Daily internet dropouts at very specific times.

[LiTTam]

Hello,

My internet drops out at 13:55 and 19:55 daily for a few seconds. It's not a long time but I work from home and this causes important work calls to cut out etc. if they're at these times.

This happens on all devices, so it is not the device(s) at fault.

This happens to devices both on WiFi and ethernet, so it's not a WiFi/Ethernet issue

The router remains powered on, and the devices remain connected to it

I know the above by running constant ping tests, and each day at the same times for 5 - 6 seconds, the internet drops out.

Chat support have determined there's no problem with the line, the router has been factory reset, but the issue remains.

It seems likely a task/service is running at these times either on the router, or on the ISP's end. I have not been able to get anywhere with the live chat as they want to run constant line tests, which find no problems.

[LiTTam]

Nope, I noticed the drops regardless of what I'm doing.

If I'm watching a video/stream it freezes. If I'm playing a game it freezes. If I'm on a work VOIP call it either disconnects (goes silent) for a few seconds, or disconnects (determined by the Cisco software, it drops a call after a certain length of disconnection). If I'm simply browsing the web and happen to try to load a webpage at the time of the drop, the browser fails to load the page.

This is across my PC (Ethernet), Laptop (WiFi), mobile phone (WiFi) and Xbox (WiFi)

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Ok thanks, and you only notice the drops if your are on a call at the time of a drop?

Chris

[LiTTam]

Hi again,

The issue has remained constant, 07:31:50, 13:31:50 & 19:31:50 it drops daily for a few seconds.

Nothing shows in router logs

[Chris-TalkTalk]

OK thanks 🙂

[LiTTam]

I'll be away for a couple days, but I'll report back when I have some more examples, sure

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Thanks. Really strange issue. Could you see how it goes tonight and if the pattern continues please let us know

Chris

[LiTTam]

Hi again

13:31:35 - 13:31:40 dropout today, nothing showing in the router logs at or around that time.

[Chris-TalkTalk]

OK thanks Liam

Chris

[LiTTam]

Oddly enough at the usual time of 13:31, as it has done for the past week, the internet did not drop. I'm wondering if my rebooting the router earlier (for unrelated reasons) has either completely cured the issue, or at worst just moved it to drop at a different time. The internter was off for a maximum of 10 mins, so I was expecting it to potentially drop 10 mins later than 13:31, but it did not.

I'll keep an eye on it, and if it does drop, check the router logs, then report back.

[Chris-TalkTalk]

OK thanks

[LiTTam]

Found them, for some reason they only go back to 10:25am this morning, prior to that it's "01.01.2013 00:01:30" but with evidence of things that would have been this morning, strange.

I'll take a look at this in 20 mins from now at 13:30 where I'll have the issue again

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi Liam,

If you log on to the router UI, I think they are in maintenance section

Chris

[LiTTam]

How do I view router logs?

I run a constant ping test to 8.8.8.8 (Google) and during the effected times the ping spikes up from the usual 16ms to over 200ms, and anything internet related during this time complete freezes. I've run this test on my PC (ethernet), my work laptop (wifi) and my mobile phone (wifi) all at the same time and the results are the same, at specific times (7:31:39 so far today) the ping results show either a completely dropped ping or at least 10x slower than usual, and the internet on each device freezes. Work meetings drop, webpages dont load etc.

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi Liam,

Thanks for checking. Yes, I've checked the Openreach connection history and there are no unavailable seconds showing at any time yesterday and no errors at any time so it doesn't look as though the internet connection is dropping.

Do the router logs show anything at that time?

Chris

[LiTTam]

Just checked, it just spiked again and nope, the light on the router doesn't change.

[Chris-TalkTalk]

OK thanks 

Chris

[LiTTam]

The 9th at ~3pm would have been when I changed my router power cable and RJ45 cable

I'll keep an eye on the router light tonight at the usual drop out time and report back, I haven't noticed the light changing but that's because I haven't looked thus far

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Ok thanks. I've checked the line history for the last few days and the only unavailable seconds that I can see are on the 9th at around 3pm. The error count appears to be low all the time too

Have you noticed if the light changes on the router when the connection drops?

Chris

[LiTTam]

Morning Chris,

Yeah at the exact same times as previously mentioned on Friday

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi Liam,

How has it been over the weekend, are you still experiencing the same issue?

Chris