External IP changing 2 or 3 times a day

Since I moved to fibre broadband from EE I have had problems with VPN connections dropping and various streaming services will drop suddenly, despite an apparently fast internet connection.

I have just now noticed that the modem's external IP address is changing two, three or maybe more times each day. Today, between 9:00 and 17:00 it has already changed twice. This would obviously have a major impact on a VPN if it were to happen during a session.

Is this normal? EE do not offer fixed IP addresses so is there anything else that might be causing this? Otherwise it looks like I need to find a fibre broadband service that offers a fixed IP address at a reasonable cost. Any suggestions?

Plusnet charge a one-off £5 for a static IP address.

Hi

Sounds unusual for the IP address to just change without some other event, as a changing IP will break quite a few things.

Usually an IP address would only change if your connection drops, is your line dropping and resyncing so requesting an IP and so getting a different one?

Regards

Phil

Oh right! Didn't see that on their site. Will look at their bundles, thanks for the heads up.

In reply to a post by PhilipD:

Usually an IP address would only change if your connection drops, is your line dropping and resyncing so requesting an IP and so getting a different one?

Regards

Phil

I have no idea, but it sounds plausible. I have a Draytek Vigor 130 VDSL modem (with their BT specific firmware) and a TPlink broadband router. Presumably I would have to look in the modem's log. That is only available via a physical cable connection, so will look at it tonight.

[edit] It has changed again! Definitely something up with this. I might try EE tech support, although don't expect I will get far with it.

Edited by deleted (Thu 15-Sep-16 18:24:34)

Easy, as someone has already said, the only reason the external IP address is changing is that the broadband connection is dropping out. The broadband is 100% dropping out, on resync the IP changes.

VPN connection dropping - this will be when the broadband is dropping out.

Streaming services drop - this will be when the broadband is dropping out.

There is either a line fault, or your internal setup is poor. Did an engineer come to install fibre for you? Are you using the master telephone socket?
Do you have any extension sockets?
Does picking up your landline cause the broadband to drop out? (try it)
Is the landline fuzzy or does it sound nice and clear?

No need to get a fixed IP. The line will still drop and the services will still be affected.

I do not have a static IP, but my line will stay synced for many months solid, so my IP address only changes maybe twice a year max. Your line should not be dropping like this, so lets try to fix that.

EDIT: Why are you using a TPLink device and not the EE Bright Box standard router?
Also if possible can you take photos of every telephone socket in your home and upload them to a site such as https://postimage.org/ - this will help us to get an understanding of the setup. Let us know which socket the broadband connects to.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Fri 16-Sep-16 00:20:09)

Surprising! Altho' EE do not offer static IP addresses, their dynamic IPs tend to be v. sticky, I haven't seen mine change for ages.

Is your IP swapping between one starting with 2. & one starting with 95.? Maybe between the same pair all the time. We believe there is something up within EE at the mo' causing it to swap between IP pools.

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Easy, as someone has already said, the only reason the external IP address is changing is that the broadband connection is dropping out. The broadband is 100% dropping out, on resync the IP changes.VPN connection dropping - this will be when the broadband is dropping out.
Streaming services drop - this will be when the broadband is dropping out.

There is either a line fault, or your internal setup is poor. Did an engineer come to install fibre for you?

No

Are you using the master telephone socket?

Yes

Do you have any extension sockets?

No

Does picking up your landline cause the broadband to drop out? (try it)

Nailed to the skirting so not possible. Fiddling with the cable between the master socket and the router makes no difference.

Is the landline fuzzy or does it sound nice and clear?

Crystal clear

EDIT: Why are you using a TPLink device and not the EE Bright Box standard router?

Because the EE Bright Box standard router has rubbish WiFi range and the TPLink has more advanced firmware for port forwarding etc. I switched to a Draytek Vigor 130 VDSL2 modem in conjunction with the TPLink, but it made no difference. I suspect the problem lay outside the premises.

Anyway I have migrated to Plusnet - it is cheaper and gives me a fixed IP, which is handy for remote connections to my NAS.

Since the migration the VPN drop-outs have stopped if the laptop is connected direct to the router, either by cable or WiFi. So either the broadband drop-outs have stopped or the fixed IP is allowing the VPN to ride them out.

We have identified an unconnected issue whereby using the VPN via a Powerline network WiFi access point sometimes drops, so I am looking at solutions to fix that. Not so easy without running ethernet cable around the outside of the house!

Hi,

I have a VPN and use a standard Virgin Media broadband account (max 200MB/sec). In order to have the appearance of a static IP address I use a program call DUC (Dynamic DNS Update Client) from noip.com . If you go for the free option then you can have up to three hostnames that would be dynamically updated from the program that sits on the tray (in Windows) and there is nothing you need to do other than install it. It also automatically checks your external IP address every 5 seconds so if your IP changes the hosts are updated also. Since I have my own domains (and being an IT Consultant...) I decided to create a vpn. sub-domain and point it to the hostname so that I only have to remember the vpn.mydomain.co.uk address to create my vpn connection.

HTH,

We have identified an unconnected issue whereby using the VPN via a Powerline network WiFi access point sometimes drops, so I am looking at solutions to fix that. Not so easy without running ethernet cable around the outside of the house!

What you may want to look at is
getting a 2nd router and put the VPN on that.
Then share the VPN output to Wifi or powerline (as preferred)

that way, the VPN is not running over the wifi...
(and interrupted by interference wifi/powerline or any other restarting/ resetting of the wifi link)

You could even have 2 Wifi outputs
one the direct connection (1st router)
second the VPN output (2nd router - connected to the 1st)
Which you put on the powerline... your choice.