Router keeps dropping connection to the Internet

[JayDoubleU]

Hi

I have had Sky Broadband Ultrafast 1 since June this Year. Since then it has dropped the connection to the Internet 4 times; on average once a month. When it fails the WiFi continues to work (for local connections) and the Ethernet continues to work (also for local connections). However the phone line stops working and there is no connection to the Internet. 

In a failed state the LEDs are all green except  for the phone line LED which goes 'amber'. The Openreach box continues to have three green LEDs on at all times.

On the first two occasions I power cycled the router to get it back operational again. On the last two occasions I went to the Router set up page (Ethernet is still working) and rebooted the router; this also got it fully operational again. Twice, the failure has occurred at night and has stayed in the faulty state for several hours before being noticed and resolved manually - i.e. the fault does not resolve itself.

I have taken copies of the router logs following the last two failure which I can send if required. The following appears to happen at the time of the failure:

Date 23:09:40 syslog: [] eth3 (Ext switch port: 4) (Logical Port: 12) Link DOWN.
Date 23:09:42 syslog: [] eth3 (Ext switch port: 4) (Logical Port: 12) Link UP 1000 mbps full duplex
Date 23:09:42 syslog: eth3.1 - WAN link DOWN.
Date 23:09:42 syslog: DHCP lease expired from server. Connection DOWN.
Date 23:09:46 syslog: Voice IP Connection Down
Date 23:09:50 syslog: Voice Disconnected
Date 23:10:12 syslog: No lease renewal received

Regards

John

[Highlinder]

@JayDoubleU Can you please run the broadband test, this can be done either via the Sky app on mobile data or use the link below.
https://www.sky.com/help/diagnostics/sky-broadband-diagnostic/sky-broadband-diagnostic

If it finds an external fault it should enable you to book an engineer.

[Chrisee]

@JayDoubleU Sky like every other isp wont guarantee 24/7 connectivity and monthly drops would not be classed as a fault. Occasional drops overnight are quite likely to be for routine maintenance or upgrades for example you will lose connectivity when the hubs firmware is updated. Normally the hub should recover on its own if left alone. 

It is difficult to know exactly what has caused your drops but Sky use kit called radius servers within exchanges that handle the handover from the Openreach network.  These units require updating and would almost certainly cut the voice service when that is being done. However that is a guess.

[JayDoubleU]

I've run the checker as suggested. It didn't find any issues with the broadband.

I'm not suprised by this, as the broadband works as expected when its working - its just that it keeps dropping connection to the internet. Obviously I am unable to run the checker once the router has dropped connection.

[JayDoubleU]

Hi @Chrisee

I only mentioned the overnight drop outs to show that the connection drops for several hours without auto-reconnect. It has always taken a manual intervention to regain the connection. I would understand some occasional interruptions of service for maintenance but this feels worse than that.

I have been with Sky since they took over O2 Broadband back in 2016 (?) and those old copper cables worked fine and reliably (slow but reliable) for all those years. I don't think I had to reboot the router even once. I switch to ultra-reliable fibre and I get disconnected for hours at a time every month. That doesn't sound right to me.

I suspect a fault in the router.

Regards

John

[Chrisee]

@JayDoubleU its possible and if you think that is the issue call Sky thry have much more diagnostic info than customers can see.

[rachey31]

I have just swopped to Sky and my router just dropped out 8 times in a zoom call. The braodband is APPALLING in the day (especially the morning( and makes it impossible to work from home. It seems to ramp up and be ok (mostly at night)  - for the entertainment I assume. It is just terrible. I need to cancel this ASAP and switch providers. Trying to get SKY to actually answer customer services, or help resolve this, is an absolute nightmare too! SO unimpressed. 

[JayDoubleU]

@rachey31 Sorry to hear you are having problems. I think my problem is different to yours. My connection is normally rock solid, reliable and fast (for the speed I'm paying for). I get reliable downloads for hours at a time - morning, afternoon and evening. My problem is that the router just drops the connection to the internet occasionaly and is unable to reconnect without a reboot or power cycle. It sounds like your problem recovers by itself, only to repeat the same problem again moments later.

However, I am wondering how I'm going to get on with customer services about this. I cant even find an emil address or phone number on their website. Anyone on here able to provide either of those? I was hoping that a nice customer service person would spot this discusion and get in contact 🙂

Regards

John

[jamesn123]

@JayDoubleU 

As mentioned already 1 drop per month is nowhere close to the Openreach threshold to be considered a fault. The drop can easily be attributed to overnight maintenance or temp blip in connectivity. If it only comes back after a reboot this points more towards a problem with the coding in Sky's router firmware but again if its only happening once a month its extremely unlikely that Sky or Openreach will be interested and it you dont really have much ground to stand on with them either. 

[JayDoubleU]

@jamesn123@ChriseeOpenreach and Sky may not consider one dropout per month a failure and I wouldn't either if after dropping the connection the router reconnected automatically. My problem, and what I do consider a failure, is that in my case once the connection has dropped I have to manually intervene to get it to reconnect again. I understand that maintenance is done at the head end and this can result in disconnections but normally these occurrences are not noticed by most customers and I would accept this a being normal.

I do not believe my problem is the result of a a network failure and it is probably not an inherent firmware failure - otherwise this forum would be full of similar complaints to mine. If there is a fault with the firmware it is simply that the designer did not consider this type of failure and did not include a watchdog function that would reboot the router when this happened.

I probably made a bad a choice of description for this thread as it does not fully describe the problem, but I couldn't write an essay at that point.

My problem is that the connection can be dropped for hours. When the failure occurs at night I can be without Internet for several hours. If the problem occurred while I was away on holiday or for work, the connection could be lost for days. That may not sound like a particular inconvenience but consider the following:

• My smart thermostat will stop working. I wake up to a cold house in the winter of come home to frozen or burst pipes if the connection to the Internet is lost while I'm away for a week during winter.
  
  My smart doorbell doesn't work fully and I can't see who's at my door when I'm not home.
  
  I don't get woken up in the morning with my favourite Spotify play list.
  
  My remote monitored home surveillance system no longer works while I'm away from home.
  
  My offsite backups no longer occur.
  
  I am unable to access my media while I'm away.

I know I can't expect 24/7/365 perfect operation, but I do think we can all expect a more reliable or self healing system than I am currently getting. Especially, as I suspect it is a simple hardware failure of a rather  inexpensive item.

[JayDoubleU]

And it has just happened again - at least I was here to reboot the router straight away this time.

So it would appear to be getting more regular. So that's 9 August, 3 September, 11 September, 1 October and now 4 October.

[LargeKnoll]

n.b. I have put an h before the hour of the logs because 01-23 h04 without the h has been reported too many time??

Hi John,

I think I have the same issue as yourself with my Sky Hub.

I moved to SKY FTTP 500 with voice a couple of weeks ago from Plusnet FTTC, and since then I have woken to no internet 3 times.  So far it has only happened during the night.

This mornings log

2024-01-23 h04:36:43 syslog: WAN IPV6 UP
2024-01-23 h04:44:16 syslog: [] eth3 (Ext switch port: 4) (Logical Port: 12) Link DOWN.
2024-01-23 h04:44:17 syslog: eth3.1 - WAN link DOWN.
2024-01-23 h04:44:17 syslog: DHCP lease expired from server. Connection DOWN.
2024-01-23 h04:44:18 syslog: [] eth3 (Ext switch port: 4) (Logical Port: 12) Link UP 1000 mbps full duplex
2024-01-23 h04:44:20 syslog: Voice IP Connection Down
2024-01-23 h04:44:23 syslog: Voice Disconnected

... no connection until I intervene, then:

2024-01-23 h06:41:47 syslog: [] eth3 (Ext switch port: 4) (Logical Port: 12) Link DOWN.
2024-01-23 h06:41:48 syslog: sky dhcpc client (v0.0.1) started
2024-01-23 h06:41:49 syslog: [] eth3 (Ext switch port: 4) (Logical Port: 12) Link UP 1000 mbps full duplex

I did not reboot, instead I have unplugged the cable from the router that goes to the ONT box, on the router side. Then I immediately plugged it back in and it works again. 

I will log a new discussion, but I was wondering if you had resolved the issue?

Regards,

Jason

[JayDoubleU]

Hi Jason

No I have not resolved the issue yet. It has been getting less regular, but it did re-occur a couple of nights ago. I intend to contact technical support about it soon. I now have a number for them. Or at least I thought I had; I've just tried to find it (to share with you) but can't remember where Ive put it. I'll post it here when I find it.

Like you have just found, I also found that unplugging then plugging the Ethernet cable to the ONT box fixes the problem. I had considered connecting my router to the ONT box via an Ethernet switch; but I haven't got around to that yet. I'm not sure what that would prove yet, but I like to gather fault finding information (my electronic engineering background).

If you do find someone who helps resolve the issue I would like to know.

Regards

John

[JayDoubleU]

Hi Jason

Sky customer service number is available on an 0333 number

759

2317

I have had to split the number becuase the forum rejects phone numbers

This number was found here:

https://www.sky.com/help/home

Scroll down and click on Need more help?

My Google Keep was playing up earlier and was hiding all my notes!

Regards

John

[Stephen1812]

I have had this problem for two years, lately it is happening six or seven times a day.  At this stage I am negotiating a move to another supplier with FTTP, see if that resolves the issue.