Loss of Sky connection

siamese0109

Hi
I changed to Sky broadband about 3 weeks ago now and all works Ok most of the time....... however for some reason I lose my connection on both desktop and laptop at around the same time every evening some time between 9.15 and 9.45. Haven't managed to stay up long enough to see what time it comes back on yet but have tried around 5am and got straight in! Any ideas please - sky customer service are less than helpful and I'm sick of explaining things over and over again to them!??

espresso

siamese0109 wrote: »

Hi
I changed to Sky broadband about 3 weeks ago now and all works Ok most of the time....... however for some reason I lose my connection on both desktop and laptop at around the same time every evening some time between 9.15 and 9.45............

You have not said if this happens on a wired or wireless connection but the timing seems to coincide with lighting up time i.e. street lamps or lamps in your own property could cause connection drops if you have a poor noise margin and they are generating interference. Check your router stats, to see what your noise margin is. More info on this here.

siamese0109

Hi espresso. Thanks for the reply - I've had a look at the link you posted and although I'm a bit of a technophobe all seems ok at the moment! Guess I'll have to check again as the witching hour approaches! Here's how it looks at the moment

System Up Time 01:57:37

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 7298 kbps 764 kbps
Line Attenuation 34.5 db 18.9 db
Noise Margin 6.9 db 11.5 db

Forgot to add that desktop is wired and laptop wireless - I lose connection on both at the same time

RTNI

siamese0109 wrote: »

System Up Time 01:57:37

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 7298 kbps 764 kbps
Line Attenuation 34.5 db 18.9 db
Noise Margin 6.9 db 11.5 db

That Noise margin (signal to noise ratio) is low IMHO, although this can and does vary during the day. You seem to be close to the exchange due to the low attenuation of 34.5dB. I assume that you have check that all your microfilters are in and working?

Try plugging into the master socket and see if that improves your noise margin and also the drop in connection at around 9:15pm.

siamese0109

Hi RTNI. Yes I've checked my microfilters and they all seem ok. My noise margin is moving now between 6.2 and 6.4 and the connection seems noticibly slower - takes pages longer to load etc. although it;s still showing as 7298. My main box is on the landing and has no sockets in it - there's line connected from that to both upstairs and downstairs. I'm plugged in upstairs because that's where the desktop is but will try the downstairs connection to see if it's any different. If it is does that mean there's a fault with my wiring?

RTNI

siamese0109 wrote: »

Hi RTNI. Yes I've checked my microfilters and they all seem ok. My noise margin is moving now between 6.2 and 6.4 and the connection seems noticibly slower - takes pages longer to load etc. although it;s still showing as 7298. My main box is on the landing and has no sockets in it - there's line connected from that to both upstairs and downstairs. I'm plugged in upstairs because that's where the desktop is but will try the downstairs connection to see if it's any different. If it is does that mean there's a fault with my wiring?

Right, so your master socket from the street is on your landing; what to do is this, try it downstairs and see what figures you are getting. Without getting to technical, the noise margin is a measure of the ratio of the broadband signal to noise present on the line, so the bigger the number the better. Lower number means the noise is interfering with the broadband signal, this explains your slow page loading etc, however i know from experience that the noise margin changes throughout the day; keep an eye on it and see what is like in the mid morning, to see if it goes over say 10dB.

If you are saying that there are wires coming out of the master socket to upstairs and downstairs and these are wired directly into the rear of the master socket, I would not expect to see a change in performance.

patwa_2

Just a thought but I remember this happening on a Belkin router some years ago. Line tests, moving the router to a different socket, nothing made a difference.

In the end it turned out that the downtime co-incided with the router obtaining and handing out new leases to the computers on the network as well as re-dialling into the ADSL. We increased the time to the max availble and the downtime was no longer affecting the systems, or if it was it was in the middle of the night for a minute or so whilst the router re-synced itself with the rest of the network.

Odd but the smallest things can sometimes make the biggest difference.

H.

siamese0109

I'm going to leave it until the weekend so I can disconnect from upstairs and try at different times during the day. At work all week so can't do it until then - I'll come back with the results and thanks again for the advice so far.