frequent disconnects

My situation has been going on for months now. I went toVodafone FTTC (nov2019) leaving SKY ADSL. Voda (let me out of contract because they couldn't fix it) and switched to EE hoping it would solve it. So this isn't ISP specific. I have tried 4 routers, 2 Voda, 1 BT HH5 reprogrammed with OPENWRT and now an EE (BT?) smarthub. My head is going round now. I need an independent view and walk through.
. I switched to EE on May 29 2019. I get repeated reconnects many times per day. The result on my sync speed from May 29 is that from the 35 M up 8 meg down I now have sync of 20M down and 3.2 M up (June 22nd). The actual throughput speed is 17.02 Down and 2.71 up (June 22). Ping 13ms. Speedtest https://www.speedtest.net/result/8357975767 . This is all direct wired connections (cat5) with my machine next to the master socket. I have had BT Openreach visit 3 times this year. The first problem was a bad joint in their overhead cable to my property which caused low throughput even though there was good sync speed (35+M). Cured and left with good speed. The second was for no phone line (battery fault) caused by water, following heavy rain and ingress into local connections-2 months ago. The third time was for this same resync and degrading speed fault and they found nothing wrong with my line to the house or the signal using their equipment here. Openreach have replaced the master socket to the very latest (5C- with the squeeze sides) even though no fault was prevalent. Their equipment again still showed no problems. The frequent reconnects/resyncs had occured with 2 routers (of Vodafones), and also I programmed a BT home Hub 5 to work with Vodafone but the resyncs/reconnects and gradual speed degradation routine still repeated. Using the EE smart hub I still get exactly the same situation where the reconnects have gradually dropped my sync speed down to 20M down (with 17M Throughput) This is below the minimum guaranteed and I suspect it will continue to worsen as well. The problem seemed to escalate this last week, maybe the heavy rain has gotten into the fibre system equipment at my local PCP cabinet (Crewe 20) or there is a faulty card in there??
As Openreach have been 3 times and each time verifying, before leaving, that the connection is excellent at my house. No CRC or FEC on their equipment. One engineer even observed the errors showing on the Vodafone routers. I have already tried connecting to the master socket directly many times to eliminate wiring issues my side of the master socket and Openreach have seen that there is no issue at my house with the line. They also previously uprated the cable down the side of my house from the overhead connection to the master socket, again, even though there was no issue. They also, again, saw no problems house side of the socket or with my setup. So far today 22/06/2019 at 15:51 I have seen 15 disconnects/resyncs alone (from the router event log). 2 or posssibly 3 were caused by me after checking my side of things out for the umpteenth time.
Suggestions to proceed please.

I don't really want to suggest this, but have you a radio amateur living nearby? I, as a radio amateur, have a problem with my BT broadband disconnecting when I transmit on various of our amateur radio bands. Do the disconnections only occur at certain times of the day or is it totally random? This is the sort of issue that Openreach will have no means of testing for - and for that matter deny the issue even exists.

Hopefully it will be something totally different, but they seem to have ruled out line issues which are the usual cause.

I've no idea whether it's relevant to your problem or not but I resolved constant disconnections with my PlusNet Home Hub One (re-badged HH5) by re-connecting my original Openreach HG612 modem and just using the PlusNet Home Hub One as a router.

The router log showed "PPP LCP Send Termination Request [Peer not responding]" for every disconnection. It's an issue that stretches back several years according to all the pleas for help I came across but I never found a definitive cause or answer.

I still get disconnections roughly once a fortnight but that's nothing by comparison to my previous 8-10 times a day.

Edited by longedge (Sat 22-Jun-19 18:39:45)

In reply to a post by longedge:

I've no idea whether it's relevant to your problem or not but I resolved constant disconnections with my PlusNet Home Hub One (re-badged HH5) by re-connecting my original Openreach HG612 modem and just using the PlusNet Home Hub One as a router.

The router log showed "PPP LCP Send Termination Request [Peer not responding]" for every disconnection. It's an issue that stretches back several years according to all the pleas for help I came across but I never found a definitive cause or answer.

I still get disconnections roughly once a fortnight but that's nothing by comparison to my previous 8-10 times a day.

It is worth having a router that has built in error/fault logging with user access. At my previous address, I had frequent disconnections. I asked for a SFI engineer callout and got the usual warning that 'no fault = a charge'. When the SFI engineer turned up he could find no fault with my line so I presented him with 6 pages of recorded line events. He concluded from the sheet that I had given him that there was clear evidence of a line fault outside of my property and he went away to discuss the matter with his Control. The problem was eventually resolved with a 'lift and shift' and the re-building of my line profile.

Many thanks to you all for the replies. I am open to anything, ANY suggestions are valid. There is a radio ham, but he is way up the road from me. I did disconnect the my house phone system yesterday (unplugged the MK5 faceplate) only having the router with my computer into that- no phone at all. I then did have 12 hours of no problem and I though oops maybe it is something with my wiring. I thought -well leave it overnight to confirm and start investigating tomorrow. Now tomorrow has arrived 8 more disconnects and I'm down to 18M So my house wiring is eliminated, yet again! This is the same fault with 4 different routers now. 8 of the 10 disconnects happened in the early hours (Sunday morn-- 03:11,05:28, 05:46, 06:56, 08:51, 09:42, 12:12, 13:27) The ONLY possible traffic for these events is iphone/tablets updating. I can't see the radio ham operating at these times. Anyone had experience of these somehow triggering this. There is literally nothing left here as far as I can see.

In reply to a post by ronb62:

This is the same fault with 4 different routers now. 8 of the 10 disconnects happened in the early hours (Sunday morn-- 03:11,05:28, 05:46, 06:56, 08:51, 09:42, 12:12, 13:27) The ONLY possible traffic for these events is iphone/tablets updating. I can't see the radio ham operating at these times.

Don't rule it out. A keen radio amateur, especially if he participates in our contests, will be on the air at any time of day or night. But there were no big contests this weekend, at least in the UK, so you are probably right.

I too sorted my regular disconnects on Sky VDSL by purchasing a HG612 3b on an auction site and it was solid since before moving home and changed over to VM. Biggest benefit I found I could reboot my router as much as I wanted and not affect DLM as the HG612 remained connected. I also changed the filter and DSL cable at the same time as plugging in the HG612....I sorted a mates disconnects by just changing the DSL cable as he was using a phone extension cable about 15m long!!

I have every thing turned off in the same room as the router. Nearby fridge is off. No house phone now for 3 days as system completely isolated. COntacted EE support yesterday 23rd/sunday Openreach visit due Tue p.m. Speed now down to 17M and getting worse. Turned every unessential thing off in house. As i mentioned before the only thing/s are my IOS devices using the wifi that are around. They obviously update throught the night, but as they are designed to use the router they shouldn't cause any problem. Has anyone ever tracked this problem to them? It has to be cabinet equipment/cards now to my mind. Wait and see what engineer no 4 says. Hope maybe a lift and shift is offered.

Hi, I don't whether this might help but 6 years ago I was plagued with frequent disconnects which turned out to a bug in the network card, and with help from the splendid TBB contributors it got resolved by placing an unmanaged switch (TP-Link) between the card and the router. If you haven't already checked event viewer, I suggest it would be worth doing. See the link below:

https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/multiuser/t/430232...

Hope you are able to resolve your situation soon - I'm only too aware just how frustrating it can be.

Edited by Mygri (Mon 24-Jun-19 18:10:44)

Try switching off all your devices for a night.

HI , thanks again to all. I've read your situation and you didn't loose sync. I continually do so, the cause and solution are right for you, unfortunately not for me, sigh! I have continually been trying things out as you can imagine and by turning off the wifi on the EE router I haven't had a reconnection/resync in 22 hours. The longest I've stayed up for months! So something "appears" to be causing the routers to resync via/because of the wifi. I've maintained a wifi network by connecting a 2nd router via ethernet, with DHCP turned off, and at a distance away. Shouldn't have to, as most people will only have the ISP provide modem/router/wifi "box" and not be able to split out the functions. I shouldn't have to, as this is only masks the problem but doesn't find the root cause to cure it. Time will tell if it actually does. Still, thanks very much for the suggestion and effort!

Just an update openreach visited. told him whole story and he went away to do a lift and sgift, although I had effectively had one when I changed ISP. He also found a different paie from the PCP cab to the base of the pole across the road. He said he had been down my street several times because of the cable ("not the best"). Before he arrived I played around with putting myHH5 with OPenWRt on because I knew I would get a DLM reset anyway and any messing I did would not drive my "record" down.( I had read that you could change your SNR and effectively up your line speed). After the "lift and shift" i did notice a considerably less rate of increasing FEC count and no CRC's errors. Then he did the pair change and it still stayed low. So a possible improvement there too. If you read my earlier post from today I had switched off the wifi in my EE router and had no resyncs for quite a few hours (novel). Well I split the wifi channels and put only the 5Ghz on. In the short time before OR arrived - no resyncs. I have done the same with my HH5 i.e. turned off the 2.4GHz wifi. Lets see if it was a problem with 2.4 Ghz devices causing the router to reboot. I have moved the 2.4 to a router that is connected by ethernet and is in a seperate room to allow older (non5Ghz capable devices) to connect) If any do cause that router (an old SKy routr with DHCP turned off, but giving me 2.4 and extending my wifi) then to reboot it will be that router and not my modem, so the DLM won't see line drops and act to drop my line speed. If it is 2.4GHz devices then it is down to bluetooth, microwaves (unlikely as I wasnt using it 12 times during the previous earlier hours), or other devices, wireless keyboards, mobile phones etc. The routers "shouldn't" reboot because of these just being around BUT maybe it's because there is just so many devices, that router got its Kn*****s in a twist and just resynced as its answer/cure-all response. We'll see.

Although you've already said you've tried a couple different devices, my advise is ditch the Vodafone junk.
1 of the worst ISP provided hubs I've come across.

Just an update openreach visited. told him whole story and he went away to do a lift and sgift, although I had effectively had one when I changed ISP.

Nobody visits the cabinet do to a lift and shift when you switch ISP.
It's all done remotely now.

As I suggested in an earlier post. Try switching off all your WIFI devices overnight but leave the router/modem on.

Check if any disconnects in the morning.

Testing all scenarios should narrow down the issues.

How many devices do you have connected via WIFI?

sorted , I Think ! The Openreach engineer changed the pair from the cabinet to the pole opposite my house. This brought down the FECS count rate. I couldn't switch off all wireless devices because there are so many people who visit evening and early morning and neighbours with devices-- these still caused it to resync. I think the real "CURE" was turning off the 2.4G frequency in the router. (split the Wifi and turn off the 2.4) Routers, 4 of them, should be able to cope but obviously didn't.The EE router worked for over 24 hrs without a resync after turning it off. Usually there are 15 resyncs a day which drives down my DLM. I put my BT HH5 with Openwrt installed and this stayed O.K. with the 2.4 off as well. By using a 2nd router connected via ethernet cable I can get this 2.4 back for older devices/ devices that are not 5G capable e.g Kindles. and extend my wireless network as well. For people who have a lot of resyncs & poor speed AND who don't need the 2.4G this may well be a solution. You shouldn't have to turn it off. The modem/router/wifi device maybe needs to handle problems without a crash/resync situation.

The "turning off" was to check if any reconnects happened and not as a cure.

One has to test all aspects in order to narrow the issue.