BT Infinity internet keeps dropping - how to test?

Kamran

Dear all,
I hope you're well! :T

Summary
I've been having some issues with my BT infinity broadband - the internet keeps dropping every so often. Can I download some free software to determine what is happening and what the cause is? My best guess is that it's the router.

The detail
I live in a block of flats and have had BT infinity for over a year. Whenever I sit to watch netflix / other streaming (e.g. amazon prime) I notice that every 20mins or so there might be some downtime where it's buffering. Just to clarify, wired or wireless devices never drop connection (e.g. wiresless doesnt disconnect), they simply drop performance down to more or less zero speed. This usually lasts a minute at most, and then it's back to super fast broadband with great quality. As you can imagine, watching amazon prime or netflix in 4K uses up bandwidth, and it's frustrating to be interrupted by buffering 2-3 times each hour of viewing.

Can't say for certain that this problem occurs on both wired and wifi connections, but I believe it does.

The set up
My set up is that the router and telephone port sit in the bedroom, with powerline adaptors connected up to allow the TV in the living room to have a wired connection. The router was free with BT infinity 2 and arrived Summer 2015. Powerline adaptors are relatively new and are TPLink 500Mbps. Samsung 4K tv was purchased from new in Summer 2015. Not had any other ongoing/performance issues with BT e.g. slow speeds - speeds tend to be very good - 60meg + usually. Devices typically connected include a sky box, the samsung 4k tv, 3 iphones and infrequently a laptop. Those devices are always connected, but never doing background heavy downloading/streaming (even if they were, I would hope that the BT infinity bandwidth would cope!)

Solution
1. Am I right as a first guess that this is likely to be the BT Home hub?
2. As a first step is there some software i can download onto my laptop to test/monitor the connection in terms of a) speed and b) dropouts?

Thoughts and advice would be very much appreciated! :T
Thanks

Kam

JCUK

I had the same problem with BT Infinity a while ago. After cursing it and doing nothing about it for a while I rang them up, and they tested it their end and then did something that fixed it. You do need to be around while they're doing that, but they were very friendly and helpful and whatever they did worked. I would just give them a ring and tell them the problem.

Good luck! :-)

esuhl

Kamran wrote: »

1. Am I right as a first guess that this is likely to be the BT Home hub?

Possibly, although if the other devices are connected fine, possibly not... It could be the powerline adapters...?

Kamran wrote: »

2. As a first step is there some software i can download onto my laptop to test/monitor the connection in terms of a) speed and b) dropouts?

It might be worth running some tests on another PC (ideally connected via Ethernet rather than wireless) to see if your broadband connection is dropping out, and also a PC connected via the powerline adaptors to rule out problems there.

I don't know if it will help, but I had this problem recently and wrote a little script to keep track of when the local network and/or broadband disconnected. It checks your connection by pinging the router and WWW sites periodically and creates a summary file called InternetDownLog.txt. It also beeps when you are disconnected or reconnected to alert you.

You can run the script by copying the code below into a text file, saving it with a .bat extension (e.g. PingTest.bat), then double-clicking the file.

N.B. Before you run it for the first time, you will need to modify the two lines near the top to set the IP address of your router and the location of the log file:

set MyRouter=<IP address of router>
set LogFile=<path-and-filename>

@Echo off
cls


REM User-changable variables
REM ----------------------------
set MyRouter=192.168.1.254
set LogFile="J:\PingTest\InternetDownLog.txt"
set PingSite1=google.com
set PingSite2=google.co.uk

REM Test defaults
REM -------------
rem Following time in milliseconds (e.g. 20000 = 20s)
set PingTimeout=20000
rem Following time in seconds (e.g. 20 = 20s)
set ConnectedWaitTime=20
set DisconnectedWaitTime=2


REM Human language messages
REM -------------------------
set StartMsg=Ping test started @
set LANDownMsg=LAN is down.
set LANUpMsg=LAN is up.
set WANDownMsg=ADSL connection is down.
set WANUpMsg=ADSL is online.
set LastDisconnectMsg=Previously disconnected at


REM Show initial connection status
REM ------------------------------
set NumFailed=0
set EverDisconnected=0
set LastDisconnectTime=0

ping -n 1 -w %PingTimeout% %PingSite1% | find "TTL=" >nul
if errorlevel 1 (
    set NumFailed=1
)
ping -n 1 -w %PingTimeout% %PingSite2% | find "TTL=" >nul
if errorlevel 1 (
    set /a NumFailed=NumFailed+1
)
ping -n 1 -w %PingTimeout% %MyRouter% | find "TTL=" >nul
if errorlevel 1 (
   echo %LANDownMsg%
   echo %LANDownMsg% >> %LogFile%
) else (
   echo %LANUpMsg%
   echo %LANUpMsg% >> %LogFile%
)

if %NumFailed%==2 (
  echo %WANDownMsg%
  echo %WANDownMsg% >> %LogFile%
  set EverDisconnected=1
  set LastDisconnectTime=%TIME% %DATE%
  REM following line contains control char to make a beep
  echo  
) else (
  echo %WANUpMsg%
  echo %WANUpMsg% >> %LogFile%
  REM following line contains control char to make a beep
  echo  
  echo  
)
echo.
echo. >> %LogFile%

REM Show start time
REM ---------------
echo %StartMsg%
echo %StartMsg% >> %LogFile%
time/t
echo %TIME% %DATE% >> %LogFile%
echo.
echo. >> %LogFile%
echo ------------------------
echo ------------------------ >> %LogFile%
echo.
echo. >> %LogFile%



REM Run test
:START
set NumFailed=0
set LANFailed=0


ping -n 1 -w %PingTimeout% %PingSite1% | find "TTL=" >nul
if errorlevel 1 (
    set NumFailed=1
)
ping -n 1 -w %PingTimeout% %PingSite2% | find "TTL=" >nul
if errorlevel 1 (
    set /a NumFailed=NumFailed+1
)
ping -n 1 -w %PingTimeout% %MyRouter% | find "TTL=" >nul
if errorlevel 1 (
   set LANFailed=1
)



if %NumFailed%==2 (
    REM following line contains control char to make a beep
    echo  

    if %LANFailed%==1 (
       echo %LANDownMsg%
       echo %LANDownMsg% >> %LogFile%
    ) else (
       echo %LANUpMsg%
       echo %LANUpMsg% >> %LogFile%
    )

    echo %WANDownMsg% @
    time/t
    date/t
    echo.

    echo %WANDownMsg% @ >> %LogFile%
    echo %TIME% %DATE% >> %LogFile%
    echo. >> %LogFile%


    :STILLBROKEN
    ping -n 1 -w %PingTimeout% %PingSite1% | find "TTL=" >nul
    if errorlevel 1 (
        echo.
        echo %WANDownMsg%
        set EverDisconnected=1
        set LastDisconnectTime=%TIME% %DATE%
    timeout /t %DisconnectedWaitTime% /nobreak
        GOTO STILLBROKEN
    )

    REM If not broken, double-check to be sure
    timeout /t %DisconnectedWaitTime% /nobreak
    ping -n 1 -w %PingTimeout% %PingSite2% | find "TTL=" >nul
    if errorlevel 1 (
        echo.
        echo %WANDownMsg%
    timeout /t %DisconnectedWaitTime% /nobreak
        GOTO STILLBROKEN
    )


    echo %WANUpMsg% @
    echo %WANUpMsg% @ >> %LogFile%
    REM following line contains control char to make a beep
    echo  
    echo  
    time/t
    date/t
    echo %TIME% %DATE% >> %LogFile%

    echo.
    echo. >> %LogFile%
    echo ------------------------ >> %LogFile%
    echo. >> %LogFile%

)
echo.
echo %WANUpMsg%
if %EverDisconnected%==1 (
    echo %LastDisconnectMsg% %LastDisconnectTime%
)
timeout /t %ConnectedWaitTime% /nobreak
GOTO START

Strider590

The problem with BT and in fact most ISPs now, is that they throttle bandwidth to any TV streaming services that are not their own service.

If your issue is actual connection drops, then you need to call them and tell them to sort it out.

I haven't tried it myself, but i've heard that if you run a bandwidth test whilst being throttled, this temporarily removes the throttling (sneaky bar stewards) and make it pretty obvious what's going on.

bod1467

What are you using to watch Netflix? The reason I ask is that I have YouView through BT and Netflix would often buffer when the YV box was connected via powerline adapters. (Try a Google search for Netflix 25% buffer, and try also searching the BT forum in the YouView board). As soon as I used a direct cable connection, or used WiFi, then the issue went away.

My set-up now is a TP-Link WiFi router connected to an Ethernet port on the HomeHub, and a TP-Link WiFi access point connected to the YV box. I've done this because the HH does not support multicast over WiFi, which means no BT Sports via the YV box. Multicast is supported over the Ethernet ports, and the TP-Link WiFi units also support it over WiFi.

ARandomMiser

There have been some reported issues with some TP-LINK PowerLine adaptors - I have the AV500 Nano plugs (TL-PA411KIT) and they are prone to this (I have also read reports of similar problems with other such plugs). The internet seems to drop - sometimes it is for a short period of time and auto recovers, on other occasions I just unplug the one closest to my computer and plug it back in - somewhat inconvenient.

Unfortunately it seems pretty random as to when it occurs.

JohnB47

"Can't say for certain that this problem occurs on both wired and wifi connections, but I believe it does."

Could it possibly be that it's only wireless and that you need to choose a different wireless channel? I can't remember how I did this a while back but I'm sure you could Google for it. Might be that someone nearby is on a channel that is interfering with yours.

Worth a try.

bod1467

ARandomMiser wrote: »

There have been some reported issues with some TP-LINK PowerLine adaptors - I have the AV500 Nano plugs (TL-PA411KIT) and they are prone to this (I have also read reports of similar problems with other such plugs). The internet seems to drop - sometimes it is for a short period of time and auto recovers, on other occasions I just unplug the one closest to my computer and plug it back in - somewhat inconvenient.

Unfortunately it seems pretty random as to when it occurs.

They are the PowerLine adaptors I have too ... I did wonder if they were the cause, but the problems I had were reported by many other people who used other brands of such adaptors ... even the ones sold by and promoted by BT.

Kamran

For anyone wondering, the solution was the router. I complained several times to BT and they reluctantly sent me over their latest Router (Bt Hub 6 I think) which instantly solved my speed issues.

Superfast and consistent broadband is back :T

techno12

ARandomMiser wrote: »

There have been some reported issues with some TP-LINK PowerLine adaptors - I have the AV500 Nano plugs (TL-PA411KIT) and they are prone to this (I have also read reports of similar problems with other such plugs). The internet seems to drop - sometimes it is for a short period of time and auto recovers, on other occasions I just unplug the one closest to my computer and plug it back in - somewhat inconvenient.

Unfortunately it seems pretty random as to when it occurs.

Yes - I had those and it would randomly disconnect every few days.

The 100% fix is to run a continuous ping in the background to your router. So, whenever I started the PC I'd bring a command prompt up and enter "ping 192.168.1.1 -t" (your router IP address may vary)

I never had a single disconnect due to the powerlines in over a year since doing the above.

NB I've recently switched to some D-Link ones and they're rock solid and don't require the ping 'fix'.

ballyblack

Kamran wrote: »

For anyone wondering, the solution was the router. I complained several times to BT and they reluctantly sent me over their latest Router (Bt Hub 6 I think) which instantly solved my speed issues.

Superfast and consistent broadband is back :T

After a whole year i am not interested!



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