Intermittent internet issues

[Javai]

Anybody having intermittent internet issues?

I've been having issues for the second day now where I don't always get a connection to the servers I'm trying to access. The sky broadband test comes back fine with a 75Mb connection (when I can get the test to run) when I can access www.speedtest.net it will come back the same but everything seems slow (I think this is probably due to the intermittent fault though)

If if continously ping www.bbc.co.uk I will get the occasional timeout, and on odd occasions I will get an error contacting 94.7.61.72 (ns0.isp.sky.com).

It seems like a DNS issue or even a dodgy router somewhere on Sky's side.

I'm not using any wifi in all of this, I have a direct ethernet connection to the sky router

[JimM1]

@Javai If you think it is a DNS issue, then try changing the device to test through another server!

[Javai]

Actually I do already have 8.8.8.8 as my DNS as I got tired of the issues with the default DNS servers the sky router would allocate so it's probably not DNS. I phoned Sky and the operator ran some tests on the line and said there was a fault outside my house and they are sending an engineer, not sure why the broadband checker could not have done the same thing

[Javai]

Well we got a text from the Open Reach engineer saying they've fixed it but they haven't, if my street was cabled up I would switch to Virgin in a heartbeat

[JimM1]

@Javai Have you rebooted the sky Hub since you had the text back from OR, sounds like you are on a copper connection but guessing that due to you saying the 70Mb/s connection speed!

[Javai]

Yes I've tried soft and hard resets of the Sky router to no avail, it does seem like packets are randomly getting dropped, some services cope better than others, I can't stream movies from Sky or use iPlayer very effectively but Netflix (once you get a connection) is solid (I don't know if it just buffers ahead better than the others or if it uses UDP and provides it's own network resilience but it's the only thing that is working to any degree). Most web pages get some failed connections so nothing appears 100%, missing images, missing scripts etc... Even the Sky page is hard to use and I've never managed to get a live chat without it failing.

[Javai]

@JimM1 Appreciate the help by the way

Do you have any experience with Open Reach/Sky interactions? As I previously mentioned I had a text from Open Reach stating they fixed an issue to which I responded Not Fixed, they then replied that they would go back to my provider. I phoned Sky to see if there was anything I needed to do and they said no Open Reach are still on the case. Now I'm very sceptical about this and it would not surprise me to found out noone is doing anything else, no I need to hound Sky?

[JimM1]

@Javai Sorry no experience of either, just do not have any network issues at all, then again not running any sky equipment as all the units are back in there boxes!

Cannot see what OR would be doing on there side unless they were swaping over to a different vlan for you as a check to your copper connection! 

Is it a case with sky you have openned, if CS did it right you should be able to see the Reference in your account side, and it's a when is best to call them about anything if they do have OR looking at something!

Although it may seem like it has OR sent someone to test your connection back from the VDSL through the Master socket to the FTTC connection? You don't say if you are on a newer OR Master socket type 5c or still using an older sky filter to connect! Up at the 70Mb/s would suspect you do have the pre-filtered socket though!

[Javai]

Open Reach contacted us by text to say they had "fixed" an issue but they never entered the property so what ever they did (or didn't do) it was outside. I managed to get the Sky live chat to work and got another different story from the operator on there, apparently there is no line fault and it's my router so they're sending a new one (though I think this is just another line in a script as it only sprung to life when I pushed the point). It is possible that it is the router though as I've discovered that the original address that kept appearing to fail on my ping (94.7.61.72) was actually the lease my router got from the WAN. I don't know about the master socket type (I'm struggling to look anything up at the moment as browsing the web is very hit and miss) but it was installed 13 years ago when this house was built, I just have to use a small splitter for phone/internet from the main socket

[JimM1]

@Javai Ok the picture is becomming clearer, sounds like you have an older style single Master socket, plugged into that an older ADSL filter that has two socket's on it, one is a RJ11 for the cable to the sky hub, and the other to plug your landline phone into, so sometimes they can go bad, normal sign is when the phone rings the internet cut's out, you may be lucky and get a new one supplied in the box with the replacement hub that sky are sending to you.....

Replace everything they send you power unit, hub, cable and the filter if you get one... It's a starting point.

Too find out what your IP is then www.whatismyipaddress.com will return the wan IP that sky is giving the hub!

[Javai]

Well the new router just turned up (credit where credit is due that was pretty fast) but, unsurprisingly, it made no difference. So that is a new hub, new power block, new filter and cable. Phoned Sky again and obviously you're back to square one, there's no continuity with issues each person starts from the beginning of the script to solve problems that don't exist (this time they got me to reset the router, yes the brand new one that is straight out of the box). Spent about 20 minutes trying to flog me fibre, all my problems would be solved if I just switch to fibre (I don't have a fibre connection by the way or I'd already be on it). Anyway just another 72 hours to get another Open Reach engineer to do nothing outside the house without before I get to call Sky again. 

The main problem is that I haven't lost connectivity all together so their connectivity tests generally work and I'm sure the Open Reach engineer isn't going to run a 10 minute test to check for packet loss.

The support people are much more concerned about the rating you're going to give them than actually fixing the issues, this one told me that I should ignore the survey that comes through (she knows I'm annoyed :)) because if I complete it, it will flag the issue as closed and the Open Reach engineer will be cancelled

[JimM1]

@Javai If you feel like you can see the link below and post up your stat's to the line, just allow the fields to all fill in.

How to read your Sky Hub statistics

[Javai]

Router Statistics System Up Time: 11:48:15 Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collision Pkts Tx b/s Rx b/s Up Time WAN MER 1460606 2734704 0 130736 1052079 10:42:36 LAN Up 1072632 477237 10 1481784 145280 11:48:15 WLAN (2.4 GHz) Disable 0 0 0 0 0 00:00:00 WLAN (5 GHz) Disable 0 0 0 0 0 00:00:00 Broadband Link Downstream Upstream Connection Speed 75832 kbps 18823 kbps Line Attenuation D1(13.0 dB) , D2(29.5 dB) , D3(42.7 dB) U0(0.1 dB) , U1(27.8 dB) , U2(32.1 dB) Noise Margin 6.3 dB 6.1 dB

[JimM1]

@Javai In your stat's the U0, upstream is the issue, going to try and find an old stat's file from a few years back but have to go look where i have the sucker stored now if i can even find one, but looking at them wan issue on the timings hours up to the lan/wan times, and you have the wifi disabled on the sky hub, so looking like you are either on a mesh off some sort's or just not using wireless wifi at all on the sky hub...

Do you get the same type off stat's with both the sky hub's? 

[Javai]

OK booted up the new router again

outer Statistics

System Up Time: 00:03:34

Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collision Pkts Tx b/s Rx b/s Up Time WAN MER 2826 13294 0 119124 3144402 00:01:28 LAN Down 0 0 0 0 0 00:00:00 WLAN (2.4 GHz) Up 395 0 0 484 0 00:01:44 WLAN (5 GHz) Up 16299 3477 0 5697991 187872 00:01:42

---

Broadband Link Downstream Upstream Connection Speed 77304 kbps 20000 kbps Line Attenuation D1(10.7 dB) , D2(23.8 dB) , D3(34.0 dB) U0(0.7 dB) , U1(22.2 dB) , U2(25.3 dB) Noise Margin 6.2 dB

9.5 dB

Looks like the U0 has the same low value on the new router.

And yes I have the wifi disabled on the Sky router, I don't use it as it's not in a great place for Wifi, I instead have a separate Wifi access point that then connects to the Sky router via an ethernet link. But I bypass all this on my main PC which is wired directly into the Sky router to minimise any variables