ADSL keeps disconnecting

fluppet

I got ADSL a few weeks ago. I'm very happy with it, but the only problem is it keeps disconnecting itself. Some days it only disconnects once or twice, some days more (4-5 times).

This is what it does:
Link to ADSL1 failed, then it counts down from 10 and tries to reconnect again, but it doesn't reconnect, instead it says:
Error 680: No Dial Tone, counts down and tries to reconnect again, but doesn't. This time it says:
Error 734: PPP link control protocal terminated, then it tries again and usually reconnects this time.

Yesterday morning for a few hours I couldn't connect at all, it just kept saying 'No Dial Tone'.

I called tech support. They tried resetting my accout, that didn't work. They did something else, that didn't work either. They sent out a technician who had a look at it, but he said the line was fine. He changed a few settings on the computer, and advised me that if it keeps happening I should upgrade to a more expensive modem (I bought my modem from them... it's a USB Aztech ADSL modem, and seems fine to me. The one he was trying to sell me was an expensive wireless router one). It has just disconnected itself again, so there is obviously still a problem.

I don't want to waste my money on a wireless router that I don't need, so does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thank you very much

Sconsey

I've got a similar kind of problem, there are a few things you should check (though I assume that the technician would have checked them)....

Firstly are you on 1mb line, 2mb line, ...etc.? If you are too far from the exchange your line will not support higher connections and that could cause it to disconnect because the modem can't sync. at the higher speeds.

Is there a lot of noise on the line? usually caused by things like wireless phones, if the noise levels get too high I think the ADSL will disconnect.

You should be able to check both of the above from your modem: The distance from the line is measured by Line Attenuarion and is measured in db, you want a figure of less than 60 db for 1Mb and (I think) less than 30db for 2mb line.
Noise is measured by Signal to Noise ratio (SNR), it should be higher than 10 to relaibaly keep the connection up.

check out this link for more details: http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/linestats.htm

fluppet

Thanks for your reply.
Well, everything seems to be fine... there is a diagnostic and admin tool with the modem and it shows attenuation as 16dB, and gives me a graph of SNR, showing an average value around 45-50dB. I only have a 256kbs connection, so I don't know where the problem could be. When the technician was here, one of the things he changed was the ADSL Standard, which he set to G.DMT (I don't know what it was at before). As it was still disconnecting, I decided to try changing it to G.Lite, so we'll see if that makes any difference.
I have been looking at other sites on the internet, and I have seen some posts suggesting that routers are better than modems, does anybody know if changing my USB modem for a router might solve my problem?

Thanks

Kensington

G.Dmt is ADSL1, G.Lite is "splitterless" DSL - it may or may not make any difference to the stability of your connection though by changing between the two. You'll just have to hope it does!

On the graphs of your SNR readings, are there any spikes or sudden, sharp drops of the SNR readings, even for just a short space of time? If there's a huge burst of random noise on your line, even for a second or two, it could knock off your modem sync, causing it to disconnect.

As for changing your modem to a router - well, there's no guarantee it'll make any difference. Certainly, different modems have different tolerances and different reactions to line noise but if the problem is with the ADSL line itself, then the disconnections could occur with any brand or model of modem/router.

fluppet

Thanks for the reply

There are one or two very small gaps in the graphs (ie. one pixel width), and I infact have the data reading from the graph:

BIN-SNR (255)
14/06/2006 21:35
0 0.000000
1 0.000000
2 0.000000
3 0.000000
4 0.000000
5 0.000000
6 0.000000
7 0.000000
8 0.000000
9 0.000000
10 0.000000
11 0.000000
12 0.000000
13 0.000000
14 0.000000
15 0.000000
16 0.000000
17 0.000000
18 0.000000
19 0.000000
20 0.000000
21 0.000000
22 0.000000
23 0.000000
24 0.000000
25 0.000000
26 0.000000
27 0.000000
28 0.000000
29 0.000000
30 0.000000
31 0.000000
32 25.011719
33 28.371094
34 31.492188
35 34.136719
36 36.500000
37 38.777344
38 40.398438
39 41.882813
40 43.394531
41 44.640625
42 45.488281
43 46.847656
44 47.042969
45 48.101563
46 47.964844
47 48.433594
48 48.171875
49 49.503906
50 50.351563
51 49.203125
52 50.324219
53 49.925781
54 49.761719
55 51.226563
56 49.980469
57 49.828125
58 49.695313
59 50.324219
60 50.050781
61 50.175781
62 44.371094
63 49.820313
64 0.000000
65 49.535156
66 48.539063
67 49.593750
68 49.558594
69 49.226563
70 48.808594
71 49.203125
72 48.441406
73 49.585938
74 48.464844
75 49.152344
76 48.382813
77 47.000000
78 48.746094
79 47.238281
80 48.015625
81 48.351563
82 47.757813
83 47.281250
84 47.125000
85 47.000000
86 46.808594
87 45.980469
88 45.656250
89 45.355469
90 45.746094
91 46.039063
92 44.960938
93 38.472656
94 45.019531
95 44.765625
96 45.511719
97 44.734375
98 44.707031
99 44.542969
100 43.640625
101 44.796875
102 44.269531
103 45.238281
104 45.414063
105 44.519531
106 44.605469
107 45.089844
108 46.632813
109 45.644531
110 45.398438
111 46.187500
112 45.054688
113 45.273438
114 44.980469
115 45.789063
116 45.160156
117 45.269531
118 44.878906
119 45.148438
120 45.183594
121 45.160156
122 44.898438
123 44.273438
124 42.671875
125 44.476563
126 44.152344
127 45.078125
128 0.000000
129 0.000000
130 0.000000
131 0.000000
132 0.000000
133 0.000000
134 0.000000
135 0.000000
136 0.000000
137 0.000000
138 0.000000
139 0.000000
140 0.000000
141 0.000000
142 0.000000
143 0.000000
144 0.000000
145 0.000000
146 0.000000
147 0.000000
148 0.000000
149 0.000000
150 0.000000
151 0.000000
152 0.000000
153 0.000000
154 0.000000
155 0.000000
156 0.000000
157 0.000000
158 0.000000
159 0.000000
160 0.000000
161 0.000000
162 0.000000
163 0.000000
164 0.000000
165 0.000000
166 0.000000
167 0.000000
168 0.000000
169 0.000000
170 0.000000
171 0.000000
172 0.000000
173 0.000000
174 0.000000
175 0.000000
176 0.000000
177 0.000000
178 0.000000
179 0.000000
180 0.000000
181 0.000000
182 0.000000
183 0.000000
184 0.000000
185 0.000000
186 0.000000
187 0.000000
188 0.000000
189 0.000000
190 0.000000
191 0.000000
192 0.000000
193 0.000000
194 0.000000
195 0.000000
196 0.000000
197 0.000000
198 0.000000
199 0.000000
200 0.000000
201 0.000000
202 0.000000
203 0.000000
204 0.000000
205 0.000000
206 0.000000
207 0.000000
208 0.000000
209 0.000000
210 0.000000
211 0.000000
212 0.000000
213 0.000000
214 0.000000
215 0.000000
216 0.000000
217 0.000000
218 0.000000
219 0.000000
220 0.000000
221 0.000000
222 0.000000
223 0.000000
224 0.000000
225 0.000000
226 0.000000
227 0.000000
228 0.000000
229 0.000000
230 0.000000
231 0.000000
232 0.000000
233 0.000000
234 0.000000
235 0.000000
236 0.000000
237 0.000000
238 0.000000
239 0.000000
240 0.000000
241 0.000000
242 0.000000
243 0.000000
244 0.000000
245 0.000000
246 0.000000
247 0.000000
248 0.000000
249 0.000000
250 0.000000
251 0.000000
252 0.000000
253 0.000000
254 0.000000
255 0.000000

That is a graph of BIN vs. SNR

You can see at BIN = 64, SNR = 0.

What do you think? Thanks