Frequent Disconnections - Router or Phone Line?

[kdfmuk]

Hello,

I purchased a Billion BiPAC 7800DXL at the end of July this year.

For the first 4-6 weeks it performed very well. It now suffers from disconnections; over the past couple of months, the longest 'Connection Time' I have seen is just over 3 days. The connection usually goes down once every 3-4 hours, today it has been going down every 8 - 30 minutes.

I upgraded from firmware 2.32b to 2.32c today, it hasn't fixed the problem.

What I'm trying to establish, is whether this is a phone line problem, or a router problem.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

The error log for my most recent disconnection is below:

Oct 25 20:59:42 daemon crit kernel: Line 0: ADSL link down
Oct 25 20:59:42 daemon warn kernel: bcmxtmcfg: XTM Link Information, port = 0, State = DOWN, Service Support = ATM
Oct 25 20:59:42 daemon warn kernel: bcmxtmrt: DSD(8a435c1c) - 128
Oct 25 20:59:42 daemon warn kernel: HOST XTM tx ch 0 disabled.
Oct 25 20:59:42 daemon warn kernel: bcmxtmcfg: Connection DOWN, LinkActiveStatus=0x0
Oct 25 20:59:44 daemon crit kernel: Line 0: xDSL G.994 training
Oct 25 20:59:45 daemon notice syslog: pppd:Terminating on signal 20.
Oct 25 20:59:45 daemon crit syslog: Clear IP addresses. PPP connection DOWN.
Oct 25 20:59:45 daemon crit syslog: Clear IP addresses. Connection DOWN.
Oct 25 20:59:55 daemon crit kernel: Line 0: ADSL G.992 started
Oct 25 21:00:00 daemon crit kernel: Line 0: ADSL G.992 channel analysis
Oct 25 21:00:06 daemon crit kernel: Line 0: ADSL G.992 message exchange
Oct 25 21:00:07 daemon crit kernel: Line 0: ADSL link down
Oct 25 21:00:10 daemon crit kernel: Line 0: xDSL G.994 training
Oct 25 21:00:21 daemon crit kernel: Line 0: ADSL G.992 started
Oct 25 21:00:26 daemon crit kernel: Line 0: ADSL G.992 channel analysis
Oct 25 21:00:32 daemon crit kernel: Line 0: ADSL G.992 message exchange
Oct 25 21:00:32 daemon crit kernel: Line 0: ADSL link up, Bearer 0, us=1272, ds=15259
Oct 25 21:00:32 daemon warn kernel: bcmxtmcfg: XTM Link Information, port = 0, State = UP, Service Support = ATM
Oct 25 21:00:32 daemon warn kernel: bcmxtmrt: MAC address: 00 04 ed f4 7a 58
Oct 25 21:00:32 daemon warn kernel: [DoCreateDeviceReq.3244]: register_netdev
Oct 25 21:00:32 daemon warn kernel: [DoCreateDeviceReq.3246]: register_netdev done
Oct 25 21:00:32 daemon warn kernel: [FAP0] xtmCreateDevice : devId 0, encapType 1, headerLen 0
Oct 25 21:00:32 daemon warn kernel: bcmxtmrt: DSD(8ab1845c) - 128
Oct 25 21:00:32 daemon warn kernel: XTM Init: 400 tx BDs at 0xaa428000
Oct 25 21:00:32 daemon warn kernel: bcmxtmcfg: Connection UP, LinkActiveStatus=0x1, US=1272000, DS=15259000
Oct 25 21:00:32 daemon warn kernel: [FAP0] xtmLinkUp : devId 0, matchId 0
Oct 25 21:00:33 daemon notice syslog: pppd:cms logging initialized.
Oct 25 21:00:33 daemon notice syslog: pppd:PPPoATM setdevname_pppoatm
Oct 25 21:00:33 daemon notice syslog: pppd:PPPoATM setdevname_pppoatm - SUCCESS
Oct 25 21:00:33 daemon notice syslog: pppd 2.4.1 started by admin, uid 0
Oct 25 21:00:33 daemon notice syslog: PPP: Start to connect ...
Oct 25 21:00:33 daemon warn kernel: netdev path : pppoa0 -> atm0
Oct 25 21:00:33 daemon notice syslog: pppd:Using interface pppoa0
Oct 25 21:00:33 daemon notice syslog: pppd:Connect: pppoa0 <-->
Oct 25 21:00:36 daemon crit syslog: PPP LCP UP.
Oct 25 21:00:36 daemon notice syslog: pppd:Remote message: CHAP authentication success, unit 455
Oct 25 21:00:36 daemon notice syslog: pppd:local IP address 86.161.122.55
Oct 25 21:00:36 daemon notice syslog: pppd:remote IP address 217.32.142.194
Oct 25 21:00:36 daemon notice syslog: pppd:primary DNS address 217.32.171.22
Oct 25 21:00:36 daemon notice syslog: pppd:secondary DNS address 213.120.234.50
Oct 25 21:00:36 daemon crit syslog: Received valid IP address from server. Connection UP.
Oct 25 21:00:40 daemon warn kernel: ^[[0;36;44mBroadcom Packet Flow Cache flushing the flows^[[0m

[Philip_L]

Hi

Have you checked your phone line to make sure it is crackle free? A wired phone is best but cordless will do, and during a phase of disconnections check the phone line by picking up the receiver and just dial zero to dismiss the dial tone. If you hear crackles and pops, then remove the front face plate and check in the socket behind to isolate your wiring with the phone. See here for info about the master socket http://support.zen.co.uk/kb/Knowledgeba ... est-Socket

Any crackles or pops from the master socket indicates a telephone line fault. These can often be intermittent, hence periods where all might be okay, so it is important to try and test during a period of disconnections. If you hear noise on the line you need to report it to your telephone provider as a voice fault, tell them it crackles when you are talking on the phone. Once they fix that your broadband will be okay.

Also it would be useful to know your line stats from Status->Statistics->xDSL

Other problems could be REIN (explanation here http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/rein.htm), and following the master socket instructions linked to above you can try connecting your ADSL modem to the master socket to see if issues with REIN are being picked up by your own wiring inside the house.

Things like central heating or anything with a motor can cause disconnections especially if the equipment is old or failing, check the times the problems arise and see if they coincide with anything switching on or off. The issue with these sorts of problems is they can be caused by someone else some distance away.

If you have a second ADSL modem you can try temporarily that is useful to rule out a fault with this one. Swap everything out for the second one, i.e. don't use the same filters or wires.

Hope that helps.

Regards

Phil

[kdfmuk]

Thanks Phil,

The 'xDSL' stats are:

xDSL
Mode ADSL_2plus
Traffic Type ATM
Status Up
Link Power State L0
Downstream Upstream
Line Coding (Trellis) On On
SNR Margin (dB) 15.1 6.2
Attenuation (dB) 13.5 8.0
Output Power (dBm) 0.0 12.1
Attainable Rate (Kbps) 18000 1264
Rate (Kbps) 15306 1268
MSGc (# of bytes in overhead channel message) 60 10
B (# of bytes in Mux Data Frame) 156 181
M (# of Mux Data Frames in FEC Data Frame) 1 1
T (Mux Data Frames over sync bytes) 3 1
R (# of check bytes in FEC Data Frame) 12 0
S (ratio of FEC over PMD Data Frame length) 0.3275 4.5642
L (# of bits in PMD Data Frame) 4128 319
D (interleaver depth) 96 1
Delay (msec) 8 1
INP (DMT symbol) 1.00 0.00
Super Frames 4973304 4399350
Super Frame Errors 5838 2074
RS Words 781850247 244373
RS Correctable Errors 8596 0
RS Uncorrectable Errors 8814 0
HEC Errors 61967 13228
OCD Errors 13 0
LCD Errors 13 0
Total Cells 2311119499 191233085
Data Cells 8545246 1390483
Bit Errors 0 35829
Total ES 229 205
Total SES 147 34
Total UAS 701 701

I will be looking in to/monitoring the other things you mention over the next couple of days. Have plugged in a corded phone, but there's no noise at the moment - my connection has been up for 20 hours though.

Thanks again,

Kenny

[Philip_L]

Hi

Your line stats look all okay. It seems to be an intermittent problem, either REIN or line connection problems.

Regards

Phil

[Tomken]

The UAS looks exceptionally high and a call to your ISP for a line check when the disconnection occurs may show up something, but checking your side of things as advised is always a first trouble shooting step.

This Kitz article on line stats errors will explain better http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/linestats_errors.htm