Connection drops for 30secs - 10 mins.

[kare]

Greetings,
For the last month or so my internet has been losing connection, the lights on the modem stay the same and my computer says the wires still in.
I got a new modem installed 4 weeks ago, that didn't fix it so i was told to buy a new PC, that didn't fix it but soon after the disconnects stopped for about a week.
They started again, on new years eve I think, I was losing connectivity constantly, couldn't stay connected for more than a few mins.
It's gone abit better now but it still happens as a estimate of twice a hour, seems to be worse at peek time, this is a huge problem for me.
I phoned VM so many times but they just can't seem to help in any way, they deny it's their line because they'd see any disconnects from the internet.

I beg for your help, been on VM/NTL for about 8 years now, tried Sky once but high pings and packet loss at peek time.

Honestly if anyone can help I'd be soo thankful.

Modem is the quite new 256 model, connection is 10mb.
Downstream Frequency : 330750000 Hz
Downstream SNR : 40.1 dB
Upstream Frequency : 46200000 Hz
Upstream transmit Power Level : 41.0 dBmV

[Axegrinder]

What is your downstream recieve power level?

[icestar2]

Have you checked for any spyware or adware on your machine ? Do you have an firewall and Av installed ? What web browser are you using ?

[kare]

Downstream Receive Power Level : 3.4 dBmV
Yeah my PC is clean, tried it on a different PC and network cards.
Don't you think the fact one night I can't stay connected for even 5 mins and other nights it's hours without it dropping clears my pc as the culprit? or am i wrong thinking this?

[icestar2]

Yeah my PC is clean, tried it on a different PC and network cards.
Don't you think the fact one night I can't stay connected for even 5 mins and other nights it's hours without it dropping clears my pc as the culprit? or am i wrong thinking this?

Yes its probably more likely but spyware can cause these kinds of problems as can a firewall that could be blocking certain traffic etc etc.

Its always best to get these things out of the way first so you can look into the problem.

[cripinuk]

I have same problems with no access,everything including connection lights on modem are ok but no net access.Ive been onto vm for last month they gave me new modem but no change.Now vm say there is a problem but they don't know what it is.The disconnection lasts between 10 seconds to a minute,sometimes i reboot modem.Ive been with vm for 3yrs here and never had any problems before.I'm on 20meg and ive tried a couple off pcs but still same problem.

[Zhadnost]

I had the same problem as this, reported it to the guys on virginmedia.support.broadband.cable (news group), who identified the problem, gave me a fault reference, and it was fixed by the next day,

Apparently it looked like it was affecting lots of users on the the same UBR.

[cripinuk]

Well they dont seem to be able to sort mine even though they admit theres a problem...


I had the same problem as this, reported it to the guys on virginmedia.support.broadband.cable (news group), who identified the problem, gave me a fault reference, and it was fixed by the next day,

Apparently it looked like it was affecting lots of users on the the same UBR.

[kare]

Hi, Thanks for letting me know I might not be the only one.

@Zhadnost, Could you please go in to any more details about this?

It's such a big deal because I play online games and if I disconnect it's a instant lose.
And I can't really afford to change to a ISP that requires BT landline, It's £10 line rental which I'd never use for phone

Many thanks.

[cripinuk]

I got vm coming tomorrow il let you know

Hi, Thanks for letting me know I might not be the only one.

@Zhadnost, Could you please go in to any more details about this?

It's such a big deal because I play online games and if I disconnect it's a instant lose.
And I can't really afford to change to a ISP that requires BT landline, It's £10 line rental which I'd never use for phone

Many thanks.

[Zhadnost]

Set up a news client (Outlook, Thunderbird etc) to use virgins news service, (I think It's through the Options -> Accounts in Outlook, It's in Tools->Account Settings in Thunderbird) the address of their server is, news.virginmedia.com.

Then subscribe to virginmedia.support.broadband.cable and write a post describing your problems, include as much information as possible (ie. times that the disconnections have occurred, levels from modem etc. remember do not include your MAC address).

The support contact will be able to tell how you are connected to the network from the information provided in your postings header.

The group is manned by Virginmedia staff during office hours, and responses are usually pretty swift.

[kare]

Wow that's fantastic, thank so much,will let you know if i get any help.

[Joxer]

I hope you are not on a ex telewest/blueyonder connection.

If so you need a new modem or possibly a call to tech support and have them speak to 2nd line.

Your modem is on th wrong frequency for ex telewest - it needs to be reset but the ambit 256 won't allow you to do it 2nd line might. I do not know, if they can't you need a new modem.

If you are ex telewest then it is probably ok.

[Zhadnost]

Of course for some reason there are posting issues on that newsgroup atm. (I'm having problems now too).

[Joxer]

If you are ex telewest then it is probably ok.

That should read "If you are ex NTL then it is probably ok."

[kare]

Seems they fixed it, a Engineer came out and replaced a damaged wire.
But I still get some packet loss, to google.co.uk i lost 6 packets in 17000 at peek time, I know this isn't much but anyone know if this is "normal" from VM or do I still have problem?
t for me?

[chickendippers]

Do you get 0 packet loss during off-peak?
Do your modem signal levels vary for normal when you experience packet loss?

[kare]

Do you get 0 packet loss during off-peak?
Do your modem signal levels vary for normal when you experience packet loss?

I tested offpeek and saw about 3 packet loss from google and 0 from yahoo in a hour or so.
None of the packet loss was at the same time so does this mean it's not my ISP?

I asked VM tech support and he said:
The reason that you've drop the odd ping is that websites tend to put pings
as a low priority for traffic so you will expect to see 1 or 2 drops when
pinging over 100 times (stops Denial of Service Attacks).

Seems reasonable to me but I wanted a second opinion because I never used to see any packet loss at all, I was proud I had a connection which (as far as I know) never lost one packet and I'd like again to have a 100% perfect connection.

Also do you know of a "better" IP which I can ping, perhaps one which is specially designed to be pinged?

Thanks very much :D

[chickendippers]

It'd be difficult, as any of the routers the packet has to travel through may decide to drop it. These include nodes in VM's network, their peering partners and the destination's hosting network.

[Ignitionnet]

It'd be difficult, as any of the routers the packet has to travel through may decide to drop it. These include nodes in VM's network, their peering partners and the destination's hosting network.

Nope none of the routers its' passing through's business what the traffic is. They drop pings directed to them at their discretion, they leave IP packets, ICMP being one type of those, alone.

The type of rate limiting that's seen on routers that causes them to respond sluggishly to ICMP is control plane rate limiting, pings that aren't aimed towards the router don't go anywhere near its' CPU and are treated as ordinary IP packets and switched/routed. It would take more CPU to start messing with the pings than to simply forward them.

---------- Post added at 21:27 ---------- Previous post was at 21:25 ----------

I tested offpeek and saw about 3 packet loss from google and 0 from yahoo in a hour or so.
None of the packet loss was at the same time so does this mean it's not my ISP?

I asked VM tech support and he said:


Seems reasonable to me but I wanted a second opinion because I never used to see any packet loss at all, I was proud I had a connection which (as far as I know) never lost one packet and I'd like again to have a 100% perfect connection.

Also do you know of a "better" IP which I can ping, perhaps one which is specially designed to be pinged?

Thanks very much :D

Websites don't put pings at a 'low priority' they are Linux / Unix / Windows boxes. The firewalls in front of them might.

Big websites use load balancers which may respond differently. In the case of the BBC they certainly don't have any 'DDoS protection' - a ping every couple of seconds isn't going to upset anything.

I just pinged the BBC 1,500 times in 2.5 minutes, none dropped.

[musicmaster5000]

I have the exactly same problem!

Virgin have sent 2 new modems out and still have problems, technical support is totally useless and we just aren't getting anywhere.

All the lights stay lit but we loose connection until we restart the modem.

We bought a new router and it still played up and the net goes on every computer.

We've tried plugging it straight into the modem and still it plays up?!

We have tried near enough everything and Virgin just aren't doing anything.

[moaningmags]

Ask them to check your ubr for SNR issues.
If there's a dip in the SNR, the lights on the modem can stay steady while you're unable to browse.
Can you post your modem power levels and snr levels from 192.168.100.1 username/password is root if required.

[musicmaster5000]

Hey ty =) they're:

Downstream Receive Power Level : 1.2 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 35.6 dB
Downstream Frequency : 331000000 Hz

Upstream Frequency : 34000000 Hz
Upstream transmit Power Level : 46.0 dBmV