Frequent disconnects - Help please!

[Kosmos_]

Hi, i'm new here, and wanting help please.

Our 50mb uncapped, unshaped Fibre internet with Webafrica is spread over two houses bordering each other in a townhouse complex.
We have an Archer C20 main router and a Alcatel Lucent I-240g ONT. We also have a TP link TL-WR840N which runs a cable from the main router and functions as an access point.

All works well, except I get disconnects at least once a day, for no reason whatsoever.

The devices the internet uses:
Desktop computer with an ethernet cable to the router
4 Laptops (wifi)
3 Iphones (wifi)


Working from home, my father does video conferencing with Microsoft Teams and Zoom every week day for work.
In order for my father to have as smooth video conferencing as possible, i switch off the internet every night close to midnight and switch back on in the morning, to have a clear line for the day. But even he now gets disconnects.

I do download torrents, sometimes huge ones, overnight. but really only weekends. Very rarely in the week after 12am.

When it disconnects, all the lights are on on the ONT and the router as if nothing is wrong, but there's no internet. I even did a hard reset (first time ever just the other day) on the router and reloaded the config file.

The strange thing is, we had these problems before, but it seemed to have gotten worse after we upgraded to 50mb from 20mb. Or maybe i'm imagining this.

I've contacted Webafrica numerous times. Sometimes they don't even get back, other times when they do help, they do a port reset, which does not work long term. Updating the firmware does not help.

I really am up in arms, as to what to do.

Any help would be highly appreciated
Thanks a bunch

 

[Kosmos_]

The internet connection dropped twice in the last hour.

 

[Sopbeen]

Do a search on this forum for WebAfrica. You will find many threads with problems similar to yours. WA does not do support. You pay them money, that's all they care about.

It's end of the month, do yourself a favor and put in your notice of cancellation. By end of next month you will be free. Which is most likely quicker than you will find a resolution with WA.

A proper ISP will assist in finding and resolving the issue at hand (if they even have the issue).

 

[Pineapple Smurf]

At least you don't have to pay Telkom R7.00 a call each time your internet drops like it use to be in the old days.

Jokes aside, i would think the router is getting stuck somewhere, borrow another router and do a test there to eliminate that as a possibility.
I assume there is no internet on your phones as well, so that means the problem isnt just with the computers?

Maybe your ISP did a firmware upgrade on your ONT as they can do if they want and there might be something fishy going on now. Try the router first, good luck

 

[Kosmos_]

Thank you both for your replies.

I did something else last night. Second last time the connection dropped i switched off the ONT and kept the router on, After 30 minutes or so, i switched on the ONT and no internet. The last time the connection dropped I switched off the router and kept the ONT on. After 30 minutes, i switched the router on, and i got internet. So, the fault must be with the router.

 

[Kosmos_]

By the way people, any recommendations for an ISP ? I'm thinking of VOX, but my options are open. I'm so fed up with this, that i don't really care about customer service, i really just want a stable and running connection. lol

 

[ngoni615]

By the way people, any recommendations for an ISP ? I'm thinking of VOX, but my options are open. I'm so fed up with this, that i don't really care about customer service, i really just want a stable and running connection. lol

VOX is great. I am on VOX vumatel and never had a single issue.

 

[dlevine]

am with @Afrihost, not a seconds trouble. It just works .

 

[Sopbeen]

In terms of ISP's with a presence on the forums... At the moment probably limited to websquad, CISP and Afrihost. I'm an ex Vox client and I would not recommend them at all. While they have a rocksolid network, their customer service is horrible.

 

[PBCool]

Just an FYI technically you shouldn't be using a single connection across 2 properties, I would imagine it's against every ISPs t's and c's.

 

[mr_norris]

i switch off the internet every night close to midnight and switch back on in the morning, to have a clear line for the day.

I don't think this'll help at all hey. I would suggest contacting your ISP for advice, and perhaps contacting TP-link if you suspect that it's the router.

Out of interest have you taken a look at the router logs? I have had a similar issue which i have yet to solve. It's so intermittent that I haven't put much effort into solving it since that thread. I have tried all sorts of things, like factory reset, updating firmware, setting the router to restart itself every day.

 

[r00igev@@r]

I imagine your are on OpenServe? Do you have a rough guide to region?
OpenServe is rock solid.
Next time it happens try ping 8.8.8.8 from the command line and see if there is a response.

But, I do suggest you drop WebAfrica as they are not providing good service.

 

[ngoni615]

In terms of ISP's with a presence on the forums... At the moment probably limited to websquad, CISP and Afrihost. I'm an ex Vox client and I would not recommend them at all. While they have a rocksolid network, their customer service is horrible.

Sadly i have never had an issue with their support at all. They are easily one of the best. All my queries get attended to quickly so i feel comfortable enough to recommend them.