Internet connection dropping this week

Question

Internet disconnecting on a daily basis since Tuesday 9 June: This week, my internet connection appears to have developed an intermittent disconnection issue. Below are the details and what I've done about it. So far at time of writing this, Sky have yet to resolve this, and it's frustrating because I spend over £150 per month (and have done so for over ten years) with them. These issues have impacted a wide range of online activities, from streaming VOD services, work VOIP/Skype conference calls, online gaming as well as any internet-based activity. Setup:- Service: Sky Fibre- Router: Skyhub 2 (SR102), received from Sky at the end of March 2015. Previously used the white SR101 with BT Openreach modem for almost two years.- We have less than 16 devices connected at any one time. 10 is usually the very most.- We've tried replacing the modem cables, micro-filter directly into socket (unscrewing face plate), line noise testing, etc etc. (Faceplate is on master socket). Symptoms & diagnoses history:Tuesday 9th JuneSUMMARY: Intermittent internet dropouts begin and noticably. Call Sky support who dispatch OR engineer.Noticed throughout the day regular drop-outs of connection, spaced about an hour or so between eachother. The internet light on our SR102 box would totally go out. After about 20 seconds, the light would flash orange and then eventually turn solid orange, before turning white again. Sometimes after flashing orange, it would go off completely again and then eventually, after seconds (no more than a minute) it would start flashing and then become solid again. Most times it does reconnect first time but sometimes it gets into these loops as per below:- An example of an extract of the router log-file when it randomly disconnects but then finds it difficult to just re-connect and the light goes off again: syslog: Line 0: VDSL2 link down
syslog: Line 0: xDSL G.994 training
syslog: Line 0: VDSL G.993 started
 (This "down, training, started, down, training, started" loop routine would repeat itself almost like it can't find the connection? I could be wrong as I have limited understanding of what the log-files mean) Response: I called Sky support who, after a 20 minute line test their end called me back and confirmed it was an external fault and they would dispatch an Open Reach engineer to the cabinet within 72 hours.
Wednesday 10th JuneSUMMARY: OpenReach engineer arrived. Didn't really find an external fault. Left and Sky closed the case.Open Reach technician van outside around 13:00hrs. By this point a couple of disconnects. In fact, I had noticed the van because I was going downstairs to have a look at the router as it just then disconnected again! The engineer said that he was at the cabinet and couldn't find an issue. I invited him in to have a look at our setup which is straight forward. We have a faceplate socket which Sky installed in 2013 and it is in the master socket. Until this issue this week, we've had no issues like this to-date. However the engineer suggested it could be an issue with our router?? Despite Sky already confirming issues externally.Response: Anyway he went away and then I called Sky support after a couple of hours. They confirmed the engineer's report suggested he did replace something at the cabinet, and the case was now closed. The woman on the phone also proceeded to suggest that it was a problem 'our' end. *Note* it's in the master socket, it's a microfiler installed by them, it's a 2 month-old router one of their latest models (I know it's not the best around) and we've not had issues like this really. Not recurring intermittent ones anyway. She suggested if it continued again, to take the faceplate off the socket and put a Microfilter directly into it and plug the router into that to test if it's the faceplate. Also replacing the modem cable which I did to no avail. Thursday 11th June:I was out for most of the day so was unable to probably monitor the line or use my usual services on this to see if any changes were made. Friday 12th June:SUMMARY: Still disconnecting...!Five times today, the internet connection has died. It happened during an important work call over Skype, it happened three times during online gaming on the Xbox and a couple of other times. There never appeared to be any regular event or theme which caused any of the disconnects (e.g. use of an appliance (interference), use of a specific internet service or a specific device suddenly being re/introduced/connected to the network. I thought it could be a load issue... i.e. too much stuff happening but it would do this when online-gaming on an xbox and pretty much nothing else happening on the network other than 2-3 devices connected doing nothing strenuous at all other than being on the wifi network!). I unscrewed the faceplate and plugged the SR102 directly into the wall with a traditional micro-filter. This didn't seem to work and still disconnected.Response: Called Sky support AGAIN. They did another 25 minute line test and, yet again, determined an EXTERNAL fault, relating to the "configuration" of the line this time.. Any thoughts on this? They have reopened the case and dispatched an OR engineer again... Fingers crossed, but not too happy. In summary:I'm no stranger to coincidences in combinations of faults in equipment like this....Can this be a degredation of both the original faceplate and the router itself?? But then two separate Sky support technicians (including a 2nd tier staff worker) have declared it an EXTERNAL fault?? I'm stumped, and frustrated.. I'm a bit miffed about this and if there are Sky support staff on these forums it'd be good to get a firm response as we spend in the region of £2,000 with you per year for your services and they are not impinging on my efficiency to carry out my business and social activities.  

Answer 1

Right so, the problem is all sorted now. Below will explain what it was in the end, as I appreciate so many people have issues but then don't update the forum so it's less help to others trying to diagnose their own issues). Since my previous message (above), the following happened:- - That BT Openreach engineer must have fixed a coincidental error at the exchange in related to the Configuration / CI / Line card. After he fixed the issue, he made a note to say he reset the DLM on the line. The line was relatively stable for a few days but did drop a couple of times during the night (checked the log files).- After Thursday of the same week the line deteriorated to a near unusual point and the crackling on the phone line itself was getting worse. We even have dropped calls due to this.- Another call was put into Sky at the beginning of the third week of problems. A third external error , this time they called it "copper line impairment", obviously relating to the copper phone cabling. Apparently the very first call out cited this too. A BTO engineer arrived literally a few hours later at the green cabinet (three houses down from me), identified a clear fault from that end and then called Sky to arrange to attend our premises on Thursday.*At the same time, a brand new router was sent to me. However as you'll read below, this wasn't the issue so it made no affect*** All the while many drops on internet, almost unusable in all arenas - VOIP, online gaming , phone conferences, normal phone calls, downloading, uploading, etc. Because of the immense number of drop outs and because BTO number 2 did NOT fix the issue but decided to reset DLM anyway, our DL and UL speeds were decreasing by the hour! After a bit of research and having checked everything myself, I can only come to the conclusion it was our copper cabling (!!) from the pole to the house... as it is almost 50 years olf (if not older!). So far it's cost Sky (or however they work it out) about £800 for the BTO call-outs. I insisted on them putting a note on this fourth BTO engineer to say the copper line should be replaced otherwise we're talking about a false economy now.- Thursday of week 3 arrives. Fourth BTO guy attends. Absolutely fantastic guy. Knew his stuff but also just got on with it... Did all the tests, failed all of them. Determined it was indeed the copper cabling. Luckily we have a second line installed (unused, only installed about 10-15 years ago so current, clean cabling) so instead of reeling a whole new cable from the pole, we just swapped round the connections on the wall. He even put a whole new drop cable in and wired right up to our master socket with a brand new MK3 face place... All within 2 hours. By this point the DL and UL were still rubbish and decreasing still but the internet and phone line has never been more clear and stable! Unfortunately he wasn't a Broadband specialist so he couldn't reset the DLM.- One last call to Sky that evening and a fifth BTO attended the next day, did some quick checks which the connected passed first time, reset the DLM and it's not dropped once. DLM has since completed and we have a rock steady connection for the past two weeks. In summary:-- Replaced copper cabling from pole > house.- Replaced copper cabling (drop cable) from house > master socket- Replaced master socket faceplate (as a precaution) ... Replacing a copper cable which is 50 years old does not take a long time nor does it cost much in comparison to the amount of times I had to call them out at Sky's expense. Apparently a lot of BTO engineers like to avoid replacing cabling as it's the most frustrating part of the job. The guy who worked with us said he just gets on with it if it needs to be done. In short: If you've tried everything, consider the cabling. The reason why it was intermittent and then got worse was because this occurred during the hottest days of the year where the cable finally gave up the ghost. As it dried out from the rain, there were lots of gaps and chinks which weren't passable as it was when it was wet. Note re Sky service:-- We had some good tech support people. Though a lot of times I went straight to Tier 2 tech officials as I was a bit fed up repeating the synopsis of the issue every time I called as it got longer and longer each time! I did feel like a few of the times I was leading the investigation but then I am the customer and wanted it fixed the most. Just make sure you try all the basic potential solutions before contacting them (new cables, master socket, turn router on/off, line checks, if Wifi change channels etc etc) to save you going through those hoops. If anything, the weak link was BTO as it's real hit and miss who attends your house, how busy they've been that week and how much they really want to do the major tasks of their job description!! Luckily we had a great Line expert attend who was happy to do the major work required in the end. Sky then later partially refunded for loss of service for over three weeks.... All in all a good outcome. Hope this helps some.