Virgin National dropping connection

**Chris** · 10-12-2009, 18:56

For the last two evenings, between about 6pm and now, my Virgin National ADSL service has been dropping all over the place. I retain a rock-solid DSL connection, but no gateway to the 'net.

Then, when it starts looking like it's recovering, I can get a connection, and an IP address, but still no pages will load. It dropped again while I've been typing out this post, stayed off for several minutes, reconnected and immediately dropped again ... etc etc. If it's like last night it will continue on like this until some time after 8pm.

Does anyone know what's going on with them?

Ignitionnet · 10-12-2009, 19:50

Which gateway are you connecting to dude? IE What IP address are you able to see?

You should be ok, if you can get an IP address you are on the VM core network. I'm interested though in seeing which BAM you are able to reach on the VM network. If you keep reaching the same one and seeing problems please let me know, I'll bother some of my ex colleagues and see if they are aware of problems in that bit of the core network.

EDIT: Something else also useful would be to see the stats from the DSL modem / router when you're in a 'stall'.

fireman328 · 10-12-2009, 20:28

I am on ADSL and all is OK with me, in Surrey.

**Chris** · 10-12-2009, 21:12

Up and down like a whore's knickers all evening.

Current details are:

**Chris** · 10-12-2009, 21:28

Dropped, reconnected and stalled looking like this:

**Chris** · 10-12-2009, 21:29

I'm back again for now, with this:

**Chris** · 10-12-2009, 21:34

Hope all this is helpful!

---------- Post added at 22:34 ---------- Previous post was at 22:29 ----------

Crumbs, it's kept working for 5 consecutive minutes ...

When it works, it's fine, as you can see:

But when it doesn't, it either drops the internet connection (whilst leaving the actual DSL connection intact), or else it drops and immediately reacquires a duff connection. Any idea what causes this sort of thing?

Incidentally, VM's ADSL service status helpfully claims there are no problems.

10-12-2009, 21:56

Are you able to see your line stats Chris?

Like mine

Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 13.0 / 18.5

Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 12.5 / 26.0

SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 6.0 / 6.5

**Chris** · 10-12-2009, 21:59

Yep:

**Chris** · 10-12-2009, 22:00

... although as I said, the DSL connection has been quite stable throughout.

10-12-2009, 22:08

Apart from your downstream attenuation sucking more than a sucky thing from sucks town, those stats look fine. I was expecting to see a really low SN margin.

**Chris** · 10-12-2009, 22:09

We're at the end of about 4 miles of copper here. It only works at all because it was all renewed about 10 years ago ...

webcrawler2050 · 10-12-2009, 22:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

We're at the end of about 4 miles of copper here. It only works at all because it was all renewed about 10 years ago ...

Does it drop at any specific times?
Can you plug your filter into the test socket on the master socket?

**Chris** · 11-12-2009, 08:12

- Yes, as stated, it's been starting around 6pm. Wednesday evening went on until about 8pm, last night it didn't stabilise until about 11pm.
- No, I'm not mucking about with the wiring and the socket because there's nothing wrong with them. The stats suggest there's a problem on VM's network somewhere, as Broadbandings noted earlier.

Ignitionnet · 11-12-2009, 09:26

Oddly your connections end up at Birmingham, Middlesborough and Oxford so no obviously common point of failure there.

Shame Virgin tech support suck so hard, it could be a problem on Virgin's ATM network (BT connect to Virgin over ATM, then off it goes to a BAM) or, more likely given that there's no mass of reports I've seen on stalled connections, a problem more local to you at your exchange.

Braving VM's tech support is the best way to go. They can get quite comprehensive stats on your line from BT so if you're losing one of the underlying protocols or BT are aware of problems they would have info there.