Intermittent Disconnects at similar times

[adrian555155]

Hi, my internet has been intermittent for a while now I've learnt to cope with it since the internet speed is good. But I was away for 3 weeks and out of curiosity I checked how the internet connection has been through logs and have found out something interesting, check this out.

2022-07-28 22:03:37 [Notice][Run-Log] SNTP has synchronized successfully, current time is [2022-07-28 22:03:37+00:00 DST], uptime is [1215557s].

2022-07-27 22:03:13 [Notice][Run-Log] SNTP has synchronized successfully, current time is [2022-07-27 22:03:13+00:00 DST], uptime is [1129134s].

2022-07-22 22:03:38 [Notice][Run-Log] SNTP has synchronized successfully, current time is [2022-07-22 22:03:38+00:00 DST], uptime is [697161s].

2022-07-18 01:44:21 [Notice][Run-Log] SNTP has synchronized successfully, current time is [2022-07-18 01:44:21+00:00 DST], uptime is [278407s].

2022-07-15 22:02:51 [Notice][Run-Log] SNTP has synchronized successfully, current time is [2022-07-15 22:02:51+00:00 DST], uptime is [92318s].

2022-07-10 22:02:41 [Notice][Run-Log] SNTP has synchronized successfully, current time is [2022-07-10 22:02:41+00:00 DST], uptime is [162132s]

2022-06-29 22:00:57 [Notice][Run-Log] SNTP has synchronized successfully, current time is [2022-06-29 22:00:57+00:00 DST], uptime is [1679479s]

2022-06-27 22:03:13 [Notice][Run-Log] SNTP has synchronized successfully, current time is [2022-06-27 22:03:13+00:00 DST], uptime is [1506816s].

2022-06-26 22:03:52 [Notice][Run-Log] SNTP has synchronized successfully, current time is [2022-06-26 22:03:52+00:00 DST], uptime is [1420455s]

2022-06-24 22:03:05 [Notice][Run-Log] SNTP has synchronized successfully, current time is [2022-06-24 22:03:05+00:00 DST], uptime is [1247609s]

2022-06-23 05:00:26 [Notice][Run-Log] SNTP has synchronized successfully, current time is [2022-06-23 05:00:26+00:00 DST], uptime is [1099851s].

These are all the disconnects from the router's Log file that were not caused by someone resetting the router. Notice how all the disconnects with the exception of two of them took place at 10PM. Its not just accurate to the hour, but also to the minute. Always within 10:00 to 10:03 margin, it is definitely not a coincidence. The day that it takes place however is completely random.

Any ideas what this could be caused by?

[Skynet_TX]

I would think it will just run an automated test as soon as you click the button

[adrian555155]

Its 21:15, I'm soon going to test the line before it hits 22:00. 

I mentioned earlier I had my telephone / landline fixed about 4 months ago and since then logging in on TalkTalk on service status I've had the "My Telephone section", I've just clicked it and tested my line through it and it now says "We think there is an issue with your line", it says the test takes 30 minutes and asks for a phone number to contact on what to do next. Is that test taken immediately or is it going to take place on a working day?

[adrian555155]

That is a great idea, I will try that for sure. Guess I'll dial it at 21:59, I'd like to test it till 22:04 hopefully if it lasts that long.

[adrian555155]

Yeah, luckily I guess I do not use any extension phone sockets. And you are right, the fact it has a time pattern is odd and would indicate that the faceplate is not to blame, and I would bet on it disconnecting while at the test socket at some point, likely within a week, most certainly within two weeks, but as I said I will leave it for a month if I have to.

My thoughts personally, perhaps there is some electrical interference like you said, but we have not changed anything that would cause that to start happening. Another thought is maybe the router is trying to update or something, maybe it has a routine to do something at 10PM but is failing to do so. I've asked to be put v1.06t firmware at one point being on v1.05t, maybe rolling back would help. 

Honestly I don't know but for now only time will tell. I guess if it ends up disconnecting while on faceplate that is an option.

Thanks again.

[Skynet_TX]

If you did want to check for a quiet phone line you can call 17070, this will read back your phone number a few times, but will then just go to a silent line, this will allow you to listen for a decent period of time to hear if there is any background noise, might be a good idea to try that actually around 22:00 one night, just to see if you do hear anything happen on the line.

[Skynet_TX]

Ok, be aware that using the test socket will usually disconnect any other extension phone sockets in your home (if you have any), but as long as that is not an issue then there is no harm in leaving the router in the test socket for as long as you like (some people have it there permanently). If you get no disconnects when using the test socket then that would likely indicate the problem relates to either the master socket faceplate, or (if you have any additional phone sockets in your home) the other telephone extension wiring in your property.

Although it is certainly a bit of a strange one if using the test socket does resolve the issue, seeing as your disconnects do seem to follow a time pattern, although if you do have extension phone wiring in your home then it is possible that electrical interference could affect that extension wiring, and so would not then affect you when using the test socket.

The support team here will be back on Monday, and may be able to offer further advice.

[adrian555155]

Hi, again thanks for the fast response, you are a true community star.

Service centre is down for maintenance at the moment, but I've tried it earlier today, it said all is fine. As to the phoneline I think that is alright too, I actually had a phoneline fault about 4 months ago and had it fixed, had no disconnects for a month and a half till this issue started. I have tried the phoneline by calling my own phone with it, while calling my number and it does them beeps to sort of repeat my phone number (not sure I explained it well hope you know what I mean), there is slight buzzing sound, but after the normal regular beeps begin it goes away. Meanwhile when on call there is some sound, but its very quiet and I think that's normal, what I'm saying is its very quiet, but not dead silent, I had to listen very close to hear it.

As for the test socket, I had actually made a post about this issue when it started in May, and was advised to connect to the test socket so I did it, and after 5 days and 18 hours, I experienced no disconnects. Since back then disconnects happened more frequently, and 5 days of no disconnects was more rare to me, I assumed I had found the issue, and at 6PM put the faceplate back on. Funnily enough I just checked that post, I reported that at 10PM that same day it had disconnected. But now looking at my logs, some disconnects happen multiple days in a row, but at some point there had been 12 days between two logs. This time around I am going to keep it at the test socket even for a month if I have to.

As for the "Kernel Panic", I've already checked, none of those are found in the logs, but I am aware that is an issue that plagues some copies of my router.

Once again thanks for the help. I'm going to leave it at the test socket right now.

[Skynet_TX]

Ok, that makes sense, so if your DSL uptime is getting reset when this happens then that certainly is a good indication that your connection is actually dropping, and as you say, after reconnecting the router is then synchronising its clock which is what is causing those entries in the log.

Disconnections that follow a specific time pattern can sometimes be caused by electrical interference from a device that runs close to the phone line, for example maybe the time switch for central heating / hot water turning off at 22:00. But as you are also seeing some drops at other times then it might not be quite a obvious as that.

It would be worth going to the Service Centre to run a connection test on your line, this will indicate if there is currently a fault affecting your service. You can also access this from the ‘My Account’ site.

Also, if you have a landline phone can you check to see if that is working normally (i.e. you have a clear dial tone and no noise on the line).

If your master phone socket has a test socket then you could also try the router in there (via a microfilter), that would then eliminate any of the phone wiring in your home as being a possible cause of the problem. It would be interesting to see if you still get the problem when using the test socket.

...and just to double check, can you confirm you don't see any mentions of a 'Kernel Panic' error in the logs

[adrian555155]

Hi, thanks for the fast response. 

From experience, this router uptime counter only resets when the power from the router is reset, so internet disconnects would not reset it, and whenever I have experienced a disconnect happening and checked the logs, that would be the text that I see in the logs, which shows when the router managed to reconnect after a disconnect took place.

I have seen some of the disconnects, but as an example, I've not seen the last one which was 28th July, the "uptime" in the log matches the "device runtime" in the router stats, which as of writing this is "15 days 0 hour 21 minutes 31 seconds", while the log from last night showed "1215557s" which equates to 14 days, so that checks out. However the DSL uptime right now is "0 day 22 hours 43 minutes 2 seconds" which shows that the router has lost connection 22 hours ago, and 22 hours ago it was the exact time in the last log from 28th of July, this also fits perfectly.

Whenever the "uptime" changed in between those logs, it would be due to router power downs / resets. Those would have a log like this:

1981-01-01 00:00:10 [Error][Alarm-Log] AlarmID:104001,AlarmLevel:Error,Device reset. Cause: System reset after being powered on, Terminal:OTHER

2022-07-09 01:01:22 [Notice][Run-Log] SNTP has synchronized successfully, current time is [2022-07-09 01:01:22+00:00 DST], uptime is [53s].

[Skynet_TX]

Hi @adrian555155,

Are you sure these entries actually coincide with the routers connection dropping ?, SNTP stands for Simple Network Time Protocol, so those entries could well just be the router synchronising its clock. 

Also those entries are showing an 'uptime' of a large number of seconds, i.e. on 28th July it shows an uptime of 1215557 seconds, which is over two weeks, this does also fit in with the entries listed over the previous 2 weeks as you can see the uptime number increasing. So from that log it is not obvious that the connection is dropping.

Different routers report uptime in different ways, some will report the amount of time the internet connection has been up, but some will report the total time since the power was last turned on to the router (i.e. a drop of internet connection would not reset the uptime counter). So it is hard to interpret that uptime value. But have you actually physically seen the connection drop at those times, if so what did the LED do on the router.