Talk Talk router dropping connection every hour

[g00nerz]

Hi there, I can see plenty of other threads regarding the same kind of issue but rather than post on old threads I'll create a new one.

After about 20 months of not having any broadband related issues, since last Friday my TalkTalk router now drops speed steadily from 69mbps until it reaches 0.01mbps, over a time period of approximately 1 hour, becoming unusable.  The only remedy is to restart the router (or just restart DSL in the router setting page).  The connection will come back to 69mbps, then steadily drop off over the next hour until it becomes unusable again.  Repeat ad-infinitum.

I've spoken to support online via chat etc but they could not find an issue with my connection (still reporting the router is connecting at full speed), I've supplied photos of my master socket, removed telephone line, removed all wifi devices, reset the router to factory settings etc.  Problem still persists.  They did arrange an engineer to visit on Wednesday but when the router started 'getting better', dropping out after 2 hours instead of 1, I cancelled the engineer thinking it was resolving itself and I didn't want a £75 charge for nothing.

Anyway, since then it has returned to dropping every 1 hour again so I'm back where I started.  As a last resort I pulled out an old TP-Link VDSL router (model WD-9980) and connected that up.  Interestingly this old router works fine, and does not drop out at all. Solid connection all day.  However, the caveat is this router only connects at 40mbps max speed (likely to do with it's age - approx 7 years old now), meaning we're losing out on the extra 30mbps that we know is available.  This points to a problem with the TalkTalk router maybe...

I've seen in other threads that you guys have offered some users with similar issues a replacement router to try and see if this resolves the problem - would I be a possible candidate for a replacement router?  

Many thanks

Dominic

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi Dom

That's great news, thanks for sharing. I will pass on your feedback to Chris 🙂

Debbie

[g00nerz]

Hi Chris, router delivered yesterday  - big thanks for arranging that so quickly. All connected up and looking very good. There was a disconnect after 3 hrs, then a disconnect overnight but put those down to speed/load balancing, but now has been connected for a solid 13hrs and is achieving a faster speed than the old one to boot. What's not to like!

I'll continue to monitor over the next few days but fingers crossed everything looks rosy.

Many thanks again for sorting my issue out!

Cheers

Dom

[Chris-TalkTalk]

OK, I've ordered the router, it should be with you within a couple of days. Please let us know how you get on

Chris

[g00nerz]

Hi Chris, that would be great thanks.  Fingers crossed that will resolve the issue.

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi g00nerz,

Thanks for the information, line test is passing now. I've checked the errored seconds count on the Openreach website for  the last few days and it's been pretty low all the time.

I can send another router to test with, would you like me to arrange this?

Chris 

[g00nerz]

Hi Chris. Firstly I wanted to say a big thanks again for arranging Openreach to come out and check things for me - astonishingly a lovely chap by the name of Matthew phoned me first thing Saturday morning to say he was investigating my line fault at the local exchange. Within an hour or so he was outside my house checking the cables in the street ducting, and shortly after paid a visit to inspect the cabling and equipment in my house. He spent quite some time with me to check things over, performing tests with his equipment and ruling potential issues out one by one. He also replaced the somewhat old mastersocket with a new variant to see if that was a problem. His testing equipment confirmed that my house was capable of achieving 75mbps at the mastersocket and the connection was stable. Ultimately he confirmed the issue was likely to be the TalkTalk router, as the old TPLink W9980 was able to maintain the connection, but said I should connect the TT router for a few hours after he left to see if it improved.

Alas I'm loathe to report the TT router once again exhibited the same issues, connecting at ~69mbps then over an hour or so deteriorating to nothing. I've included a before and after of the speedtest result to show the drop, then the restart. Curiously the upload speed is maintained at around ~11mbps throughout, just the download drops out.

I've also included a screen print of the W9980 router status page - even though the connection is stable at around ~50mbps, it shows 15,000 error packets in the downstream.  Curious if that may have something to do with my issues with the TT router (i.e. the W9980 connects at a lower speed to negate the effects of the error packets, while the TT router just goes full speed until the error packets take the connection down).

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Probably just coincidence but you never know. Openreach may contact you directly over the next few days if they need to access your home

Chris

[g00nerz]

Great stuff, thanks for your assistance Chris.  One more thing to mention, and this is probably unrelated, but our next door neighbour had Full Fibre installed a few days prior to the issues starting. Could be a coincidence but thought I'd mention it. Cheers

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Thanks. I'll pass this to Openreach for investigation. If you don't hear anything by Tuesday can you bump the thread and we'll check for updates

Chris

[g00nerz]

I should mention I have the WD-9980 connected to broadband at the moment in case that is a contributing factor to your test

[g00nerz]

Hi Chris, thanks for taking the time to reply so quickly.  My telephone line is working normally - dial tone is present and no discernable noise on the line (I've experienced noise on telephone line a few years back so I know what it can sound like - no problems now as far as I can tell).  We don't actually use the phone except for emergency incoming calls so I could probably disconnect if that might help, but I've already tried going with it disconnected for a day or two and still the problems persisted.

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi g00nerz,

I'm sorry to hear that you're experiencing problems with your service. Line test is picking up a potential issue, are you experiencing any problems with your telephone service? Is there a dial tone? Any noise on the line?

Chris