How to prove I'm getting disconnects from BT broadband

shabbyroad

Hoping someone can point me toward some software that would allow me to constantly monitor and log when I get disconnected from broadband. It's happening very couple of hours: all PCs and devices on my LAN are disconnected and it can take a minute or two for reconnect. It's particularly annoying if there's a VOIP phonecall in progress.

Using the supplied Zyxel 650HW router with latest (March 2005) firmware, it's setup for a 'nailed up' connection.
I have a PC on 24-7 and could leave an application running for the next couple of weeks.

Before I go banging on the door of BT I'd like to get some data to support my belief that the problem is outside of my LAN.

cregser

Do you know anything about batch files? Here's a simple batch program you can run that'll log ping responses and the times to a file. Type it into notepad and save as a .bat file and run it.

echo off
:mylabel
echo Time: >> log.txt
time \T >> log.txt
ping www.google.com -n 30 >> log.txt
goto mylabel

You can leave that running for a few days and you'll have a text file a few megabytes big and you can search for a few "Request timed out" messages lined up together to see when you're connection has gone down.

You could change the 'www.google.com' to iol.ie or BT's DNS servers or whatever.

shabbyroad

yup - familiar with .bat files and piping the result to a .txt file

that'll help I'm sure. perhaps it's all I really need ?

any other suggestions ?

Big P

What are you doing when your internet connection drops? Have you p2p software running? Do you use a routing device like a linksys bb router? If so, make sure its updated to the latest available firmware (or try hyperwrt) as the earlier firmware had severe p2p traffic problems.

shabbyroad

No P2P on the LAN.

Usually it's only noticed when we (my wife & I) are on Instant Messenger because we notice that we get logged out.
I'm beginning to suspect a problem with the router and/or the bband connection itself because this evening I saw this for myself:

I'm downstairs on a wireless connection watching the Ireland game and taking care of some work related email.
One of the kids is playing Disney Toontown online.
My wife is online in our home office doing some work and IM's me to ask me for some information.
Mid conversation I notice that my browser windws start giving connection errors (refresh fails to get to the sites... msn.com o2.ie etc); both my wife and I are signed out of IM at the same time and after 2 minutes I still cannot reconnect.
Kids complain that they've just lost connection to ToonTown.
Neither my wife or I can access our POP3 mail accounts.

Only solution was to cold boot the Zyxel router.

During the day I've been working from home and have noticed several disconnects from my office lan (VPN connection) and times when refreshing sites just didn't work.
I'm on a 3meg connection and there's nothing mad like P2P running.

Big P

Ok, well then the problem is most likely either your phone line or on esats side. If you login to your usage calculator you'll notice a count which says "logins". Basically when you call up esat they'll have a look at your logins (each time your connection drops your login # is increased) and be able to confirm youre having connection issues based on the frequency of them.
So give them a bell and ask them if they can check it out, but it is more than likely on your end (something to do with your own phone line).

8track

cregser wrote:

Do you know anything about batch files? Here's a simple batch program you can run that'll log ping responses and the times to a file. Type it into notepad and save as a .bat file and run it.

echo off
:mylabel
echo Time: >> log.txt
time \T >> log.txt
ping www.google.com -n 30 >> log.txt
goto mylabel

You can leave that running for a few days and you'll have a text file a few megabytes big and you can search for a few "Request timed out" messages lined up together to see when you're connection has gone down.

You could change the 'www.google.com' to iol.ie or BT's DNS servers or whatever.

cregser, how does one start and stop the .bat file running?

I've been getting frequent disconnects on BT 3Mb service this week in Letterkenny, Co. Donegal. It always reconnects itself after a minute or two. Speeds are definitely slower too. Down from 2.2-2.3Mb download speed on irishisptest.com to 1Mb or less. Rang support who were unaware of any problems in Letterkenny. They want me to test using the short phone cable they supplied (I've yet to do this). I've been using a seven metre cable, but have been doing so with no problems for months before.

-Al-

least I'm not the only one, been happening last few days now, really bugging me.

Gonna try that bat file thingy cheers

aido_2006

BT should be able to run tests from their end to check for intermittent connection faults, are you using microfilters in all the phone sockets that are in use in the house?

shabbyroad

It happened again today - wife was on 'phone (VOIP via Blueface) and mid sentence the call was dropped, she had no internet access and the kids also complained that they were just kicked out of Toontown.
Nothing else was running on the LAN : just email, VOIP and that kids game.

I'm going to ask BT to investigate. I have a filter on the main line coming into the house. From this it's split to the phones around the house and the DSL router.

I'll change the filter.. it's a long shot I know but might be worth trying.

aido_2006

give it a shot and if there are any other sockets in use which just phone line on them they should have a filter too, if its not id leave it up to bt's tech desk

8track

shabbyroad wrote:

I have a filter on the main line coming into the house. From this it's split to the phones around the house and the DSL router.
QUOTE]

I was thinking about putting a filter on the line before the first phone socket and splitting - one line to phones (inc. alarm) and one to dsl. Do you have a brand and model name? Where do you buy these?

shabbyroad

I'm using the filter as supplied by BT. After the filter I have all the 'phones running from that - as far as I can tell I don't need to put additional filters on each phone. I have just swapped it with another (identical) one. Generic beige colour. Will have to check the manufacturer name.

Watched as the "ACT" light on the Zyxel basically didn't light up and I couldn't get online. This is starting to do my head in. Will be onto BT in the morning.

dub45

Have you considered that your line may not be up to the 3Mb speed? Have the disconnections only been happening since the speed increases? Have you checked your line stats in the router?

There are a couple of recent threads on this line topic

shabbyroad

dub45 - that's another thought I've got. much and all as it would be great to have 3MB it's no good to me if it disconnects. It's probably the catch-all excuse that BT are going to supply I imagine.

I'll have to read up a little more and look at my router to see what stats I can get.

K-Fella

I don't know if this is the same problem as I've been having for the last 3 weeks, but when I talked to BT they told me my line was incompatable with the upgrades that have been done (BT or Eircom) and that my line needed to be downgraded.

dub45

shabbyroad wrote:

dub45 - that's another thought I've got. much and all as it would be great to have 3MB it's no good to me if it disconnects. It's probably the catch-all excuse that BT are going to supply I imagine.

I'll have to read up a little more and look at my router to see what stats I can get.

This link may be of assistance to you for a start anyways:

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/linestats.htm

cregser

8track wrote:

cregser, how does one start and stop the .bat file running?

After you've created the .bat file just double click it! Stop it by pressing the X button!! or (Ctrl+C)

vibe666

BT are more than capable to check their logs and see exactly how many times you've logged off/on because I#'ve been on the phone to a BT phone monkey and he went through a list of my login times with me (which were frequent).

shabbyroad

Thanks. (Un)fortunately I have to go through an account manager at work (my employer supplies my broadband). In some ways that helps because they're a big account and it might get more attention than me calling them directly (which I can't do...as I found out yesterday).