Vodafone Broadband connection dropping

BrianHal

For the past 6 weeks, my VF BB connection has been dropping very frequently. I have been in contact with VF support and they have come to the conclusion that something is wrong inside my house. I have gotten the eircom NTU replaced, tried two different HG556a (white Vodafone branded) routers and still the problem persists. I have had VF refresh my user profile from their end and this hasn't sorted the problem either. Also, the eircom line tests are apparently coming back with perfect quality/reception. I was a BT customer and was on their 8mb tarriff when I transferred to VF I had the corresponding tarriff and never had the problem. Around mid-April, I contacted VF to change tarriff to the e40 Value Broadband tarriff (same as previous tarriff with a 40gb limit now instead of 120gb) and I have been seeing this problem since. Does anyone know how to sort this connection dropping problem or do I have to change provider? If I change provider, can I guarantee that this problem wont happen with them?

doh777

same problem here. been onto customer support, done all the troubleshooting.

it drops after about 5-10 mins. powering on and off the modem will restore it for another 5-7 mins.

they've no solid answers.

BrianHal

My drops vary from every two to three mins to two days, but does tend to be closer to the two to three mins time.

Are you on the same tarriff? Value Broadband + Talk Offpeak?

JasperJ

Been having the same problem for the past few weeks. A few of my neighbours who are on Vodafone phone to find out that there was a problem with the mast so I left it for a couple of weeks till it got totally ridiculas. Phoned that a couple of days ago to find out that they have known about the problem for the past while but had no idea when it would be fixed. Today I phoned again and was told that an engineer had been out today and needs a part, then they told me that they hope to have it fixed by next Monday. I have been with them on Vodafone Broadband for the past five years and can only come to the conclusion that when they have a problem, it takes them ages to fix the issue, in the meantime you are paying for a service that you are not receiving as they will not compensate you for the lack of service (practically no service over the past two/three weeks). I am in a contract on this new modem for the next few months as I changed contract due to a new price but as soon as this contract is up I feel that I will have no option to change. The people at the other end of the phone in general are lovely, I am sure that they are as frustrated as their customers but the servicing and coverage is so bad that it is hard to stay with them. I only wish that I had changed providers when I was changing the modem, unfortunately I am restriced to a contract so have no choice but to stay or pay.

doh777

might have finally gotten the problem resolved.

Seventh call to the customer service in as many days (agree with poster above about the quality of customer service, little to no waiting time for the call to be answered and the operators were pleasant and polite, I spoke to as said about seven of them, all male).

I was using a BT modem (BT Voyager 210). I had a ZyXel Prestige in storage.

The customer service recommended changing to the ZyXel and changing the username and password and some WAN figures.

He said the BT Voyager may be too old (after recommended to change any modem after 4 years). This doesn't hold much water with me, it seemed to be working fine and I was sure the issue was somewhere else.

Either way so far so good with the ZyXel Modem (over 4 years old but had been in storage) and the new WAN settings.

ps. I don't know what WAN means.

lucernarian

BrianHal wrote: »

For the past 6 weeks, my VF BB connection has been dropping very frequently. I have been in contact with VF support and they have come to the conclusion that something is wrong inside my house. I have gotten the eircom NTU replaced, tried two different HG556a (white Vodafone branded) routers and still the problem persists. I have had VF refresh my user profile from their end and this hasn't sorted the problem either. Also, the eircom line tests are apparently coming back with perfect quality/reception. I was a BT customer and was on their 8mb tarriff when I transferred to VF I had the corresponding tarriff and never had the problem. Around mid-April, I contacted VF to change tarriff to the e40 Value Broadband tarriff (same as previous tarriff with a 40gb limit now instead of 120gb) and I have been seeing this problem since. Does anyone know how to sort this connection dropping problem or do I have to change provider? If I change provider, can I guarantee that this problem wont happen with them?

Probably no harm in posting up the "DSL statistics" from your modem. It'll have information like attenuation, signal margin and connection speed and perhaps number of CRC errors etc.

Scruff

i had similar problems for the last few weeks with my vodafone up to 8mb package. Evenings and weekends i couldnt connect at all. Spent about an hour on the phone a few days ago and they ran all the tests and insisted that in the end that it must be my modem, an older Zyxel 660hw-61, as they said the line to my house was capable of 17mb. So i borrowed another modem but still had problems so i rang back.
They ran all the test again but still no answers. I pointed out the the Downstream SNR was pants at between 4-6db and that even though i was on the 8mb package i was never seeing more than around 6. The techie on the other end came to the conclusion based on this that they were pushing more than the line into the house could handle so he throttled it back to 5.5mb.
Problem now seems to be solved (touch wood). Have had a stable connection since and am actually getting a better download rate than when they were trying to push 8. SNR is a much more respectable 11db though still short of the 15db the techie said they aim for.
Might be an issue if i want to upgrade to the up to 24mb package but i doubt i will need that speed. Not worried about not getting the full 8, am a good bit away from the exchange so will be more than happy with a stable 5.5. Might be able to improve things with a newer modem too.

I was also told that the eircom zyxel 660hw-t1 v3 are incompatible with VF bb. the v2 are fine but not the v3, incase anyone is trying with that model

lucernarian

Sounds like there could be an issue with the internal wiring in that setup. Usually the prequal is too conservative so if you're getting much less than that there is something in particular that's affecting your DSL connection.

(Note: the prequal gives an ADSL2+ speed but any line which can handle 17 mbps should be able to handle 8 mbps with ordinary ADSL)

Any connection will be grand with about 8-10dB Signal margin (that's 14 to 16dB SNR), the >15dB signal margin would be in a perfect world!

Scruff

i may have jinxed myself and spoken too soon. Seeing disconnects again today and noise down to 6db again

noise margin downstream: 6 db

Is that Signal margin or SNR?

lucernarian

Noise margin = signal margin.

BrianHal

Since my last resync, my 8meg connection is only getting 4ish Mb. Has anyone had this problem and changed provider? If so, has this problem stopped?

Here's my ADSL stats:

Mode:G.DMT
Line Coding:Trellis On
Status:Connected
Link Power State:L0
Downstream / Upstream
SNR Margin (dB):17.8 17.0
Attenuation (dB):27.0 15.0
Power (dBm):19.7 11.9
Attainable Rate (Kbps):4096 948
Rate (Kbps):4064 512
K (number of bytes in DMT frame):128 17
R (number of check bytes in RS code word):0 0
S (RS code word size in DMT frame):1 1
D (interleaver depth):1 1
Delay (msec):0 0

Super Frames:160715 160655
Super Frame Errors:3600 387
RS Words:0 0
RS Correctable Errors:0 3
RS Uncorrectable Errors:0 N/A

HEC Errors:2969 152
OCD Errors:572 37
LCD Errors:2 18
Total Cells:26084625 0
Data Cells:481256 0
Bit Errors:0 0

Total ES:13646 0
Total SES:4277 0
Total UAS:6669 0

lucernarian

That's astonishing, the line is working very well there (except for the speed being limited!)

Could you turn off and then turn back on the modem? And then post those stats again?

BrianHal

Eventually it connected after a reboot. Speed is down to 1.7Mb

Mode: G.DMT
Line Coding: Trellis On
Status: Connected
Link Power State: L0

Downstream Upstream
SNR Margin (dB): 8.1 6.0
Attenuation (dB): 26.0 14.0
Power (dBm): 19.8 11.9
Attainable Rate (Kbps): 1792 392
Rate (Kbps): 1760 288
K (number of bytes in DMT frame): 56 10
R (number of check bytes in RS code word): 0 0
S (RS code word size in DMT frame): 1 1
D (interleaver depth): 1 1
Delay (msec): 0 0

Super Frames: 2064 2062
Super Frame Errors: 59 1031
RS Words: 0 0
RS Correctable Errors: 0 0
RS Uncorrectable Errors: 0 N/A

HEC Errors: 19 47
OCD Errors: 0 992
LCD Errors: 0 16
Total Cells: 145756 0
Data Cells: 21 0
Bit Errors: 0 0

Total ES: 105 0
Total SES: 43 0
Total UAS: 147 0

lucernarian

There's a severe interference problem with the line or the equipment in the exchange is banjaxed. The fact that it happened when you changed over to a different package suggests the problem is in the exchange but I'm really not sure.

Are you sure these problems started the day you moved over?

Can you tell me what work eircom did with the NTU? Does the new master socket have a filter built into it?

Can you get your hands on a different make of router?

Is there an option in the WAN setup/settings for "modulation type"? It would have options like G.dmt or G.dmt.bisplus or else G.992.5 or somethink like multimode or Auto. Post back what the modem is set to use.

Finally, did the disconnections and severe slow-downs ever occur in any particular pattern or time of day? Sorry for all the questions!

BrianHal

I can't narrow down the exact day as we were out of the house for the week that we changed package.
The new NTU was just swapped in place of the old Telecom Eireann one. Yes, it has a phone (filtered) port and a dedicated BB port.
I'm now trying a BT Voyager 210 that I got a loan of. I only got 10 mins from that too.
On both Vodafone and BT router, there doesnt seem to be a Modulation setting. I have seen Show Time, G.992, Idle and one or two other values in the "Status" box as per the Vodafone router.

lucernarian

There is a setting for ADSL configuration in the Voyager modem. I used to own one myself. Here's a screenshot of the page in question: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/407/image4nd9.jpg/ You may have to enter "advanced" settings to see the menu though.

Could you enable just ADSL2, READSL2 and ADSL2+ to see what happens? If it doesn't work then you can change it back to all the boxes ticked. Or else try it with nothing but G.dmt selected but I doubt that will make a difference.

Btw, what exchange are you connected to?

Apologies once again for the effort you've to go through in narrowing this problem down.

Are these disconnections happening with any particular pattern or regularity or at certain periods of the day only?

BrianHal

I'll look at the Voyager settings again this evening and post them up then.

I am connected to the Carrigaline, Co. Cork exchange. It was supposed to be made NGB enabled in the first quarter of this year but I'm not sure when exactly this happened.
I was also speaking to more people about this over the weekend and they either having it happen to them all the time or know friends or neighbours having it happen to them. None of these people that I spoke to are connected to the Carrigaline exchange.

There is no pattern as to when the disconnects are happening. The router has registered over 400 resyncs in a day and a half over the weekend, i.e. averaging once every 5 mins or so. This is too frequent to spot a pattern unfortunately.

Sapele

Having the same problem. Friday week ago got a text from voda telling us we are being switched to enhanced BB. Thought great, but since then its been a disaster. BB was down for 4 days, came back and now regular disconnects. Web pages stop loading, online game drop etc for about 2 mins then comes back. Eircom tested the line, no problems. Only have the phone and modem on the line and everything was fine up until that switchover so i dont thinks its an internal problem but have done the usual resets, without splitter, on main socket, with all the same results, ethernet and wireless.

Anybody with a good knowledge of line stats see anything amiss here?

Mode: ADSL2+
Line Coding: Trellis On
Status: Connected
Link Power State: L0

Downstream Upstream
SNR Margin (dB): 14.5 26.1
Attenuation (dB): 40.5 20.5
Power (dBm): 0.0 12.8
Attainable Rate (Kbps): 10408 1116
Rate (Kbps): 6144 508
MSGc (number of bytes in overhead channel message): 59 10
B (number of bytes in Mux Data Frame): 192 72
M (number of Mux Data Frames in FEC Data Frame): 1 1
T (Mux Data Frames over sync bytes): 1 1
R (number of check bytes in FEC Data Frame): 0 0
S (ratio of FEC over PMD Data Frame length): 1.0000 4.5271
L (number of bits in PMD Data Frame): 1544 129
D (interleaver depth): 1 1
Delay (msec): 0 1

lucernarian

The stats look fine and what you'd expect for a healthy line. The line could handle at least 7 mbps if it came down to it but we'll entertain ourselves with getting a stable 6 for the moment:)

Now, do you definitely have a filter for every last thing connected to the phone line (excluding the modem)? The modem only needs a splitter/filter if there's a phone being used at the same socket. Otherwise the modem plugs straight into the socket.

When the internet drops out for you, could you check the stats again while the drop is taking place and then post them up here?

Also, could you change the primary DNS address in the router's WAN/internet configuration to 8.8.8.8 and see if there's any difference?

Sapele

Thanks to be confirmed

Yes, the two phones have a filter on them and at the moment im using a double filter for the for the modem and phone so when i was talking to support and they wanted a modem reset i didnt get knocked off, but its the same without the double filter.

Ill check the stats when i get a dropout, could be interesting

Am using the google dns inputed into the computers control panel, will give them a whirl in the modem setup

lucernarian

I have had more joy with changing DNS settings in allowing computers to pick up DNS automatically and then inputting the DNS settings into the router. That way they're applied globally and it gives less room for windows to act up.

I've no technical reason for why using the computer's control panel mightn't work but I've had headaches with trying to change DNS settings on a PC instead of the router. It's a precautionary suggestion in other words.

Sapele

Line stats remain the same during the drops and unfortunately putting the google dns in the modem was no help.

Have been on to 1907 several times making changes here and there, different login name using my phone number etc, all to no avail. Still the drops persist. My feeling is that everything was very good up until friday week ago and the line is testing fine and nothing has changed in the house, which leads me to believe the problem may be somewhere exchange side. 1907 say there should be no reason my line should be dropping. Speedtest and ping tests are showing up a steady 5.23 ish download on a 6 meg line and an A on pingtest when things are working. It sounds like some configuration setting somewhere is not quite right.

Ive seen other threads where people have been giving out about the same problem, anyone had it and actually got it working on Vodafone?

Any more ideas to try to be confirmed?

Calebmcd

Same here fine all week now this





Normally ping 20-30
and 6mb/445

Mode: G.DMT
Line Coding: Trellis On
Status: Connected
Link Power State: L0

Downstream Upstream
SNR Margin (dB): 17.8 27.0
Attenuation (dB): 36.0 16.0
Power (dBm): 19.8 12.2
Attainable Rate (Kbps): 9536 1352
Rate (Kbps): 6144 512
K (number of bytes in DMT frame): 193 17
R (number of check bytes in RS code word): 0 0
S (RS code word size in DMT frame): 1 1
D (interleaver depth): 1 1
Delay (msec): 0 0

Super Frames: 64958 64899
Super Frame Errors: 5 0
RS Words: 0 0
RS Correctable Errors: 0 0
RS Uncorrectable Errors: 0 N/A

HEC Errors: 2 0
OCD Errors: 0 0
LCD Errors: 0 0
Total Cells: 16002220 0
Data Cells: 176425 0
Bit Errors: 0 0

Total ES: 5 0
Total SES: 0 0
Total UAS: 13 0

Tungsten Tide

ouch! I can imagine hearing the noise of that router.
Mine is really quiet compared to urs.
DSL Noise Margin: 8 dB /24 dB

Sapele

Power (dBm): 0.0 12.8

Thats my power setting, should there be a zero in there for downstream? Seems a bit odd

Tungsten Tide

How many cilents?
Network > Local Network(LAN) > Client List

Calebmcd

Tungsten Tide wrote: »

ouch! I can imagine hearing the noise of that router.
Mine is really quiet compared to urs.
DSL Noise Margin: 8 dB /24 dB

Thats supposed to be high
The Att is supposed to be low!




My speed/ping back to normal!

lucernarian

Sapele wrote: »

Line stats remain the same during the drops and unfortunately putting the google dns in the modem was no help.

Have been on to 1907 several times making changes here and there, different login name using my phone number etc, all to no avail. Still the drops persist. My feeling is that everything was very good up until friday week ago and the line is testing fine and nothing has changed in the house, which leads me to believe the problem may be somewhere exchange side. 1907 say there should be no reason my line should be dropping. Speedtest and ping tests are showing up a steady 5.23 ish download on a 6 meg line and an A on pingtest when things are working. It sounds like some configuration setting somewhere is not quite right.

Ive seen other threads where people have been giving out about the same problem, anyone had it and actually got it working on Vodafone?

Any more ideas to try to be confirmed?

The key point here is that the line stats remain the same. The internet cutting out for a couple of minutes at a time must be for some other reason if the DSL light on the modem/router stays lit (or the router says that the DSL stays connected). The connection logs in the router should say if there's been any DSL drops over the past few days.

The key number in the stats when you check them is the signal margin, if the signal margins remain above 8dB continuously then your line is working fine.

lucernarian

Calebmcd wrote: »

Same here fine all week now this





Normally ping 20-30
and 6mb/445

Mode: G.DMT
Line Coding: Trellis On
Status: Connected
Link Power State: L0

Downstream Upstream
SNR Margin (dB): 17.8 27.0
Attenuation (dB): 36.0 16.0
Power (dBm): 19.8 12.2
Attainable Rate (Kbps): 9536 1352
Rate (Kbps): 6144 512
K (number of bytes in DMT frame): 193 17
R (number of check bytes in RS code word): 0 0
S (RS code word size in DMT frame): 1 1
D (interleaver depth): 1 1
Delay (msec): 0 0

Super Frames: 64958 64899
Super Frame Errors: 5 0
RS Words: 0 0
RS Correctable Errors: 0 0
RS Uncorrectable Errors: 0 N/A

HEC Errors: 2 0
OCD Errors: 0 0
LCD Errors: 0 0
Total Cells: 16002220 0
Data Cells: 176425 0
Bit Errors: 0 0

Total ES: 5 0
Total SES: 0 0
Total UAS: 13 0

Those stats are fine, I wouldn't mind speedtest.net as they have been very inaccurate in the past and the performance of speedtest.net has no bearing on anything else you do on the net! I.e. you don't need a fast connection with speedtest to host PS3 multiplayer games or download linux ISOs from bittorrent.

Are there slowdowns with actual internet usage taking place?

lucernarian

BrianHal wrote: »

I'll look at the Voyager settings again this evening and post them up then.

I am connected to the Carrigaline, Co. Cork exchange. It was supposed to be made NGB enabled in the first quarter of this year but I'm not sure when exactly this happened.
I was also speaking to more people about this over the weekend and they either having it happen to them all the time or know friends or neighbours having it happen to them. None of these people that I spoke to are connected to the Carrigaline exchange.

There is no pattern as to when the disconnects are happening. The router has registered over 400 resyncs in a day and a half over the weekend, i.e. averaging once every 5 mins or so. This is too frequent to spot a pattern unfortunately.

Any update on this?

BrianHal

I didn't get a chance at the start of the week. I'm tempting fate by typing this but I haven't had a connection drop coming up on 40 hours and the connection is the full 8mb. I'm almost afraid to do anything to the router at this point in case I'd hear the dreaded CLICK-CLICK. I'm guessing as soon as I post this update, I'll be disconnected again. If I get another day out of this, then it will be an all time record for an up connection in the last two months and I'll have a look at the Voyager router and its settings then. But if the disconnects aren't happening (not that I'm complaining or anything) then I wont know for sure if the ADSL2+ settings etc are having any effect.