Random ADSL Disconnections

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Random ADSL Disconnections

aaristotle

145 posts

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#244991 13-Jan-2019 11:27

I am after suggestions on what may be causing random DSL disconnections. Currently the connection will remain stable for up to 3 - 12 hours then connect and disconnect a number of times over 2-5 minutes. I am out in the countryside in Whangarei about 2.5km from the nearest cabinet. All lines are underground. When the internet is working the speed is very good for ADSL, however when streaming video or working in Xero the repeated disconnects become very annoying. This has only become an issue over the last few weeks, however it has been very dry up here so water in the cables is unlikely to be the problem.

The stats from the modem are below. I am not sure if the error rates are high or low, or have any significance.

The modem is an old Telecom Technicolor TG582n. I don't have a spare ADSL modem currently so would need to purchase one to test if modem might be the issue.

Uptime: 0 days, 0:21:45
DSL Type: ITU-T G.992.5
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1.073 / 12.397
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/GB]: 195,24 / 1,99
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 10,0 / 19,4
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 21,2 / 36,0
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 7,0 / 11,4
System Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / ----
Chipset Vendor ID (Local/Remote): BDCM / BDCM
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 104 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 38 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): -
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 775 / 269
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 10.272 / 64.573
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 422 / 452
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 3.626 / 11.911

Uptime: 0 days, 0:39:28
DSL Type: ITU-T G.992.5
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1.073 / 12.397
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/GB]: 204,73 / 1,99
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 10,0 / 19,4
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 21,2 / 36,0
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 3,5 / 9,3
System Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / ----
Chipset Vendor ID (Local/Remote): BDCM / BDCM
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 104 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 38 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): -
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 851 / 298
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 20.688 / 130.997
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 1.000 / 1.105
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 9.399 / 40.087

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#2160068 13-Jan-2019 11:30

See the 500+ other threads on the same topic

John

RunningMan

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#2160083 13-Jan-2019 12:03

Modem dying with age / power supply dying with age / weather / moisture / wind / corrosion / alarm dialler / sky tv dialler / electric fence / other interference.

sbiddle

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#2160123 13-Jan-2019 13:03

The simple reality is the first step that needs to be done is to test another modem. Such an old modem could easily now be dead from heat causing the issues... Of course there could be other things at play, but until you've eliminated the CPE there isn't much else to test.

Linux

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#2160124 13-Jan-2019 13:05

Call Spark and get them to send you a newer modem the one you have is for Motat

John

gzt

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#2160223 13-Jan-2019 14:42

My recollection is Spark modem prices 50% to Spark customers. Modems come with one filter. Chuck the old filter if you buy one.

aaristotle

145 posts

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#2160245 13-Jan-2019 15:22

Thanks for the replies.

I have been looking at replacement modems, which seem to start at about $100 and work there way up in price. The Spark modem is $99 (half price). What is the current modem model Spark supply and is it reasonable quality? With only 11Mb/s internet speed throughput isn't critical, however at least 4 LAN ports, Wifi, static DHCP address assignment and port forwarding is required.

Going back to the original post does anyone have a feel for whether the FEC, CRC and HEC error rates are significant?

RunningMan

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#2160254 13-Jan-2019 15:33

That is an awfully high amount of errors for the uptime. Noise margin at 9 dB, when ddDLM will usually aim for 6 dB probably means it's being pulled back to try and cure the errors. Typically, this is a hardware issue - a cable fault (either internally or externally) is the most likely, but given the age of the modem, it would pay to rule that out first. They can and do die, and do some odd things as it happens.

The only other thing you can do is isolate all your internal wiring - if that checks out, log a fault with Spark. @hio77 knows a thing or 2 (well, quite a bit actually!) about these lines as well.

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Jase2985

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#2160256 13-Jan-2019 15:40

can get a hg659 on trademe for about $30

do you have a plug in filter? if so try removing that and test again

spark should be able to run a line test on the line but i would try and remove any variables at your end first

aaristotle

145 posts

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#2160378 13-Jan-2019 17:24

The wiring into the house has a master filter. Spark helpdesk have done a line test and it currently tests out OK, however they can see there have been 15 disconnections in the last 24 hours. Unfortunately I didn't take a baseline of the modem stats when I moved into the house 2 years ago, apart from running speedtests which have always been around 11.9Mbs down/0.95MBs up. I will get a replacement modem anyway and see if this makes enough difference to stop the disconnects.

RunningMan

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#2160401 13-Jan-2019 17:53

Anyone local you can borrow one from?

hio77

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#2160439 13-Jan-2019 18:50

The HG659b isn't bad, if you have large counts of wireless devices it can start to show it's age but otherwise it's one of the better devices out there fillstop.

The TG582n i still highly recommend on my list of good options for a bridge modem, previously used one heavily. Only reason i perfer others over it is, it's been patched not to expose the full broadcom stack.

Sounds like you have filed a few faults over the time?

Can you DM me your account details, Ticket number and line number, I'll have a little dig from there - if you do this tonight, i'll have details to look at tomorrow when i'm in the office...

Looking at the stages, they don't look Thaaat bad.

the fact that snr is bouncing between 12db and 9db tells me ddDLM is really struggling to stabilize things - I'm surprised it's still switching honestly... expect it should have dropped down into unable to stabilize line by now...

Attenuation shows no signs of a fault, almost exactly matching your estimation of distance.

Upstream rate is still doing well, which normally indicates internal wiring isn't too bad - this lines up with having a splitter installed :)

There are two primary causes i can think of for this.

1. Modem or splitter failure

2. High resistance fault on line.

One thing i have not seen commented on so far is, How is your landline sounding? - Any notable noise, static?

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aaristotle

145 posts

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#2160462 13-Jan-2019 19:33

The problem has only become worse in the last few days, before this maybe once or twice a week Lightbox streaming would stop once during the evening, which at the time I blamed on Lightbox, but was more than likely the modem disconnecting then reconnecting.

The connection had been up for about 6 hours this afternoon, then this evening it has disconnected 3-4 times about 5 minutes apart.

I have only called Spark for the first time today as the problem is now much more noticeable than it was previously.

The phone sound quality has been fine, however I will check it during the next set of disconnects to see if there is any noise.

I will PM you my details. Thanks

hio77

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Lizard Networks

#2160800 14-Jan-2019 11:09

How's this looking for you now?

it looks to me like ddDLM may have actually managed to stabilize things, pulling down to 6/6db.

Now that i'm in the office and have a full view of things, it looks like it's tried to pull the downstream speed up by about 2mbit, become unstable and taken about a week or so to settle itself back to the original place.

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Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

aaristotle

145 posts

Master Geek

#2160834 14-Jan-2019 12:03

It looks like it reset sometime just after midnight, then ran fine until about 11:09am, probably just after you posted your last message.

When the line was reconnected when we first moved in the technician connected the wrong pair of wires from road to the house and there was no phone or internet, so he connected the second pair. From a comment he made I think he may have also left the first pair connected. As everything was working perfectly at the time I didn't give it any attention then, but could this be causing any problems? ( Its about 140m from the road pillar to the house).

BarTender

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#2160926 14-Jan-2019 13:33

I have an old Draytek 120 ADSL router if you want it for the cost of postage?

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