Intermittent Connection Problems

[[BTF]adam]

Hello tastyspleen wizards and witches,

I called up my ISP today to escalate an issue to the engineer team but knowing British Telecom, it won't amount to ANYTHING. So I was wondering if anything here sounded familiar to yall.

I am having mad issues for 5-6 days now with my connection. Here is what I have ruled out/gathered from observation:

Intermittent connection, frequent drops. Ranging anywhere from consecutive drops to up to 40-60 minutes between.
Seems worse when introduced to heavy resource usage, e.g. Gaming, Streaming.
Current configuration/hardware setup has worked almost completely fine barring a few hiccups over the past few years, can't see it being a configuration/hardware issue as BT would be so quick to suggest, my microfilters are fucking fine!!!!!!

A couple of things I have observed:

When I logged into my router (Model: DGN2000, Netgear), when I am connected I am connected at 18000kbs nearly, so it's clear we've recieved a free upgrade to 20mb/s which is happening to most people in the UK on BT, but I was under the impression we were on 8mb/s prior to this upgrade that I had no idea about, which must be quite recent - perhaps this has something to do with it?

I thought perhaps some of the hardware had been chewed up, cables etc but I uncoiled it all and had a look over, it's all seemingly fine.

I have had a couple of spurts of several hours without issue, but then it kicks back in to the ridiculous intermittency that I have been experiencing. These are usually early in the morning.

Log paste from my router log page - this is what happens every time it disconnects and reconnects.

Sat, 2000-01-01 00:01:01 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2000-01-01 00:01:01 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2000-01-01 00:01:02 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2000-01-01 00:01:08 - Send out NTP request to time-g.netgear.com
Sat, 2011-10-08 12:06:26 - Receive NTP Reply from time-g.netgear.com
Sat, 2011-10-08 12:05:18 - Router start up
Sat, 2011-10-08 12:18:39 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 12:18:46 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 12:18:46 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 12:18:46 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 12:25:46 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 12:25:53 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 12:25:53 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 12:25:54 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 12:33:03 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 12:33:10 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 12:33:10 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 12:33:11 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 12:42:51 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 12:42:57 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 12:42:57 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 12:42:58 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 12:44:15 - UDP Packet - Source:114.25.76.22,2742 Destination:109.145.115.142,12818 - [DOS]
Sat, 2011-10-08 14:03:48 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 14:03:55 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 14:03:55 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 14:03:55 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 14:18:35 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 14:18:42 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 14:18:42 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 14:18:42 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 14:50:42 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 14:50:49 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 14:50:49 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 14:50:50 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 14:55:40 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 14:55:46 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 14:55:46 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 14:55:47 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 15:22:17 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 15:22:23 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 15:22:23 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 15:22:24 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 15:50:54 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 15:51:01 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 15:51:01 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 15:51:01 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 15:53:11 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 15:53:17 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 15:53:18 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 15:53:18 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:05:58 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:06:05 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:06:05 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:06:05 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:07:25 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:07:31 - Administrator login successful - IP:192.168.0.2
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:07:33 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:07:33 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:07:33 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:26:43 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:26:50 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:26:50 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:26:50 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:30:30 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:30:37 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:30:37 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:30:38 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:34:07 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:34:14 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:34:14 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:34:14 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:36:14 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:36:21 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:36:21 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:36:21 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:41:31 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:41:38 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:41:38 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:41:38 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:43:18 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:43:25 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:43:25 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:43:26 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:45:06 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:45:13 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:45:13 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:45:13 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:47:13 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:47:20 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:47:20 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:47:20 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:51:10 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:51:17 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:51:17 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 16:51:17 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 17:25:47 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 17:25:54 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 17:25:54 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 17:25:54 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 17:31:44 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 17:31:51 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 17:31:51 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 17:31:51 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 17:48:51 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 17:48:58 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 17:48:58 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 17:48:59 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 17:52:09 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 17:52:16 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 17:52:16 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 17:52:16 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 18:00:36 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 18:00:43 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 18:00:43 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 18:00:44 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 18:36:04 - LCP down.
Sat, 2011-10-08 18:36:11 - Initialize LCP.
Sat, 2011-10-08 18:36:11 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sat, 2011-10-08 18:36:11 - CHAP authentication success
Sat, 2011-10-08 18:43:27 - Administrator login successful - IP:192.168.0.2

LCP down is when the internet drops.

Cheers,

MLG Professional Gamer BTF "pork chops" Adam.
OBE, MBE, wife of BIGDICKRICK.

[QwazyWabbit]

I'll bet the commencement of your intermittent problems coincides with the speed upgrade.

Depending on your distance to the DSLAM it is probably the attempt to maintain the higher speed that is the cause of your problems. If you can control your modem speed limit you might try temporarily setting it down to 8Mbps and see if it stabilizes. If so, then depending on the amount of effort you want to put into it you can do the following:

1. Tweak the modem speed up incrementally until it destabilizes and back off that point and be happy with whatever speed you get.

2. Replace the micro filters and get a whole-house filter. I had DSL problems for months until I got the phone company to put in a whole-house filter and then went for years without trouble.

[[BTF]adam]

I had a similar feeling, it seems too cooncidental for my liking.

I have no idea how far away from the exchange I am, but here are my Line Attenuation and Noise Margin stats:

ADSL Link    Downstream    Upstream
Connection Speed    16837 kbps    1276 kbps
Line Attenuation    22.5 db    12.6 db
Noise Margin    9.3 db    6.9 db

Just noticed it's down at 16800kbps now.. maybe they're tweaking it from their end after I called? I wouldn't know how to tweak it myself but I could google a guide on it if its possible, should the engineers not find anything wrong with the line or whatever when they call back later.

I could replace the filters, but that'll take me awhile I have no pennies right now, plus they worked fine for years -- and I know hardware is susceptible to failing out of the blue! but given that i'm having periods of several hours without interruption, such as last night for nearly 3 hours in the early hours, ruling out the other possibilities that don't cost me money is the preferred route  

thanks for your input qwazy 

[[BTF]adam]

so they just called me back, he said he performed a number of checks and say's the only thing that will be causing it is the line speed, so he is raising the case to engineers and they are going to change the line profile. he said it probably happened when some work was done on the exchange, so im assuming what he means is when the exchange was updated or whatever to give people the 20mb upgrade.

frankly I dont care about the speed as long as its stable, its not like you ever hit anywhere close to the advertised speeds anyway.

[QwazyWabbit]

Speed helps a page or two load faster but you have to be an avid streamer or downloader to care very much. The problem I found with micro filters is the internal lines in your house act as stubs to the unfiltered signals from the demarcation to the filter. This results in distortion that affects performance. Filtering it at the demarcation point resolves all that. You end up with a single pair from the modem to the DSLAM without a lot of extra "branches" inside the house. If you can possibly get to that point, it's the optimum configuration. Good luck.