Experiencing relatively frequent, but random, disconnects (fiber)

[cycloscott]

Happening throughout the day, usually no more than 30 seconds to a minute in duration. Yesterday was a heavy mtg day for me, and I was disconnected several times while I was trying to present (super annoying and problematic)

ONT typically still shows all green lights, but it's tucked into a corner under my desk, so I don't always crawl underneath to check.

I've removed the Sonic supplied router from my network and going through my own. All other devices within my LAN are reachable during the disconnects so I don't think it's router related. I've resorted to using an external service to ping my IP address at small intervals at it confirms the connectivity loss. Also running a local tool that has documented 3 brief outages in the last 2 hours

I've reached out to support chat with Sonic and they stated that everything looks fine on their end. What am I to do here? I cannot continue in this WFH pandemic with a flaky connection.

<edit: there are no alternative DNS servers specified in my router config>

[ngufra]

If you still have the sonic router, try to use it and sonic will be able to better troubleshoot as they can connect to the router and check inside your network.

By paying the router rental fee you are paying for the troubleshooting so you might as well use it.
Maybe one of your devices is misconfigured.

[cycloscott]

Interestingly enough, it was Sonic support that told me to pull it out of the network. And since the problems have continued, I think we can safely determine that it wasn't the cause.

[ngufra]

I am not saying the sonic router is the cause but sonic can log into it while it cannot log into your own router, so it will be harder for them to troubleshoot.

Remove/turn off all devices except one computer that you have use elsewhere and know is ok. do you still experience the issue?

You could also plug a computer directly on the back of the ONT. If it is not stable then, you can safely say the issue is either on sonic network or on that computer.

[cycloscott]

I think Sonic made the suggestion just to verify that their router wasn't the issue. That's now been confirmed. I suppose my router could be the problem, but the LAN always being reachable suggests otherwise.

The issue shows up with every device on the LAN. Both wired and wireless connections. Everything within the LAN is fine, any outside access is borked.

I've been thinking about that same idea of connection just a single PC to the ONT. But that makes WFH problematic since none of the network tools are on my work machine. And certainly becomes an issue with my wife trying to work as well

[ngufra]

If you have a bunch of devices, one of them may be misbehaving because it's broken, because of a bug or because or a security issue.
Try to take off as much as possible, set a new SSID, disable the old one and only connect stuff one at a time. Maybe a security issue on a network camera or printer is causing it to send a bunch of traffic causing lots of collision, or to claim it's connected to the internet and other devices try to send traffic through it instead of the router.

Or maybe it's on sonic's network, but the exercise may still teach you something.

[cycloscott]

At this point it's about all I've got. Just wish there was a way to trigger the issue. Otherwise, I'm just sitting around waiting for it to happen randomly.

[dane]

We've got stats visibility here on your link, and it's anything but solid. I've asked support to engage and get repair underway.

...(a few minutes later)

They tell me the optics on that port were replaced at 11:30am today because multiple customers were having the same issue, and they believe it now resolved.

[cycloscott]

That's awesome Dane. Thanks for checking in. I'm seeing the last outage on my side at about 3pm, when I plugged the Sonic router back into the network. (so that one's clearly on me)

I'll keep an eye on it for a bit, but fingers crossed you guys nailed it.

You guys rock! Happy to be a customer for, sheesh I can't remember how many years now.

[cycloscott]

Four days and not a single dropped connection.

This is why Sonic rocks. For some reason, I don't think the CEO of Comcrap is watching the forums to see if folks are having issues with their service. Thanks Dane!