mrtom
0
Hi all,
I have a really annoying intermittent problem with my internet conncetion, and I'm completely out of ideas, so I was hoping somebody here might be able to come up with something... it's complicated so bear with me while I explain it.
Basically, a few times a week for no apparent reason (or if I reboot my router), I will suddenly be unable to browse any websites or make any connections at all with other addresses on the internet e.g. ping, ssh, whatever. It affects all the computers in the house, not just one. This is despite the fact that my router has successfully synced, CHAP authenticated and obtained an IP address from my ISP.
At first I thought it was a DNS issue, as when I try to load a web page in the browser, it gets stuck at the "Looking for site" stage, but even if I know the IP address of the host I'm trying to connect to, it still doesn't work.
I have ruled out the hardware as a cause by replacing everything with like-for like parts i.e. I left the router switched off overnight, and then connected up a different router and different phone cable, and plugged it straight into the test socket of my BT master socket via a different microfilter. Exactly the same result. I'd be surprised anyway if the physical connection was an issue, because the router stays pretty consistently synced at 4500 up / 900 down or thereabouts, even while this problem is occurring.
My workaround solution so far is essentialy to reconnect over and over until at some arbitrary point I am able to view web pages again. Thankfully I don't have to reboot the router every time. I have a Netgear DG384G v4, and it has a "Test" button in the admin interface, which disconnects from the internet and reconnects without dropping the physical ADSL connection (the little "i" light on the front of the router turns off and then on a few seconds later), so it's quite fast. Even still, I will have to repeatedly do this up to about 20 times before the connection eventually decides to start working again.
This would not be so much of an issue if it was only when I reboot the router, but it happens without me touching the router as well. I often find in the mornings that the connection has stopped working overnight, for example. But then I don't think it's due to the router being idle either, as I've had it happen to me while I was in the midlle of browsing web pages on a couple of occasions.
I reported the problem to my ISP, Aquiss, and they said that there is nothing wrong with the connection on their end. They suggested I upgrade the firmware on the router, but as I have shown above, it happens even with a different router. I'm not going to get BT involved as they will charge me £125 to have an engineer turn up and say "there's nothing wrong with it". If I wanted to test the connection with another ISP I'd have to cancel my Aquiss account and start one with another ISP, which I really don't want to do as I like Aquiss.
The other thing I'd mention is that I was on up-to-8-Mbps ADSL with Aquiss when this started, and since then I've been moved over to ADSL2+ and the problem is exactly the same as it was before. I've lived in this house for just over a year now, and have only ever used Aquiss here, although I don't think I had this problem for the first few months, and then one day it just started. Several months later, having tried all kinds of different things, I am now writing here in the hope that one of you guys might have an idea, or have experienced a similar issue.
Thanks, and sorry for the long post!
Tom
I have a really annoying intermittent problem with my internet conncetion, and I'm completely out of ideas, so I was hoping somebody here might be able to come up with something... it's complicated so bear with me while I explain it.
Basically, a few times a week for no apparent reason (or if I reboot my router), I will suddenly be unable to browse any websites or make any connections at all with other addresses on the internet e.g. ping, ssh, whatever. It affects all the computers in the house, not just one. This is despite the fact that my router has successfully synced, CHAP authenticated and obtained an IP address from my ISP.
At first I thought it was a DNS issue, as when I try to load a web page in the browser, it gets stuck at the "Looking for site" stage, but even if I know the IP address of the host I'm trying to connect to, it still doesn't work.
I have ruled out the hardware as a cause by replacing everything with like-for like parts i.e. I left the router switched off overnight, and then connected up a different router and different phone cable, and plugged it straight into the test socket of my BT master socket via a different microfilter. Exactly the same result. I'd be surprised anyway if the physical connection was an issue, because the router stays pretty consistently synced at 4500 up / 900 down or thereabouts, even while this problem is occurring.
My workaround solution so far is essentialy to reconnect over and over until at some arbitrary point I am able to view web pages again. Thankfully I don't have to reboot the router every time. I have a Netgear DG384G v4, and it has a "Test" button in the admin interface, which disconnects from the internet and reconnects without dropping the physical ADSL connection (the little "i" light on the front of the router turns off and then on a few seconds later), so it's quite fast. Even still, I will have to repeatedly do this up to about 20 times before the connection eventually decides to start working again.
This would not be so much of an issue if it was only when I reboot the router, but it happens without me touching the router as well. I often find in the mornings that the connection has stopped working overnight, for example. But then I don't think it's due to the router being idle either, as I've had it happen to me while I was in the midlle of browsing web pages on a couple of occasions.
I reported the problem to my ISP, Aquiss, and they said that there is nothing wrong with the connection on their end. They suggested I upgrade the firmware on the router, but as I have shown above, it happens even with a different router. I'm not going to get BT involved as they will charge me £125 to have an engineer turn up and say "there's nothing wrong with it". If I wanted to test the connection with another ISP I'd have to cancel my Aquiss account and start one with another ISP, which I really don't want to do as I like Aquiss.
The other thing I'd mention is that I was on up-to-8-Mbps ADSL with Aquiss when this started, and since then I've been moved over to ADSL2+ and the problem is exactly the same as it was before. I've lived in this house for just over a year now, and have only ever used Aquiss here, although I don't think I had this problem for the first few months, and then one day it just started. Several months later, having tried all kinds of different things, I am now writing here in the hope that one of you guys might have an idea, or have experienced a similar issue.
Thanks, and sorry for the long post!
Tom























