Testing a Router - can it be done?

[Evilchap]

Is there a way we can test a router?

I have a Draytek 2860 and we're having internet dropouts.

Internal wiring is fine, all tested.

LAN never drops out, all connected at 1Gb/s.

I wondered if it's possibly to check or test the internet connection part of the router to make sure it's not causing the dropouts?

Cheers!

[sideways14a]

Put another router on the line and run it, however its almost certain its going to be your Wan connection (adsl?) the dray has extensive logging, if it shows the wan side collapsing then its your connection to the isp.
If not sure post up the log.

[Cluck]

If you're connected directly from the Vigor to an ADSL line then I'd start with changing the ADSL filter. It's the cheapest and quickest thing to do as a "just in case". The next step is to check the Noise Margin, to see what your line quality is like, as far as the router is concerned - anything below 3 or 4db is going to be seriously unreliable (I think BT, for example, try and stabilise around 6db) with 8db or higher usually being reliable enough to rarely see a dropout.

It looks like you can see this info from Online Status -> Physical Connections on that router.

It's also worth checking, if it's available there, whether there are any data errors being logged. Low noise margin and/or lots of data errors can point to a fault on the line rather than the router. If you've got any extensions off the master socket then the only internal troubleshooting you can do, if you've got an older style BT faceplate, is to take the front off and connect the ADSL filter into the 'test' line and see if the router values change significantly. If the noise margin suddenly jumps up, you are likely to have an internal wiring fault and BT usually won't lift a finger unless you pay them a chunk of money. If the values don't change and it's still unreliable, chances are the fault is outside the building and that becomes the responsibility of BT (or whoever is in charge of the line)

It's a bit of a minefield as there are loads of areas where it could be wrong.

[Evilchap]

Thanks chaps!

I have just downloaded and installed the 'Syslog Utility' so should be able to share some logs of when it goes wrong again.

A fresh router should arrive shortly, I should be able to use that for just internet connecting, and my existing one for DHCP etc right?

The filter is built into the socket I believe - will investigate changing that.

SNR Down = 8dB
SNR Up = 6dB
Loop Att = 24 (not sure what this is)

This is a FTTC connection.

No extensions or anything else uses the socket.

[sideways14a]

That SNR doesnt look to be too clever.. especially for FTTC

[Evilchap]

OK, so it just dropped out for a minute or so.

14:32:52 - 14:33:47 according to my connectivity monitor.

Syslog thingy at the moment of dropout went from saying this every few seconds, or a variation on this:
WAN1 PPPoE <== Protocol:LCP(c021) EchoRep Identifier:0xE2 Magic Number: 0x7c59 46 29 ##
WAN1 PPPoE <== Protocol:LCP(c021) ProtRej Identifier:0x1D Rejected Protocol: 0x8057 01 09 00 0e 01 0a 00 1d aa ff fe b6 f5 89 ##
WAN1 PPPoE ==> Protocol:IPv6CP(8057) ConfReq Idenifier:0x09 Interface Identifier: 00 1d aa ff fe b6 f5 89 ##

To this:
WAN1 PPPoE ==>Protocol:LCP(c021) EchoRep Identifier:0xE2 Magic Number: 0x0 00 00 ##
then lots of this:
WAN1 PPPoE ==> V:1 T:1 PADT ID:872

Which it did until it reconnected.

New connection has SNR of 6dB both ways.

[sideways14a]

Yer lines ****t, looks like it has the consistency of wet string - perhaps pasta...
I would try recroning the terminals in the master socket, just in case.

[Evilchap]

You mean it's bad then?

The openreach chap who popped in said it all checked out fine, and used the wire from our socket to the router to plug into his tester. Most strange!

[Cluck]

My downstream SNR is 6.8 right now (you can usually ignore the upstream one) and that's on a FTTC connection aswell. As I said, anything below 6 starts to get a bit wobbly, 8 or more is normally pretty stable from my experience. However, fluctuating from 8 to 6 is not clever and does need investigating by your ISP (who will liaise with the telecoms provider aswell)

If you're going direct into the master socket - ie, it's one of the modern sockets that has the filter built-in - then you can't do any real testing on that front. Those also, usually, mean you shouldn't have to worry about internet wiring problems either.

Out of interest, how often is it dropping out? Once a day, once an hour? How often is it out for each time?

[Evilchap]

It's dropping a bit randomly, so far today 7 times. Usually it drops for 2-10 minutes, the duration also varies quite a bit.

The man from BT did say we were on the 40/5 connection or something like that, despite us paying for an being available in our cabinet an 80/20 connection - so I plan to beat our provider over the head with that a bit to try and get results.

They have promised to send us a router to try and see if that helps. Time will tell!

Thanks again for your help chaps

[sideways14a]

Its almost certain a line fault, that said testing with a new router is always worth while but i would put money on it being the copper.

[Evilchap]

I have hit a bit of a problem.

Our ISP has now sent us this router to 'test and see if it stops the dropouts' - which in theory sounds great.

In practice the 2860n is setup with static IPs and various other bits of setup that mean I want to keep it being my router.

The Technicolor I want to use as a Modem only really, so no DHCP or anything like that going on.

I cannot figure out how to make this work with the 2860n I have. I know I plug it in via Ethernet to WAN2. I can plug the TG588v in, and access it on my network now I have given it a local IP address - so it's working that far.

When I take the plug from the 2860n from the master socket and plug it into the TG5885v my connection drops out, and does not come back - although the TG855v is connecting to the internet, that internet is not making it through the WAN2 ethernet port on the back of the 2860n out into my wider network. I have set the TG588v into bridge mode now, it still will not work. This is making me frustrated. I can even see the connection under WAN2 on the Draytek now - but still no connection on any machines.

Could somebody please point me in the right direction? I have downloaded the manual for the 2860n but it's not proving helpful - it tells me where settings are, and what they do... but not which combination will achieve my goal. The TG588v user manual, well, that's less helpful still.

Thank you for your help, again, if anybody can offer any.

[sideways14a]

I would setup the new unit as the complete router ect until you narrow down the fault.

[Evilchap]

It's too crap to do the job, I'd have to drop a load of things the Draytek is doing, which would be annoying.

But it may come to that if I can't suss it out today. Cheers

[sideways14a]

You will prob need too rule out the line faults.

[R3K1355]

Yea plug it in for a bit, when you get all the same faults get back onto the ISP complain and get a booking for an openreach man to come out as you probs need a new line.

When thats booked in plug the Draytek back in and wait for the engineer.

[Evilchap]

Right, sorted... will see how it goes

[Evilchap]

So far 1 dropout. Connection speed about the same. Shocker.

[Evilchap]

So far this morning... 3 dropouts, since 0900. So the router isn't at fault, it would seem, as there's a whole other one on there and it's going the same thing.

[sideways14a]

Never was going to be a faulty router, but of course the isp will always try and blame something other than the copper...