Windows software which will check for BB connection dropouts?

[andyoxon]

Suspect we're getting periodic dropouts, as some streaming only on wifi music stops occasionally saying 'connect to wifi'...   Don't see any sustained disconnection.   Any software which will pick up dropouts in connection?

With TalkTalk, auto basic 'line test ok', but can't speak to a human, and the chats are bunged up.  TT's £1 billion debt probably not helping.

[Kim]

This is what ping is for.  Though a tool like smokeping (no idea if that can run on Windows) that plots the results of ping tests over time is probably more useful for diagnosing intermittent faults.

Obviously that will only show you what is or isn't reachable, not why, but you can infer a lot^[1] if you see packet loss between your laptop and your own router, for example.  Just leave a ping -t running in the background and flip to that terminal window when you notice a problem.  Start with something on the wider internet, like google's 8.8.8.8 DNS server.  Then try something within TalkTalk's network.  Then your own router.

I've no idea whether or how Windows can provide system logs that show what its network connections are doing.  That could be useful for working out the nature of a WiFi problem.

Your router's system log may provide access to the state of the PPP connection, which can be more revealing if it's a broadband issue.  (Has LCP timed out?  Has the IP address changed?  That sort of thing.)  Talktalk are presumably too cheap to provide any useful diagnostics from their end.  Similarly, there might be WiFi access point logs (associations, authentication, roaming, that sort of thing).


_{[1] Eg. If it's a WiFi problem, then it's nothing to do with TalkTalk.}

[andyoxon]

Thanks.  OOI would my router "Current Connection time" reflect any dropout however brief, say even if only 100ms?  ETA couldn't find a system log (prolly there somewhere).

ETA2.  I kept asking if there was any evidence in the connection log of brief dropouts / instability.  Never got a direct answer.  Just  'will do a line test'...

[Kim]

Thanks.  OOI would my router "Current Connection time" reflect any dropout however brief, say even if only 100ms?

That's likely the time that the current PPP connection (analogous to a dialup session in the dialup days) has been established for.  So if a fault in the underlying network caused the PPP session to timeout, or the session was closed for some reason, either by your router or Talktalk's LNS, it would reflect that.  A few seconds of total packet loss wouldn't cause the PPP connection to timeout, but a longer outage would.

Also note that the PPP session only goes as far as TalkTalk.  They could have upstream problems causing bad routing or packet loss to the wider internet that wouldn't affect the PPP session.

And obviously (or perhaps not so obviously, as technical meanings get lost over time) your WiFi connection is downstream of that, so you could have rock solid PPP and crap WiFi.  Or vice-versa.

[andyoxon]

Ok, think I get that.   

TT said to me earlier:   'I do apologize however that is not available here on our system. We do not have a tool where we are able to allocate or detect the accurate drop out on you connection.'

Thing is, I'm not even sure it was a 'dropout', just that the app stopped suddenly & moaned about no wifi, as did iplayer on the TV box* - just quit for some reason.  And mini ao's VPN connection has had issues - suspected unstable wifi - have bought long ethernet cable.

*actually this is powerline adapter connected.

[Afasoas]

You might be able to snag a RIPE ATLAS Probe.
You'll get an email if your connection is down for 10 minutes. And you can get an idea what your Internet reachability is world wide.

You could also setup a measurement pinging from your probe and pinging too your probe from other probes.

SmokePing is a good idea. In the same vein, another option is leaving WinMTR running on your desktop, targeting a known good location.

[Kim]

TT said to me earlier:   'I do apologize however that is not available here on our system. We do not have a tool where we are able to allocate or detect the accurate drop out on you connection.'

Yes, well, they're hardly AAISP are they...

Thing is, I'm not even sure it was a 'dropout', just that the app stopped suddenly & moaned about no wifi, as did iplayer on the TV box* - just quit for some reason.  And mini ao's VPN connection has had issues - suspected unstable wifi - have bought long ethernet cable.

*actually this is powerline adapter connected.

Interesting that they're moaning about WiFi specifically, rather than something more generic like "connection timeout", "network unreachable" or "no internet connection".  You wouldn't normally expect a streaming app to be aware of the nature of the underlying connectivity like that.

Various modern OSes will moan about not having an internet connection when they can't reach a specific vendor's server, which is about as unhelpful as it is helpful, depending on what you're trying to do.

[tonycollinet]

I monitor my connection with ThinkBroadband's quality meter tool. It provides a chart like the one below, and keeps around a 3 month daily history.

Your router needs to respond to external pings, and you need a static IP, or one that doesn't change often, as you need to recreate the monitor everytime it changes.

It only monitors the link between internet and router - not any of your internal connections.

Here is the chart from the only day in the last three months in which we had a drop out.

[Feanor]

Cool!
They are using an AAISP (well, their Firebrick sideline) Firebrick device, (the logo is clearly visible) which is what's generating this CQM chart.

If you click on the link on Kim's previous post, you will see that the chart is basically the same!
Here's mine from today, someone started streaming something at 21 o'clock:


AAISP-CQM by Ron Lowe, on Flickr

[HTFB]

How are your dropouts anywhere near your BB?

[Feanor]

How are your dropouts anywhere near your BB?

Much too short a chain.