Will once a day power on/off trigger DLM?

[#1]

Very sorry to have missed Adam C's reply a while back - actually he asked me to PM him so I was then looking in the wrong place for the reply.  My mistake.  However, I would like to pick up the thread again because the problem has not gone away - in fact it looks like the connection has dropped and not automatically reconnected at my remote address since yesterday, i.e. yesterday I could access my IP camera and today I can't.
To answer a couple of Adam C's questions: 
1.  The router is a Netgear N300 ADSL 2+, bought as a new replacement for the Technicolor router supplied by PlusNet.  However, dropped connections happen equally with either router.
2.  I'm NOT turning off the router once a day - so far it has been always on.  My original question was whether it is OK to put the router on a time switch and briefly disconnect the power every day as a way to fix dropped connections.  However, the opinion of the Forum is that this could cause DLM issues, which would not be ideal as our download speed is only 1-2MBPS.
So...our connection appears to be down again and will stay that way until I'm next at my Yorkshire Dales address and can physically reboot.  It would be nice to get to the bottom of the problem. 
Will PN pick this up from here or should I raise a new ticket?
The extra advice I've had from forum members is very much appreciated.

[#2]

Hi Dalesman,
I would suspect that there is a phone line problem requiring investigation, which will mean being there to do it.
Would this be a holiday home not normally occupied?  If yes, sorting this could be a pain in the neck.
Kevin

[#3]

If

• you have a computer in the building with camera


• it is the DSL connection that is failing and not something else related to the router, so the computer can still access the router

Then

• you could arrange the computer to wake up every now and then,


• check the router,


• reset the router if necessary.

Even something like a Raspberry Pie should be enough; possibly cheaper than any custom devices.

[#4]

Townman - thanks.  Yes, it is a second home.  What phone line checks would be in order, other than a noisy line test (17070) which I admit I forgot to do last time I was up there?  We have  2 miles of overhead phone line from the green cabinet, so I guess we can't expect perfection. 
sjptd - thanks also for this suggestion.  I don't leave a computer at this address, just the camera and router.  Configuring a Raspberry Pi to reboot the router would not fall within my IT skills, unfortunately.

[#5]

What connection options do you have on your router?  I have an ancient 3Com Office Connect router.  On the ATM page there is a line Connect Type and then it gives me various options in a drop-down list.  The one I have found works best is Always Connected.  If it Disconnects, which according to the log it does about once a day, it normally reconnects immediately, but if it can't it carries on trying until it succeeds.  Do you have anything similar on your router?

[#6]

Hi - the connection options are:  always on, dial on demand, manually connect.  It's set to 'always on'.

[#7]

In that case the question must be why the router is not reconnecting after a disconnection.  I don't know enough to know the answer, but maybe someone more knowledgeable can comment on what would stop it reconnecting.

[#8]

Good question and I would like to understand this too.  PN have suggested the disconnections could be due to BT maintenance at the exchange and sometimes forgetting to send a reconnect signal.  But this would imply on-going maintenance week by week and a lot of forgetfulness.  I suspected it might be due to a poor quality rural phone line combined with characteristics of the Technicolor router.  I bought a Netgear N300 as a replacement, but unfortunately with no improvement.

[#9]

One vague option (albeit Plusnet DO NOT) like doing so
However
The consideration of having DLM turned off, even if it is only temporary, whilst you seek a more permanent solution

[#10]

Turning DLM off will not fix a faulty phone line which is what sounds like the problem here.
If you have an intermittent iffy joint or a battery or earth fault, it can/will cause a lot of noise on the line (from the ADSL modem point of view). This will prevent it reconnecting whilst the noise is present. It is highly likely that the noise will be audible as well.

Quote from: Dalesman

Townman - thanks.  Yes, it is a second home.  What phone line checks would be in order, other than a noisy line test (17070) which I admit I forgot to do last time I was up there?  We have  2 miles of overhead phone line from the green cabinet, so I guess we can't expect perfection.

Oh yes you can expect perfection, that is what you pay your line rental for. You need to do the quiet line test (option 2) as mentioned by Townman. Any sign of any crackles, pops etc means a fault. The trouble with intermittent faults is catching it at a time it's happening. Who do you pay line rental to?
One other trick you can try is ring the landline of the property when it seems not to be connected. The ringing current will sometimes clean an iffy joint sufficiently. As has already been mentioned, reconnects are better in daylight hours especially on very long lines because background noise levels are usually lower (leaving faults aside) an you will normally get a faster sync speed.
On the subject of modem/routers - the Technicolor shouldn't give an issue if it has the latest firmware. Is it the TG582n and has it got a USB socket? Log into it and check the firmware version (it doesn't have to be connected to the line to do this) just the computer which you may need to reboot to pickup the correct  LAN setting.
Also your Netgear, there have been some issues with some recent Netgear's as well, check that it has the latest firmware also.

[#11]

Thanks for this.  We pay line rental to PlusNet.  It helps to know what standard of service one can reasonably expect.  I've reported this several times to PN by phone and the response has been, so far, that the frequency of disconnects is below what BT would consider to be fault and they would not be willing to investigate it.
Will check and update router firmware when I'm next in the Dales.
One question - I just tried ringing the line as you suggested.  Does the router keep trying to reconnect or just give up?  Once it's down, it stays down until I next visit and reboot the router. 

[#12]

Unless the router gets "confused" it keeps trying.

[#13]

Quote

PN have suggested the disconnections could be due to BT maintenance at the exchange and sometimes forgetting to send a reconnect signal.  But this would imply on-going maintenance week by week and a lot of forgetfulness.

When set to Always Connected my 3com router reconnects automatically after a disconnection without needing a signal from BT to tell it.  I have just unplugged my telephone line from the router and this is what the log shows (with IP addresses partially redacted).
[tt]2014.10.24 10:14:52 If(ATM1) PPP connection ok !
2014.10.24 10:14:51 ATM1 get IP:80.229.xxx.xxx
2014.10.24 10:14:50 ATM1 start PPP
2014.10.24 10:14:50 If(ATM1) PPP fail : Peer terminate
2014.10.24 10:14:49 sending ACK to 192.168.1.2
2014.10.24 10:14:48 ATM1 start PPP
2014.10.24 10:07:42 If(ATM1) PPP connection ok !
2014.10.24 10:07:41 ATM1 get IP:46.208.xxx.xxx
2014.10.24 10:07:34 ADSL Media Up !
2014.10.24 10:07:11 ATM1 start PPP
2014.10.24 10:07:11 If(ATM1) PPP fail : Timeout in LCP negotiation
2014.10.24 10:06:21 ATM1 start PPP
2014.10.24 10:06:21 If(ATM1) PPP fail : Timeout in LCP negotiation
2014.10.24 10:05:31 ATM1 start PPP
2014.10.24 10:05:31 If(ATM1) PPP fail : Timeout in LCP negotiation
2014.10.24 10:04:41 ATM1 start PPP
2014.10.24 10:04:41 If(ATM1) PPP fail : Timeout in LCP negotiation
2014.10.24 10:03:53 ATM1 start PPP
2014.10.24 10:03:53 If(ATM1) PPP fail : Timeout in LCP negotiation
2014.10.24 10:03:05 ATM1 start PPP
2014.10.24 10:03:01 ATM1 stop PPP
2014.10.24 10:00:07 If(ATM1) PPP connection ok !
2014.10.24 10:00:06 ATM1 get IP:80.229.xxx.xxx
2014.10.24 10:00:05 ATM1 start PPP
2014.10.24 10:00:01 ATM1 stop PPP [/tt]
Firstly it shows the advice in this forum about how to disconnect safely is wrong.  I clicked the Disconnect button and it reconnected within 6s, before I had had time to unplug the line.  Once the line was unplugged, you can see it retries every 50s.  I am not sure why it disconnected again 7min after successfully reconnecting, but I have included that for completeness.
It seems unlikely that a more modern router would behave differently, although if you have tried two routers from different manufacturers it is also unlikely both would have a similar firmware error.  You could try taking one of the routers home to see how it behaves with no telephone line connected.

[#14]

We need to know how broken it is to know whether they may be a way to resurrect it? Can you access the router interface? Have you tried just doing a connect via the router interface without rebooting the router?
On the TG582 with the 10.2.2.* firmware, if you telnet in to it you can do the following commands:

ppp ifdetach intf=Internet
xdsl config status=down
xdsl config status=up
ppp ifattach intf=Internet

They drop PPPoE, drop sync, raise sync, raise PPPoE. If that resurrects the connection without rebooting the router I'm sure the Pi idea is practical.

[#15]

Quote from: sjptd

Even something like a Raspberry Pie should be enough; possibly cheaper than any custom devices.

Apart from making a mess, I'm not sure how anything produced by Mary Berry is going to help!