Is this true?

I have been with my current supplier for a month or three now. During that time I have pretty well had an open ticket complaining about the standard of the ADSL I'm being supplied.

The reason for my taking the broadband connection is to allow me to connect via VPN to my office to allow me to work from home. The problem is that the line keeps dropping and with it the VPN and any work I'm doing at that time. I've had numerous BT engineers out who have sorted part of the problem so the impact is less severe. One engineer blamed it on my mains electricity, so, as I had a spare UPS hanging about I connected that up, but the drop outs continue. This morning I received the following update to the ticket:

Such isolated incidents of the PPP session dropping are quite normal and something that can't avoided or mitigated for. It won't simply happen when the VPN connection is in use, there is a likelihood that during normal browsing there may be drops. The number of drops seen aren't that high to indicate that there is a possible issue at the exchange but I am monitoring the connection and reviewing the performance.

The question I would like to ask is, is this correct? Although I'm very capable with dealing with servers and systems (I'm a 3rd line support tech by trade) I am less able to diagnose WAN issues.

Any help would be most appreciated.

Span

Who's the ISP?

What sort of VPN?

What router you using?

The ISP is Plus Net. I'm using the Cisco VPN operating through the standard Plus Net (Thomson) router.

Span

Nearly all correct... but drops can be helped by applying a higher SNR (or service level on BT services) and/or applying interleaving.

Matt

when you say "the line keeps dropping" are you saying the ADSL resyncs with the exchange or is it specifically a PPP session issue or the VPN you lose ?

Tried the TBB Broadband Quality Monitor ? may show up packet loss issues.

How often are the drops - one or two a day is at the you have to put up with, 10 or 20 an hour and something is up and slowing down the ADSL service is one solution if the drops are noise related.

Thank you all for replying so quickly.

when you say "the line keeps dropping" are you saying the ADSL resyncs with the exchange or is it specifically a PPP session issue or the VPN you lose ?

Tried the TBB Broadband Quality Monitor ? may show up packet loss issues.

Phil

Hi Phil,

The symptoms I get is that the VPN fails and needs to be reconnected. This seems to happen nearly always within 20 minutes of connecting. The problem I have that further aggrovates the issue is that I only work from home on a Monday and the ADSL is inactive the other 6 days. This is the reason I use Plus net is becuase it is cheap and has a low usage limit.

How often are the drops - one or two a day is at the you have to put up with, 10 or 20 an hour and something is up and slowing down the ADSL service is one solution if the drops are noise related.

Andrew, when I first complained the VPN was dropping every 30 minutes or so. This was dramatically improved when the first engineer called and rewired the connector box coming into the house. Now the VPN drops every monday morning before 9am. After that time, it will drop between once and 3-4 times a day. It is quite irregular. The problem is, becuase I need to be connected to it all day without interruption, it is infuriating when I'm conducting a phone call or trying to connect to a server, etc.

I apologise for being so vague with my answers, but I would rather profess ignorance than offer answers that are inaccurate due to my lack of knowledge.

Span

Hi - is this what a dropped line looks like on the Broadband Quality Monitor?
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/share/69199ab7636...

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I thought the graph might be useful.

I've had the monitor running since new year and often have a couple of hours with a red block of lost connection. Weekend peak times are not good - or maybe we notice it more. Only solution is to reboot the modem and then it does not always work.

Is a graph like this sufficient to get Pipex to call BT to check the line and box in the street? I've always been suspicious that BT would just claim it is a fault in my equipment and leave me with a huge callout charge.

Any ideas please?
Frank

Edited by deleted (Tue 08-Mar-11 23:38:24)

The red means we did not get a timely response or no response.

So if this is coninciding with you not being able to access the internet then most likely.

The graph is not sufficient to prove its the line, you need other information.

you need to dig deeper and see if the ADSL is going off from router logs etc. Uptime figures are a start.