FTTC very unreliable?

Since I switched to Zen Internet FTTC, I've had a much more unreliable connection than my old ADSL2+ connection with BE. Regular LCP timeouts seem to be the issue, the logs from pppd on my Linux router tell me. The pppd has to regularly disconnect and reconnect the underlying PPPoE session because of these timeouts. It often gets noticed at the TCP level where applications that want a stable TCP connection like IRC, streaming video, etc. will cut out. While the PPP is reconnection, you can't get a ping response from any server on the net.

When the connection is working, the speed is fine. The whole problem is regular disconnections.

Am I just unlucky here and is it likely to be some dodgy BT equipment at my local cabinet or exchange, or is this common for FTTC? I wish I could look at the VDSL modem logs but of course BT don't let you do that.

Edited by jez9999 (Mon 02-Dec-13 13:40:39)

It isn't normal. What do Zen say about it?

Edit - is it BT Wholesale, or Zen "LLU" by whatever name they give it at the moment?

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 02-Dec-13 15:32:09)

The reliability of my service has, thusfar, been top notch.

In reply to a post by jez9999:

I wish I could look at the VDSL modem logs but of course BT don't let you do that.

It's pretty stupid if BT locked that FTTC modem and won't let u see any logs or sync rate. I don't see the point of why BT blocked modem to access logs or sync stats.

Because that is something done in many other countries, the modem is supplied as a black box.

As Sky has shown they can reflect some data to the router, e.g. current sync speed and nothing stopping other providers offering it in a web portal, even with historical charts and other tracking if that is what people are willing to pay for.

To stop people with 55,555kbps sync raising tickets and complaints when they only get 52Mbps on a speed test.

I manage a number of Zen FTTC connections and generally reliability doesn't seem to be a problem. I've just looked at one and it's showing nearly a thousand hours uptime. Two have been reloaded in the past 24 hours as I've updated the configuration so I have no figures for these.

I have one connection (out of four) which is less reliable but it's quite a long way from the cabinet and the previous ADSL service on the same line also dropped regularly. The FTTC service drops less frequently. This is showing three and a half days uptime. The ADSL used to drop at least once a day.

I think the problem with this circuit lies between the cabinet and the master socket. The line was once cut through outside the premises by intruders so there's a splice somehwere which may affect it.

I'm not using an Openreach modem on any of the connections.

Why don't you grab a second modem from eBay and unlock it if you don't want to unlock yours.

Im with Zen and there was a major problem with my line due to a faulty cable joint under the pavement. The graphs you get with an unlocked modem give lots of information, I could see noise increasing on my line at random points throughout the day.

When I reported the case to Zen they were more than helpful, they didn't give up with BT. In the end openreach dug up the road and repaired the cable.

Better still I even managed to wangle getting my line fed from a different set of D side cables, just by chance my house was at the end of two d side loops that run either way around the estate. In the end phone phone line was a couple of hundred metres shorter and my connection was even better than when the fault first occurred.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Because that is something done in many other countries, the modem is supplied as a black box.

As Sky has shown they can reflect some data to the router, e.g. current sync speed and nothing stopping other providers offering it in a web portal, even with historical charts and other tracking if that is what people are willing to pay for.

Then why they cant just enable SNMP and be done with it I'll never know.