Problem with connection and account in PlusNet database

[#1]

This morning, my broadband connection stopped working. I'd been feeling the service deteriorating for a while, in terms of getting slower, and requiring reconnecting. At first, I thought it might be a problem at my end, but when I checked the "ViewYour Broadband Usage", there are, for 100% certain, problems with errors at the PlusNet end that have appeared to start on Sunday (16 January) morning.
I'm on Broadband Premier, and my typical daily usage might be something like:
Peak usage: >500MB
Off-peak:  2 GB
Nothing changed from normal usage this week, but the reported usage at PlusNet is:
Sun 16 Jan
Peak usage: 0
Off-peak: 74.76MB
Mon 17 Jan
Peak usage: 0
Off-peak: 0
Tue 18 Jan
Peak usage: 0
Off-peak: 0
Wed 19 Jan
Peak usage: 83.62MB
Off-peak: 186.26MB

All these numbers are wrong (I was using the Internet completely as normal every day this week).  Today, Thu 20, is showing 0KB, and is about right, because the connection isn't working.
Anyone got any idea what the cause of this is, and how likely this is to be related to my broadband connection being broken at the moment?
My connection to PlusNet appears to be OK in terms of getting assigned the correct fixed WAN IP address, and have my usual SNR Margin (10.5) and usual Loop Attenuation (30.5).
Any suggestions of how to fix the connection would be appreciated...

[#2]

I'm seeing pretty much the same thing.
See this post: http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,92444.msg774853.html and this status information: http://www.plus.net/supportpages.html?a=2&support_action=messages&ispservice_id=portal

[#3]

Thanks for that. Seems that errors in the broadband usage reporting are to be expected.  I'm not seeing any mention of whether this is related to failure of actual connections - that is, all web-sites refusing to load.
From Windows, I can ping sites OK without packet loss; and traceroute works fine too.  So, right now, I'm not sure why I have no web access from my connection.
(On a Mac I'm seeing packet loss, and failure of traceroute to get past my router onto the WAN)

[#4]

Ah, no - that is purely a problem in reporting the usage figures... not a problem in actually using the connection.
If you're having connection problems, then treat that as a totally separate issue.
Are your line stats showing that you are reconnecting often, or staying connected throughout? One tool that might help identify issues over time, as you have a fixed IP, is the "Think Broadband" quality meter. Essentially a tool that pings your router from the internet, and keeps graphs showing latency and packet loss 24/7. If that shows regular bursts of lost pings, it suggests resyncs happening.
Otherwise you are seeing that ping & traceroute works, but HTTP doesn't. What about other protocols (eg email, ssh, telnet)? Someone had a similar issue recently which appeared to be a problem with the router (I think a netgear DGN1000) which was fixed by an upgraded replacement (I think DGN2xxx). That one had problems over the wireless link, but worked when wired.

[#5]

If I telnet to port 80 of google and send a GET request, sometimes I get nothing back, and sometimes after a long wait (many seconds), I get the whole page sent back.

Thanks for the various suggestions, including trying out wired connection, and different routers etc. Will do that next.

[#6]

I have now:
o Tried with a brand new router, new microfilters, and using the main telephone socket in the house
There is still no access to web-sites, and now can't get a response from sending requests over telnet on port 80.  Ping and traceroute to google still work fine though when the connection is live.
One thing that has become apparent with the new router, is that the connection is dropping frequently - every few minutes.  Then, after a short while, the connection comes back. Even when the router reports that it's connected to the Internet though, and ping and traceroute are working, web-sites still never work.

[#7]

For people's information, I raised a ticket with PlusNet support at 5.24pm today...

[#8]

Absolutely the right thing to do, I think.
If you think your line is disconnecting, and want to see how much, then a graph is definitely useful to visualise. For that you may find the RouterStats tool to be useful, if you have the right kind of router: http://www.vwlowen.co.uk/internet/files.htm. Or RouterStats-lite for a smaller subset. That will monitor the router's perception of your line.
Obviously there's still the BQM from TBB. That will monitor the line from the other end.
Finally, as you seem to be getting strange behaviour, you might find Wireshark useful. that will monitor the ethernet card, and let you know about the packets going back-and-forth. You should be able to see whether you are getting any responses to those port-80 requests, or any others.

[#9]

Thanks so much for those suggestions. I'll have a look what I can do with those. The behaviour is a little stranger than I thought, because:
-  The line doesn't seem to drop, so much as the router being logged off the Plusnet network after really short times (typically stays connected for less than a minute). That is, the router loses its WAN IP address and related information (DNS servers etc) all the time, then the router tries to log-in again (see excerpt from log below)
- However, even when there is no apparent log-in the the Plusnet network  (the router reports that it is not connected to the Internet, and no WAN IP address etc) the Internet is actually still accessible.  That is ping and traceroute still work fine, even then.
Jan 20 17:44:32 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 17:48:25 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 17:48:52 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 17:50:17 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 17:53:54 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 17:56:17 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 17:58:25 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 18:01:35 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 18:02:13 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 18:02:56 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 18:09:17 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 18:10:52 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 18:13:07 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 18:17:52 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 18:20:34 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 18:21:59 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 18:24:18 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 18:25:06 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 18:28:45 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 18:31:02 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 18:31:52 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 18:34:09 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 18:34:59 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 18:37:16 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 18:38:03 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 18:39:33 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 18:40:34 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 18:43:44 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 18:45:36 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 18:47:06 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 18:48:07 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 18:49:42 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 18:50:43 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 18:51:31 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 18:52:43 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 18:54:13 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 18:55:14 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 19:02:16 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 19:03:06 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 19:03:43 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 19:06:09 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 19:07:44 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 19:08:45 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 19:09:23 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 19:10:35 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 19:13:35 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 19:14:13 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 19:14:55 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 19:16:08 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 19:16:50 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 19:18:02 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 19:20:25 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected
Jan 20 19:21:15 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Not Connected
Jan 20 19:21:52 router daemon.info wanstatus[992]: Internet Status: Connected

Hopefully Plusnet support will be able to see what's going from their end.

[#10]

Wow.
The pattern would make me initially think of authentication problems, but some of the connected times are more than a few minutes, so it is probably not that.
BTW - as you gather more information, don't be tempted to go back and update the fault ticket. Unfortunately that puts you at the back of the queue again.
Counter-productive, but that's the system...
Best to just gather the data, so you can post it all here, or in one go on the ticket, after you get a response.

[#11]

Thanks for the advice. It looks like the first problem is going to be getting the right people in PlusNet support to look at the issue.  Someone in PlusNet support looked at the issue, but it seems my issue got to the wrong team, and they got back to me suggesting I raise a fault... despite the fact that's what I was obviously trying to do e.g. the path at the top of my support issue shows:
Support Wizard Journey
[Self-test and Raise a Fault]
So given that raising is fault is what I tried to do the first time, I didn't want to simply repeat the process in case I got an identical response, so I've asked them to raise the fault.  I don't know whether they're able to do that. I hope they are.

[#12]

Well, not sure if anyone at the Plusnet end has done anything - but my Internet connection has just started working again.
- My logs say my router last connected to the Plusnet network at 10.50am this morning, and the connection hasn't been lost since then (it's now 11.08)
- I now have web access
Assuming Plusnet fixed the issue, and someone tells me what the problem was, I'll let people what the issue was, here.