Dropping Connection

If your broadband connection comes and goes, you may have an intermittent connection fault.

It can be hard to track down this sort of problem so before you raise a fault with us, it's important to check through everything we mention below.

1. What to look for
2. The DSL light flashes or goes out
3. The DSL light stays on
4. Raising a Fault

1. What to look for

Before checking anything else, we need to know if your broadband signal is dropping. The easiest way to tell is to look at your router or modems DSL light when the problem happens. Depending on the make, the DSL light can also be called ADSL, Link, Sync or Broadband. On Netgear routers the DSL light is represented by a lower case i.

If the light flashes or goes out: then carry on to section 2.

If the light stays on: skip to section 3.

2. The DSL light flashes or goes out

This means that the signal between your property and the BT telephone exchange is dropping. This can be caused by an external line fault or an issue with your cabling or equipment.

If there is a fault then we'll report it to our suppliers, but only after the checks below have been completed.

Please Note: If a BT engineer visits your property and determines that the fault is caused by your equipment or setup, this will result in a callout charge. Carrying out these checks will make sure you avoid this.

Check your telephone line is working

Check for a dial tone on your phone. If you don't hear anything, report the problem to to BT by calling 151 or using their website.

If we are your telephone provider, check the Home Phone Troubleshooting Guide.

Check for background noise on your telephone line

If you can hear crackling, pops or whistles this might mean:

• Something on your line is causing interference (This might not have microfilters fitted properly, or maybe incompatible with broadband)
• There's a faulty microfilter on your line
• You have a telephone fault

Report the problem to to BT by calling 151 or using their website. If we are your telephone provider, check the Home Phone Troubleshooting Guide.

Check your Microfilters

Check your cables and remove extensions

Faulty cables and extensions are the cause of more problems that you'd think. You need to make sure that yours are OK by testing from your master socket.

Unplug everything from your telephone line, then connect your kit to the master socket. If you still have problems try connecting with a different microfilter.

If you find that this fixes the problem, plug things back in and check the connection after each one. You'll soon find out what's causing the problem.

Have a look at the Testing from the Master Socket guide if you're having trouble with this.

Check your modem/router

Faulty hardware is another common cause of connection problems.

Do your problems stop if you restart your kit? If so try re-installing.

Modems will need their drivers removed and re-installed. Routers should be reset to their factory settings.

The instructions should show you how to do this, if you bought your hardware from us read our Modem and Router Setup Guides for help.

If this doesn't help, try testing with a different router or modem.

Other things to note

Keep an eye on the times when your connection drops. If you spot a pattern, see if it co-incides with anything else that happens at the same time.

Has anything changed recently - either with your setup or in the local area?

We've found that bad weather, Christmas lights and new telephone handsets have all been the cause of problems in the past.

Once you're happy that everything has been checked, go to section 4 and raise a fault.

3. The DSL light stays on

This can be one of the more difficult problems to spot, as it can be tricky to tell exactly what's happening.

Check your router logs to see sure the connection to our network is being lost. Often problems like this will be actually be speed or data transfer related so follow those guides to see if they help.

If the logs show that the connection IS dropping, then follow the checks detailed in section 2. It's very important to try a different router or modem here. Try to keep a log of the times that this happens to see if you can spot a pattern.

Once you're happy that everything has been checked then go to section 4 and raise a fault.

4. Raising a fault

If you've checked all of the above and your broadband still drops then report the fault to our Support Team. You can either call us, or use our Broadband Faults Checker.

This article last updated 19th September 2008