Evening disconnections

[#1]

Hello,

I've been with Plusnet for about 15 years. Over the last couple of years, my connection completely drops some evenings as I replied in another thread.

Some months the connection stays fairly stable but then I get a spate of frequent disconnections.

This last two weeks, it has dropped at 9pm or 10pm like clockwork, as it has done before.

BT have previously replaced my master socket and plusnet have stated it sounds like interference.

However, I have nothing in my house that is timed to go on or stop at these times and I would have thought if anything in the house (believe me, I have tried to think what it could be!) was causing it, I do not understand why it only happens in clusters and some months appear fine.

Is there anyway of 'insulating' my line to prevent interference? I am clutching at straws here but hope an expert would know.

I've tried using a 'premium' cable from the socket to the router but that has not helped. The router is only 50cm from the master socket, but my telephone line runs from a pole from across my road to the roof line, down the wall and into my integral garage where it runs a fair way before going through an internal wall to the master socket.

My neighbours are not having this issue of regular connection loss at the same time each evening but do say their internet drops out fairly frequently. I live in a village if that makes a difference to the interference. Someone previously suggested streetlights but the nearest streetlight is about 80 metres away and we only have three in total.

Another poster says their whole line was replaced. Anyone else had success at getting this done?

Thanks, Jon.

[#2]

Hi @jcer947, thanks for getting in touch and I'm sorry to hear you're having connection issues as of recent. I can confirm when looking over your connection from this side I can see the intermittent drops that look to be occurring shown by the graph below:



When testing over your connection from this side I can't see any underlying errors or faults that look to be behind the drops so I'd recommend running through the below internal troubleshoot steps to see if the issue persists there after.

I'd recommend starting with basic checks here: http://goo.gl/p2tpvL
 

And if that doesn't help the next thing would be to rule your internal wiring out by plugging the connection into your test socket which is under the faceplate of your master socket and seeing if the drops stop. This rules out internal wiring, face plates and extension sockets as being the cause. How to locate the test socket and set your connection into it can be found here:
https://community.plus.net/t5/Library/Testing-From-The-Master-Socket/ba-p/1322242

Let us know how it goes and if the drops look to persist.

[#3]

Hi Jon,

Just want to add my experience so you know. I Have only been with Plusnet since the end of May, and i started having these regular drops immediately, always between 9 and midnight. Sometimes just the one at 9 (like another user, it became a joke at first with me and my friends) and sometimes 3-4 a night. They seem to take a long time, 5-10 minutes, to reconnect.

I have had 3 engineer visits, the connections to the junction box all replaced, a brand new line directly from the pole to my house, straight into the BT socket, a second router, the works. The last engineer, a couple of weeks ago, said that after he did his work, everything between my house and the network was pretty much brand new. 

He said to give it a week to allow the router to settle, and indeed I did have the occasional drop out, but these usually only took a couple of minutes to reconnect. then I had a few days with no issues, but the last couple of days the problem seems to have reared its ugly head again. Having spoken to neighbours, they dont appear to have the same fault with it cutting out, so I'm doubtful about any external interference. As I'm looking to do work from home, but it is in the evenings between 6 and midnight, those plans are currently on hold as a stable connection is vital, so to say its frustrating is an understatement. Just keeping my fingers crossed that it decides to stop.

Best of luck with everything, and i hope your issues get resolved!

Edd.

[#4]

Hi @tsebaracor, thanks for getting in touch and I'm sorry to hear you've been having further connection issues. When looking over your connection this side and shown by the graph below I can see there certainly looks to be drops occuring however they look to be very intermittent with roughly one per day.




I'm afraid unless the drops look to be occuring more than 3 time sin 24 hours or 6 time sin 72 hour then we'd be unable to progress this fault further with our suppliers. I'd advise then to continue monitoring your side then and should you see the drops look ot increase then please get back to us and we'll happily continue investigating further.

[#5]

As an update to my original post, I have not had any disconnections for the last 5 days since one bang on 8pm.

I have not altered my set up in any way. I have not tried connecting direct to the master socket. I tried all that the last two times I reported the issue to Plusnet.

From experience, my connection might stay stable for a few more days, for nearly a month or might go down later this evening, but when it does, it seems to portend a spate of disconnections on the hour in the evening.

I still think it is external interference.

Would a new line from the pole into my house potentially solve the issue or can my line be insulated from interference in any way? 

Has anybody been able to get Openreach to do the work and roughly what is the cost?

Thanks,

Jon.

[#6]

Hi @jcer947,

Having had a look at your connection today, it doesn't appear that there's any fault at the present time, with the line remaining stable for some time now. Hopefully it stays this way, but if any further drops do occur then we can continue our investigation from there. In all honesty, replacing a section of the line isn't going to be Openreach's first solution to a reported fault and we'd need some evidence of this actually causing drops before it could be considered. For the time being, I'd keep an eye on how things go and let us know if the connection drops out again. If you have any other queries, please feel free to add them into the thread and we'll be happy to review the case further.

[#7]

Hello,

The disconnections have returned. The ones I know about are about:
2130 hours 17/08/21
1825 hours 18/08/21
2200 hours 20/08/21

We’ve been on holiday so I don’t know how many disconnections have occurred this last week but on my return this evening, the help desk part of the router page indicated a disconnect at around 2300 hours 25/08/21 and a disconnect occurred this evening at about 21.20 hours 27/08/21.

Very frustrating. What evidence would be required to get OpenReach to try a new line? Bear in mind I’ve already had an engineer come out and fit a new master socket (January, I think) and you’ve sent me a new router which has not stopped the disconnections.
Back in April, I’ve a screenshot of the help desk router page showing a stable connection for over 36 days. I still feel something externally is causing this as I don’t understand why the line should stay so stable back then, but repeatedly have instances of disconnections at other times when nothing has changed at my home address.

Regards, Jon.

[#8]

Hi @jcer947, thanks for getting back to us. I am sorry to hear the drops have returned, I have provided the last weeks connection logs below for you:

The work determined would depend on the results of an engineer and their findings and so if they don't detect any issues being seen with part of the cabling, they likely won't replace it.

Whilst it's looking more stable at the moment, if the drops start up again I would advise to log a new fault here so we can look at getting another engineer out for you.

[#9]

Hello.

I realise I’m resurrecting this thread. Sorry for that.

The connection had seemed to stabilise for several days at a time. Until recently.

Since mid October, it was disconnecting every couple of days. Now, nearly every day and at times other than an evening too.

Again, nothing has changed my end.

It is so frustrating knowing that any streaming programme can be interrupted any time without warning and makes watching anything a stressful lottery.

I still think this is external interference.

Is there nothing Plusnet can do to investigate?

[#10]

Hi Jon, I'm really sorry to see you're still getting intermittent drops in your connection.

I'd like to arrange another Openreach engineer visit to take a closer look and I'm taking this on personally moving forward so I'll stay with you until we've hopefully got the problem fully sorted.

If an engineer detects interference from their tests, they'd be able to open a REIN (Repetitive Electrical Impulse Noise) case for a REIN engineer to investigate this further and try to get to the bottom of what's causing the interference.

Could you reply to the ticket I've logged on your account Here with when you'd be available for a visit?