Broadband Issues - Local Interface Question

[JOV1]

My broadband fibre to the end of road has been playing up for well over a week - had all the online diagnostics, EE Engineer visit, then a Openreach engineer to the Cab and the house.

The internet drops but the aqua light stays on the hub, sometimes it comes back on it own after a few minutes other time if you remove the cable to the master socket until it drop the line completely plug the cable back in it will reacquire the broadband the then the internet.

When these drop outs happen I cannot connect to the local interface 192.168.1.254 on the router - 

Not only can I not connect using a browser but I cannot reach it from a cmd line ping. 

I explained this to both engineers,

if this is on the LAN side of the router then how can the external line affect it, If the line is at fault I would expect to be able to see the internal interface. 

EE engineer, saw no issues with the router etc so Openreach  came out - no major issues found but the line was not performing perfectly. He replaced the master socket  - reset the port at the cab and check the physical connections. 

The issue is still there it drops randomly, I notice it multiple times a day but it could be more.   It is not WIFI as I have a device connect to the router via ethernet. 

[XRaySpeX]

As long as the Aqua light is ON steady you have a BB connection.

Before the week of playing up was it all OK?

The next time it happens please issue the command 'ipconfig /all' from a PC.

[mikeliuk]

Hi @JOV1 ,

In addition to the above good advice, which will sanity check that you still have your local IP on the right subnet and with the right default gateway, I recommend to check the switch-port LEDs during normal operations and when ping fails.

Normal operations will be rapid flashing whereas one-sided failure of ping would be less than half this rate as one side times out receiving no replies. The other thing to look for is if the switch-port LEDs seem completely frozen without even registering the send side of pings.

I would also recommend trying to ping between two other devices on your LAN, e.g. a laptop and a mobile, which will work if switching is ok but even when the webserver is down. You can also try an nslookup against your router LAN IP.

Assuming your laptop has an IP but the router LAN IP responds to nothing and the switch-port LEDs are frozen or slow-flashing, it would suggest the router has entered a bad state and might be faulty if it happens frequently.

If the router is in a bad state, it may not be correctly updating its front LEDs either. Log entries may show what error has occurred such as the WAN link dropping (as you observed, this shouldn't impact LAN functionality) or some services on the router dying (which might impact some or all LAN-side functionality).

If you use Linux, you can nmap the router LAN IP to see what functionality remains available. Not vital information but would confirm some of the above indirect checks more directly.

[XRaySpeX]

@mikeliuk : Where's the switch-port LEDs? Another red herring of yours?

[XRaySpeX]

As far as I know the EE SH does not respond to ping. Did it ever?

[mikeliuk]

I don't know whether to be amazed or horrified that this question has been asked:

Where's the switch-port LEDs? 

[XRaySpeX]

@mikeliuk : Then answer my Q. Where have I missed it?

[JOV1]

The 192.168.1.254 interface does respond to ping - 

My question is a simple one - EE seem to think my issue is external to the premises - however when the Broadband drops the light stays aqua - but the Local Interface is not accessible by either ping or via a browser. 

Logically why would an external issue prevent access to this interface. 

[JOV1]

There are no LEDs on the any ports on the Hub.

[JOV1]

There aren't any.