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Broadband dropouts

jokskot
Newbie
Posts: 3
Registered: ‎30-08-2018

Broadband dropouts

I occasionally get service dropouts, generally only for a few seconds, but occasionally for several minutes. When this occurs I monitor the the service with Net Uptime Monitor which works by Pinging three constantly up web sites including Google and Yahoo.
(I have wired connections (both <2m) from the pc to the Router to the telephone main socket.The socket has an integral filter and has been replaced by BT within the last year.)

If no response is found with the first web site it rotates to the next site until a response is received. If no response is received from any web site in 5 seconds it registers a connection failure and continues monitoring until a connection is found and then records the length of the failure. As typical ping times are of the order of 20mS, it means the a failure is only recorded after around 10 attempts to connect to each website. I collect the data, and sometimes it can be days before a failure, but then there could be 50 failures in a day and the failure times are generally around 10 seconds and rarely more than 20 minutes. Armed with these data I contact Plusnet who inevitably state there is no problem as measured from their end. However, the problem miraculously disappears.

Am I alone in this?

5 REPLIES 5
TheMightyAJ
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 2,511
Fixes: 126
Registered: ‎26-03-2018

Re: Broadband dropouts

Hi @jokskot,

I've taken a look into this issue today and upon testing your line and looking at your connection, I can't see that the connection is dropping out on a regular basis.

 

 

As this is the case, before we can decide how best to proceed from here I'd like to clarify a couple of things. Firstly, does this issue happen across all of your devices and secondly does the same issue happen through Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections?

If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Alex H
 Plusnet Help Team
jokskot
Newbie
Posts: 3
Registered: ‎30-08-2018

Re: Broadband dropouts

I notice dropouts or slow connections anywhere on my network. When they become irritating I monitor as indicated in my OP using a wired connection through the master socket and direct to the router. I define a dropout as a failure to get a ping in five seconds. How do you define a dropout? What was the duration of the dropout you show on 24 Aug?

TheMightyAJ
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 2,511
Fixes: 126
Registered: ‎26-03-2018

Re: Broadband dropouts

Thanks for getting back to us.

The drop out shown in the graph would have only been for a very brief time, most likely due to a reboot but as it is solitary it isn't anything to worry about in and of itself. In this case, I would classify a drop in connection as anything that causes the broadband connection itself to drop and as the graph above shows, we've only seen one instance of the router losing connection very briefly in the last 9 days.

To be honest, I'm not quite sure that the issue you're experiencing is a dropping connection issue as much as it may be a throughput speed issue, but just to rule it out are you using a VPN at all when this occurs?

If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Alex H
 Plusnet Help Team
jokskot
Newbie
Posts: 3
Registered: ‎30-08-2018

Re: Broadband dropouts

If I fail to ping Google etc. for a period of 26 minutes, as was the case a couple of days ago, how else can you explain this, other than that the connection has dropped?

I have had 60 failures to ping in the last 87 hours, mainly short (<20 secs) duration, except for that a couple of days ago. I can provide the data if it would be helpful.

fwiw I've noted that the download speed has got faster recently, having risen from ~16Mbps to around 20Mbps.

adamwalker
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
Posts: 16,871
Thanks: 882
Fixes: 221
Registered: ‎27-04-2007

Re: Broadband dropouts

Hi jokskot, 

 

The connection hasn't been dropping from our point of view. Google do reject ping requests so that might send you on a wild goose chase if you're looking at why those are failing so I'd have a look at pinging something else. 

 

If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Adam Walker
 Plusnet Help Team