waiting an hour - or even 30 minutes sometimes - and trying again can work (but again, not always).
Just to go through the obvious culprits: it's the same with wired and wireless connections, and on a range of devices (i.e. it's not just my PC!). I've connected the router to the main phone socket in the house, and microfilters are fitted to the other devices on the phone line. (In any case, it's not a sync or disconnect problem - it refuses to connect at all in the first place!).
Any ideas or advice on how to proceed would be much appreciated. In particular, if anyone else has experienced the same thing, I'd love to hear any solutions.
3 REPLIES 3
James
Grafter
Posts: 21,036
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Intermittent connection problems

Hi there,
We are definitely seeing disconnections from this end.  Whether this is you rebooting your router or whether the connection is actually dropping, I'm not entirely sure.
I would be inclined to think it's a dropping sync issue in which case I'd recommend that you do try changing filters and ensuring that your router is connecting to your master socket via a filter.
AlexPlus
Newbie
Posts: 2
Registered: ‎07-04-2008

Re: Intermittent connection problems

That was a quick reply! We have been rebooting the router a *lot* to try and get a connection (5 - 10 times a day at the weekend sometimes?), which probably explains the disconnections. If it was a losing sync issue, wouldn't we be getting a connection and then a disconnect though? What we're seeing is sometimes a good connection, sometimes no connection at all. We're not seeing disconnects during usage really (when it does connect).
I've just found the faults flowchart on http://community.plus.net/blog/2008/02/19/my-broadband-doesnt-work/ so the next time broadband doesn't connect, I'll try that. Should help narrow down the problem a bit.
I think I have some spare microfilters at home, so I'll swap them just in case, as you suggest. You never know and I certainly wouldn't vouch for the phone line quality in the house, I'm sure some of it is pretty old.
Having posted this, I'm expecting it to be Sod's Law and broadband to work just fine for the next few days 🙂
James
Grafter
Posts: 21,036
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Intermittent connection problems

Quote
Having posted this, I'm expecting it to be Sod's Law and broadband to work just fine for the next few days 🙂

Amen to that Smiley