UPC Conection keeps dropping

Oat23

I'm in Sligo and my UPC internet connection keeps dropping, it's not the router because my computer is picking up the router and it can connect but there is no internet connection coming through.

Most of the time it just frops for anout 20 seconds but last Friday and Today it dropped for over 45 minutes. Is anyone else getting this?, could it be a loose cable outside my house or something?

RangeR

Oatesy23 wrote: »

I'm in Sligo and my UPC internet connection keeps dropping, it's not the router because my computer is picking up the router and it can connect but there is no internet connection coming through.

Most of the time it just frops for anout 20 seconds but last Friday and Today it dropped for over 45 minutes. Is anyone else getting this?, could it be a loose cable outside my house or something?

Download PingPlotter [You don't need to buy it], install and run it. Leave it running until you see 4 or 5 drops [even if it takes a few hours]. Then attach the details here.

Might give us a better indication.

• How often are the drops [once a day ten times a day]?
• Are the drops regular or random [every ten minutes, every hour]?
• Are you using a wireless access point or router? [I know what you said, but if wireless, try wired for a while just to take that out of the equation]
• When did this start happening or has it always happened?
• Don't bother ringing UPC support until you KNOW what the problem is. This won't stop them asking you if you have anti virus installed or if you are standing on one leg and spinning while trying to surf the internet but it will arm you with enough information so they can't just fob you off. Even IF UPC are having network difficulties, they will tell you that the problem is on your PC just to make them not look so bad. The problem might then "fix itself". Dammit, I'm starting to rant now.....

chrism2007

try cabling it straight into the cable modem

this will eliminate router,wireless + some wiring, the most common cause of disconnections

take a look at the cable modem itself when you get disconnected and see if the sync lights flashing/off also

RangeR

chrism2007 wrote: »

try cabling it straight into the cable modem

this will eliminate router,wireless + some wiring, the most common cause of disconnections

take a look at the cable modem itself when you get disconnected and see if the sync lights flashing/off also

If you are going to do this, PLEASE turn on some form of software firewall, even Windows Firewall if running a relatively new version of Windows. Otherwise you might as well re-format your machine when done.

Oat23

Oat23

• How often are the drops [once a day ten times a day]? - Some days it could happen 5 times while im on the computer, but it could be dropping and re-connecting while im away from the computer
• Are the drops regular or random [every ten minutes, every hour]? - Random
• Are you using a wireless access point or router? [I know what you said, but if wireless, try wired for a while just to take that out of the equation] - I can't try wired right now because my ethernet cable is missing.
• When did this start happening or has it always happened? - Always happened with the random 20 second drops, never happened with the long drops of 45 minutes + before.
• Don't bother ringing UPC support until you KNOW what the problem is. This won't stop them asking you if you have anti virus installed or if you are standing on one leg and spinning while trying to surf the internet but it will arm you with enough information so they can't just fob you off. Even IF UPC are having network difficulties, they will tell you that the problem is on your PC just to make them not look so bad. The problem might then "fix itself". Dammit, I'm starting to rant now..... - UPC Support sucks:D

RangeR

Ring UPC and offer to send them the screenshots. It looks like you definitely have a UPC related issue.

It could be their router, cabling or problem on their network but it doesn't look like a problem with YOUR network.

How long have you had UPC installed?

When you ring them, you must remain calm. They will insist that you check a few things, like your internal wiring, some computer configuration etc. It's just easier if you let them talk you through that. It will eat up 5 or 10 minutes of your time but the alternative may cost you more time arguing and putting your stress levels through the roof.

Once they have read through their script and have found that there is nothing wrong with your computer, they will tell you that they will send out an engineer. normally I would say that is pointless but in your case, it might be UPC cabling.

If that doesn't fix it.... It would point to a problem on their network. If that's the case, I REALLY don't hold out much chance of you getting it resolved in the short term [read weeks to months.]

If you are persistent and ring them for updates on a daily basis for about a week or two, you will have grounds to get out of your contract as they can be shown unable to provide the service advertised. I doubt they would even fight you on it.

Do you have any other internet provider options [worst case]?

RangeR

Just one more thing... Do you have an up to date anti virus program installed?
If not, install one and do a full system scan before you ring them. If anything is found by the AV, clean it and try your internet again.

Oat23

RangeR wrote: »

How long have you had UPC installed?

Do you have any other internet provider options [worst case]?

I've had UPC since December 22nd 2008, and yes, i do have other options(Eircom, BT, Smart), but based on previous experiences with Eircom and since BT are eircom re-sellers, Smart maybe the only other option, not looked into that much yet.

Thanks for all your help, i will give UPC a call and we'll see what happens.

RangeR wrote: »

Just one more thing... Do you have an up to date anti virus program installed?
If not, install one and do a full system scan before you ring them. If anything is found by the AV, clean it and try your internet again.

Yes i have norton anti-virus and this computer is lees than 2 months old so i doubt its a virus, i'll run a test just to be sure.

Thanks for all your help, i will give UPC a call and we'll see what happens.

RangeR

Oatesy23 wrote: »

Yes i have norton anti-virus and this computer is lees than 2 months old so i doubt its a virus, i'll run a test just to be sure.

Your Anti Virus definitions should be updated daily. A week is a long time in virus land, never mind two months.

Oat23

RangeR wrote: »

Your Anti Virus definitions should be updated daily. A week is a long time in virus land, never mind two months.

You must have mis-understood, i have it set to run tests every 3 days, im just saying the laptop is only 2 months old so i doubt it would be something i downloaded or a webpage viewed in that time.

DingDong

Have a look at http://192.168.100.1/ and post back what your receive and transmit power levels are .

Stevek101

Now that you mention power levels

Are these alright?

Receive Power Level
-1.5 dBmV

Transmit Power Level
47.0 dBmV

Oat23

Recieve power level - 7.8 dBmV
Transmit power level - 43.4 dBmV

DingDong

Both of your signals seem to be fine, although Stevek's is a little low but it is well within tolerance, I'd be worried if it was transmitting high but it's spot on . Keep an eye on it Oatesy when the connection drops.

Ian Beale

Oatesy23 wrote: »

You must have mis-understood, i have it set to run tests every 3 days, im just saying the laptop is only 2 months old so i doubt it would be something i downloaded or a webpage viewed in that time.

Nope it isn't a virus or problem on your end, I had the exact same problem last week, I gave upc a call and they had it fixed in 2 days, call 1908 and prepare to listen to some classical music, tell them your having massive packet loss and they'll transfer you to the broadband support ( Ironically they play Eircom's Don't stop me now theme song as you wait :pac: ) tell them your getting between 30% to 100% packet loss, blah blah usually reset modem, let me run a test..... nope no problem on your end I'll note it for the engineers.

Oat23

Ian Beale wrote: »

Nope it isn't a virus or problem on your end, I had the exact same problem last week, I gave upc a call and they had it fixed in 2 days, call 1908 and prepare to listen to some classical music, tell them your having massive packet loss and they'll transfer you to the broadband support ( Ironically they play Eircom's Don't stop me now theme song as you wait :pac: ) tell them your getting between 30% to 100% packet loss, blah blah usually reset modem, let me run a test..... nope no problem on your end I'll note it for the engineers.

Does a engineer then come out to the house or what happens?

Ian Beale

Oatesy23 wrote: »

Does a engineer then come out to the house or what happens?

In my case they booked an engineer to come out in a few days but 2 days after logging the call I got an automated call from them saying my issue should be resolved, ran pingplotter for a few hours and the problem had been fixed so called them up and cancelled the engineer.