Crazy plusnet problem

A mate of mine have started to have some problems over the last few days. He had a BTopen reach modem and a Technicolor 582n, started by having disconnections and in the end the router seemed to die.
He talked with Plusnet and after spending a hour with them they was still nor sure what the problem was, he did get a connection after a while by plugging the computer directly into the BTOR modem. Not ideal, but it got him on the net. Plusnet eventually said they will send him a new one hub or what ever it is called.

Anyway, to tie him over i lent him my TP link, I left him on Tuesday with it working, but he was still having a few problems. Today his new router arrived, so I went there fix it up and still had connection problems, it would work for a while and then nothing, but the router was still connected, blue light and the computer still seemed to think it was connected and no limited connection on the network, the browser would just not find the page and come up with a error.

I should say computers, as he have a laptop as well. The new router is a all in one so we done away with the BT modem.

So I have come to a conclusion that there is a external problem, but this is the crazy part, when we lose connection, we also lose the ability to access set up on the router, the browser comes back with it can't find the server.

If it was one computer, I would say it is a computer problem, if it was one router, I would say it is a router problem, so yes it could be external, but why would that stop me getting access to the routers set up pages?

i can unplug my router from the net here at home and still access it.

Oh yeah, the new router looks ok, it is certainly a home hub 5, but with smart start disabled and no BT fon. I never realised that Sagem made the home hubs, but it had Sagem on the box.

Anyway, if someone can throw some light on the problem, I be grateful. Thanks.

Is he using Windows 10 on both machines ? There is a known issue with Edge that comes up with a "Hmm we can't reach that webpage" (or similar). Its caused me no end of grief with a friend of mine's laptop.

There is a major update to Win10 out now, may be worth upgrading to that.

Of course, if its not Win10, all the above is useless

In reply to a post by MattJessop:

Is he using Windows 10 on both machines ? There is a known issue with Edge that comes up with a "Hmm we can't reach that webpage" (or similar). Its caused me no end of grief with a friend of mine's laptop.

There is a major update to Win10 out now, may be worth upgrading to that.

Of course, if its not Win10, all the above is useless

Linux/windows 10 on laptop and Windows Xp on the machine that is directly connected. It is not just computers that goes off line, my phone does, his sons Surface does and so do the now Tv box and smart TV, so it certainly seems like a external problem, but it is strange that it would stop me accessing the router settings.

thanks anyway

Was he having troubles connecting directly into BT Modem?

Can you try plugging router into a mains socket (you did use the new power block) - I wonder if there is a problem there

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

In reply to a post by MattJessop:

Is he using Windows 10 on both machines ? There is a known issue with Edge that comes up with a "Hmm we can't reach that webpage" (or similar). Its caused me no end of grief with a friend of mine's laptop.

There is a major update to Win10 out now, may be worth upgrading to that.

Of course, if its not Win10, all the above is useless

Linux/windows 10 on laptop and Windows Xp on the machine that is directly connected. It is not just computers that goes off line, my phone does, his sons Surface does and so do the now Tv box and smart TV, so it certainly seems like a external problem, but it is strange that it would stop me accessing the router settings.

thanks anyway

The BT modem has several led's on it, Power, DSL ,and lan 1 and 2 (lan 2 not used) the power and DSL should be static (always lit) only the lan led will blink as data from the router/pc is transferred

If the DSL led is off of flashing then the modem is loosing sync with the Dslam in the cabinet , if the router logs are showing loss of PPPOE session then that may be plusnets side responsible which BT modem is it the ECI or Huawei?

Also it maybe DNS related if the connected devices are set to obtain their dns from the router

Thanks for the replies peoples and I am very grateful. I know about sync and what lights do what and I know about the right lan to use, in fact on the BTOR modem he have got, it only have one lan, the other is
blanked off, strange as mine just had a bit of tape on it and his is the same make of modem as mine the ECL one.

Connected directly into the BTOR modem still caused the same problem, it worked for a few hours before it disconnected.
Sync lights stayed on the Modem and on the new One hub when the disconnection happened.
The one hub is all in one, modem and router, so no need for BTOR modem. I went back there today just to have another look and noticed in the logs about Authentication, not sure what it said, but it certainly had a error about Authentication.

Now my idea is that for some reason the router send the authentication through and it gets muddled up somehow, but only after a while. I do not know how often the router/modem send the authentication once connected, so I could be wrong.
The guy at plusnet, said it could be the case if for some reason the authentication get screwed up up going through BT system.
This have been going on for a week now, started last weekend when the Technicolor router gave up the ghost.

Anyway, this afternoon, it seemed to calm down and the when I left my mates place it had been connected for over a hour and a half, so maybe it have fixed itself or BT noticed a problem and fixed it. I hope so. We will see.

So the connection is loosing/dropping PPOE session which narrows things down somewhat Could be an issue with the account their side, or bursts of errors causing it

Shame he doesn't have a modem or modem/router that allows visibility to the full line stats which would show the error rates as well as other factors which could help determine the health of the connection,

Edited by tommy45 (Sat 28-Nov-15 18:09:19)

It seems better now, so it must have been a problem their side and either someone seen it and fixed it or the system saw the problems and fixed itself if that is possible.

None of the routers allows him to see the full stats, which is a shame, the new Hub one allows us to see the line speed and that is it,

Thanks for the reply anyway,