ONT periodically stops passing internet

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#305884 11-Jun-2023 14:06

Hi friends.

I have an ONT 100 that was installed in 2014 when UFB first rolled out in my neighbourhood, and in the past year it periodically stops passing internet. Problem resolved as the ONT is power cycled.

It ranges from once every few day to once every few weeks. Very unpredictable.

I’m running a Mikrotik router and have it all configured correctly with VLAN10 etc and it’s been robust until this issue. I’m with Slingshot and I’ve contacted them to send a Chorus technician to have a look or remote in to check but I fear they might not find anything when it’s working.

Has anyone else experienced this type of problem? Appreciate any response or ideas :)

Richard

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#3088476 11-Jun-2023 14:12

If you have another router, try that then at least you can let your ISP/Chorus know you've ruled out your router as any potential issue. Some techs can be a bit lazy in their diagnosis IME and try blaming your gear rather than do actual testing themselves.

Most likely the tech will prob just swap out the ONT and let it go from there....

XPD / Gavin

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robjg63

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#3088478 11-Jun-2023 14:14

I suppose the obvious thing to ask - Have you tried a different router?

It is likely the first thing any fault finder may ask you to do.

In my experience, the ISP often likes to know that its being tested on one of 'their' supplied routers if possible.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

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#3088479 11-Jun-2023 14:18

Good point. I should give that a try. Hopefully I can dig it out from somewhere 😂

Thanks 🙏

MadEngineer

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#3088481 11-Jun-2023 14:25

When it "stops passing internet", how does that present itself? Does the optical light go out or start flashing? What do the logs show in your Mikrotik? Does the interface used for the connection to the ONT drop at all?

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

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#3088489 11-Jun-2023 15:31

MadEngineer:
When it "stops passing internet", how does that present itself? Does the optical light go out or start flashing? What do the logs show in your Mikrotik? Does the interface used for the connection to the ONT drop at all?

Interesting thing is that nothing changes on the actual ONT or the router. No logs on router and still appears to be getting DHCP. I get email notifications that monitor my servers that it’s offline when it stops working.

Rebooting the Mikrotik router doesn’t change anything but rebooting ONT does 🤷🏻

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#3088588 11-Jun-2023 16:21

I had the exact same problem as you for months. My ISP was very reluctant to ask Chorus to visit as they said if no problem was found with the fibre or ONT then Chorus would charge them $300. They required me to agree to reimburse them if Chorus charged them. But first they sent out a free replacement power adapter but that did not solve the problem.

It got so bad that I agreed to pay the fee if the problem was not a Chorus fault as I was pretty convinced my decade-old Type 100 ONT was the issue. The Chorus technican came and within 5 minutes detremined the ONT had failed. He fitted the lastest model ONT, my speed increased 50% and he was gone and I have never had a problem since. And of course nothing to pay. So stick to your guns and get Chorus out to your house.

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#3088591 11-Jun-2023 16:48

gustov:
I had the exact same problem as you for months. My ISP was very reluctant to ask Chorus to visit as they said if no problem was found with the fibre or ONT then Chorus would charge them $300. They required me to agree to reimburse them if Chorus charged them. But first they sent out a free replacement power adapter but that did not solve the problem.

It got so bad that I agreed to pay the fee if the problem was not a Chorus fault as I was pretty convinced my decade-old Type 100 ONT was the issue. The Chorus technican came and within 5 minutes detremined the ONT had failed. He fitted the lastest model ONT, my speed increased 50% and he was gone and I have never had a problem since. And of course nothing to pay. So stick to your guns and get Chorus out to your house.

Haha that’s actually the problem I have now is the call out fee 😂 I think I might just get them to come and have a look. Thanks so much 🙏🙏

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#3088594 11-Jun-2023 16:55

I'd still swap out the router first before pushing for a Chorus call out and possible $300 charge.

It's easy enough to test.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

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#3088601 11-Jun-2023 17:49

robjg63:
I'd still swap out the router first before pushing for a Chorus call out and possible $300 charge.

It's easy enough to test.

Yep will give that a go tonight. Hopefully it faults ahaha

gustov

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#3088611 11-Jun-2023 18:15

Bypass your router altogether to confirm it is the ONT that is the problem.

With an ethernet cable connected to your PC/laptop, plug it straight into the ONT (use the same socket that the router is usually plugged into - make sure you use that socket and not the one next to it). If you have an internet failure that will be conclusive evidence that it is the ONT faulting.

Mine was an intermittent fault with the ONT and I prayed it would fail when the technician came but it didn't, but nonetheless he was still able to test the ONT and quickly establish it was faulty. Good luck.

It's outrageous Chorus want to charge $300 when there is no fault, the ONT afterall, belongs to them anyway. We didn't have this nonsense with Telecom when your phone failed or the wall socket corroded and the contacts turned green, they just came out and fixed the problem at no charge.

gustov

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#3088619 11-Jun-2023 18:33

One final piece of advice. If you do arrange for Chorus to visit, it is essential you be there when he comes because if they come and no-one answers the door they will charge you a $150 call-out fee.

Of course being there also means you can watch the technician (and spin your plaintive sob story to evoke sympathy!) and be certain of a good outcome (ie new ONT). My Chorus technician was there not much more than 10 minutes to identify the fault and fit a new ONT. The new model ONT clips straight onto the existing Type 100 wall bracket, no drilling or screwing required.

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#3088620 11-Jun-2023 18:52

gustov:
One final piece of advice. If you do arrange for Chorus to visit, it is essential you be there when he comes because if they come and no-one answers the door they will charge you a $150 call-out fee.

Of course being there also means you can watch the technician (and spin your plaintive sob story to evoke sympathy!) and be certain of a good outcome (ie new ONT). My Chorus technician was there not much more than 10 minutes to identify the fault and fit a new ONT. The new model ONT clips straight onto the existing Type 100 wall bracket, no drilling or screwing required.

Thanks for the heads up. You guys have all been amazing. I’ll try to cut some onions close to my face when the technician is here 😛

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#3088622 11-Jun-2023 19:14

gustov:
It's outrageous Chorus want to charge $300 when there is no fault, the ONT afterall, belongs to them anyway. We didn't have this nonsense with Telecom when your phone faile d or the wall socket corroded and the contacts turned green, they just came out and fixed the problem at no charge.

You'd only get the phone replaced at no charge if you were paying a rental on it and the fixed wiring and sockets are your property so you needed to be paying a maintenance insurance fee to get that replaced at no extra charge.

gustov

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#3088633 11-Jun-2023 19:42

In my original post, I should have said "the Post Office" rather than "Telecom", because in the days when it was wholly-owned by the Government (ie. you and me) there was no such thing as a $3 monthly wiring Maintenace fee.

You paid your monthly rental for a phone and a phone line, and if anything went wrong, no-matter what, then a technician from the Post Office would come out, find the problem and fix it all, for no charge. Oh, we also paid for a TV licence in those days too!

Of course life is far superior now and we have the most wonderful technology, but it rankles that Chorus can get away with potentially charging $300 for a 15 minute home visit (in my case that charge did not apply because there was a fault) when the technician is paid maybe $30 an hour.

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#3088735 12-Jun-2023 00:43

The talk of a $300 charge for no fault found (NFF) on fault callouts would appear to be grossly exaggerated. Prior to December 1 2017, Chorus did not charge any fee at all if a fault technician visited a property and found no fault with the Chorus fibre network. Unfortunately this old policy led to poor diagnostic investigation from RSPs as there was no incentive for them to do proper checks.

An NFF fee was introduced on December 1 2017 for two reasons: A) to incentivise RSPs to use the tools available from Chorus to verify whether there is actually a fault with the Chorus network BEFORE requesting a truck roll, and B) to cut down on wasted and unnecessary callouts due to insufficient RSP troubleshooting.

The new fee was $104.83. There may have been annual CPI increases since the introduction date (I can't confirm at this hour), but the fee is certainly not $300. I can't speculate why an RSP might claim the NFF fee to be that much, but it isn't.

It's very simple for an RSP to avoid the NFF fee being charged - the Chorus Assurance Portal can tell the RSP everything they need to know - ONT status, optical power, transmission quality, config details, whether a router is plugged in or not, whether said router is passing traffic, how much traffic it's handled since the previous midnight, whether the ATA voice port is passing traffic, and whether the ONT has lost optical signal - now or at any point over the past 21 days (and if so, precisely when that happened and how long for).

If the technician turns up and finds no fault while onsite, but the 21 day optical history test shows intermittent loss of signal, the NFF fee will not be charged and the tech will investigate (they can run all the same tests while onsite).

The views expressed by me are not necessarily those of my employer Chorus NZ Ltd

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