I've live chatted with Zen twice today. This morning not so informative, this afternoon was much better.

Basically they're trying to find the common cause but it's proving difficult because it's not a common gateway/exchange affected and it's only some customers not all.

They can't give a timeframe for fixing.

They don't want to put a service/status update on the website because it's not a particular region affected. Personally, it sounds like they're playing for time, as soon as a status update goes on to the effect of reduced throughput and packetloss they'll be inundated with calls. Not what I expected tbh, but I'll judge them on how many bad evening's internet I get and seek recompense accordingly if it lasts much longer. Already 7 days into it.....

Thanks for the update. Not a common gateway though? From the cases I've found so far, the main common link seems to be Manchester.

Unfortunately all my attempts to move onto the London gateway have not worked. I wonder if there are any Zen users currently connected to the Manchester gateway without any evening problems.

Hi Zen, after responding to Zen again as above, I have at long last received a reply from Zen that acknowledges 20 - 40% packet loss on my connection since the 25th, the very date I informed them that my Fritz!box updated and trashed the connection. I am now hooked to a MiFi box and the loss is the same, so a Zen problem, I will now revert to the Fritzibox to see if that helps you correcting the problem.

Edited by professor973 (Mon 29-Jun-20 18:19:02)

I wasn’t using their router when this all began. My router is a Draytek 2860ac. I now have the Fritz in use as the modem (in order to eliminate the router) and it’s made no difference.

My Fritz updated as soon as I brought it into use yesterday, but in my case the circuit is as bad as it was before. Daytime performance is excellent, but between about 19:00 and 23:00 it’s a no go. Last night saw frequent disconnects on the Zen side from just after 20:00 until 22:30 with no loss of the DSL itself at all until ?I got a sync rate improvement just after 04:15.

Up until about 17:30 today I was seeing the tbbx type stream at up to 65Mbps, now it’s way down again below 10Mbps and falling.

At least Zen are now accepting of an issue.

Yes not the Fritz!box here either as I took it out of the mix, it's just that in my case my massive packet loss coincided with the router update. Also good that Zet are at last looking and seeing, but I'm still unhappy that they don't respond to single problems, something I had found the last couple of months with the Fritzbox losing connection.

Same problem here. Fine in the day but very poor in the evening for a few days now.

I'm on lo1.subs.bng1.wh-man.zen.net.uk which appears to be manchester.

Update - Mine has been pretty solid tonight. Just pinged BBC site and no lost packets and I've been playing Destiny 2 all night (7pm to 10:20) with only one d/c due to network issues.. D/L speed is 20Mb and U/L is 9Mb, not far off what I usually get. (normally 27Mb down).

Hopefully the issue is fixed for everyone.

Agreed - this is definitely not a Fritzbox specific issue. I'm using a Fortinet router. Everything I'm seeing out there points to it being a problem in the network for users connected to the Manchester gateway. I wish there were a way to switch over to the London gateway... I asked that question of Zen technical support and they couldn't answer it.

So much for support as Zen are switching plenty to London. I hook to London, but my problem is a little different I think, of it's not Manchester specific. At least Zen are now seeing my 20 - 40% loss now.

I got a call from Zen today asking what my connection has been like - solid, and he updated me about the issue on the network, how it's been identifiied and is in the process of being fixed. In the meantime I've noted I'm being routed via London instead of Manchester and that has returned my speeds and service to normal.

Given I only called Zen yesterday, I'm happy with the way they've dealt with my issue with the follow up calls plus keeping tabs on my connection for another 24 hours shows they are making efforts.

I just wonder about the monitering of the network hardware and whether there's automated systems in place or not that detects issues and reroutes traffic. I have to admit to knowing nothing about networks and how they operate.

Perhaps ISP's could introduce a one-click system where a user having a problem uses an ISP support app, sending the relevant information about the users connection. That would be less hassle in the first instance than going through telephone support.

Edited by RabbleRouser (Tue 30-Jun-20 14:47:55)