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Suspicious timings of DSL outages

tstaddon
Rising Star
Posts: 182
Thanks: 27
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Suspicious timings of DSL outages

Hi
At precisely 15:00 on Saturday 4th Jan 2014 my internet connection dropped and the router NTP reset itself. The device itself said the DSL circuit was fine but it couldn't reconnect to PlusNet (retried several times over half an hour).
Quote

System Log error reported: netMakeChannDial: err=-3004 rn_p=80458138
SYSTEM CHECK
Test your Ethernet(1-4) Connection: PASS
Test ADSL Synchronization: PASS
INTERNET CONNECTIVITY CHECK
Test the assigned IP address: FAIL
Ping ISP Default Gateway: FAIL
Ping Preferred DNS server: FAIL
Internet Status
ADSL Modulation : ADSL2 PLUS
Cable Status : ADSL Link Up
Virtual Circuit : pvc-0
Connection Type : PPPoE/PPPoA
Network Status : Not Connected
Connection Up Time : N/A
Downstream Line Rate : 22021 kbps
Upstream Line Rate : 1028 kbps

MAC Address : 00:26:5a:0d:**:**
IP Address : 0.0.0.0
Subnet Mask : 0.0.0.0
Default Gateway : 0.0.0.0
Perferred DNS Server : 0.0.0.0


At precisely 15:50, without a reboot or manual reconnect, the router re-established its connection to PN.
It's not the only time this has happened but I'm intrigued - the timing is so precise, on the hour sometimes, I wonder if something else is kicking me off the PN network?
6 REPLIES 6
ejs
Aspiring Hero
Posts: 5,442
Thanks: 631
Fixes: 25
Registered: ‎10-06-2010

Re: Suspicious timings of DSL outages

If your DSL was still properly connected to the exchange, but you had no connection to Plusnet, I think you would get assigned a IP address starting with 172. and see a BT Wholesale webpage informing you of the problem.
Can you get more detailed ADSL stats, such as error counts? Occasionally what can happen is that although the ADSL remains connected and in sync, there are so many CRC errors that no data can actually be transferred over the ADSL, and in that event the PPP connection to Plusnet would be lost and couldn't be re-established until the errors stop. It could be something nearby that gets switched on and puts out a lot of interference (REIN) while it is on.
tstaddon
Rising Star
Posts: 182
Thanks: 27
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: Suspicious timings of DSL outages

Difficult to do I'm afraid. I work away from home a lot (6 days a week for the last 3 months) and nearly every time it happens I'm in a hotel somewhere on the receiving end of a phone call from the folks at home. I have reported it as a support call on one occasion but to be honest, it only goes down for an hour or two at a time and then comes back up so by the time I'm able to do something about it, the problem's solved itself. The only reason I got to log it this time is I was at home on that day, which is a rarity.
It is completely weird though. We've had it happen numerous times over a period of days, and sometimes the router can stay connected for days on end without any glitches at all. According to the router, nothing happens prior to the connection dropping and it's seeing no abnormal traffic; the logs seem to be saying only "it's not connected."
I am not ruling out a router problem but it's the timing that bugs me. A router crash would make sense if it happened when we're hammering the router, or it coincided with street lights coming on, etc.But we can regularly have 3 laptops, 2 smartphones, 2 desktop PCs, a PS3 and the telly all connected to the LAN side and streaming without the router falling over, while it'll fall over at 3pm on a Saturday when the only device in active use at the time was my laptop.
orbrey
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 10,540
Registered: ‎18-07-2007

Re: Suspicious timings of DSL outages

That does sound odd... at the moment there's two things I'm wondering about.
First, is there a sky box or a burglar alarm or something connected to the line? Not sure why they'd be calling out at 3pm but if they are (and aren't properly filtered) they could be causing this.
If not that, then something electronic nearby that's getting turned on when the broadband stops - central heating or similar? Or a set top box set to record a program or something, possibly in a neighbour's house if not your own?
Usually if it's the latter then it's down to a faulty power supply on something that's causing interference. It's a devil to track down though.
Hope those suggestions have helped?
tstaddon
Rising Star
Posts: 182
Thanks: 27
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: Suspicious timings of DSL outages

Nope - no Sky, no burglar alarm, the only POTS device in our house is a normal phone (not even DECT). Gas central heating with the boiler at the back of the house, the phone line goes in the front and terminates before getting to the kitchen.
Our neighbours on both sides work and are hardly ever home during the day. The house opposite us is at least 50 metres away and our front garden is about 40 foot long. Could be interference from inside the house, but no idea what. There's two sockets on the wall near the BT master socket but the wiring doesn't go anywhere near the telephone cable.
tstaddon
Rising Star
Posts: 182
Thanks: 27
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: Suspicious timings of DSL outages

It happened again today. DSL disconnected for a short time and reconnected at bang on 3pm.
orbrey
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 10,540
Registered: ‎18-07-2007

Re: Suspicious timings of DSL outages

Hi there,
Looks like it's happening a bit more often than that according to our connection logs:
<img src="http://community.plus.net/visualradius/generated/image13908344589322.png"/>

I'd recommend running through the checks at http://faults.plus.net, see what they show up?