Persistent & Consistent DSL Drop Outs

[mikeyjmatthews]

I recently transitioned from Zen to EE, opting for the EE One plan to consolidate all our services under a single provider. Initially, I retained our Zen-supplied FritzBox router, configured in a MESH network, to preserve the existing complex port forwarding and customised settings. However, since the activation of EE broadband, we have experienced daily disconnections between 10:00-11:00 AM and 00:00-01:00am, usually generating a new WAN IP address in the process.

The FritzBox logs consistently report a "PPPoE Timeout," followed by the standard sequence of "Synchronization (Training)," "DSL Not Responding," and eventually "DSL Available." While the connection is restored within a few minutes, these interruptions result in temporary loss of broadband service.

Historically, the FritzBox has proven reliable in detecting line faults. During our time with Zen, the router identified a recurring fault between the cabinet and our property. This issue, which caused frequent disconnections and significant reductions in sync speed, was traced to the cabinet's wiring configuration, specifically, a phone pulse interfering with the line, as diagnosed by an Openreach engineer. Following their intervention, stability was restored.

Since switching to EE, the FritzBox has not identified any line faults. Moreover, the sync speed has improved significantly as more neighbours have transitioned to FTTP, reducing interference on our ADSL line. Speeds now approach the 80/20 Mbps "vmax," compared to the 60/15 Mbps observed upon moving in. Unfortunately, as residents in an apartment building, we remain ineligible for FTTP until building managers approve the required wayleave—a process that could extend for up to 18 months.

After several days of troubleshooting and adjustments, I have successfully routed all my services through an IPsec trunk to maintain the functionality of my publicly served services and complex network setup. To investigate potential compatibility issues, I replaced my FritzBox router with the dumbest router I've ever come across, the "EE SmartHub 2," ensuring EE could not attribute the problem to third-party equipment. Despite this, the daily disconnections persist, now occurring between 11:00 AM and 12:00 PM and lasting between one and three minutes. The SmartHub provides additional feedback during these dropouts, with its front logo flashing different colours and gives me a nice time and date stamp in the system log.

Using EE's own hardware is effectively ruling out hardware-related faults and eliminating EE's potential objection regarding "unsupported" equipment.

This situation has left me deeply dissatisfied. I terminated my Zen contract prematurely, incurring a substantial exit fee (which EE has "promised" to reimburse). However, as I am still within my 14-day cancellation window, I am seriously considering reverting to Zen despite the financial implications.

Our primary motivation for switching to EE was the cost efficiency of the One plan, saving approximately £40 per month across two phone contracts, and benefiting from a more reputable mobile network provider. While I was reluctant to change broadband providers given my technical requirements—such as Zen's static IP, exceptional support, and detailed line diagnostics—I believed I could adapt by employing DDNS and services like Cloudflare Tunnelling for hosting on the EE's "dynamic IP" service. This belief is now being tested by the unresolved connectivity issues.

Is anyone else experiencing consistent daily broadband dropouts with EE, particularly around the same time each day? My connection drops for 1–3 minutes daily, with the SmartHub 2 flashing to indicate a fault, but it reconnects without further explanation. I suspect this could be an issue on EE’s end, and I’m hesitant to call support only to receive a scripted response from a so-called "tech guru" or face months of waiting for a resolution. If anyone has encountered similar problems or has advice on how to escalate this effectively, I’d appreciate your input.

[Mustrum]

@mikeyjmatthews   it just sounds like you are avoiding the evidence. You have a faulty line, if you don't call support EE will not know and it will not get fixed.

You could go back to Zen, but it still will need fixing.

Not sure what else can be added at this stage.

[JimM11]

@mikeyjmatthews Completely agree with @Mustrum assessment, so something has happened in the transition of zen to EE cable move. 2 routers giving you line fault indication = line fault.

[XRaySpeX]

Yes, others have. See Connection Dropping Out At The Same Time Every Day & maybe Internet keeps dropping out after 10 minutes.

There isn't an EE SH 2. What EE router do you have (read its label or post a pix)?

[mikeyjmatthews]

It’s definitely not a line fault here.

Beforehand my DSL uptime with Zen was something in the region of 117 days without timeout, without resync, without anything. That’s a solid 117 days with zero downtime. 

Nothing has changed, no hardware, nothing. The changeover happened early hours of the morning  so highly unlikely any physical changes were carried out in the cabinet. 

I’ve since eliminated “incompatible hardware” by plumbing in EE’s Smart Hub Plus, but it’s still persistently timing out and dropping my DSL connection daily, twice sometimes three times a day, with 2-5mins of downtime per drop out. 

That’s two routers by different brands, exhibiting the same fault, the only variable in the situation is the ISP. Nothing else has changed.

[mikeyjmatthews]

That’s my error, it’s the SmartHub Plus. 

I show so little interest in the dumb consumer grade router, I’ve not even retained the information about 😂

[mikeyjmatthews]

As above,

It’s definitely not a line fault here.

Beforehand my DSL uptime with Zen was something in the region of 117 days without timeout, without resync, without anything. That’s a solid 117 days with zero downtime. 

Nothing has changed, no hardware, nothing. The changeover happened early hours of the morning  so highly unlikely any physical changes were carried out in the cabinet. 

I’ve since eliminated “incompatible hardware” by plumbing in EE’s Smart Hub Plus, but it’s still persistently timing out and dropping my DSL connection daily, twice sometimes three times a day, with 2-5mins of downtime per drop out. 

That’s two routers by different brands, exhibiting the same fault, the only variable in the situation is the ISP. Nothing else has changed.

[JimM11]

@mikeyjmatthews report the fault to EE CS.

[mikeyjmatthews]

Just after posting, I managed to log a fault with customer services. To be fair, the representative did their best, but I could tell they struggled to fully grasp the issue.

I’ve got extensive network monitoring running 24/7, with detailed net stats and telematics capturing everything in the background. I tried explaining the data I’ve gathered, presenting the logs and trends as clearly as possible, but it seemed like they weren’t quite understanding the root of the fault.

While most of the data I’ve collected is as expected and not directly relevant to the dropouts, I did notice that network jitter has increased by 5% since switching to EE. This is likely due to different Tier 1 routing providers in use. Switching to the SmartHub Plus added another 30% average increase in jitter and load latency, which, while disappointing, is unsurprising given that consumer-grade routers often lack the power to handle QoS effectively

Customer services confirmed that they can see the multiple dropouts from their end, which matches the data I’ve collected. That’s at least some progress. However, they insist that their network checker shows no faults, which leaves me wondering about the root cause.

They’ve booked a third-party engineer for Monday, which is a step forward, but I was told categorically that they can’t do anything with the line. They can’t touch the cabling or make cabinet adjustments. So, what’s the point? Is this just another “turn it off and on again” exercise, with the engineer reporting back to EE that I’m somehow at fault? Am I doomed to go in circles with customer services for weeks on end? 🙄

[JimM11]

@mikeyjmatthews The engineer should be able to hook on to the RJ11 cable and test to see if he can see cable fault issues ond errors on the line, this checks the internal of the home, then remove the Master socket and connect to the test point and check the cable back to the fttc cabinet and also see if errors are present, this will let them know which way to go, trust me it took 6 engineer visit's before OR stood up and took it serious, with a total of 2 months, my issue turned out to be main OR junction box in loft dormier from the pole, but engineer spent time splitting points until he got to there, so i have been in this house 42 years, and that junction box was original when GPO at the time installed cable say 50+ years ago, he just lifted the 2 tails, crimped the connections together and not ONE single error from then onward, but the EE Smarthub+ was sensitive to the cable signal, i was like you a dog with a bone, nothing wrong with the router, could see sync and dsl issues, but did finally get an OR engineer, ex military knew about cables, and sorted, i just said, as before, if it blips, will text HELP to 66033, get someone sent AGAIN, i have more than enough time and patience. Biggest issue was keeping the wife of the back when the sync decided to hit the toilet because it DSLAM'd right down.... Have i good simply conversation with the engineer, but do not try to tell them how to do there job, just does not work... 

The Advanced Tech log, events is good at recording the DSL drop outs, time stamped as well. you can do like i did, export the event log to a file, you can also filter for just the DSL faults, export that as well, let the engineer see the condition. Did not have it as bad as you, maybe once/twice a week, but was only apparent as soon as the change over of ISP. Good luck with it all.👍