Is your router still accessbile when the line "disconnects" by going to http://192.168.0.1/ or has that part stoped now?

In reply to a post by TJNewton:

So might be worth checking if the problem started around the time you may have plugged in a new bit of kit.

I did wonder if this might be a possibility, however there has been no new kit installed anywhere in the home for ages, certainly not since I moved to Sky back in November and the connection was OK up until end Feb / early March.

The Level 3 engineer I have been speaking to has pretty much said that based on his experience and the type of errors that are manifesting, it is almost certainly a cable problem. The copper has been in the ground since the place was built 50 years ago so degradation of the conductor / crimp is highly likely.

In reply to a post by broadband66:

You only talk about broadband issues. How is the phone line? Quiet Line Test, etc.

NOISY! Lots of crackles and pops (No snap - but I never did like Rice Crispies anyhow) Further adding weight (unless I am mistaken - which is not unknown!) to cable faults.

In reply to a post by jamie543:

Is your router still accessbile when the line "disconnects" by going to http://192.168.0.1/ or has that part stoped now?

Nope - still can't see the SR102 hub when I lose service. Interestingly the Level 3 chap from Sky said that the hub has a self-heal facility which is invoked when it detects an abnormal condition such as excessive line noise or a dropped signal (or a short). In his opinion this is what is causing the hub to appear to freeze - it seems plausible to me.

Having spoken to Sky BB for the 3rd time today, a VIPER call has been booked for Monday morning. From what I have been told, these chaps will stay with the fault until it is rectified and the call will be kept open for a couple of days afterwards just to make sure.

Questions....
1. What he heck does VIPER stand for? (Got to love how big companies have loads of acronyms!)
2. Has anyone had any experience of the VIPER process?
3. Anyone else care to add anything?

That's VIP - you know, you're a Very Important Person now

And if it still does that when the broadband kit is unplugged, pushing a voice fault through the ISP to Openreach should be easier for them to deal with.

Self heal - yeah right - what they mean is that if you should get a page in your browser if trying to navigate somewhere saying your broadband is down and is served by the router, which if you cannot get into the web interface has either

1. Crashed
or
2. Very busy renegotiating with the DSLAM to get the ADSL back up.

Some routers can exhibit 2 and you usually figure it out by looking at the before and after ADSL stats in the hub

Does this happen on all devices connected to your network or just Windows ?

Just answered your own problem. Seems like a voice issue and should be fixed before querying broadband issues.