erratic and and poor FTTC performance

[#1]

I have FTTC using a Plusnet Hub One router.

Max Line speed is 39 down / 10 up MBps

Normally performance is good, but over the past month or so my family have been complaining bitterly about the internet performance.

My son plays Minecraft on his laptop with a Core i5 processor extended to 8GB Ram with 16GB Intel Optane memory. He constantly complains of "lag" whereby the network momentarily stops for a second or so. When it resumes, it appears that he has suddenly jumped location and he is being accused of "teleporting" or "hacking". Or the freezes allow his opponents to "kill him". This happens both on wifi and ethernet cable. 

When we browse on the web, we often see error messages such as:

"Your connection was interrupted

A network change was detected.

ERR_NETWORK_CHANGED"

Changing webpages is not as responsive as it should be. We also get buffering in the middle of watching programs on iPlayer on the TV connected by cable.

We have the newer Mk3 BT socket with the ADSL filter built-in and only 1 extension in addition to our main phone. Even removing the faceplate to disconnect all phones makes no difference.

Looking at the trouble-shooting event logs in the router, I notice lots of client disassociation/client associations  and lease renewals (like every 20 seconds), but these are mainly with Windows Laptops, so I wonder if these are just indicative of how Windows works(?)

I found a thread about problems with this router and 5GHz wifi. I have the Software version 4.7.5.1.83.8.263 Last updated 27/01/19 so I tried disabling the 5GHz radio, and even splitting it from the 2.4GHz, but it made no difference. Tonight I am finding the 5GHz ssid keeps disappearing and re-appearing as I am typing this.

I performed a "broadbandspeedchecker.com" test (on cable with all phones disconnected) which indicated that download speeds were about 27-34MBps . Upload was around 8Mpbs. I then performed the BTwholesale test which gave worse results of 19MBps, or even less, such as:

"Download Speed (Mbps): 15.82
Upload Speed (Mbps) : 8.68
Ping Latency (ms): 14"

So there seems to be a problem somewhere, which is proving quite annoying.

[#2]

Hi there and sorry to see that this is an issue. I've just been running some tests on your line and we're not seeing signs of any obvious problems. However, if speeds over a wired connection to the router continue to be a problem it would be worth following the checks here before reporting a fault at http://faults.plus.net https://www.plus.net/help/broadband/connection-troubleshooting/

[#3]

Thanks for testing my line. 

I am stumped. I can't see any obvious issues at my end either. I've done the usual checks of disconnecting extensions (I am already direct on the line since I have the Mk3 socket).

Could this be a fault with the router itself? I am not sure if I suffer from the "Hub One - 5GHz WiFi issue"

https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/Hub-One-5GHz-WiFi-issue/td-p/1696363

Or maybe the router is just faulty? Wifi range does seem to be reduced over what we used to have. I have analysed the frequency availability and tried to choose free channels, but it doesn't seem to effect it.

The problem seems to be intermittent, which obviously makes it much more difficult to track down.

Whenever someone in my family reports an issue, I look at the event log to see if anything correlates. The most consistent logs that appear are concerning dhcp leases and wifi association. An excerpt of wifi logs for today is included below. As I am Working from Home at the moment, I have been video conferencing all day and it has been fine, although I got a break of 10 sec audio this afternoon.

13:52:23, 18 Mar.	ath00: STA a4:50:46:5f:2a:55 IEEE 802.11: Client disassociated
13:52:03, 18 Mar.	ath10: STA a4:50:46:5f:2a:55 IEEE 802.11: Client associated
13:51:38, 18 Mar.	ath00: STA a4:50:46:5f:2a:55 IEEE 802.11: Client disassociated
13:44:33, 18 Mar.	ath00: STA a4:50:46:5f:2a:55 IEEE 802.11: Client associated
13:44:29, 18 Mar.	ath00: STA a4:50:46:5f:2a:55 IEEE 802.11: Client disassociated
13:44:29, 18 Mar.	ath00: STA a4:50:46:5f:2a:55 IEEE 802.11: WiFi registration failed
13:44:16, 18 Mar.	ath00: STA a4:50:46:5f:2a:55 IEEE 802.11: Client associated
13:44:06, 18 Mar.	ath10: STA a4:50:46:5f:2a:55 IEEE 802.11: Client disassociated
13:30:51, 18 Mar.	ath00: STA b8:27:eb:21:0f:bf IEEE 802.11: Client associated
13:25:59, 18 Mar.	ath10: STA a4:50:46:5f:2a:55 IEEE 802.11: Client associated
13:25:28, 18 Mar.	ath10: STA a4:50:46:5f:2a:55 IEEE 802.11: Client disassociated
13:18:47, 18 Mar.	ath10: STA a4:50:46:5f:2a:55 IEEE 802.11: Client associated
13:15:58, 18 Mar.	ath10: STA a4:50:46:5f:2a:55 IEEE 802.11: Client disassociated
13:04:58, 18 Mar.	ath10: STA a4:50:46:5f:2a:55 IEEE 802.11: Client associated
13:01:46, 18 Mar.	ath00: STA a4:50:46:5f:2a:55 IEEE 802.11: Client disassociated
13:01:46, 18 Mar.	ath00: STA a4:50:46:5f:2a:55 IEEE 802.11: WiFi registration failed
13:01:46, 18 Mar.	ath00: STA b8:27:eb:21:0f:bf IEEE 802.11: WiFi registration failed
12:39:26, 18 Mar.	ath10: STA e4:70:b8:50:da:0c IEEE 802.11: Client associated
12:39:26, 18 Mar.	ath10: STA e4:70:b8:50:da:0c IEEE 802.11: Client disassociated
12:39:16, 18 Mar.	ath00: STA b8:27:eb:21:0f:bf IEEE 802.11: Client associated
12:39:16, 18 Mar.	ath00: STA b8:27:eb:21:0f:bf IEEE 802.11: Client disassociated
09:17:42, 18 Mar.	ath00: STA b8:27:eb:21:0f:bf IEEE 802.11: Client associated
09:17:42, 18 Mar.	ath00: STA b8:27:eb:21:0f:bf IEEE 802.11: Client disassociated
09:13:41, 18 Mar.	ath00: STA b8:27:eb:21:0f:bf IEEE 802.11: Client associated
09:13:41, 18 Mar.	ath00: STA b8:27:eb:21:0f:bf IEEE 802.11: Client disassociated
09:04:36, 18 Mar.	ath10: STA a4:50:46:5f:5c:57 IEEE 802.11: Client associated

Each client association event also is linked to a new DHCP lease. I have captured full logs for this period if they are of use.

Is this continual re-association to be expected? Note that there was a period of no wifi errors at all between 09:17 and 12:39 this morning.

[#4]

Hey @procount,

Thanks for getting back in touch with us.

I'm sorry this is still occurring, I would suggest connecting via Ethernet wire where possible - especially if using a console/TV/laptop. On testing your service this morning everything appears spot on with no drops in connection for the past four days.

Let us know if you need further assistance,

Thanks.

[#5]

I think my plusnet hub one was at fault. I have bought a new router and it seems to be much better now. I will continue to monitor, though.