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Broadband connection monitor?

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I have a reasonable broadband connection but it seems to drop out quite frequently. I can measure the broadband speed easily enough but what I really need is an app or website that can measure the connection quality over a period of time. Does anyone know of such a thing please? Thanks.
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Comments

  • Pdman
    Pdman Posts: 45 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts
    thinkbroadband.com
  • Rodders53
    Rodders53 Posts: 2,646 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Complain to your ISP they should be able to monitor your connection and/or read your router stats for the issues.

    Naturally if you are referring to WiFi dropouts within your home that will be down to local interference/congestion rather than unreliable ISP connectivity. 
  • Vitor
    Vitor Posts: 596 Forumite
    500 Posts First Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper
    pingplotter - there's a 14 day free trial
  • jshm2
    jshm2 Posts: 470 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    No point. 

    First thing first, how old is the router? if it's pretty old, then it's going to be part of the problem - if not the problem. You should aways pester the ISP for their newest router. 

    Additionally, there are several devices that can interfere with the signal. Hence it's always best to place the router in a better location, to get a better signal - else go Ethernet wired.

    The other place to check is the router logs. If you look under (behind on some models) it should have a sticker giving the login address and details to your specific router. Use your browser to login and check for faults and drops. It may be there were no faults in the service and it might actually be your laptop wifi card overheating, or something else. 

    Always best to do these before calling, as you can bet your !!!!!!, they are going to take you through these troubleshooting steps, before doing anything.  
  • Frozen_up_north
    Frozen_up_north Posts: 2,768 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Try the mobile phone app called “Ping”. I have had issues with WiFi in several places and a series of pings often showing half failed. Try pinging 8.8.8.8 (Google, I think). You can ping from a command prompt in Windows too.

  • Rodders53
    Rodders53 Posts: 2,646 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Seems we are all assuming it's WiFi and not an intermittent fault with the line to the dwelling...

    It could be either.  New modem-router from an ISP is unlikely to resolve either 'fault' imho.

    OP last seen just after all the above posts and not bothered to reply / clarify what is meant by "drop out" in any case.
  • J_B
    J_B Posts: 6,778 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    I use pinginfoview which would hopefully do what you need ... and it's free

  • Victor_Delta
    Victor_Delta Posts: 474 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    Thanks for all the responses. This is not a Wi-Fi problem as I also experience the dropouts on my laptop which is connected by ethernet to my router. I'll give all the suggested apps a go but so far they are tending to confirm that the connection does drop out occasionally.
  • Heedtheadvice
    Heedtheadvice Posts: 2,761 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 14 June at 7:59PM
    Take note of jshm's post.
    Login to your router from a browser usi g the router ip address and as an administrator

    Start by looking in the logs to see if problem are recorded. Report what you find ( in detail if possible copied and pasted here ) and someone will get back to you for further advice. There are other stats that will be of interest but at least that will point towards an incoming line or router problem.

    Perhaps you could be more explicit by what you mean by 'drop out'. Is it slowness or an indication that comms has stopped entirely or something else?
  • Victor_Delta
    Victor_Delta Posts: 474 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    Take note of jshm's post.
    Login to your router from a browser usi g the router ip address and as an administrator

    Start by looking in the logs to see if problem are recorded. Report what you find ( in detail if possible copied and pasted here ) and someone will get back to you for further advice. There are other stats that will be of interest but at least that will point towards an incoming line or router problem.

    Perhaps you could be more explicit by what you mean by 'drop out'. Is it slowness or an indication that comms has stopped entirely or something else?
    Thanks. In reverse order, to me 'drop out' means a short period (possibly up to a minute) when the internet connection is totally disconnected. When playing online bridge for example, it causes me to suddenly be logged out of the game I am playing and I can't log back in until the connection returns.

    Logging in to the router is no problem and see below for what the technical log information shows. The event log is 437 pages long... I could filter it down if I understood what the different TLA categories refer to.


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