Broadband cutout during peak hours

Dr.Mark

We are with eircom and have had a strange problem ever since our next door neighbour signed up for BB (again eircom), maybe a coincidence.
Every evening, between 5 and 7, and on weekends during the daytime, in other words, at peak times, we lose connection.
The router is working fine, we can see it, but the connection to the intenet is lost.
During the last 12 months we have had countless phone calls to "tech" :rolleyes: staff who simply haven't a clue. We were promised engineer call outs, agreed to pay the fee, bu they never showed, claiming they tested out line and there is no fault.
At this point I am seriously considering a move to BT as eircom are hopelessly out of their depth.

Has anyone had a similar problem?

I am considering retaining the eircom line + broadband and simply getting a BB account with eircom over the same line as we need BB 24/7. Is it possible to run both services over the same line or will they eat each others bandwidth?


TIA

Cabaal

Is your router actually loosing sync?
If so then its line quality issue and its worth ruling out anything you can, try this http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=54381143&postcount=6

If your line is not actually dropping sync then make a note of your line stats before the problems start and during

crawler

Odd....

I would do what is suggested already...

I also would suggest that you run a constant ping to something external over a night or two and record the results.

Also - are you using a wireless connection? Have you a firewall set to block access at certain times (in error)? Have you become part of a botnet (is the internet light flashing constantly for activity)?

Could be loads of things but likely to be something simple....

Dr.Mark

Cabaal wrote: »

Is your router actually loosing sync?
If so then its line quality issue and its worth ruling out anything you can, try this http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=54381143&postcount=6

If your line is not actually dropping sync then make a note of your line stats before the problems start and during

Yes, I am losing sync and eircom were able to see this. I have also done everything listed on your link. My original setup had the router connected to an upstairs extension, running 2 wired and 1 wireless machine, with a 3Gb business account.

I have now moved the router downstairs to the primary connection, leave the upstairs extension unused (no phone), and have the entire system wireless. This made *no* difference.
I dropped from 3G to 2G in case my line could not handle the larger BW. No change.

Everything worked fine *before* my neighbours stared getting BB. I believe that it is a contention issue (not speed but actual connections) and this becomes a problem only when everyone is at home (and using their BB).

It is also possible that eircom know what the problem is but are ill equipped to do anything about it :mad:

Dr.Mark

crawler wrote: »

Odd....


I also would suggest that you run a constant ping to something external over a night or two and record the results.

Overnight it works fine. I use a newsgroup downloader to test the capability of my BB and it downloads (for example) a DVD with no problem. This software can reconnect after a break so it is possible that I still lose some sync.

crawler wrote: »

Also - are you using a wireless connection? Have you a firewall set to block access at certain times (in error)? Have you become part of a botnet (is the internet light flashing constantly for activity)?

No firewall.

Tell me about this botnet business. My problems start at 5pm every night. Could some external factor be locking me out?

dub45

As a matter of interest what are your line stats?

Have you tried changing your wireless channel?

Have you used something like netstumbler to see how many other wireless networks there are around the place and what channels they are on?

Does your neighbour also lose connection during the periods you mention?

Dr.Mark

dub45 wrote: »

As a matter of interest what are your line stats?

Below the limit before this started. Since it started, I have been downloading way over the limit as I am p****d off with eircom.

dub45 wrote: »

Have you tried changing your wireless channel?

I have (or had in my previous setup) an identical problem with both wired and wireless. There is no problem "seeing" the router --- it is the router that loses the outside connection. BTW, I replaced the router with a new one: no change to the problem. I am now using a Belkin.

dub45 wrote: »

Have you used something like netstumbler to see how many other wireless networks there are around the place and what channels they are on?

No, given what I said about wired having the same problem, do you think this is still worth it? I am happy to try anything.

dub45 wrote: »

Does your neighbour also lose connection during the periods you mention?

Nope, just me :mad:

dub45

Dr.Mark wrote: »

Below the limit before this started. Since it started, I have been downloading way over the limit as I am p****d off with eircom.

Your line stats have to do with the quality of your line nothing to do with your download amounts and should be available from your router.

Dr.Mark

dub45 wrote: »

Your line stats have to do with the quality of your line nothing to do with your download amounts and should be available from your router.

I now use a Belkin and can access thru http://192.168.2.1 but there doesn't appear to be any way of checking stats

I will double check later.

Splinter

i am having similar problems with BT in the swords exchange were every night for the last two weeks from 5pm til as late as 11pm. on a netgear router, wired. tried main socket with all disconnected, updated router firmware. i dont appear to lose synch on the router but i have lost dns and ip address at times. generally i dont regain access until i reset the router itself. i will post line stats tonight

Cabaal

I'd be interested to see your line stats during the periods it works, my guess is quality is dropping on the line at peak times and thus your line is dropping sync.

However is there anything electrical that happens to switch on during this period, shop signage, street lights, christmas lights, water heaters etc

If still likely something Eircom will need to raise a fault ticket over to investigate, any engineer attending your premises needs to attend during the periods your having the issues ideally or needs to do there job right

Splinter

nothing starts around this time that i can tell. bar home heating but thats from half 4 til half 5 only. sky box was connected to the phone a few months ago but that caused my speed to be stuck at 3gb. once i removed the sky from the phone i was on 8gb perfect.

Cabaal

splinter wrote: »

nothing starts around this time that i can tell. bar home heating but thats from half 4 til half 5 only. sky box was connected to the phone a few months ago but that caused my speed to be stuck at 3MB. once i removed the sky from the phone i was on 8MB perfect.

You shoudn't have to remove the sky box, just connect it correctly through a ADSL microfilter (the same as you would with any phones, faxes etc) and that should solve that issue

Dr.Mark

Cabaal wrote: »

I'd be interested to see your line stats during the periods it works, my guess is quality is dropping on the line at peak times and thus your line is dropping sync.

However is there anything electrical that happens to switch on during this period, shop signage, street lights, christmas lights, water heaters etc

If still likely something Eircom will need to raise a fault ticket over to investigate, any engineer attending your premises needs to attend during the periods your having the issues ideally or needs to do there job right

...... and they have no intention of doing that. These clowns work at their own hours during the day time and have little interest in making genuine attempts to solve the problem.

I also believe that it is a line quality issue or some electrical surge, and with 12 months worth of phone calls and detailed description, you would think they get the message. But no .....

And it also leads me to think that changing to a provider such as BT will make no difference as they will inherit the same hardware, and have to apss the problem on th esame "engineer".

splinter, i would be interested to see if you get any meaningful action from them.

Alun

I have a similar problem with SNR going down from an acceptable 12-13dB during the day, dropping down gradually starting at about 4pm to a trough at 9 or 10pm and then climbing gradually back up again to reach a decent value again at 9 or 10am. It's as regular as clockwork, with the only difference being that in the summer months the dip starts later. I suspect street lighting myself.

I've tried contacting Eircom, but getting past the first, or even second-line call-centre jockeys to speak to someone who actually knows what SNR Margins are seems just impossible.

Here's a typical SNR margin profile for me at this time of the year ...

dub45

Dr.Mark wrote: »

...... and they have no intention of doing that. These clowns work at their own hours during the day time and have little interest in making genuine attempts to solve the problem.

I also believe that it is a line quality issue or some electrical surge, and with 12 months worth of phone calls and detailed description, you would think they get the message. But no .....

And it also leads me to think that changing to a provider such as BT will make no difference as they will inherit the same hardware, and have to apss the problem on th esame "engineer".

splinter, i would be interested to see if you get any meaningful action from them.

You have not posted your line stats yet?

An old fashioned letter to the Eircom Chief Executive has been know to work wonders. Worth a try.

Dr.Mark

dub45 wrote: »

You have not posted your line stats yet?

i can't figure out how to do this with my Belkin. There doesn't appear to be an option on the service menu.

dub45 wrote: »

An old fashioned letter to the Eircom Chief Executive has been know to work wonders. Worth a try.

That may well be a very good idea.

Cabaal

Dr.Mark wrote: »

...... and they have no intention of doing that. These clowns work at their own hours during the day time and have little interest in making genuine attempts to solve the problem.

I also believe that it is a line quality issue or some electrical surge, and with 12 months worth of phone calls and detailed description, you would think they get the message. But no .....

And it also leads me to think that changing to a provider such as BT will make no difference as they will inherit the same hardware, and have to apss the problem on th esame "engineer".

splinter, i would be interested to see if you get any meaningful action from them.

Outside of hours and interference issues are awkward things to sort sometimes, in relation to moving to BT you'd still be tied to Eircom engineers at the end of the day.

You'd be best lodge a complaint with eircom and pursue it that way in the long term