@Erik_ thanks. I know this is indeed a weird one. I can only say that it looks like whatever equipment (my own and KPN's) seems to be all fine.

Let's see if @wjb has more ideas. He's helped me before with setting up OPNsense, so definitely appreciate his thoughts :)

My first suspicion goes to the ONT or OLT where the connection between the two is lost. On the other hand I would expect that a level 2 technician would have been able to determine this.

On the other hand, don't rule out the devices on the LAN. There are examples of a Mac (Apple) that made an Experia Box crash at the moment it was connected to the LAN.

What was the outcome of the monitoring of the line?

What type of fiber connection do you have (AON, G.PON or XGS.PON)?

@wjb my first suspect was also the ONT, but that's been replaced twice. Also, shouldn't be anything on my LAN causing this. The Experiabox doesn't reboot. It just looses the pppoe session. And the reason for that is stated as LCP peer not responding. I get exactly the same error on my OPNsense router. I had just put the Experiabox as KPN of course will only provide support for that.

Now the OLT is my next suspect, but I have XGS PON, and according to the technician, none of my neighbors report disconnects. By the way, the level 1 technicians were way more helpful than the level 2 technician that visited me. The level 1 technicians at least thought along, whereas the level 2 technician did really nothing, and was in and out in like 5 minutes.

The thing that makes it very weird is that the disconnects are completely random. The connection would work completely fine for even up to a week, and then I'd be hit with 5-6 disconnects the next day. So yeah, couldn't find a pattern in this.

I totally agree that probably the cause of the problem is somewhere between the ONT and the OLT. Since the ONT has been replaced the chance of that device being the cause is slim. That leaves the fiber itself or the OLT as suspects.

Yep, it could be the fiber itself. Although it's a house connected to fiber in January only. So all cabling is quite new. But now, to get KPN to investigate it at this level is another thing altogether :(

Meanwhile, got another disconnect last night at 21:46 (somehow the modem time is always two hours behind).

2022-05-19 19:46:17 PPP(eth_route):ppp0 down for reason is Peer not responding

2022-05-19 19:46:17 PPP(eth_route):ppp0 down for reason is LCP down

2022-05-19 19:46:17 PPP(eth_route):ppp0 down for reason is LCP down

2022-05-19 19:46:23 PPP(eth_route):Connection terminated

 @Erik_ what do you suggest. I can call the backoffice number, but they will just send another technician who won't do much. It's a waste of time both for me and the technician.

Btw, another thing I've noticed is that I also get packet loss quite often. I have set up quite a bit of monitoring to troubleshoot this. If you see the screenshot before, of course I get a timeout at 21:44, that's when the modem lost the pppoe session, but there are other timeouts as well. So I do get a lot of packet loss on the line as well, just that most of the times it probably falls within the timeout values of pppoe on the modem side, and then it doesn't register as a disconnect neither on the modem, nor on the KPN RADIUS server.

A long long time ago I had a eof (100Mbps) fiber connection and in those days I also experienced the same type of problems although luckily less frequent.

After migrating from an eof (100Mbps) to a gof (1Gbps) fiber connection those problems were completely gone.

I really hope that kpn will have a close look at the OLT and your fiber including the passive splitters.

Although it might be hard to realize I also would suggest to test your router at the connection of one of your neighbors with a fiber connection to see the issue moves with it.

@wjb I understand your tip about testing my router, but the same issue has been replicated on my own router (OPNsense box, quite beefy, running on an i5), Experiabox 12, and Experiabox 10. So I think it’s safe to rule out the router.

I didn't know that but if that is the case then you can rule out the router.

The cause must be somewhere between the router and the OLT. As both the router and the ONT have been replaced that leaves that the cause must be either in the fiber or the OLT.

@wjb if only it was that easy to make KPN come to the same conclusion I will try my luck again with the backoffice team. Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

I think that it would be better if @Erik_ escalates this issue making sure the outstanding ticket gets renewed attention. 

I was already on the line with the KPN backoffice, and they have made an appointment with a specialist for Monday 23rd between 17:00 and 19:00. The person on the line was very helpful this time, and understood the problem. I hope the specialist is also as understanding In the meantime, @Erik_ if you want to update the ticket or leave any tips for the specialist, that would help!

Heh, this problem bugs me so much, I made a diagram :)

Call, definitely call. The technical back office where the ticket is, is the only way it can move on. If you don't call, the ticket will close in a few days. And then we'd have to restart the whole thing again with a new ticket. If it cannot get resolved with the current ticket, I can look for a way to escalate. But generally it is faster to work with the existing ticketing process. Good to hear they could plan a new technician this quickly. 

Have you mentioned to the back office, during previous contact, that this forum topic exists? I have just added info to the ticket with the topic link. The technician won't see that, but the back office will. Hopefully it will clarify things even more for them so they can, together with the technician's department, figure out what the hell is going on and how to fix it. 

Thanks, wjb, for your efforts :)

I did mention about the forum topic, but of course I couldn’t give them a link over phone, but thanks for adding it to the ticket. I have the print out of my diagram ready for the specialist, and I’m hoping they can figure something out. Thanks a lot for your help guys!

So, I'm seeing that the technician came yesterday. He replaced a cable according to the notes. And a new appointment has been made for next week, where the same technician will come back for further checks. Here's hoping that will finally resolve this :)

Hi @Erik_ indeed, the technician came and replaced the cable between the ONT and Experiabox. But this was already changed twice before, so I am doubtful this will be the solution, but he did leave his mobile number with me, and asked me to call him directly in case I see disconnects. The next steps, if the problem is not solved will be for him to create a ticket with KPN Network to check fiber/ OLT / Port on the DSLAM.

Let’s see how it goes. I will keep you informed.

Excellent, this sounds like definite progress in the process. I'll await your further reply next week 

Hello @Erik_ and @wjb 

So, I got a couple of more disconnects in the meantime. I called the technician that visited last Monday. He checked, and he could see the disconnects.

Since I am on XGS-PON, there are 32 customers on the same port as me, but he said that none of the other people report any issues, so they are reluctant to change the port. They will put my line for monitoring (for the 10th time now I think) for the next 70 hours. The technician also said they suspect it’s my home network which is causing this, and asked me if I have Sonos devices because they cause disconnects. I find this really weird though, are customers who have Sonos at home not supposed to use KPN internet?

In any case, I do not have any Sonos devices at my home. Like I drew before, I literally have one ethernet cable connected to the KPN Experiabox. Why should the Experiabox disconnect pppoe based on what’s connected BEHIND it? This makes absolutely no sense to me, and I honestly do not understand why KPN keeps suggesting to me that my home network is to blame. As an ISP, they really shouldn’t care what I am running on my home network.

Now I would understand that it’s my problem if the disconnects were only happening on my router, and not KPN’s router. But since the disconnects are happening on KPN’s router as well, am I wrong to think that KPN needs to fix this? And no, asking me to only use the Experiabox, and not connect anything behind it is not the solution. That’s like saying “Hey but if you don’t use the internet, you will not notice the disconnects”

This is good.

I can see their point. I hope the monitoring this time will lead to a better result. 

We do sometimes see weird things happening with wifi if people have Sonos equipment. Or other brand devices that also have a separate wifi network amongst themselves. Obviously, this doesn't mean people can't use those devices. It does mean, though, that sometimes more effort and trial and error is needed for an optimal experience. And if really weird things are happening, we let our Experia Box people know and they look into it. 

What I don't expect is Sonos, or like devices, to impact your physical connection.

We don't when everything is working as it should. We do when you have a problem. Part of trouble shooting is looking at everything that could conceivably be a factor. 

All that being said: I'm seeing a new mechanic appointment for next week, @kalpik. Is that based on something they saw during the monitoring?

I'm not sure what the next appointment is about. I didn't hear anything about monitoring. Although I've already had a couple of disconnects after I last spoke with the technician.

P.S. I do not have Sonos, so that's not it :)

So just to keep everyone updated, the technician called me again today. They are still looking into the issue. Meanwhile I did have quite a few disconnects. One thing is clear that no one else on the same port has these issues. They did discover someone else on a different POP, but in the same area as me with the same issue of having disconnects, and that’s also a new fibre installation, just like me. So that sounds promising at least. The technician told me that he will be in touch.

Apologies for my silence, @kalpik. I have been reading along, both in this topic as well as in the ticket notes. But those notes do not say what the technician(s) are discussing with you. So, your updates here are much appreciated. If they have indeed found someone else in the area with similar problems, it definitely points towards something deeper in the network. I'm seeing another technician's appointment for next week. Have they said what their next step or plan is?