Significant issues with dropout since switching to FibreX

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saeran

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# 214321 6-May-2017 18:09

Hey!

I was on the old school VF Cable network for the past 3-4 years and though it had occasional issues for the most part, the service was hassle free.

Recently we switched to the new FibreX network and ever since it has been pretty annoying with the internet completely dropping out 1-6 times per day.

After speaking to VF over Twitter they sent a Downer technician – technician checked the line and said that that was fine. He decided to change the VF supplied router for a new one (HG659), guessing that it was the source of the problem.

Unfortunately my trouble and frustration has continued with the internet dropping out again within hours of the tech leaving – has happened another 4 times in the 24 hours since.

All the lights stay on on the Technicolour modem, but the internet light on the Vodafone router either turns off, or sometimes will stay on but will stop flashing (when the network is acting as normal it flashes). Also the 192.168.1.1 router page becomes inaccessible.

To fix it I usually reboot the modem and router, though I believe that just rebooting the router usually is enough to solve the problem.

Any ideas as to the root cause of the issue? And, no it's not a wifi issue, experiencing the issue over ethernet too.

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# 1776926 6-May-2017 18:21

Note down dates / time and how long it's off line for then log a fault when you have a few examples and insist the ticket is passed to the complex support team for further investigation

saeran

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# 1776933 6-May-2017 18:38

thecatsgoolies:

Note down dates / time and how long it's off line for then log a fault when you have a few examples and insist the ticket is passed to the complex support team for further investigation

Thanks, I will do! It always fixes with a router + modem reboot though.

sbiddle

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# 1776935 6-May-2017 18:50

If you can't ping the router the issue lies inside your network or with the router itself. As this has been replaced it's always possible something in your network is causing the issue.

When this happens do pings to an IP still work? Or is it just DNS lookups that fail?

Pumpedd

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# 1777101 7-May-2017 11:40

Its a known issue with the network...

VF have given me permission to ditch my contract.

sbiddle

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# 1777159 7-May-2017 14:38

Pumpedd:

Its a known issue with the network...

VF have given me permission to ditch my contract.

Not being able to connect to your router is a issue with your home network, not their network.

antoniosk

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# 1777206 7-May-2017 16:32

sbiddle:

Pumpedd:

Its a known issue with the network...

VF have given me permission to ditch my contract.

Not being able to connect to your router is a issue with your home network, not their network.

I agree. If the router - HG659 - stops responding then the device isn't working correctly.

________

Antonios K

Yabanize

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# 1777209 7-May-2017 16:50

Perhaps you should try connecting your PC directly to the ONT

tieke

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# 1777214 7-May-2017 17:13

One person supports this post

I have this problem on my 200 speed FibreX connection (with static IP), and have called them about it a couple of times only to be told each time that it is a known issue that is being worked on. The connection just gradually gets worse until I reset the modem. (I have found no difference between using the supplied router or my ERL).

You can easily see examples of the worsening connection when you look at my smokeping records.

For instance you can see where I rebooted my modem just before nine this morning after my son was having huge delays accessing YouTube:

If you look back you will see more such instances, as well as a number of outages, almost all of which were fixed by rebooting the modem. In fact it happens so frequently that I have now connected the modem to a remotely-switchable socket, so that when other members of the family can't access the internet they just have to press a button to repower it rather than having to root around in the networking closet.

I'm not in the known Island Bay troublespot, and as my previous cable connection was so rocksolid for almost a decade this was pretty unexpected.

I wouldn't advise anyone to swap from the standard cable service to FibreX until this is fixed if you're not comfortable with having regular slowdowns and outages (easy to fix if you're on-site, not so good if you're away from home and trying to connect back in.)

saeran

139 posts

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# 1777240 7-May-2017 17:45

tieke:

I have this problem on my 200 speed FibreX connection (with static IP), and have called them about it a couple of times only to be told each time that it is a known issue that is being worked on. The connection just gradually gets worse until I reset the modem. (I have found no difference between using the supplied router or my ERL).

You can easily see examples of the worsening connection when you look at my smokeping records.

For instance you can see where I rebooted my modem just before nine this morning after my son was having huge delays accessing YouTube:

If you look back you will see more such instances, as well as a number of outages, almost all of which were fixed by rebooting the modem. In fact it happens so frequently that I have now connected the modem to a remotely-switchable socket, so that when other members of the family can't access the internet they just have to press a button to repower it rather than having to root around in the networking closet.

I'm not in the known Island Bay troublespot, and as my previous cable connection was so rocksolid for almost a decade this was pretty unexpected.

I wouldn't advise anyone to swap from the standard cable service to FibreX until this is fixed if you're not comfortable with having regular slowdowns and outages (easy to fix if you're on-site, not so good if you're away from home and trying to connect back in.)

That sounds extremely relatable.

As to the comments regarding it being an issue from within my network.

What would cause the router internet light to turn off and for the service to stop functioning?
Even if this was the case – wouldn't I have experienced issues prior to the switch to FibreX

At least there is a solution that consistently works – and if it only happened once or twice a week I'd deal with it, but with it happening multiple times per day it gets pretty annoying.

yitz

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# 1777287 7-May-2017 18:32

I don't think it is just you I'm pretty sure I have read about those symptoms before on Vodafone Community forums too.

So just to be clear a router power cycle / reboot alone is not sufficient you need to also reboot both the modem?

yitz

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# 1777291 7-May-2017 18:36

antoniosk:

I agree. If the router - HG659 - stops responding then the device isn't working correctly.

Well back in the Telstraclear days wasn't there that ARP issue around 2007/2008 which overloaded/crashed modems?

Not saying that is happening here but I don't think we can rule out network side yet.

sbiddle

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# 1777343 7-May-2017 19:39

yitz:
antoniosk:

I agree. If the router - HG659 - stops responding then the device isn't working correctly.

Well back in the Telstraclear days wasn't there that ARP issue around 2007/2008 which overloaded/crashed modems?

Not saying that is happening here but I don't think we can rule out network side yet.

Back then the cable network was one big flat L2 network. The resulting high volumes of ARP traffic meant some low spec routers would keep crashing.

quickymart

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# 1777350 7-May-2017 19:58

Yabanize:

Perhaps you should try connecting your PC directly to the ONT

This is about cable, not fibre (despite the confusing FibreX name).

Yabanize

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# 1777354 7-May-2017 20:10

quickymart:

Yabanize:

Perhaps you should try connecting your PC directly to the ONT

This is about cable, not fibre (despite the confusing FibreX name).

Apologies, The Cable Modem direct to PC.

saeran

139 posts

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# 1778039 8-May-2017 19:59

Spoke with someone from Vodafone's Quality and Performance team. Was told to change the ethernet connection on the Technicolor modem – the technician had it plugged into the jack marked '2', was told to change it to '1'.

So far so good – but it's only been just over an hour so we'll have to wait and see.

Also, from what I was told it does appear to be a known issue that VF is investigating.

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