Disconnections

I am on BT Infinity 1 and have been experiencing several disconnections every day (Home Hub 5 drops the PPP connection and then reconnects), resulting in a few minutes of downtime.

BT did some tests and thought my previous Hub was faulty, they have sent me a replacement Hub but the problem persists. They also close the faults without me confirming that the fault has indeed been fixed.

I have performed the quiet line test and the line is clear.

The disconnections are very upsetting as they disturb my work during the day (I work from home a lot) and also the entertainment in the evening (Netflix stops when the disconnections occur, also Sonos music through Tidal steaming).

Before I go back to BT, has anyone had a similar experience / any advice much appreciated.

Can you describe how it's all connected at your property please, filters, extensions and the like ?

Hi there

I have had pretty much the same scenario with BT except that they have not replaced my hub yet - mine is the BT hub 5 also and I'm on Infinity 1 as well. I have literally just finished talking to them a few moments ago and like you they wanted to close the fault, but still wanted me to monitor over the next day or two.
Unlike you I don't require the internet for business so much now, as my husband has recently retired and our business will soon be closed completely, but I will still need to log into bank and HMRC for a while longer and worry that this will happen at those times.
They seemed more interested in trying to get me to upgrade when it is not necessary. If anything I will be downgrading!!!
I don't play music or Netflix via the internet, but do like to use catchup TV occasionally andd agree that is very frustrating when an un-rectified fault keeps occurring.
I have advised them that unless it is rectified I shall be looking to move elsewhere.
Can anyone advise what the varying lights mean on the hub when it goes down. It mostly shows orange or red lights when it occurs. BT told me about a week ago that if the fault was with the hub that it would be a constant green light. However, today they have told me it would be orange/red lights if the hub is at fault. Can anyone advise on this element please.
Many thanks for any advice given.

Thank you for the reply.

There is a master socket in a cabinet in the loft with its own filter. The Hub is next to the master socket and then connected to a switch which connects to the rest of the house with Cat5e cabling. This was done 5 years ago through a major refurbishment and has been the same since.

The disconnections started about 2 month ago. When they happen I login to the Hub through a browser, to 192.168.1.254 and it shows that broadband has disconnected (Advanced Settings, Broadband, Internet). So it is the Hub that drops the connection and not related to any wiring through the house.

Also in the Event log, Category WAN is full of these entries:

03:09:01, 17 Oct. (509491.240000) PPPoE is up -​ Down Rate=37039Kbps, Up Rate=8679Kbps; SNR Margin Down=6.0dB, Up=6.0dB
03:08:08, 17 Oct. (509439.070000) PTM over DSL is up
03:07:38, 17 Oct. (509408.290000) PTM over DSL is down after 1128 minutes uptime
03:07:38, 17 Oct. (509408.290000) PPPoE is down after 1127 minutes uptime [Waiting for Underlying Connection (WAN Ethernet 7 -​ Down)]
03:07:33, 17 Oct. (509403.620000) PPP LCP Send Termination Request [User request]
08:19:57, 16 Oct. (441747.900000) PPPoE is up -​ Down Rate=36309Kbps, Up Rate=8138Kbps; SNR Margin Down=6.0dB, Up=5.9dB
08:19:05, 16 Oct. (441695.280000) PTM over DSL is up
08:18:33, 16 Oct. (441663.980000) PTM over DSL is down after 18 minutes uptime
08:18:33, 16 Oct. (441663.970000) PPPoE is down after 17 minutes uptime [Waiting for Underlying Connection (WAN Ethernet 7 -​ Down)]
08:18:29, 16 Oct. (441659.170000) PPP LCP Send Termination Request [User request]
08:00:41, 16 Oct. (440591.880000) PPPoE is up -​ Down Rate=36176Kbps, Up Rate=7869Kbps; SNR Margin Down=6.0dB, Up=6.0dB
08:00:41, 16 Oct.
07:59:49, 16 Oct. (440539.340000) PTM over DSL is up
07:59:16, 16 Oct. (440506.840000) PTM over DSL is down after 260 minutes uptime
07:59:16, 16 Oct. (440506.820000) PPPoE is down after 259 minutes uptime [Waiting for Underlying Connection (WAN Ethernet 7 -​ Down)]
07:59:11, 16 Oct. (440502.030000) PPP LCP Send Termination Request [User request]

Thank you in advance for your help.

Thank you for sharing your experience.

Regarding the lights, have a look here: Hub lights

Adding a my own VDSL2 modem in front of the Home Hub helped a lot with regards to stability, i.e. Hub was doing less and the other modem was stable enough to see the DLM allow the line to go faster.

The two box approach also gives you more freedom to place the hub with regards to getting best wireless coverage.

Thank you, I have a Draytek Vigor that I can use for that purpose, maybe I will try it over the weekend.

Re WiFi, most of the clients in the house connect to an Apple Airport Time Capsule (located in the middle of the house and connected to the Hub via Cat5e / configured to bridge mode) and don't really use the Hub WiFi as it is located in a cabinet on the top floor in the house.

So can you use the Apple device to handle the PPP also, use with the Vigor so you can rule out the hub completely ?

Correct, I had that configuration in the past and might revert to it if the problems persist.

Looks like a fault to me, none of my BT hubs have dropped connection for days on end. I used 4, 5 and then 6.

Had a few random reboots of the hub during high load only.