Broadband dropping out regularly but seems to stop for a few weeks each time BT are involved

[moldyoldy]

Hi,

Firstly apologies as this is a long block of test.

I really hope someone can help point me in the right direction for this problem. We have been with BT for years and prior to upgrading to Fibre 2+ years ago had no connection issues. I then took a fibre package and everything was great for a few months at which point we started to have the broadband drop out regularly (hub change to orange and then sometimes reboot sometimes not). Volume of drop outs would be between 2-10 per day. Had an engineer out who did the usual checks in the cabinet and external wiring and eventually told us it was our wiring as he could see anything else. Strangely we then had no drop out for 3-4 weeks after his visit.

After that point the drop outs returned. I had our wiring checked and there were no issues. The drop out became such an issue during lockdown with both of us working at home that I thought I would try everything to see if I could fix it myself. So I upgraded to Halo 1, got the Hub 2 and plugged it all in (hoping that there was some secret switch at BT that upgrading an account might flick!). It worked perfectly, no drop outs and 21mb+ speed (which was the fibre guarantee minimum and I'm ok with). The difference was so black and white from drop outs every 15 mins at it's worst to nothing that I was both happy and frustrated that this looked to be a hub or service issue at BTs end rather than at ours.

After a week or so our speed started dropping and went down at one point to 0.8mb. I logged a slow broadband fault with BT on 17th July. No drop outs still but slow broadband continued (3-10mb average). Last Saturday (the 25th) we had our alarm trigger at midnight as no phone connection and since then have had drop outs occurring every day since (Sunday was happening every 10 mins). Looking at my fault tracking with BT it shows that they have resolved my slow broadband query on the 25th. So I just wanted help from people more knowledgeable than me but my scenario feels to me that my drop outs are caused by something BT set/have set/have changed with the router since receiving it after trying to increase my speed.  Is there something they do as standard when trying to raise MB/s speed that could cause drop outs to start? Their speed increase has only taken it to 16mb per sec anyway so still haven't hit my guarantee minimum but the online BT speed test tells me my speed at 9mbs (tested) is fine and gives me no option to raise another fault issue. Any help here would be really appreciated as I feel I am hitting a brick wall with solving something that should be simple and I need to solve the constant drop outs as working remotely it becoming very challenging.

Thanks in advance

Matt

[imjolly]

welcome to the BT community forum where customers help customers and only BT employees are the forum mods  your post does not go to BT

in order for the forum members to help please can you post the stats from your router (if hub enter 192.168.1.254 in your browser) and if  HH5 then go to troubleshooting then helpdesk and if HH6/SH2 then advanced settings then technical log information . 

Have you tried the quiet line test? - dial 17070 option 2 - should hear nothing - best done with a corded phone. if cordless phone you may hear a 'dull hum' which is normal

enter your phone number and post results  remember to delete number   https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

Someone may then be able to offer help/assistance/suggestions to your problem

[moldyoldy]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. Pasted below an extract from event log, stats and broadband checker. Can't test the line I'm afraid as we don't have a phone (corded or otherwise). Really appreciate your help.

event log for this mornings first drop out was:

08:21:29, 01 Jul.
DSL Link Up: Down Rate=12904kbps, Up Rate=5999kbps; SNR Margin Down=6.4dB, Up=8.4dB

08:21:26, 01 Jul.
PPP: Sending PADI

08:21:21, 01 Jul.
PPP: Starting PPP daemon

08:21:21, 01 Jul.
WAN Auto-sensing detected port DSL WAN

08:20:51, 01 Jul.
PPP: Stopped PPP daemon(0,1,5)

08:20:50, 01 Jul.
DSL Link Down: duration was 30 seconds

08:20:47, 01 Jul.
PPP: Sending PADI

08:20:42, 01 Jul.
PPP: Sending PADI08:20:31, 01 Jul.
PPP: Sending PADI

08:20:28, 01 Jul.
DSL Link Up: Down Rate=20000kbps, Up Rate=5999kbps; SNR Margin Down=-0.8dB, Up=8.6dB

08:20:26, 01 Jul.
PPP: Sending PADI

08:20:21, 01 Jul.
PPP: Starting PPP daemon

08:20:21, 01 Jul.
WAN Auto-sensing detected port DSL WAN

08:20:00, 01 Jul.
DHCP device Connected: 192.168.1.74, b4:ae:2b:95:69:33, XboxOne

08:20:00, 01 Jul.
Lan IPv6 Neighbour Discovery events: NEIGHBOR_SOLICIT

08:19:59, 01 Jul.
Lan IPv6 Neighbour Discovery events: NEIGHBOR_SOLICIT

08:19:59, 01 Jul.
WHW INFO A station (Living room)IF[2.4G](0C:8E:29:CD:31:D9):STA(B4:AE:2B:95:69:33) join WHW infrastructure

08:19:59, 01 Jul.
LAN [ADD] ARP 192.168.1.74 with b4:ae:2b:95:69:33 from br0(wds1.4.1)

08:19:59, 01 Jul.
ARP [add] br0(wds1.4.1) 192.168.1.74 b4:ae:2b:95:69:33

08:19:59, 01 Jul.
Receive a DHCP request

08:19:57, 01 Jul.
SIP WAN DOWN

08:19:57, 01 Jul.
DHCP device Disconnected: 192.168.1.74, b4:ae:2b:95:69:33, XboxOne

08:19:56, 01 Jul.
LAN [DEL] ARP 192.168.1.74 with b4:ae:2b:95:69:33 from br0

08:19:54, 01 Jul.
SIP WAN DOWN

08:19:54, 01 Jul.
WAN Sensing Auto sensing Complete, interface selected

08:19:53, 01 Jul.
WAN Sensing Auto sensing Running

08:19:52, 01 Jul.
WAN Sensing Auto sensing Complete, interface selected

08:19:51, 01 Jul.
WAN Sensing Auto sensing Running

08:19:51, 01 Jul.
WAN connection WAN2_INTERNET_PTM disconnected.[ERROR_NO_CARRIER]

08:19:51, 01 Jul.
ARP [del] br0 192.168.1.74 b4:ae:2b:95:69:33

08:19:50, 01 Jul.
PPP: Stopped PPP daemon(0,1,5)

08:19:50, 01 Jul.
PPP LCP Send Termination Request (User request)
08:19:50, 01 Jul.
PPP: LCP down

08:19:50, 01 Jul.
DSL Link Down: duration was 1784 seconds

08:19:49, 01 Jul.
WHW INFO A station STA(B4:AE:2B:95:69:33) leave WHW infrastructure

08:19:49, 01 Jul.
WHW INFO A station (Living room)IF[2.4G](0C:8E:29:CD:31:D9):STA(B4:AE:2B:95:69:33) join WHW infrastructure

08:19:49, 01 Jul.
Lan IPv6 Neighbour Discovery events: NEIGHBOR_SOLICIT

Smart Hub 2 Stats are:

Product code:Smart Hub 2
Serial number:+091298+2013001379
Firmware version:v0.15.00.06145-BT
Firmware updated:unknown
Board version:R01
GUI version:1.56 15_02_2019
DSL uptime:0 days,05 Hours58 Mins40 Secs
Data rate:5.999 Mbps / 12.904 Mbps
Maximum data rate:6.670 Mbps / 29.192 Mbps
Noise margin:7.9 / 20.5
Line attenuation:8.3 / 21.9
Signal attenuation:8.3 / 26.1
VLAN id:101
Upstream error control:Off
Downstream error control:Off
Data sent / received:2.0 GB Uploaded / 2.6 GB Downloaded
Broadband username:bthomehub@btbroadband.com
BT Wi-fi:Activated
2.4 GHz wireless network name:BT-63AFCR
2.4 GHz wireless channel:Smart (Channel11)
5 GHz wireless network name:BT-63AFCR
5 GHz wireless channel:Smart (Channel36)
Wireless security:WPA2 (Recommended)
Wireless mode:Mode 1
Firewall:On
MAC address:CC:D4:2E:91:3C:CD
Software variant:-
Boot loader:0.1.7-BT (Thu Nov 30 09:45:22 2017

[imjolly]

the most basic test form problems like your is to see if you have a dial tone and then to check for noise on your line.. obviously you need a phone to do the test and would help you to have a cheap phone bearing in mind if problem is in your home wiring then you will probably be charged £85 for engineer call out

any chance you can borrow a phone to check   no point trying other changes when can't check line as broadband depends on your phone line

[moldyoldy]

OK will do - just ordered one from Amazon. Will post update tomorrow.

Thanks

[moldyoldy]

Ok so got a corded phone and tried in the socket our hub 2 is in. No obvious noise but if press phone close to ear could be very low level white noise (like when hold seashell you ear). Again very very faint but I did the test a few times and swear on one test could hear extremely faintly muffled talking. Repeated test with and without filter plugged in.

tried test on socket in hallway and very noisy. An almost old modem sound and static.