No network from 2am to 5pm

[#1]

Fair enough, @corringham . Must admit I was toying with the idea of replacing mine a while back, but as I have now decided I'm switching ISPs in a couple of months or so, and getting an unlocked/unmodified Fritzbox when I switch, I'm not bothering.

Good idea for the OP to try another one though - BT HH6 seems to be popular.

[#2]

Actually, I've just had another look at the logs that were provided earlier in the thread, just in case I missed something earlier.

At 19:06 a connection to google was reported destination unreachable.

At 18:49 there was some port scanning from Amazon EC2 - I don't think this is relevant, it is just someone using Amazon's cloud to seek out potential targets.

At 18:49 and 15:56 there was an attempt to reach 8.8.8.8 (google DNS) that was reported destination unreachable.

The CWMP connections were blocked - I'm guessing the router has remote management disabled.

None of the SNTP connections failed, and I think we can ignore them other than they confirm there was internet connection at those times. 

At 07:17, 06:30, and 03:32 incoming ICMP (ping et al.) requests are blocked (correctly by policy).

So the only potentially interesting parts are the outgoing ICMP connections to Google that are reported as destination unreachable - all of those addresses respond for me. There's nothing to say why they are unreachable, and there are only a handful - which probably isn't significant, and can't explain the reported problems.

[#3]

There is something wrong here.

Works fine all day and every night at just gone 2, no network !!!

I've been with plusnet for about 10 years without a problem and now this.

Only just renewed my contract as well !

Still haven't heard back from support.

[#4]

Very strange !

Wi-Fi connected - No Internet

YouTube works fine.

BBC weather app works fine.

Yahoo mail app works fine.

BBC news app - No network.

Chrome - No network.

EBay app - No network.

Halifax app - No network.

[#5]

I still suspect this is probably DNS related - WiFi apps check for internet access by using DNS look ups, no DNS results in the no internet error even if all other aspects of the internet connection are working.

So, when Chrome reports no network, try putting http://212.58.249.144 in the address bar (that is the IP address of one of the BBC news servers). If Chrome can access the page using the IP address it will strongly suggest it is a DNS issue.

An alternative is heavy packet loss - the limited router stats earlier in the thread showed some errors, but probably not enough to explain the problem.

There are a couple of other WiFi networks very close (strong signal strength), so I'd also check that your router is using a different frequency to those to eliminate WiFi contention (although that wouldn't affect the wired TV).

[#6]

Timed it tonight, exactly 2.20am.

Tried the suggested address and the search bar changed to BBC news but connection was not made.

DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN

[#7]

[#8]

OK, in my mind that confirms it is a DNS issue - it got through to BBC news using the IP address, but couldn't load the other parts of the page that are referenced by name.

It doesn't explain exactly what is going on though - especially as it is time specific. That strongly suggests it is a deliberate configuration rather than a random event.

So, the suspects are things such as:

1. parental controls - I'm not terribly familiar with the TG582n, but depending on the firmware revision there may be a time of day parental block in the GUI settings at Home > Home Network > Access Control
   If not, then it will only be accessible via telnet.
2. firewall - since it affects multiple devices, it must be the router or Plusnet's firewall (if you have that enabled). I'm not sure whether either can be time dependent?
3. DNS servers such as OpenDNS - these can be configured to block all sorts of things, including all DNS requests between certain times. It is configured by your public IP address (making the settings unique to your connection) but if you have a dynamic address you may "inherit" somebody else's settings when your IP address changes - I hit that once and it confused me for several days!  However, from the earlier DNS details, you are using Plusnet's DNS.

If you check those and find nothing, then I can describe how to enable detailed logging in Chrome...

[#9]

@corringham I agree with you, although (3) seems to be a real long-shot. I'm not saying it can't happen, as it obviously did to you, but I have never had it happen to me, or heard of anyone else.

I think the access control subject has been mentioned before, but never responded to by the OP, and that is my favourite.

Device access control is exactly as your details in (1).

I don't know the answer to (2), but I would doubt it, personally - surely a firewall is either ON or FF?

[@jab1]

@jab1, yes I agree the parental control is by far the most likely explanation.

Firewalls can be very configurable - but not on cheap devices like the Plusnet provided routers. I'm not sure what the Plusnet DNS parental controls can do?

The OpenDNS issue was a funny one - even when I discovered what was happening and I could see the settings (no access to on-line forums!), but not change them as I didn't know the password that had been set up and the recovery e-mail was of course sent to the person that had set it up not me. It isn't supposed to be possible to set up DNS filtering for dynamic IPs, but it apparently is possible. I no longer use OpenDNS!

[#11]

@corringham The Plusnet router firewall  is set to 'Standard' by default and can be configured to 'BlockAll', which obviously bocks all traffic, 'Standard' which allows all outing and blocks all incoming, or 'off' - self explanatory 😉

I've no idea about the Parental controls' do as I have never needed them, so haven't looked.

Edit - Parental control is just Address-based filtering.

[#12]

There are no parental filters set up and the firewall is set to standard.

[#13]

@arichards In that case, I, for one, am totally stumped, although I notice that although your router logs make no mention of the DSL dropping, it must be doing, as evidenced in post #18.

@corringham - does that give you any thoughts? To me, it is an impossible scenario.

[#14]

Just had a call from plusnet and they can't find any problems and no connection drop at these times.

They are sending me an updated router so hopefully that will solve it.

Will update when it arrives.

[#15]

It is strange that your DSL stats are indicating a loss of DSL signal without it being recorded in the logs - that shouldn't happen.