One or two connection dropouts a day

Hi all. I'm just wanting a bit of advice here regarding connection stability.

I experience a loss of my connection (FTTC) once or twice a day. It happens at random times and doesn't seem to be linked to activity - it can happen under heavy usage, and it can happen when no devices are even connected to the router. It reconnects itself each time after a couple of minutes with no intervention.

I have no issues with speed, SNR is fine, and it's connected directly the master socket which is the only socket in the house.

BT acknowledge the issue, but they are saying that it is acceptable and is only considered to be a fault if it drops out more than 6 times per day.

I know that no connection is ever going to be up for 100% of the time, but I've never had one this unreliable before. Previous places I've lived I experienced around one dropout per week, rather than around 10 per week.

Is an unreliable connection really "acceptable" as BT say?

In reply to a post by derby13:

Is an unreliable connection really "acceptable" as BT say?

I would say no, mine stays up for months at at time.

Have you confirmed its a resync of the VDSL2 rather than loss of TCPIP connectivity?

Depends on what is causing the link to drop?

If it s caused my a burst of noise for example then yes, it could be considered acceptableas BT cannot control external influences.

If it is faulty external wiring - then it could be unacceptable.

What about the modems? Yours or the one in the DSLAM - if it is your modem then from an ISP perspective it is acceptable, however if teh DSLAM modem is causing it, then maybe not.

Do you have the BT Mini Adaptors (powerline) for the BT TV? These make my line drop out a couple of times per day, without them I get to the 14 days before the router auto reboots.

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Do you have the BT Mini Adaptors (powerline) for the BT TV?

Nope, just a standard setup of a router connected to one desktop PC and several wireless devices.

I think all major providers (sky, bt, talktalk, Plusnet) would be unlikely to raise this as a fault.

What are your stats, can you post them? I am keen to see if you have a 3db noise margin?

8. Noise margin: 16.5 / 5.8
9. Line attenuation: 31.2 / 21.1
10. Signal attenuation: 21.5 / 19.8

That 2nd noise margin figure is lower than I've seen previously, but I'm posting this at 8:15PM so I guess we're at the "prime time" for usage.

Plusnet support have now closed the case and said "I have tested your line today and can see the connection does drop out once a day or so. I know this can be frustrating but this is how the internet works"

Seriously?!

I think the average based on ofcom stats is:
1 disconnection per day on ADSL2+
0.3 disconnections per day on VDSL

How are you monitoring these drop outs?

In reply to a post by derby13:

Plusnet support have now closed the case and said "I have tested your line today and can see the connection does drop out once a day or so. I know this can be frustrating but this is how the internet works"

Seriously?!

I'm not surprised. These very intermittent dropping connections are an absolute nightmare to diagnose. Openreach have very advanced test systems, I've heard it said they are the most advanced test systems in the world. However it's still hard to find a fault in the network that's minor enough to cause a resync twice a day.

In reply to a post by derby13:

Plusnet support have now closed the case and said "I have tested your line today and can see the connection does drop out once a day or so. I know this can be frustrating but this is how the internet works"

Seriously?!

I had the same issue years ago in an old place, of course when the engineer arrived, he could not see any fault as the line was not dropping in front of him, so he reported back "no fault found" which the customer (ie me) then got charged for. After around 6 engineer visits Sky simply said they could not provide me a service and asked me to change providers, they did at least remove the engineer charges. Ultimately I never got to the bottom of it despite the following (if memory serves me well):
1. Lift & Shift
2. New drop wire
3. New NTE5 and internal wiring removed
4. Different E side and D side
5. New routers

It still dropped until the day I moved.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Mon 17-Apr-17 18:50:54)