After finally getting my broadband activated and managing to get Sky to set a reasonable IP profile on my account rather then them keep on testing my line and putting a lower profile on it I have noticed a shitload of dropouts of the connection.
Before complaining to Sky about the issue (I assumed it was an issue with the phoneline) I decided to log the issue myself.
I made a bash script to login to the router admin page, fetch the download sync speed and echo it to a log. The script also tells the router to reboot when the sync speed is below a certain threshold. I've also made a webpage that I can access the log with. I made a cronjob to run the script every minute.
Here's some results
quote:
12/10/09 08:48:01 - 8836 kbps
12/10/09 08:47:01 - 8836 kbps
12/10/09 08:46:02 - kbps
12/10/09 08:45:01 - 4448 kbps ... rebooting router
12/10/09 08:44:01 - kbps
12/10/09 08:43:02 - 4640 kbps ... rebooting router
12/10/09 08:42:01 - kbps
12/10/09 08:41:01 - 4626 kbps ... rebooting router
12/10/09 08:40:02 - kbps
12/10/09 08:39:01 - 4615 kbps ... rebooting router
12/10/09 08:38:02 - kbps
12/10/09 08:37:01 - 4640 kbps ... rebooting router
12/10/09 08:36:01 - kbps
12/10/09 08:35:01 - 4652 kbps ... rebooting router
12/10/09 08:34:02 - kbps
12/10/09 08:33:01 - 4590 kbps ... rebooting router
12/10/09 08:32:02 - kbps
12/10/09 08:31:01 - 4551 kbps ... rebooting router
12/10/09 08:30:02 - kbps
12/10/09 08:29:02 - 4515 kbps ... rebooting router
12/10/09 08:28:02 - kbps
12/10/09 08:27:01 - 4448 kbps ... rebooting router
12/10/09 08:26:02 - kbps
12/10/09 08:25:01 - 4352 kbps ... rebooting router
12/10/09 08:24:01 - kbps
12/10/09 08:23:02 - 8624 kbps
12/10/09 08:22:01 - 8624 kbps
and
quote:
12/10/08 19:07:01 - 8110 kbps
12/10/08 19:06:01 - 8110 kbps
12/10/08 19:05:02 - kbps
12/10/08 19:04:01 - 4569 kbps ... rebooting router
12/10/08 19:03:01 - kbps
12/10/08 19:02:02 - 4523 kbps ... rebooting router
12/10/08 19:01:02 - kbps
12/10/08 19:00:01 - 4494 kbps ... rebooting router
12/10/08 18:59:02 - kbps
12/10/08 18:58:01 - 4416 kbps ... rebooting router
12/10/08 18:57:01 - kbps
12/10/08 18:56:02 - 4311 kbps ... rebooting router
12/10/08 18:55:01 - kbps
12/10/08 18:54:01 - 8583 kbps
12/10/08 18:53:02 - 8583 kbps
and
quote:
12/10/08 08:59:01 - 8762 kbps
12/10/08 08:58:02 - 8762 kbps
12/10/08 08:57:02 - kbps
12/10/08 08:56:01 - 4672 kbps ... rebooting router
12/10/08 08:55:02 - kbps
12/10/08 08:54:01 - 4683 kbps ... rebooting router
12/10/08 08:53:01 - kbps
12/10/08 08:52:02 - 4602 kbps ... rebooting router
12/10/08 08:51:02 - kbps
12/10/08 08:50:01 - 4590 kbps ... rebooting router
12/10/08 08:49:02 - kbps
12/10/08 08:48:01 - 4576 kbps ... rebooting router
12/10/08 08:47:01 - kbps
12/10/08 08:46:01 - 4551 kbps ... rebooting router
12/10/08 08:45:01 - kbps
12/10/08 08:44:02 - 4430 kbps ... rebooting router
12/10/08 08:43:02 - kbps
12/10/08 08:42:01 - 4409 kbps ... rebooting router
12/10/08 08:41:02 - kbps
12/10/08 08:40:01 - 8713 kbps
12/10/08 08:39:01 - 8713 kbps
And guess what is causing the problem? The bathroom fucking lights.
The first bit of the log was this morning when I was in the bathroom.
The second bit of the log was yesterday when I went for a shit.
The third bit was yesterday morning when I was in the bathroom.
There's other examples where similar happens. I did another quick test this morning and the lights definitely caused the connection to drop
quote:
12/10/09 08:58:02 - 8867 kbps
12/10/09 08:57:01 - 8867 kbps
12/10/09 08:56:01 - kbps
12/10/09 08:55:02 - 8283 kbps
12/10/09 08:54:01 - 8283 kbps
12/10/09 08:53:01 - kbps
12/10/09 08:52:02 - 8836 kbps
12/10/09 08:51:01 - 8836 kbps
Fairly sure the telephone line runs across the gap above the bathroom ceiling where the transformers for the lights are (12V spots).
Clearly Sky or BT can't even attempt to sort this, and I'm really glad I didn't contact them because it'd no doubt result in downtime and no fix since they can't fix the problem.
Going to check today whether other lights cause a dropout but the bathroom lights definitely do.
:@ :@ :@ :@