Zen XT8 Mesh Network - Dropped Connections and no Lease

[gally35]

I have just joined from Virgin using PPPoE connections for the first time.  I have an ASUS XT8 Mesh network which boots up fine and connects. My router reports dropped packets and an external monitor pinging my IP show high latency at time and disconnections. The router reports renewing lease and lease expired, which is new to me.

I cannot get any sense out of BT, they booked an open reach visit, confirmed by BT, but no-one turned up. Another half day wasted. This has been going on since 7 Dec when I changed from Virgin to BT who fail to understand I am not using their home hub. I feel trapped by a 2yr contract.

Can anyone shed some light on this as I feel I have jumped out of the frying pan into the fire with a brand-new 900 fibre street cable and house installation which is just not working for me. Please do not tell me my ZEN Mesh network will not work with BT/Openreach

Thanks

John Gallagher

[ptrduffy]

Hi @gally35 

I understand you wanting to use your own router, but have you at least tried setting the system up using the BT supplied Hub to ensure everything works correctly with that first?

BT will not provide support for using your own (and neither will any other large ISP), but if we know your connection works with the BT Hub then there may be forum members here who can help.

[rbz5416]

Were you using the ASUS with the Virgin setup or is it new?

You reference router separately, so are you using one of the XT8s as a router or something else?

[Crimliar]

Your XT8s should work just fine with BT.  If you were previously using them with Virgin though, I'd probably perform a factory reset before changing the WiFi SSID(s) and passwords back to what you'd previously used.  I'd also start by just using a single XT8 until you are sure everything is stable.

*Using an Asus GT-AX6000 with an Asus RP-AX58 (ax3000) mesh unit - which other than a little issue with IPv6 DDNS seems to be running incredibly smoothly.

[gally35]

I have three XT8 ASUS hubs set up as a Mesh network, one router and two nodes. The router was previously using with a Virgin Box in Modem Mode. I have now changed ISP to BT Fibre and trying to keep the same setup, but the internet keeps loosing connection. The router log show very large numbers of packet loss. My fix was to reboot the router.

I have also setup an external broadband monitor at thinkbroadband.net to monitor my Wan IP with ICMP ping requests This shows 100% packet loss at times and high latency spikes. My energy monitoring system also reports connection loss when this happens. I also hear and see drops on audio/video on my streaming service.

I have never used a pppoe connection before and never BT but do not believe I have a router problem which is why am asking for advice.

[gally35]

I have switched back the BT hub and this works, but there is still a worrying number of dropped packets and I loose my DDDNS connection as I now have no public WAN for the router as it's on the local BT hub network.

This is an external problem to my router, so in my view a BT/openreach network issue. I cannot set up an external monitor on the BT Hub since it does not accept ICMP ping requests and I have not found anywhere to turn this on.

I cannot be the only person trying not to use the BT hub?

[licquorice]

I suggest you take this a step at a time, it sounds as though you are still trying to run your network with 2 routers in PPPoE mode.

To eliminate everything except the ONT and line, set up a PPPoE connection on your laptop and connect it directly to the ONT.

If that works ok, next just connect the BT hub only and make sure that works before moving on to connect your mesh setup.

[gally35]

Everything works as expected. BTHub, Laptop and MESH. My only concern is the high level of dropped packets, as measured on the ASUS router and the external think broadband monitor. I am linking the two together to the loss of internet connections and speech/video dropouts when connected when streaming.

I know packet loss is normal, but at these volumes could this be the cause. It is difficult to explain to BT and Openreach that the problem is intermittent, and all speed tests look normal.

Screen shot of ASUS log below is this normal or does it indicate a problem?

 

[licquorice]

It's still not clear to me how you have everything connected.

If you have 2 routers involved they need to be configured correctly.

[rbz5416]

Do as @licquorice suggested in message #7.