topic Re: Internet connection drop out - IP lease renewing in Archive

Internet connection drop out - IP lease renewing

DianneLinden — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 13:58:56 GMT

Hi everyone,

For the last week or so the connection has been awful with Sky broadband (non-Fibre as we cannot get it in this area).

I spoke to a customer service rep on the phone who insisted it is a Wifi issue, caused by too many devices - and they told me to have 'lower expectations'. They are sending a booster out and said only then can an engineer be sent out to check the Wifi - but I don't think this is the issue at all. The rep just wouldn't listen and said everything is fine, so I had to agree to this or get nothing at all.

The main issue is the connection keeps dropping out, at least every half an hour and sometimes more. The speed and connection is fine when it's connected.. but it's just constantly dropping out.

Looking at the logs, we have the following for today so far:

01:00:20 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
01:05:51 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
01:29:08 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
01:35:51 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
02:03:39 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
02:05:51 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
02:31:51 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
02:35:51 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
02:42:08 syslog: Send out NTP request to ntp1.isp.sky.com
02:42:08 syslog: Received NTP Sync Reply from ntp1.isp.sky.com
02:42:08 syslog: System time is up to date
03:05:51 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
03:06:57 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
03:34:51 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
03:35:51 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
03:59:09 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
04:05:51 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
04:23:09 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
04:35:51 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
04:51:03 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
05:05:52 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
05:24:32 syslog: Send out NTP request to ntp1.isp.sky.com
05:24:33 syslog: Received NTP Sync Reply from ntp1.isp.sky.com
05:24:33 syslog: System time is up to date
05:24:40 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
05:35:52 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
05:52:52 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
06:05:52 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
06:21:04 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
06:35:52 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
06:50:10 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
07:05:52 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
07:21:40 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
07:35:52 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
07:56:28 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
08:03:18 syslog: Send out NTP request to ntp1.isp.sky.com
08:03:18 syslog: Received NTP Sync Reply from ntp1.isp.sky.com
08:03:18 syslog: System time is up to date
08:05:52 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
08:23:10 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
08:35:52 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
08:55:34 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
09:05:52 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
09:30:22 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
09:35:52 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
09:57:22 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
10:05:53 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
10:31:16 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
10:35:53 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
10:44:45 syslog: Send out NTP request to ntp1.isp.sky.com
10:44:46 syslog: Received NTP Sync Reply from ntp1.isp.sky.com
10:44:46 syslog: System time is up to date
10:55:52 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
11:05:53 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
11:26:11 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
11:35:53 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
12:00:41 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
12:04:32 syslog: TR69: Connect to Production ACS
12:04:32 syslog: TR69: Connection to ACS Complete
12:04:36 syslog: TR69: Close ACS Connection
12:04:40 syslog: TR69: Connect to Production ACS
12:04:40 syslog: TR69: Connection to ACS Complete
12:04:47 syslog: TR69: Close ACS Connection
12:05:10 syslog: TR69: Connect to Production ACS
12:05:10 syslog: TR69: Connection to ACS Complete

12:05:14 syslog: TR69: Close ACS Connection
12:05:53 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
12:12:59 syslog: TR69: Connect to Production ACS
12:12:59 syslog: TR69: Connection to ACS Complete
12:13:03 syslog: TR69: Close ACS Connection
12:13:08 syslog: TR69: Connect to Production ACS
12:13:08 syslog: TR69: Connection to ACS Complete
12:13:16 syslog: TR69: Close ACS Connection
12:17:08 syslog: TR69: Connect to Production ACS
12:17:08 syslog: TR69: Connection to ACS Complete
12:17:12 syslog: TR69: Close ACS Connection
12:17:17 syslog: TR69: Connect to Production ACS
12:17:17 syslog: TR69: Connection to ACS Complete
12:17:24 syslog: TR69: Close ACS Connection
12:31:05 syslog: TR69: Connect to Production ACS
12:31:05 syslog: TR69: Connection to ACS Complete
12:31:09 syslog: TR69: Close ACS Connection
12:31:32 syslog: TR69: Connect to Production ACS
12:31:32 syslog: TR69: Connection to ACS Complete
12:31:39 syslog: TR69: Close ACS Connection
12:34:53 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
12:35:53 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
13:04:35 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
13:05:53 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
13:17:01 syslog: Send out NTP request to ntp1.isp.sky.com
13:17:01 syslog: Received NTP Sync Reply from ntp1.isp.sky.com
13:17:01 syslog: System time is up to date
13:32:47 syslog: Lease renewed 3600 ip 188.220.255.188
13:35:53 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP

I'm no expert but, this doesn't look like everything is normal and fine?

I can get nowhere speaking to customer service - is there anything anyone can help with on here? Why is it renewing the IP lease so often? And is this causing the dropouts? (It sometimes lines up with when the connection drops but other connection drops aren't necessarily showing in time with the logs, so it seems random).

Any help is much appreciated,
thanks,

Re: Internet connection drop out - IP lease renewing

cookiemonsteruk — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 14:04:13 GMT

@DianneLinden

It looks normal to me . Dhcp starts renewing every 1/2 hour and yours isn't showing invalid wanoe or ipv6 down.

Can you post your router stats

https://community.sky.com/t5/Broadband/How-to-find-your-Sky-Broadband-router-stats/m-p/2855717#M1014...

Re: Internet connection drop out - IP lease renewing

DianneLinden — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 14:08:28 GMT

Hi, thanks for any help you can provide

It can't be coincidence that every time the IP renews the lease that the internet connection drops out though, right? It does happen in between those times... but at the exact moment it does this, all devices on the network drop connection.

I'm working from home and it's becoming unbearable - but also, I play online games (Xbox) and it means at least every half an hour, the connection drops on the console.

Re: Internet connection drop out - IP lease renewing

cookiemonsteruk — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 14:14:58 GMT

@DianneLinden

Your stats show a solid connection of 61 hours with a higher than expected noise margin.so speed could be higher

What is your guaranteed minimum speed? If you run tests from my sky app and post the info in more about your connection

Also can you post a couple of days of the syslog from the support menu on your router

Re: Internet connection drop out - IP lease renewing

DianneLinden — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 14:26:01 GMT

Sorry for lots of screenshots but, that's all the logs currently showing (the earliest ones show a date of 1970?!) and then that brings it up to today, which was posted in the original post.

Re: Internet connection drop out - IP lease renewing

cookiemonsteruk — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 14:34:36 GMT

@DianneLinden

All showing wan ipv6 up and no invalid wanoe or wan ipv6 down so whatever causing the drops is on the lan.

Are you connecting via wifi or ethernet

PS i didn't want to approve the images due to ip addresses

Re: Internet connection drop out - IP lease renewing

DianneLinden — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 14:41:47 GMT

Thanks for your ongoing help with this @cookiemonsteruk

the devices are mostly wifi - but we have powerline adaptors with wifi in each room.
we found previously that some rooms were getting very low signal strength - the powerline adaptors now mean each room has 100% wifi signal strength and ethernet ports.

So for instance, phones/laptops/ipads etc are generally connected via wifi (via the powerline adaptor in the room)
but the xbox is connected via ethernet into the powerline adaptor in the room, and the same is for one of the work laptops in a separate room.
all devices suffer from the same drop-out at the same time.

speed tests have shown the internal connections are all good and when it's connected, speed tests on the devices show a decent speed (usually 25-32 download).
it's just the constant drop-outs that are causing a real headache.

Re: Internet connection drop out - IP lease renewing

DianneLinden — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 14:43:22 GMT

sorry, I should point out

the drop outs were also a regular occurance BEFORE the powerline adaptors were put in. so this has not been the cause of the drop outs... but has also not resolved that issue either.

always been an issue here since we moved in, but the last few days especially have been a lot worse

Re: Internet connection drop out - IP lease renewing

jamesn123 — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 15:12:31 GMT

@DianneLinden

Ideally you need to connect a device directly via ethernet to the hub and run a ping test to see if the drops get recorded there. My suspicion is the issue is being caused by Wifi or the powerline adapters

Re: Internet connection drop out - IP lease renewing

DianneLinden — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 15:31:35 GMT

Hi thanks for your reply

I will try and connect directly to the router - unfortunately neither my personal or work laptop have ethernet ports!

The connection drop outs do pre-date the powerline adaptors by a long time - they were put in a few months ago to improve the signal strength in each room, which has been very successful.

I would therefore think that the recent major connection issues (3-4 days) are not linked to the powerline adaptors, but may be caused by the router in some way.

Re: Internet connection drop out - IP lease renewing

DianneLinden — Fri, 04 Feb 2022 18:42:36 GMT

@cookiemonsteruk @jamesn123

Hi both,

So, today I plugged a laptop directly into the router and ran a -t ping test - there was some packet loss (8% over the course of maybe an hour or so) but I don't think there was really the same level of connection issue like we see on other devices around the house. When the other devices around the home lost connection, the laptop connected directly to the router seemed ok and I could still access various web pages.

Just in case there was anything with the powerline adaptors that could be easily resolved, I unplugged/rebooted them all. Everything is back up how it was, and the issue is still continuing.

I know in simple terms it is 'something internal' and it's easy to blame the powerline adaptors... but they have been working perfectly for many months since we installed them and it is only the last week that this issue has been a major problem and we are getting connection drops regularly, around every half an hour at least.

So, although I accept there's something going wrong internally, it just doesn't make sense to purely blame the powerline adaptors because they were working fine before, and nothing has changed in the house.

Have you got any other ideas or tests I could try running? Does the packet loss even when directly connected to the router indicate there is still a possibility of an issue on the line of any kind? The Sky customer service rep says everything looks fine, but I know they cannot 100% confirm this as Openreach would also need to check and confirm too... my friend had a very similar issue and Sky said it was all perfect, only for eventually Openreach to admit there was a faulty cable coming to the house.

Sky are sending a Wifi booster out but, I don't honestly see how this will help in any way - the powerline adaptors were put in to replace a previous booster that didn't help at all. However, I do understand the customer service rep was just trying to push the process along, and he said they can only send an engineer out once the booster has been sent out and tried... so it might just be a case of playing the game and trying to get a Sky engineer out.

Sorry for the long post. Any help or advice is much appreciated.

Re: Internet connection drop out - IP lease renewing

jamesn123 — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 15:40:42 GMT

@DianneLinden

Where did you do the ping test to? If you did it to an outside network the issue could still be external. Try doing the ping test to 192.168.0.1 that will tell you if its certainly an internal issue

Re: Internet connection drop out - IP lease renewing

DianneLinden — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 10:11:02 GMT

Hi,

When I do the ping test to 1.1.1.1 then there is packet loss and the request times out occasionally.

When doing the ping test to 192.168.0.1, there is 0% packet loss and the response time is always 2-6ms, no request time outs.

Re: Internet connection drop out - IP lease renewing

DianneLinden — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 10:18:27 GMT

@jamesn123

Ping to 192.168.0.1:

Ping to 8.8.8.8:

I could leave this running for longer and it will stay the same, the request time outs occur when pinging to an external IP, normally with 7-15% packet loss
Pinging to 192.168.0.1 gives no issues.

Re: Internet connection drop out - IP lease renewing

jamesn123 — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 10:23:20 GMT

@DianneLinden

Although you are not getting any packet loss on the internal ping that is a very wide range of ping times for a device connected via ethernet. Something isnt quite right with your internal setup

Re: Internet connection drop out - IP lease renewing

DianneLinden — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 12:43:52 GMT

@jamesn123

Hi, sorry should have explained those ping tests were via my work laptop on Wifi, not ethernet.
I could re-do the same ping tests while directly plugged into the router on another device.

This seems to be coming back around to the router being the issue though - it's the only thing that is consistent, as everything goes through it. I can change the set up internally but still get the disconnects.

Re: Internet connection drop out - IP lease renewing

jamesn123 — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 13:09:39 GMT

@DianneLinden

Ideally yeah do the same comparison tests over ethernet

Re: Internet connection drop out - IP lease renewing

DianneLinden — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 14:15:45 GMT

@jamesn123

Ok thanks, I'll try and do the same again via ethernet.

Also noted that just now, the router seemed to reset itself:

There was a very bad connection that lasted for several minutes - when I then went back into the Hub settings and checked this page, it has deleted all previous logs before 14:04 today (it always shows the '1970' ones at the top, assume that's maybe a startup thing?).

stats show an uptime of 12 minutes so it was a full reset - none of us touched it, it did this by itself randomly.

Re: Internet connection drop out - IP lease renewing

jamesn123 — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 14:22:29 GMT

@DianneLinden

Yeah normal logs but not normal to reboot itself. You do also have a rasied margin. All this points to a faulty router and/or external issue

Re: Internet connection drop out - IP lease renewing

DianneLinden — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 14:35:49 GMT

@jamesn123

Thanks for all your efforts - I'll get back on to Sky and ask for an engineer or a new router, whatever the next step may be.