3rd Day FTTC - PPPOE drops overnight

[#1]

We have been on FTTC for 3 days, it took the BTW guy 2 days on site to get us sync and for it to be stable.
Following this speeds have been much reduced (lower than ADSL2) of which I currently have a fault raised with plusnet.
The other issue we currently have is that around 9pm every night the connection drops and stops dropped until I reset things the following morning when I get to work. I am accurate with the times as our remote backup mail server has to take over. The DSL light is still solid and all I have to do is reset the router (not the modem) or remove the LAN cable from the router for a minute and then all is well.
The modem is the BT unit which has been provided and we are using our own netgear FVS318 router which is around 5 years old now.
Any thoughts ?
David

[#2]

HI VOD,
Can you PM me the username for the account you're referring to, as it doesn't seem to be the one related to your community site username.
Jojo

[#3]

Well I think you can rule a few things out from your description of the problem.
You say that the DSL light is solid, and all changes you make are to the router to get it running.  This suggests the issues isn't with the BT modem.
Next up, and this is the really interesting clue for me.... you can remove the LAN cable from the router, and this gets things running again... that suggests to me the following:
1) Faulty router
2) Router set to dial on demand/drop connection after no use.
3) Router doing the above because software buggy
4) DHCP issue where PPPoE isn't being dropped, and instead the computers are just losing their IP addresses.
So my instinct on this one, but based on that one statement, is that the problem lies with your router.

[#4]

Thank you for your comments.... 
In terms of the router this is something I am thinking. I did ensure the setting for the connection was 0 so it should be permanently live. But due to the age of the router and the traffic going through I did wonder if there is a little software gremlin in there.
Since I reported the speed problem last night at 5 pm a BTW engineer turned up at 9am to look at the speed. Everyone says the profiles are fine but we are only getting less than ADSL2. They suggest it is a +net problem and upon ringing them again they think it may be something to do with the router dropping in the night ??  I am not too sure about that but I am going to connect a PC direct to the modem tonight with a pppoe connection and see if it drops again. This should rule the router in or out once and for all.... 
I assume if the router is dropping will this affect the DLM if the modem is still in sync ??
BTW still here two hours later and spent an hour on the phone so not too sure what is happening currently.
David

[#5]

Sounds like you have a plan, let us know how it goes.
If the router is gracefully closing the PPPoE session, it shouldn't cause DLM problems.... I say shouldn't, but it might still.
Though they may look connected, I'd suggest tackling one problem at a time.

[#6]

Hi VOD,
Although I doubt this is the cause of your issue, I would recommend leaving the modem on 24/7 especially as it's in the early stages of your training period. I see this is currently being dealt with. Let me know if you need some more assistance.
Jojo

[#7]

VOD, that graph that JoJo helpfully posted, shows the sessions being closed, which suggests a graceful close, usually initiated by the router, as opposed to an abrupt disconnect (eg. crash or fault).  This backs up our theory.

[#8]

What sync speed did the BT man get on his tester?

[#9]

more news !!
The BT spent an hour on the phone to another BT man. They said the line was not 100% stable and decided to put interleaving on.
Now the strange thing was before this happened we tested direct from a PC to modem and only got 2.5.. When we tried this method again we then got 13. Therefore we got a massive improvement but not sure interleaving did this.
I then went back to the netgear but this then dropped back to 2.5 which is then pointing towards a router problem. I have been and borrowed another router (same model unfortunately) and this did the same.
Appears that the router is not fast enough for the throughput.
Therefore I now need to find a suitable router (same functions as the netgear FVS318) any ideas as I need the following
Suitable for FTTC speeds
Firewall
VPN
no need for wireless 
Once this has been sorted then I will look at the dropouts as you never know if this is connected.

[#10]

HI David,
I've one of our faults guys looking at this now for you.
Jojo

[#11]

VOD, sorry can't really suggest something at similar prices.
I used to use a Draytek 2820 with ADSL, and those work at >20Mpbs with ADSL2+, tried and tested.  I've not seen what it does at FTTC Speeds though.

Nowadays I use a sonicwall TZ210, which covers the features you require, but is a bit more expensive. 

[#12]

Thank you for all your comments.
It has certainly been interesting having lines faults and a router problem at the same time.
Just need to find a suitable router, I did look at the latest netgear but I am a little paranoid that after spending a further £200 that will it work !!
It would be worth +net / BT looking into this as business are starting to take on the trial (like us) and we need to use business grade kit with full VPN etc to satisfy our IT requirements. It may save a few teething problems and faults being raised in the long run.
I will let you know how I get one.
David
P.S. the pppoe did not drop yesterday after they put interleaving on ?

[#13]

Quote from: VOD

P.S. the pppoe did not drop yesterday after they put interleaving on ??

That suggests that perhaps you were getting a lot of packet loss which was solved by turning interleaving on; and that this somehow borked the PPPoE process on the router. That might explain something about your speeds too - as a lot of packet loss will affect the ability to transfer data at high speed.
I'm just going through my 3rd day with FTTC - and I can see that I've been suffering from packet loss, and can see the DLM reaction to it. Check out this thread, but ignore my initial posts where I'm just talking about the download speed.