Router keeps dropping connection to the Internet

[MadBoldo]

Thanks for the update!

My chat with Sky went as expected, just sending me a new router.

I'm not expecting it to make any difference, but it's one more thing off their list of things to check.

I have a new cable as well, so will see if that helps improve anything, and report back

[JayDoubleU]

It looks like someone has marked a post as the answer. I can't seem to find which one it refers to - anyone able to point me in the right direction?

Thanks

[LargeKnoll]

I've had a router update during the night, and the internet connected automatically because the router restarted.

The SR203's firmware is now on 7.03.0400.R, it was 7.02.0201.R

Since swapping the cat5e cable supplied with the router to a different one on the 23rd Jan I have not had a disconnect.

Before that I had 3 disconnects and it did not reconnect, all during different nights during the first 10 days of being connected.  n.b. I am not convinced the cable swap fixed the issue, I would have to plug the old one back in and see if the issue comes back.

[JayDoubleU]

@LargeKnoll since changing my Ethernet cable and placing an Ethernet switch between the router and ONT I've not had a failure either (since 4th Feb). 

Unfortunately, it's not the sort of problem you can ever say you've fixed - at best all you can say is that you've made it occur less often.

For anyone having this problem, I would recommend a first attempt at a fix would be to use a longer Ethernet cable between the router and the ONT box.

If this is a signal integrity problem due to the high speed signalling used by Ethernet and a poor impedance match in the ONT or router then this is understandable. Most people will have the router close to the ONT box (as recommended by Sky) and will use the short Ethernet cable provided by Sky.

I will continue to monitor my failures and will report here if I get a failure, or report intermittently if I continue to be failure free.

[Kasbah]

Hi. How do you get the router log?

[caesarome]

@Kasbah 

https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Broadband/How-to-find-your-Sky-Broadband-router-stats/td-p/2855717/jump...

[LargeKnoll]

I had another disconnect that didn't reconnect without intervention.

First 3 were in the first week of having sky Ultrafast Plus, in January all in the middle of the night.

This one end of March was at 10:15am.  I knew when I was out and Blink tells me the camera has not been accessible for half an hour.

When I got back I checked the ONT was green, but the router had an orange light.  Unplugged the network cable and plugged back in.  Connection came back in 10 to 30 seconds.

As said by others I don't mind the occasional disconnect / reconnect, the big issue is not automatically reconnecting.  So cameras and other services will not work, possibly for weeks whilst on holiday.

[JayDoubleU]

I have also just had another disconnect - yesterday. This time it was during the day. Unfortunately, I was too busy to capture the router log.

So, unfortunately, a different Ethernet cable has not resolved the problem. It feels like the period between this failure and the last was longer than average.

Like you say LargeKnoll, The real issue is that the router does not reconnect after the failure.

I am looking at taking advantage of the recent notification of the price rises to switch my supplier without incurring the cancelation fees. I'm just not sure who would be any better.; you hear so many bad reviews of all the ISPs.

[LargeKnoll]

Also possibly worth noting is my router firmware was upgraded to 7.03.0509.R, I think a few days before the disconnect.

JayDoubleU are you in a position to use your own router?

I cannot because I want to use sky voice for calls.

I'm not sure if I could plug in a third party router to the ONT and then plug the Sky hub into the 3rd party router to use only for VOIP calls? 

So in theory when the disconnect happens the third party router handles the disconnect and reconnects automatically unlike the Sky hub (?).

[JayDoubleU]

I am on Firmware 7.03.0509.R, but I didn't notice when the update occurred; although it has been this version for a little while now. In my case I don't think this is related to my failure yesterday.

Unfortunately, I don't have access to another router. Like you, I wanted to use my land line and it appears that we are locked into Sky's router if we want to do this. However, I have not researched this fact extensively.

I did wonder if the phone line was part of the problem - I do have a long extension lead between the router and my phone base station. I'm pretty sure Sky would say that this is not advisable. However, the logs of my failures always show the Ethernet port failing before the phone line. I just wasn't keen to disconnect my phone line for a couple of months to find out.

Your idea of using the Sky router as a VOIP adaptor with a third part router is an interesting one. Unfortunately, I don't have any knowledge or experience of that.

I would be interested to hear of any conclusions if you do try this.

[djcross]

Well this seems depressing as I've been having exactly this issue with my Ultrafast connection for the last 3-4 months. 

Only really effected TV but I now can't connect my work laptops to the wi-fi.  When its working I can actually see in the sky tv menu the tick for network connection turining from a tick to a cross and then back again.  

Everytime I have the issue I reboot everything and then try again.  It may work for 5 mins or 5 days but it will drop again at some point.  Devices I have issues with can all see the network but can't obtain an IP.  

It also appears to get worse when the weather is bad. 😖

I wish we could have stayed with Virgin but we can't get Virgin where we now live.  I think I rebooted the router once in 5 years and that was because of an area issue

[AW341]

@JayDoubleU  I moved house and joined Sky in January this year.  Three/four drop outs in three months.

No phoneline, so no apparent connection there.

Previous address and suppliers had very rare dropouts, always recovering themselves.  Plusnet and Now were my suppliers then. 

I'll be exploring my options to leave Sky.  Good luck!  

[JayDoubleU]

@djcross 

Sorry to hear you are having similar problems. You appear to be having even worse connectivity than many of the rest of us.

From your description I wasn't sure if your's is a WiFi problem rather than (or possibly as well as) a connection to the internet problem).

I don't have Sky TV so can't comment about what you are seeing there.

Do you have any devices that are hard wired to your router (using an Ethernet cable), and do these have the same problems?

Your work laptop may have a fixed IP address which has a different subnet setting to what your home router is set to. You may need to go into your laptop settings and set up an alternative network for home. You should be able to have settings for both home and work so you don't need to change everything when you move between locations.

The issue with seeing the network, but not obtaining an IP address could be that your router is not properly providing a DHCP service. This is what provides the devices on your LAN (local area network - i.e inside your home) with an IP address. This is different to the IP address of the WAN (the wide area network - i.e. the connection to Sky).

[JayDoubleU]

@AW341

Thanks for the observation about the phone line not being the cause of the problem. You have confirmed what I expected; so thank you for that useful feedback.

[djcross]

Yep I have the sky Q box hard wired which is why its concerning that this appears to consistently connect and reconnect every 10 seconds.  It doesn't appear to effect connection to things like disney plus etc.  It may buffer from time to time but nothing to bad.  

I've had the 2.5mhz and 5mhz connections spilt before and it seems to be worse when its setup like this so I've reverted back to them being synced.

My laptops don't use fixed IP's.  When the connection drops I can see the network but for whatever reason the router won't assign an IP. 

Considering I paid to have ultrafast as it was fibre I'm less than impressed.  Its such a poor setup.  I wish I could turn the router into a modem (like Virgin routers can) and then just have my own router.  I'm sure this would eliminate most of the issues I'm having