Broadband dropouts

[#1]

Anybody else having problems with continual broadband dropouts during the day? Mine is dropping every few minutes, and then takes a few minutes to sort itself out again (I'm in the Cheltenham area). Does this repeatedly for a few hours. Then it's OK for a few hours, then it all starts again.

The service is almost unuseable. It took me a while just to get this forum post in because of the dropouts.

I tried to call it into the support desk but after hanging on for 20mins (twice) gave up and used chat (in a period when it wasn't dropping out).

So far all I've got is a procedure to check the router/PC etc. but all seems OK.

This seems to me to be a Plusnet system problem, but so far the support response has been inadequate.

I'd be interested to hear of recent similar occurrences from other people.

Thanks

[#2]

Does your broadband connection light go out on the router ? is the router from plusnet ? are you connected to the router by an ethernet cable or wifi ?

[#3]

Hi hitchhiker43, thanks for responding.

Yes, the broadband light goes out.  Then it flashes for about a minute.  Finally it lights up solid, and a few seconds later the internet light comes back on.  At the moment it's only staying connected for about a minute at a time, then the whole process starts again.

It's a plusnet router, about 6 months old.  Looks to be a sagemcom.

I'm connected by cable on one machine and wireless on others.

Cheers

[#4]

Its a pleasure, wow sounds like a nasty fault of some kind, do you know about router stats ?

You can usually login at 192.168.1.1 but I don't know about plusnet routers, certainly the BT ones I have seen hide everything from the user, but if you can login and post the stats here that might provide a few more clues

[#5]

I can get into the router but unfortunately no stats visible.

[#6]

Damm thats so frustrating, very short sighted of these ISP's I was astonished when I found out the BT products also block it. Well the only other thing you can do is eliminate your house wiring/filter by plugging the router directly into the test socket behind your master socket faceplate, have you tried that already ?

[#7]

Which router do you have? Someone on here may be able to help get some useful information out of it.

[#8]

If it's the sagecom 2704n, log in is on 192.168.1.254. Then click on the helpdesk tab, enter the router password from the label on the back of the router and some basic stats are available. More detailed stats are on 192.168.1.254/expert_user.html

Unfortunately neither routerstats or dslstats work with the 2704n 😩

Hope this helps.

[#9]

Try listening on your telephone line when this is occurring. If there is noise on the line, then this will kill your broadband also and the behaviour patterns suggest this might be the cause.

Such noise can appear anywhere in the circuit as copper can degrade/pick up noise//loose connection that needs re-punching/all sorts.

[#10]

dial 17070 and select 2, its called the quiet line test or QLT, gets rid of the annoying dial tone but then deafens you with a recorded message every 30 secs or so!!

[#11 · Accepted solution]

Thanks everybody for your comments and suggestions.

Plusnet support called Monday evening, and suggested factory reset of the router.  No dropouts that I've noticed since then, so it seems the router had it's knickers twisted.

Thanks again