Broadband dropping upwards of 4 times a day - orange voice light

[Phillip22]

It seems to be a common problem with the sky boxes, but hoping to get some help since most lead to nothing or sky employees going into private chats.

Here are some details I can provide:

500Mbps plan

FTTP

Model SR203

Firmware Version 7.03.0509.R

When the orange light happens, the router resets and starts working on its own (usually) after roughly 5 minutes.

I have a syslog server running to see what happens just before the automatic reset and have seen 2

common errors

kernel [52703.652000] Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address ffffffe8
 kernel [52703.652000] pgd = e0698000
kernel [52703.652000] [ffffffe8] *pgd=2f7fd821, *pte=[number which forum didn't allow], *ppte=
[number which forum didn't allow]

kernel [52703.653000] Internal error: Oops: 17 [#1] PREEMPT SMP ARM
kernel [52703.653000] Process skytelemetry (pid: 22128, stack limit = 0xdcc5e190)
kernel [52703.653000] Stack: (0xdcc5fd00 to 0xdcc60000)

This to me seems to indicate a problem with the router itself, data corruption somewhere or similar.

and the standard one which seems to be more common

Apr 13 18:02:12 skyhub.ihr skywanmanager Connection Up. SNO/MAC/IP/SWVER/IPv6: [ removed for ip...]
Apr 13 18:02:14 skyhub.ihr tr69c TR69: Connect to Production ACS
Apr 13 18:02:14 skyhub.ihr tr69c TR69: Connection to ACS Complete
Apr 13 18:02:21 skyhub.ihr tr69c TR69: Close ACS Connection
Apr 13 18:02:22 skyhub.ihr voice Voice Configured
Apr 13 18:02:25 skyhub.ihr voice Voice Initialized
Apr 13 18:02:25 skyhub.ihr voice Voice Connecting
Apr 13 18:02:26 skyhub.ihr voice Voice HARDENING
Apr 13 18:02:26 skyhub.ihr voice Voice Connected
Apr 13 18:02:26 skyhub.ihr voice Voice Disconnected
Apr 13 18:02:31 skyhub.ihr voice Voice DeInitialized
Apr 13 18:02:34 skyhub.ihr voice Voice Configured
Apr 13 18:02:37 skyhub.ihr voice Voice Initialized
Apr 13 18:02:37 skyhub.ihr voice Voice Connecting
Apr 13 18:02:38 skyhub.ihr voice Voice Connected

as well as

Apr 13 02:40:03 skyhub.ihr kernel [ 120.871000] Line 0: xDSL link down

It started happening around 2 weeks ago and has been constantly randomly crashing.

I have tried:

Finding any bends or tight corners from the fibre cable.

Changing the ethernet cable from the ONT to the router.

A reset of the router involving holding the reset button for 30 seconds.

My current home setup includes its own dhcp server for managing dns and ips the way I wanted, but that was running flawlessly for the last ≈ 2 years.

Hope someone can help.

[jamesn123]

@Phillip22 

The voice issue knocking out your internet connection isnt a new or uncommon one for Sky. Its usually down to a network issue in your area. I would call Sky to report it as there isnt a lot of the forum can help with on this.

[135791113]

Having the same issue for a few weeks now.  Some days it reboots 3 or 4 times, yesterday it was 13 times! Symptom is a full (random) reset of the sky SR203 hub.  By the time you get to it, it has one red light and is restarting.

Setup is SR203 hub with Ultrafast 160Mbs and BY ONT.  Netgear switch off each of the three spare ports.  Wi-Fi on both frequencies with the same SSID. Have 25 to 30 wireless connections (phones, tablets, Sonos, smart plugs, Amazon devices, printer, etc.) and about 15 wired connections (cameras, NAS, Sky Q, 3 Sky mini boxes, TV’s, play station, PC’s, etc.)

Been on to sky a few times, done the hub (SR203) hard reset, ONT power off, Hub PSU on UPS so moved to normal power, etc., etc. ...  and now even had a new hub from sky.  Still have the same issues.

Setup a log server on my NAS so I can keep a proper record.  Although there is a reasonable chance that if there is a crash, the reason will not be written as the hub has crashed.  I have seen Kernal errors every few days, but this does not seem to result in a reboot.  Kernel error I get starts:

• Alert      - [000000b8] *pgd= (eight zeros ... replaced with this comment as eight zeros is a blocked string)
• Alert      - pgd = c0004000
• Alert      - Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 000000b8
• Critical - Internal error: Oops: 17 [#1] PREEMPT SMP ARM
• Critical - Process bcmsw_rx (pid: 656, stack limit = 0xe3314190)
• Critical - …

HOWEVER, I seem to have determined a pattern … If I turn off all my Sky boxes, then the router is fine!  I know any issues with the Sky Q should not cause a problem with the hub, so that leads me to think it is still a hub load/hardware/memory/software issue … but it could be a faulty Sky Q box as that has been playing up a few times (but they always do!). 

• Not too keen on resetting/replacing the Sky Q box as I will lose all the recordings for the whole family!
• Still points to a hub issue but this is my second one.

Any ideas?  Anything in common with your setup?

Thanks.

[135791113]

Update … seems to have been fixed.

Changed the hub again and factory reset the network settings on my Sky Q and 3 mini hubs.

Sky came out and had never seen the issue before.  They agreed it seemed to be the Sky TV boxes doing something wrong that the hub could then not handle, and hence rebooted (crashed).

They changed the hub again for another SR203.  This is the third hub and should be identical .. it looks like it and the software is the current version, however, it seems to be logging more events to my log server, mainly DHCP related.  The last two hubs did not do this, and none of them (including the latest one), list these events in the log if you view it on the hub via the web interface.  The new hub is on software 7.02.0501.R

The engineer then factory reset the network connection on all my sky TV boxes (note no recordings were lost).

Before this was done my hub had increased to a average of two reboots an hour if my Sky Q boxes were on (even if they were on standby).  Now it has been stable with no reboot for four days and counting.

If you ask me, my money would be on a Wi-Fi mesh network issue and I was going to turn off wi-fi on all the sky TV boxes as my next test, however, I am just glad it seems to have gone.

Hope this update helps others … try the network reset of the sky TV boxes first.

John

[135791113]

... continuing my post in case it helps someone else ...

Rebooting issue came back a few days after doing a network reset on the Sky boxes and replacing the Hub. So, Sky have now changed my Sky Q box (so all recordings gone) and it has made no difference, the hub is still rebooting. I currently think it is something to do with the Mesh Wi-Fi but I need to start thinking about removing all the devices I have connected to see where the issue is coming from.

However, even if a device, or the Sky Q boxes are causing an issue ... the hub should be able to cope with it without rebooting!

When the engineer last came, he mentioned moving up to the new Sky Max (Wi-Fi 6) Hub, but the mesh wi-fi does not yet work with the Sky Q boxes. Maybe this is the way to go, no mesh and a better hub?

Thanks, John

[135791113]

I am still having problems with my hub continually restarting, but only when my Sky Q boxes are turned on.

As I have setup a log server, I occasionally capture kernel errors before the hub restarts, e.g. 

• Alert      - [000000b8] *pgd= (eight zeros ... replaced with this comment as eight zeros is a blocked string)
• Alert      - pgd = c0004000
• Alert      - Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 000000b8
• Critical - Internal error: Oops: 17 [#1] PREEMPT SMP ARM
• Critical - Process bcmsw_rx (pid: 656, stack limit = 0xe3314190)
• Critical - …

How can I get to the right person in Sky who could look up the error and tell me exactly what the issue is?

[135791113]

Problem identified, although not yet fully understood. 

I have identified the root cause as a clash between a Sony Bravia 2015 TV and the Sky Q 2TB box when connected via a Netgear switch (tested with both the simple GS308 or smart GS108E).  When both devices are connected (wired) via a switch to a single port on the Sky SR203 Hub, the hub would randomly reboot, sometimes up to twice an hour.

However, if the TV is connected directly to a separate port on the Sky Hub, then the hub would not reboot at all.  However, in the logs in the hub you can see the port the TV is connected to continually going down then up again.

So, there is some issue that the Hub can cope with if the two devices are connected via separate ports on the hub, but it cannot cope if the network traffic from both devices arrives on the same port.

I found it by trail an error, disconnecting individual devices and seeing what happens.  It took weeks, especially as the TV would go into a deep sleep if not used which took me down some blind alleys! i.e. I turned off my Sonos devices at the same time the TV (unknown to me) went into deep sleep … the problem went away so I thought it was Sonos but a week later the issue returned, and I had to start again.

I thought it may be a DHCP issue as I discovered the TV was giving itself an (APIPA) IP address of 169.254.246.141.  I have heard that the Sky TV boxes (I have a 2TB Sky Q and three mini boxes) run their own “hidden” network … maybe they use the 169.254.x.x range as well and the two were clashing?  Maybe the Sky Hub just does not like this range, but the issue only occurred when both the Sky Q and the TV were on, so I think it is more complicated than that.

However, I updated the TV to the newest software version, and it seemed to get a proper IP address via DHCP when wired, 192.168.0.21.  However, a day later the hub had the same Kernel errors and rebooted again! So maybe the 169.254.x.x address range was a red herring?

I think (as I have not tested for long enough) that if I give the TV a fixed IP address, or use DHCP via Wi-Fi instead of wired, then it may work OK.  I have not tested a reserved IP address on the Hub yet.

So, I have not identified the real reason but at the moment I am just keeping the TV off the network completely as it is a second TV used by the kids for a PlayStation and a Sky mini … so no real need for an internet connection.

I hope this helps someone

Regards, Johnathan