Multi-line customers rely on the very fast removal of a faulty connection from a bonded line solution allowing operations to continue seamlessly. For this reason we currently operate a 10 second timeout (with 1 second LCP echos).
However, from next connection, single line customers will be changed to a 60 second timeout.
This is something of an experiment to see if this allows such lines to endure some of the odd BT issues we have seem of late more seamlessly without dropping the PPP link. The router may still drop, and the multi line customers will drop as before, but the significant reduction in number of lines trying to connect should mean much faster recovery for lines. At present it takes anything from a few seconds to several minutes to get people back on line, and hopefully this will be reduced to a matter of seconds.
Obviously any issues will still be recorded on the graphs, but as loss rather than disconnects, where the longer timeouts have stopped the PPP link dropping.
That is not to say we are not trying to tackle the underlying cause of these BT blips as well, but there is no reason for them to be more problematic than necessary.