Service dropping frequently

[redthommo999]

Hi,

The kids have been complaining for weeks about the stability of our connections and I have finally experienced the same now I have gone back to work after sickness.

The internet drops out regulary, sometimes every 5 mins or so. Overall service to the property seems fine, most of the time the internet is showing as available on the SkyHub but people in the house are kicked out of games, microsoft teams calls, updating files, zoom etc..

Most of the house is CAT5 cabled and therefore this is happening for both wired and wifi  connected devices. Router stats below:

and log file info: 

syslog: Lease renewed 3600 rebind time:3060 ip 90.202.41.67 

syslog: TR69: Connect to Production ACS07:02:34 syslog: TR69: Connection to ACS Complete

syslog: TR69: Close ACS Connection

syslog: Lease renewed 3600 rebind time:3060 ip 90.202.41.67

syslog: Send out NTP request to ntp1.isp.sky.com

syslog: Received NTP Sync Reply from ntp1.isp.sky.com

syslog: System time is up to date

syslog: Lease renewed 3600 rebind time:3060 ip 90.202.41.67

syslog: Lease renewed 3600 rebind time:3060 ip 90.202.41.67

syslog: Lease renewed 3600 rebind time:3060 ip 90.202.41.67

syslog: Lease renewed 3600 rebind time:3060 ip 90.202.41.67

syslog: Lease renewed 3600 rebind time:3060 ip 90.202.41.67

syslog: Send out NTP request to ntp1.isp.sky.com

syslog: Received NTP Sync Reply from ntp1.isp.sky.com

syslog: System time is up to date

syslog: Lease renewed 3600 rebind time:3060 ip 90.202.41.67

syslog: Lease renewed 3600 rebind time:3060 ip 90.202.41.67

syslog: Lease renewed 3600 rebind time:3060 ip 90.202.41.67

syslog: Lease renewed 3600 rebind time:3060 ip 90.202.41.67

syslog: Send out NTP request to ntp1.isp.sky.com

syslog: Received NTP Sync Reply from ntp1.isp.sky.com

syslog: System time is up to date

syslog: Lease renewed 3600 rebind time:3060 ip 90.202.41.67

I have looked around and it seems that this is not a new issue but I have not come across a reason/fix.

Thanks for any help,

Ian

[jamesn123]

@redthommo999 

There must be something wrong with how you've cabled everything up because you have a high amount of collision packets. Everything else is showing as a perfect uptime so no WAN drops or LAN drops, its likely the collision packets are stalling your network. 

[redthommo999]

Thanks a lot @jamesn123 James,

The network has been wired and running nicely for a couple of years (we had to go to wired given the amount of original external walls that are now internal). We have recently had some work done in the house to re-format upstairs  bedrooms & two kids come back from University.

Is it more likely to be down to changes to the cabling infrastructure / faulty ethernet wall plates or things the kids might have plugged into the network (e.g. additional wifi extenders and mini ethernet hubs) .

As you say, it does not appear to be the service to the house or something using up all the wi-fi band as it is on ethernet as well. Months ago Sky engineers separated the SkyQ network from the rest of the network and that improved the stability of SkyQ but something recently must have introduced some sort of conflict.

Any advice you can provide on how to pinpoint the problem would be much appreciated and thanks for the input so far.

Ian

[jamesn123]

@redthommo999 

More often than not its caused by a dodgy 3rd party extender/hub or Sky Q being cabled in the incorrect way. E.g. through switches

[redthommo999]

Hi again,

I have spent half a day resetting sky router, unplugging devices, extenders, mini routers and testing before adding things back in (leaving things disconnected that arent really necessary to be connected to LAN).... I have also disbled wifi from all the skyq boxes, leaving them to use the wired infrastructure only. All the SkyQ boxes are cabled to one switch to keep them away from the other network traffic (as done by the Sky engineer to stabilise the SkyTV signal which was losing connection regularly from main box to SkyQ mini boxes).....

After all this, I am still seeing the collision packets increase by 60-80 every 10 seconds.

Any ideas how best to troubleshoot/fix this @jamesn123 or anyone ?

[Chrisee]

@redthommo999 what type of switch are you using for the Q boxes, we see a number of issues with managed switches the plain simple unmanaged type are normally fine.

[redthommo999]

Thanksa lot @Chrisee .

All the 'normal' traffic is through a Draytek VigorSwitch G2280x but the SkyQ traffic is on a simple Netgear unmanaged device - it was moved to this by the Sky engineers a while ago to fix the conflicts that I think you are referring to.

Both the Draytek and the Netgear have a direct connection to the Sky router (2 port version).

Whilst the TV problem is fixed and stable, the networking is dreadful. I have removed loads of devices from the LAN this morning and it is still terrible. 

[jamesn123]

@redthommo999 

Still likely to be because your using a managed switch, even when the Q gear isnt connected to it. Can you remove that switch and see what happens

[redthommo999]

Thanks @jamesn123 , removing the  Draytek managed device reduced the collision packets from 80 to 100 every 10 seconds to circa 15 every 10 seconds.

That said, it has also disabled about 15 ports of live activity going through that switch and to the router.

[jamesn123]

@redthommo999 

Hm, you'd still hope to see no collisions once its removed really.

Are you able to do a quick network diagram of what you've got setup? Might be easier to try and pinpoint a possible issue. 

[redthommo999]

Sorry, a bit 'noddy' I know @jamesn123 ...

Circa  50MB coming into the property and stable

Sky router sat within 1M of the two switches (netgear unmanaged and Draytek Vigorg2280 x)

SkyQ boxes directly connected to the Netgear

Rest of network isolated to the Draytek (24 ports, c. 18 used, 10-15 active at peak)

[jamesn123]

@redthommo999 

Thanks thats helpful.

On the diagram you have drawn 'Sky Q' above your 'Sky' router. Is this correct? So you have a Sky Q unit connected to the hub directly then other Sky Q boxes connected to the switch?

[redthommo999]

Sorry, the SkyQ mini in the same room is connected by ethernet to the netgear as well @jamesn123 .

[redthommo999]

So here is an update but still no fix.

1) I called Sky technical team and after about 30 mins they determined it was an issue that needed to be passed onto the networks team. I was told (on Thursday 22nd) that the same customer service advisor would call me back on the Sunday with an update as they were out of the office on Friday & Saturday and working Sun to Thu. No call back ever came...

2) I can see on my account that a called has been raised with Openreach, I assume by the networks team closing their call and passing it off. No date is scheduled and I am sure that there are no issues with the service provision into the property as that seems stable. The issue seems to be the co-existance of SkyQ on the same LAN as other devices.

3) As no update on my original call and no progress, on Tuesday I called Sky again. Of course, a different advisor who started from scratch with diagnostics and proceeding to tell me that the broadband connection to the property was fine and that no errors were appearing on her diagnostics so it muse be too many devices connected. Eventually she checked notes on previous call and could see that there were no updates from network team so closed that. In fairness the agent tried to help by sending out a new & better router with 4 ethernet ports but this was not possible as the router was not showing any errors. Despite the fact that I could see collission of approaching 1 million, she was not able to see that with her diagnostics. I also advised that this issue was a known issues by the engineers that visited, hence moving the SkyQ devices to a different switch (netgear) to separate it from the normal device usage.

4) There seems to be no end-to-end service ownership within Sky..... the broadband team focus on service into the property, the SkyQ team focus on the TV signal working ..... there seems to be lots of knowledge of known issues with the two things co-existing...

5) I have already paid several thousand pounds to have the house re-wired (TV and CAT5) because when I moved from Sky+ to SkyQ it just would not work in this property given an extended property with original external walls now internal... I pay a lot of money a month for this service and have been a sky customer with full package for approaching 30 years and am now at a point of calling it a day as I currently can have either a working TV package or a working network. I have had to turn wireless off on all the skyQ devices as that seems to add to the problem, so wifi coverage in the house is as bad as it has been for 5 years.

6) I have stripped the  home network right back, checked end devices, cables before adding and labelling all LAN ports on the switch (physically and in software). Everything works perfectly until I introduce the SkyQ boxes either on that switch or a separate switch. 

I have just ordered and paid for an upgraded Sky Broadband Router as Sky could / would not provide one. I doubt that will help but I dont know what else to try.  A networks friend came around to try and help and we tried to configure the specific ports to Duplex and the maximum speed that the SkyQ minis can operate at but that did not appear to help. 

Any further advice or suggestions much appreciated,  After 44 hours since a full reset, the package conflicts stand at 997K and the kids are using their phones for more reliable data!!

ian

[jamesn123]

@redthommo999 

Just reading through this again,

You say its all fine until you connect the Sky boxes up to the switch, is it possible for you to connect the Sky boxes directly to the Sky hub's ports rather than a switch just to see what happens? I understand you may need the 4 port Sky hub to do this.