Broadband Dropping Connection - Tyne and Wear

[EssoOil]

Hi there,

Since approx the 20th September 2010 our business is experiencing regular broadband drop-outs.  These are intermittent but occur daily.  Somtime they last 5 mins, sometime they last 15 mins.

It doesn't just affect web browsing (e.g. a DNS issue).  On 22nd Sep I couldn't connect to our server from home for over 15 minutes.  Before this date I could connect first time every time).

Before raising this issue with BT I did the following:

1) Swapped routers.  I connected the BT 2700HGV router that BT provided.  We have used a Netgear DG834 for the past 18 months with almost zero problems but I thought trying a different router would be an obvious thing to do (and so BT couldn't say "it's your router").

2) I fitted a new broadband line fliter (supplied by BT)

3) I fitted a new phone cable that goes from the line filter to the router (supplied by BT)

4) I fitted a new CAT 5 cable from router to switch (supplied by BT)

Even with all this new equipment fitted we are still suffering from regular broadband drop-outs.

I rang BT Business Broadband and got straight though (at 1:30am on 29th Sep so no surprise).  The BT advisor was very helpful.  He told me that BT can "detect" how many times the broadband connection had dropped out each day.  They said ours had dropped out 50 times on 27th (before I swapped the router and cables).

Having swapped this much equipment (everything apart from the switch really) I'm thinking that it must be something on the line or at BT's end. No external device can see past our routers firewall so if BT are "detecting" a drop out this must be happening between their systems and our router.

I found another post from July this year where other people were having exacly the same issues.  Worryingly, no solution / conclusion was ever posted so it could still be happening!! (it is for us).

See http://btb.lithium.com/btb/board/crawl_message?board.id=Broadband&message.id=3034

My closing statement would be that if I have changed the router and all the cables and this is still happening how can it be our equipment?

To further add to the complications we rent space to another small business who have a completely separate BT broadband line installed.  They use a Netgear DG834 router and just one PC and they are also starting to experience broadband connection problems (in the same building).

Does anyone else have these problems (we are in South Shields, Tyne and Wear).

Just looking for a solution.

[alastair]

after telling the BT tech person what you have told us they should have reported a fault.

if you use a telephone on that line can you notice any noise on it like crackling + hissing or anything like that? if yes report to your telephone faults desk.

if no, BT broadband need to report a fault for you.

you will probs need to report both connections seperately and when it comes to the stage an engineer visits explain the symptoms and the fact its happening on both these connections

[golfmad22]

in reply to your problems, iam in dalkeith just outside edinburgh and for the last two weeks have had the same problem but the first one lasted for a week, it happend again yesterday and bt say they can see my new router and the line test was ok, but i had my computer guy check the log on my router and we have found that the adsl media dropped of so how can bt say it is my problem. we are now checking to see how many times this will happen then take it up with them again.

[CAFEBRIXTON]

We have been experiencing EXACTLY THE SAME problems like yours for the past 9 months and B.T keep telling us different things.

They have made us change every cable, equiptment and have visited us soooooooooooo many times , even made us upgrade to a higher tarriff with out being able to solve the problem.

our case is still open with the esclation teams.

but we are now considering making a formal complaint through oftel.

[EssoOil]

It has taken us weeks to get any where with this problem.  The BT engineer came out on Monday this week.  He didnt find anything obvious but did do something with the cables but the drop-outs still occur.

Only last night did I make a massive breakthough with this!!

We have a small start-up company that rents part of our building (company X).  A month ago they decided to get their own BT broadband.  They already had their own BT lines.  One was for their fax and one was for their telephone. They had the phone line broadband enabled.

The fault

Everytime company X switch their broadband router on our internet drops out.  When company X switches their router off our broadband re-connects. This happens without us touching anything at our end.  We did this on / off test 13 times last night and without fail each time their router was turned on we lost our connection until their router was turned off.

I'm running some software on our server called Axence Net Tools which pings OpenDNS.com on 208.67.222.222 every 30 seconds. This clearly shows a drop out when company X router is turned on and then shows connection re-established when company X router is off.

It is possible for us to get a broadband connection after a while when company x have their equipment on if we re-boot our router a few times but it is not reliable.

This morning we disconnected the company X router and PC etc. so that nothing is attached to their phone line.  We were expecting a problem free day. GUESS WHAT!! The drop-outs still occur!!  What we simulated by turning their broadband on then off cannot be a coincidence (13 times last night then 4 times at 7:30 this morning). There must be a conflict or short-circuit somewhere with the company X broadband line even when their router and PC are not connected to it.

Of course we aren’t privy to what BT do with their switching gear during business hours. There must be a conflict or short-circuit somewhere that shouldn’t be there which is causing this.

A BT engineer was due to come out today but BT made another "booking error" so he wont be here until tomorrow (Wed 13th).  That figures because his first visit was supposed to be Friday last week but again due to a "booking error" he didn't get here until yesterday (Mon 11th).

SUMMARY

I know BT business broadband has a contention ratio of 20:1 which means that in theory another 20 companies could be sharing the bandwidth of a 20mb connection.  However surely one business switching on their router should never cause the broadband connection of another business to drop (17 times in a row).

Imagine every time your next door neighbour switched their broadband on you lost your connection.

The most annoying this is that BT cant seem to find a fault (although we havent showed them this problem with company X broadband yet).  The fact that the fault still occurs when company x has nothing connected might be strange, but having reproduced the error 17 times now in total it must be some wiring or connection that's incorrect somewhere.

I'll give you all an update soon....

[EssoOil]

The BT engineer came out today and did more tests on our line and on company x line.  BT report that everything looks fine.

But we are still having regular internet drop-outs.

The fact that we managed to cause our broadband line to drop-out 17 times when we switched the company x router on didn't seem to register with BT.

Of course when we tried to reproduce this when the BT engineer was here we couldn't.

This afternoon our broadband connection was fine for a whole hour until company X switched their router on then we lost our connection!  Because we sometimes get these drop-outs when company X have their equipment disconnected I still think that something else is also affecting our broadband.  This could be next doors broadband connection or wireless router.

The worry now is that BT still cant see this.

Okay, perhaps the actual phone lines and broadband connections seem fine when BT test them, but there must be a fault, short circuit or 'data leakage' somewhere that BT just can't seem to detect.

We are now keeping detailed records and building up our evidence folder.  On Monday I also videoed me switching the company X equipment on then running to our router to see the graph on Net Tools show the data loss.  I then switched the company X equipment off and we got our connection back.  I did this four times and have it all on video!

I'm now scouring the internet to see if any other companies with two internet lines or two broadband connections in the same building have experienced similar problems.

I'll update this post soon.  Thanks for reading.

[stuartsmith]

this sounds like the problem we are having, our connection is dropping 15-20 times a day and BT just fob us off, how much longer can they get away with this, they supply a service at a cost but the service is rubbish. We have gone through all the checks, equipment, filters etc but I fear this will never be sorted, have no confidence in them.

[totaln]

Hi I am been going through the same issue with my broad band for the last 3 weeks, I have had a new box connections and leads but still the same rubbish connections. i was on the phone last week for 3 hours and go no where and this morning for 55 min if I dont get it resolved TODAY I am going to close my account with BT.

I work or try to work from home and can not work with the BT intermittent broadband. I have 3 computers Vista XP and Mas OS 10 and it happends to all 3 so it can not be me..........................

Is any one out there who can help?

---

@EssoOil wrote:

Hi there,

Since approx the 20th September 2010 our business is experiencing regular broadband drop-outs.  These are intermittent but occur daily.  Somtime they last 5 mins, sometime they last 15 mins.

It doesn't just affect web browsing (e.g. a DNS issue).  On 22nd Sep I couldn't connect to our server from home for over 15 minutes.  Before this date I could connect first time every time).

Before raising this issue with BT I did the following:

1) Swapped routers.  I connected the BT 2700HGV router that BT provided.  We have used a Netgear DG834 for the past 18 months with almost zero problems but I thought trying a different router would be an obvious thing to do (and so BT couldn't say "it's your router").

2) I fitted a new broadband line fliter (supplied by BT)

3) I fitted a new phone cable that goes from the line filter to the router (supplied by BT)

4) I fitted a new CAT 5 cable from router to switch (supplied by BT)

Even with all this new equipment fitted we are still suffering from regular broadband drop-outs.

I rang BT Business Broadband and got straight though (at 1:30am on 29th Sep so no surprise).  The BT advisor was very helpful.  He told me that BT can "detect" how many times the broadband connection had dropped out each day.  They said ours had dropped out 50 times on 27th (before I swapped the router and cables).

Having swapped this much equipment (everything apart from the switch really) I'm thinking that it must be something on the line or at BT's end. No external device can see past our routers firewall so if BT are "detecting" a drop out this must be happening between their systems and our router.

I found another post from July this year where other people were having exacly the same issues.  Worryingly, no solution / conclusion was ever posted so it could still be happening!! (it is for us).

See http://btb.lithium.com/btb/board/crawl_message?board.id=Broadband&message.id=3034

My closing statement would be that if I have changed the router and all the cables and this is still happening how can it be our equipment?

To further add to the complications we rent space to another small business who have a completely separate BT broadband line installed.  They use a Netgear DG834 router and just one PC and they are also starting to experience broadband connection problems (in the same building).

Does anyone else have these problems (we are in South Shields, Tyne and Wear).

Just looking for a solution.

---

[Alun]

Hi totaln,

Can you send me all the details and reference numbers about this so that I can get this looked into for you? Thanks.