Deco M5 loosing connection every 30seconds - PPPoE direct to ONT - BT (UK)

Deco M5 loosing connection every 30seconds - PPPoE direct to ONT - BT (UK)

Deco M5 loosing connection every 30seconds - PPPoE direct to ONT - BT (UK)
Deco M5 loosing connection every 30seconds - PPPoE direct to ONT - BT (UK)
2024-08-28 09:50:51 - last edited 2024-09-05 12:25:29
Model: Deco M5  
Hardware Version:
Firmware Version: 1.7.6

Hi,

 

I have a Deco mesh system that I have been using flawlessly connected to a BT smart hub 2 router via Dynamic IP

 

I have recently had my fiber connection upgraded from FTTC to FTTP and want to connect my Deco straight to my ONT and not use my BT provided smart hub at all but I'm having issues.

 

I set up the PPPoE connection on my Deco using the username and password provided by BT and at first I had a stable but slightly slower connection. I'm on the 500Mb package and my speed test results went from 510Mb/s when connected through my smarthub to 430MB/s when connected straight to my ONT. Is that to be expected?

 

But that isn't the main problem.

 

After running like that for a day I decided to reboot my Deco.

 

Since then my internet connection drops every 30 seconds so is unusable.

 

I have gone back to using the BT smart hub with the Deco attached to it and it works the same as before with 500mb/s+ download speeds.

 

Any idea what could be going on with my attempts connecting my Deco straight to my ONT? I'd like to get rid of my smarthub to free up space and stop double-NATing. What fault finding steps should can i do?

 

 

Current Config:

 

                                              / Deco

ONT=>SH2=>Deco (Wifi)  - Deco

                                             \  Deco

 

Desired Config:

 

                                   / Deco

ONT=>Deco (Wifi)  - Deco

                                  \  Deco

 

 

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#1
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1 Accepted Solution
Re:Deco M5 loosing connection every 30seconds - PPPoE direct to ONT - BT (UK)-Solution
2024-08-29 21:06:55 - last edited 2024-09-05 12:25:29

  @Kev205 

Im with BT FTTP 500mb connection and connect directly to my ONT with my Deco M9 plus, these are my IPV6 settings and it works fine.

 

 

BT Full fibre 500, 1x M9 Plus V2 and 1x X60 V3.2 in AP mode connected to Archer C80.
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#6
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Re:Deco M5 loosing connection every 30seconds - PPPoE direct to ONT - BT (UK)
2024-08-28 18:10:56 - last edited 2024-08-28 18:13:40

On further investigation it seems to be a weird WiFi issue with my Deco rather than anything to do with the internet connection.

 

I can maintain I constant WiFi connection from my phone to my Deco when the ethernet cable from the ONT is unplugged (but obviously no internet) and as soon as I plug in the ONT the WiFi connection starts to drop.

 

I don't get it - but seems like a router problem rather than anything to do with my connection.

 

It seems that connecting directly to the ONT via PPPoE is causing my WiFi to become unstable - if I go back to connecting to my smart hub or disconnect from the internet then it's fine?

 

Could it be a device on my network causing a problem?

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#2
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Re:Deco M5 loosing connection every 30seconds - PPPoE direct to ONT - BT (UK)
2024-08-29 03:05:27

  @Kev205 

Hi,

 

Do you mean that when you connect Deco directly to the ONT, both Internet connection and WIFI connection would become unstable?

 

For the Internet connection, would the light on Deco unit becomes red?

Then please change the DNS to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. How to change DNS server settings on my Deco

As the BT hub can stably connect, if change DNS cannot help, please clone the BT hub WAN MAC address.

How to Configure MAC Clone on Deco if Deco fails to connect to the internet

 

And for WIFI connection, do you mean once you connect the Deco back to the ONT, the WIFI connection will drop immediately?

Can you still see the SSID? Will the WIFI connection get back automatically?

Please also test if the issue happens with all your wireless devices.

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#3
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Re:Deco M5 loosing connection every 30seconds - PPPoE direct to ONT - BT (UK)
2024-08-29 08:18:13 - last edited 2024-08-29 08:30:41

Thanks for your reply, I'm away from my house at the moment but will do some more investigation when I'm home later today.

 

First thing for me to check is if the internet connection is going down or not. I forgot about the LEDs because I turned them off years ago - so i'll turn those back on :-)

 

I could maybe connect a laptop via ethernet to the second port on the main Deco and see it the internet connection is consistant there.

 

But the WIFI is definitely dropping out when my Deco is connected to the ONT. With the ethernet cable between the ONT and the main Deco removed then I am able to connect to the Deco Network from my android phone via WIFI and check the status of my mesh network and see all my clients (around 15 active) and change settings as normal on the App.

 

If I plug the ethernet from the ONT in then the connection to the internet is established OK and it will work for a minute or so but then get into a loop of dropping and re-establishing WIFI i.e. I intermittently lose the ability to connect to the Deco Network via the App on my Phone.

 

The WIFI connection comes back on its own within a few seconds but I can see that the mesh connection to my 3 satallite Decos has been interupted as it takes a few moments for them to come back online. It also takes a few moments for all the clients on my network to come back online - so I'm sure the WIFI has dropped for everything.

 

I'm not sure if the SSID remains visible - hard to tell because the WIFI comes back online so quickly and the "available networks" screen on my phone takes a while to refresh.

 

To me the whole thing seems more like the Deco is crashing rather that a network droppout.

 

Everything back to normal now i've gone back to using my BT smart hub router and connecting to that via a Dynamic IP connection - but I'd really like to not use the smart hub if I can.

 

EDIT: I have already tried the google DNS addresses and I have swapped my main Deco for one of the satalites and the same issue remained.

 

I'm planning on changing the WIFI password and powering off my satalite Decos with the aim to get a simple network setup consisting of just the ONT, 1x Deco and my phone and see if that works.

 

Is there any avanced diagnostics or logs I can view?

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#4
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Re:Deco M5 loosing connection every 30seconds - PPPoE direct to ONT - BT (UK)
2024-08-29 19:04:24

Turns out the issue is with the ipv6 connection 

 

The constant loosing WiFi problem goes away when I disable ipv6.

 

I found a combination of settings that allow me to connect to ipv6 but ipv6 test sites say it doesnt work anyway so might as well just turn it off.

 

Speed test results still 10% lower when than when I use my smart hub 2 though :-(

 

Is that expected?

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#5
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Re:Deco M5 loosing connection every 30seconds - PPPoE direct to ONT - BT (UK)-Solution
2024-08-29 21:06:55 - last edited 2024-09-05 12:25:29

  @Kev205 

Im with BT FTTP 500mb connection and connect directly to my ONT with my Deco M9 plus, these are my IPV6 settings and it works fine.

 

 

BT Full fibre 500, 1x M9 Plus V2 and 1x X60 V3.2 in AP mode connected to Archer C80.
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#6
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Re:Deco M5 loosing connection every 30seconds - PPPoE direct to ONT - BT (UK)
2024-08-29 21:16:05 - last edited 2024-09-09 08:52:53

  @klipse 

 

Thanks so much for your reply - yes - those are the settings that I ended up with.

 

I think it was the "get IP address" specifically that I had to alter to "non address" like you to stop the constant drop outs.

 

But actual ipv6 tests like on https://test-ipv6.com/ still fail though - but they also fail through my smart hub 2 as well so I think there might be a legitimate BT internet service issue there in the background that I will chase up with them.

 

EDIT: these settings do actually work for ipv6 - I'm getting 10/10 on https://test-ipv6.com now.

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#7
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Re:Deco M5 loosing connection every 30seconds - PPPoE direct to ONT - BT (UK)
2024-08-29 21:20:49

  @Kev205 

 

ok cool, was going to say make sure the IPV6 is working with the smart hub, if not then like you say there is an issue at BT's side. I get 10/10 for my IPV6 test.

 

Cheers
 

BT Full fibre 500, 1x M9 Plus V2 and 1x X60 V3.2 in AP mode connected to Archer C80.
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