LAN/WLAN/home network connection dropping intermittently

Question

I'm having an issue on our home network that is driving me mad.

More often than not, when a user on our LAN is downloading and using most of the bandwidth my connection my PC or my laptop or my brothers laptop drops.

It's not only when bandwidth is being used but it does seem to happen more often when this is the case.

As this affects more than just my PC I know it can't be PC specific (I hope, anyway).

The router WAS a Draytek Vigor 2820n and I blamed the router for the drops so I asked work for a new router and they were kind enough to buy me the newer model, the Draytek Vigor 2830n. Annoyingly, the problem still exists.

I've tried several things here to get this working and I've listed them below. I'd appreciate any advice that may help me fix the issue.

• Changed the router from a 2820n to a new 2830n, the problem persists.
• Reset to factory settings.
• Manually set an IP address and changed my PC name in case there were any conflicts with my previous wireless card.
• As above, I tried a USB wireless dongle, a wireless card and am now using an ethernet plug - I still have the issue.
• Flushed my DNS/cleared ARP cache table on router.
• Punched monitor.
• Changed my local DNS to use Google DNS.
• Upgraded to the latest firmware (on both routers).
• Screamed.
• Disabled my wireless and used the ethernet plugs to run on a LAN.
• Replaced router power cable
• Changed wireless channel (several times!)

Now my last point is interesting. My brother had the same problems as I was getting but he switched to an ethernet plug and according to him he hasn't experienced any further problems so I thought "Ah, OK. Must be interference" and get myself an ethernet plug. Nope, I still get disconnections.

Also 90% of the time it's when first using the internet that it will drop and then intermittently after that.

I think that covers it, if I think of any more things I've tried I'll add it to the list.

Thanks, Ricky

Edit: By "ethernet plugs" I think I actually mean "ethernet adapters".

Edit 2: By editing the first time, I got disconnected when trying to save the edit. Good timing.

Edit 3: The only thing I can think of is the login/interface on both routers is very similar. Perhaps it uses the same firmware, and that firmware has a bug. The next step might be to trial a totally different make of router? I have now set the router DNS servers to Google DNS, still no luck. Update: Removed this now.

UPDATE: It definitely seems to happen more when a user is downloading on our LAN. If no-one is downloading we can browse fine. As soon as someone starts downloading (even about 10% of the entire bandwidth) it seems prone to disconnecting.

Now, one thing I have thought is my ISP is Sky and I replaced their horrible router with our current Draytek. I did read when I done this you aren't supposed to change the Sky router as Sky can detect this and complain or something along them lines. I wonder if the ISP could be causing this?

Update 2: Today I've had the exact same issues and I can confirm no-one is downloading at this time. 4 IP's are connected. I don't know if this is relevant either but it does also seem to me disconnect shortly after connecting back to the router after a short period of inactivity (e.g laptop to sleep for 30 mins > log in, browse literally a page or two and then bam > disconnected/hanging).

Update 3: I have switched the router back from a Draytek to our original Sky router. From tests yesterday, on my laptop and another laptop (wireless) we did not get disconnected once. My PC upstairs (wired) didn't disconnect either but did hang here and then. It seems there is an improvement but I wouldn't say the issue is fixed until I trial it for a few more days. As ever, I will update!

Update 4: Well, since switching back to the Sky router I've not been disconnected once. It's appearing that for some reason, both different models of the Draytek routers caused me grief, both with different firmware too. I don't know if this is because Sky can some how send 'kill packets' if they detect we aren't using their stock router or it's configured in some way to work with our line correctly, my networking isn't great. Providing I've had no disconnections following the next few days, I will end this question. I'll update in a few more days to see how things have gone.

Update 5: Well, even when switching back to the original router we started getting problems. The problem IS definitely worse when maxing out the download or upload. After several tests and changing equipment etc I've come to the conclusion it's the ISP/exchange at fault. There are no other answers. After reading a few threads, it seems a common problem with Sky Broadband too, see here and this. Thanks for all your help.

Ping results once disconnected (this shows a ping from the router, but I cannot get access to the interface on 192.168.1.1, it just hangs saying "connecting..."):

C:\Users\Ricky\Desktop>ping google.com

Pinging google.com [173.194.67.104] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 173.194.67.104: bytes=32 time=461ms TTL=49
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 173.194.67.104: bytes=32 time=454ms TTL=49

Ping statistics for 173.194.67.104:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 2, Lost = 2 (50% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 454ms, Maximum = 461ms, Average = 457ms

C:\Users\Ricky\Desktop>ping 192.168.1.1

Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=255

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 3ms, Maximum = 4ms, Average = 3ms

C:\Users\Ricky\Desktop>ping 8.8.8.8

Pinging 8.8.8.8 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=472ms TTL=54
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=267ms TTL=54
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=355ms TTL=54
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=464ms TTL=54

Ping statistics for 8.8.8.8:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 267ms, Maximum = 472ms, Average = 389ms

C:\Users\Ricky\Desktop>pause
Press any key to continue . . .

Solution 1

1. Try disabling one of the adapters.
2. If that works then change HP team config from auto to 'Network Fault Tolerance only NFT'

Solution 2

I faced the same problem. My wireless continued to disconnect after couple of minutes.

Under DrayTek Wireless General Settings my channel was 6.

I changed to Auto, and the problem was resolved. I believe it was due to frequency intereference from some neighbouring equipments.

thanks.

Solution 3

It might be worth doing a packet capture with wireshark or network monitor. You may see a flood of traffic, or a time out, which leads you to the cause.

Comments

[Admin]

Just a note, you do not need to write out your edit descriptions in the post. SuperUser keeps track of the revisions, which can be viewed by anyone. It is encouraged to add information to the Edit Summary box, however. :)

[Admin]

Fair doos, I shall remember for future questions. :)

[Admin]

When it disconnects, can you try pinging the router, and also 8.8.8.8 which will let us know if it is internet access that is failing or the LAN connection.

[Admin]

When you hard-wired yourself via Ethernet, did you disable the wireless adapter? If you did not, it's possible for connections to be using that interface and therefore still be dropped.

[Admin]

@gman - Thanks for the reply, as per my last point "Disabled my wireless and used the ethernet plugs to run on a LAN." Wireless was disabled. Still no luck :(

[Admin]

@Paul - I'll try pinging next time. I know the interface goes down. I will update.

[Admin]

@Paul I have updated my post to show ping results.

[Admin]

Do you have a router and a modem? If so check your port configuration on the router side (if possible) give it a static setting for flow control/negotiation/port type. Like 100 MBps/MDI I had an issue like this and it was a just a problem with auto negotiation on the port. So it would constantly be flipping from MDI to MDIX and Megabit to Gigabit. It caused very similar issues: pings would be fine locally but we would see random packet loss to external networks that would seem to get worse as total bandwidth utilization would increase.

[Admin]

What happens if you bypass the router and just go right into the modem and max out your downstream?

[Admin]

I have just a router, this: draytek.co.uk/products/vigor2830.html. Please see my updated question, as I think the suggestion of it being worse when downloading could be a red herring as today with no downloading I'm getting the same symptoms. Thanks.

[Admin]

It's $10 but I found this tool useful on OS X superuser.com/a/980399/137921

[Muffinbubble]

I've literally replaced all cables now (that I can), the problem is still happening. :( Thanks for the reply.

[Muffinbubble]

Hi David, just updated my question. Today no-one has been downloading and I still see the same problems. Although the router pinged in that case, every time I've tried connecting to 192.168.1.1 through the web interface it just hangs for about 30 seconds.

[Muffinbubble]

Hi, I had looked previously and like you I saw quite a few results however I did try many of their suggestions but I still had issues. I have recently got in touch with Draytek support who said they were unaware of the issue but offered me beta firmware to see if it fixed the issue - it didn't. I'm still hopeful that since changing to a Sky router the problem may be resolved but I've been so busy recently I've not had time to thoroughly test it. Once I do I will update my question. Thanks.