Help! No broadband on BT Infinity PPPoE failing

Our usually reliable BT infinity FTTC line stopped working in the early hours of Xmas day and is still offline. The modem still has a good DSL sync with the cab but the PPPoE session fails as it would appear it's getting no response from the other end. I've tried a few other modem/routers I have and the result is the same so I'm convinced it's an issue at the BT/ Openreach end.

Neighbors on our cab using BT FTTC seem to be ok as far as I can tell. I've contacted BT and first line support couldn't help so now I have to wait until Friday for an engineer who I suspect will only end up phoning someone else to get something reset.

Note the PPPoE auth isn't failing, there is just no response to the modem PPPoE discovery packets.

Any help appreciated, I can't fix this my end but just wondered if there is anything I might be able to ask BT support to try.

Cheers,

MH

Edited by MaryHinge (Wed 26-Dec-18 08:11:02)

Well if you have a good DSL Sync then the connection to the exchange seems fine, TBH I think its a BT internal issue between the exchange and their network, when ever I have reported this type of fault online on the BT Site it has always detected an issue in their services.

Have you logged into your BT Account and checked your list of reported / open faults, where does it indicate the fault is.

Whenever I ever had a PPPoE authentication issue its been in BT's network, so at this point you will just have to wait for the engineer visit.

Have you got another Modem to try, it might be the router part in your hub?

Paul

Hi Paul,

All the BT tests say there are no issues on their side, and the support person could see I was synced at the DSL layer with no PPPoE session.

I run a Zyxel as a modem in bridging mode with Sophos UTM running on ESXi establishing the PPPoE session. I've tried swapping in a locked Openreach ECI modem and also an unlocked ECI running LEDE with that establishing the PPPoE session to simplify things but the result is the same - no response to the PPPoE discovery packets.

Really bad timing that this started at 4am on Xmas day!

Well it also depends on the support people at BT, there are some people there that know stuff, but there are a lot of them that don't.

I am not say they are wrong, but if the modem is syncing fine but just not authenticating then the issue in my mind is between the exchange and their network.

I have also had an issue in the past with a similar issue and when I reported it I was told, oh its the hub, we will send you a new one out, it arrives a couple of days later to result in the same issue.

So phoned BT again and was told oh its the hub, we will send you a new one out, where I told them no, you already sent me a new one it wasn't that, then they say its internal wiring, I said no its not due to its syncing up fine with the equipment at the exchange.

And several hours later the fault was at the exchange that connects to BT's network.

So BT support staff often read from a queue card, this is why they ask you all the questions.

This was why I asked if you have tried other modems/ routers etc to rule out hardware your end.

I might even be wrong, but I am sure more people will comment with more things it could be.

But yeah it was bad timing for it to all go wrong.

Paul

What happens if you change the Zyzel to act as a router rather than work in modem (bridge) mode?

Same result, no response to the PPPOE discovery packets.

Place the original modem back that got the connection first and then disconnect the session. try again.with any other modem for a session

Try sending a PPPoE session from say a laptop to test.

An engineer is booked for this morning, just seen another one around the corner outside a house that is on the same cab and had a chat with him. He's also booked for other houses on the same cab today (though we aren't on his job list) so I'm guessing it's an issue with a line card in the cab or Exchange, or possibly a fibre break though the fact it started at around 4am on Xmas day you would think that unlikely?

What's really crazy is the bottom-up reporting of the issue, i.e. multiple customers reporting multiple faults on the same cab requiring multiple engineer visits for the same fault. Surely some sort of monitoring should have picked this one up so that rather than a load of wasted engineer visits you just get someone assigned who can actually deal with the problem.

Anyway the engineer is going to talk to his manager about the problem so let's see what comes out of this.

MaryHinge

The problem is clearly not between you and the cab. There is software in OR's systems that would identify a complete Cab issue or a complete cable issue ( before you had time to report it!)

Therefore it is most likely on a VLAN between the Head end and the ISP, as many ISPs would be using more than one VLAN only the ISP would be able to identify this. If a BTWholesale VLAN the failures may be spread across multiple ISPs so each would not identify this if it was only a couple of customers for each ISP.

It sounds to me like a fault on a port/card in a Router in the core that has 'gone to sleep' in one direction and is dropping all the packets, these are a pig to find until the card fails completely. I remember one taking 5 days ( one way voice transmission with diverse routeing affecting a % of calls) and we only found it after someone changed a card that failed and everything started to work again. we then knew which card it was!