ADSL Router woes

[stroebs]

Hi all. I recently started getting very intermittent connectivity with my router at home. It's a Surecom EP-9410SX-G. It is no longer supported by surecom at all (I think the company changed ownership and a lot of old products went out the window) anyways, here's the problem:

I can brosw for about 5 minutes before it just stops and says: "Connecting to xxx" or "Looking up xxx" in my browse. The same happens if accessed via the WiFi network. The settings are all perfect, I restored them to what they were when I first got ADSL when I started having the issues.

I have phoned my ISP, they've unblacklisted my account, reset my password, reset my account, etc.I have phoned Telkom. They have recreated the port, resynched the line over and over and over again.

When the connectivity goes down, my router's lights remain lit (PWR, WL ACT, 4, ADSL, PPP) but absolutely no connectivity PC side on any protocol.

Is there anyway to test my router? It's a AR7WRD router with Busybox.

 

[Rudimental]

What are the SNR and Attenuation values of your line?

Have you tried running the router in bridge mode?

Have you tried pinging ip's when this happens to check if it is a DNS issue?

 

[stroebs]

What are the SNR and Attenuation values of your line?

Have you tried running the router in bridge mode?

Have you tried pinging ip's when this happens to check if it is a DNS issue?

Connection Status 	  	Connected
Us Rate (Kbps) 	  	128
Ds Rate (Kbps) 	  	384
US Margin 	  	18
DS Margin 	  	21
Trained Modulation 	  	GDMT
LOS Errors 	  	0
DS Line Attenuation 	  	31
US Line Attenuation 	  	17
Peak Cell Rate 	  	301 cells per sec
CRC Rx Fast 	  	0
CRC Tx Fast 	  	1
CRC Rx Interleaved 	  	0
CRC Tx Interleaved 	  	0
Path Mode 	  	Fast Path

Running the router in half-bridged mode at the moment, which seems to be working. Problem is, sometimes I can't connect with the modem, PPP light stays off and doesn't connect (like its doing right now and has done since 8am this morning). I've tried restarting it, manually connecting. Nothing works, although it is still synching.

I think it might be half the DNS issue and half the router issue, as I am connected in bridged mode now with Google Public DNS in my configs (only addys I knew off the top of my head to get connected)

 

[Rudimental]

Yeah, it definitely sounds like something has gone wrong with the router itself. Perhaps the internal memory is giving out, especially if it is pretty old.

Um, I'm not really sure how you could test this, though. I take it the router itself does not have a diagnostic test, or that test doesn't help?

 

[sgs]

Had the same router. Had the same problem. At the time I managed to get updated firmware out of them and flashed that. It didn't help.

Eventually found out that if I disabled the wifi AP, the problem went away. This was regardless of whether wifi was being used or not - it just happened sooner if a client used wifi. (I suspected a buffer overrun in the firmware or possibly a log overflow or something.)

Ended up buying a Linksys AP/Router. Switched the Surecom to bridge mode and left the routing / AP to the Linksys. Still running today and is rock-solid.

So if your experience matches the above, you might have to cut your losses I'm afraid. The Surecom's were cheap, obviously for a reason

 

[San-DraX]

Had a similiar issue with mine, but found out that there was a line issue at the local exchange ........

 

[Yotch]

You could try to monitor your noise margins over several hours to see whether there are any fluctuations using RouterStats or RouterStats Lite. Your downstream noise margin seems a bit low for your linespeed and attenuation. I have a similar attenuation and my downstream noise margin is around 27 @ 4Mbps.
http://www.vwlowen.co.uk/internet/files.htm#routerstats

As a last resort you could also look at the routertech firmware which appears to support your device. There is always the possibility that you may not be able to use the router again if something goes wrong though ...
http://www.routertech.org/faq/firmware/compatible-routers/

There are several cheap modem/routers (~R300) that you could also consider. You could also investigate some of the TP-Link models (take a look at the Cell C router thread for supplier info).
http://www.sybaritic.co.za/store/product_info.php?products_id=47634

PS I hope that my order is still on track!

 

[stroebs]

You could try to monitor your noise margins over several hours to see whether there are any fluctuations using RouterStats or RouterStats Lite. Your downstream noise margin seems a bit low for your linespeed and attenuation. I have a similar attenuation and my downstream noise margin is around 27 @ 4Mbps.
http://www.vwlowen.co.uk/internet/files.htm#routerstats

As a last resort you could also look at the routertech firmware which appears to support your device. There is always the possibility that you may not be able to use the router again if something goes wrong though ...
http://www.routertech.org/faq/firmware/compatible-routers/

PS I hope that my order is still on track!

Thanks, downloading that now.

I had RouterTech firmware previously. Worked wonders but recently (last 5 days or so) I've had the issues. I may have semi-bricked the router trying to upgrade the firmware.

I just called Telkom and asked them to re-create the port and turned it on and worked. Problem is that I had to move it to the lounge so don't have wireless for my pc in my room. It seems to be working. I've set a cmd up to ping google 10,000,000 times so if it goes down I can check that.

PS Order was sent, just forgot to send you your tracking number. I'll PM it to you