Alcatel router issues

[dkturner]

Hi there

I've noticed that a lot of people I know who got the standard Alcatel router from Telkom and leave it running all the time have issues with dropped connections and intermittent failures. So I took some time to dig into the problem, and this is what I've found so far. Perhaps someone can confirm what I suspect strongly is a software bug on the router?

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Background to this story:  We're experiencing intermittent periods of
almost total failure of our Internet connection.  I say "almost" total
because occasionally a few packets continue to get through.  We have a
512kbps ADSL connection (Telkom ISP), with the standard ethernet/ADSL
bridge ("router") supplied by Telkom (details below).

The outages usually come in clusters, where we get five minutes on/one
minute off behaviour lasting for about an hour (or until someone
resets the ADSL router).

We leave the router running 24/7, in an environment where the average
daytime temperature is typically 25-30 degrees centigrade.

We have a cron job on our Linux server which parses
http://192.168.10.200/Mon/Mort.sht every five minutes in order to
check for IP address changes.  I have noticed in the log for this job
that it fails to retrieve the current IP during periods corresponding
to our outages.  However, when service resumes the external IP
address has not changed.


ADSL router system information:

Product Model:    ADSL MPC850
Software Version: 1.0.27L10-3A
CPU:              MPC850SAR at 48MHz
RAM:              4MB
Flash:            2MB
Chipset:          Alcatel MTK-20150


Network configuration:


    +-----------+  Ceiling switch  +--------+    Patch cable    +--------+
    |  Windows  |  192.168.1.0/24  | Linux  |  192.168.10.0/24  |  ADSL  |
    | Terminals | ================ | Server | ================= | Router |
    +-----------+                  +--------+                   +--------+


Here is a log of one particular incident (about 5pm, Friday 18 February
2005):

1. Net connections stopped working.
2. Attempted HTTP (web) connection to 192.168.10.200 (ADSL router).  Timed
   out.
3. Opened an SSH session to Linux server.
4. Pinged ADSL router.  Approx 95% packet loss.  Left ping running for
   following steps.
5. Observed continuous blinking of LAN Active light on ADSL router at
   approximately 1s intervals (same as interval between pings).
   Conclusion: packets are successfully transmitted via the ethernet cable
   from Linux server to ADSL router.
6. Without disturbing the patch cable or secondary network card on the
   Linux server, power-cycled the ADSL router.
7. Observed return to 0% packet loss on ping process in step 4.


Conclusion: ADSL router will occasionally become non-responsive to IP
traffic for extended periods.

Possible explanations:

 1. Software bug in router.
 2. Hardware fault related to high temperature / extended usage.
 3. External DOS.

 

[stoke]

I'd bet a couple of hundred bucks that that problem is caused by eskoms power supply and the dreaded switchover to/from nighttime,daytime power. You see the lights dim, and all is not well.
I run mine on a decent UPS (APC), and you can hear it switching like crazy during those times.
I have never had any problems with that now antique Alcatel router, but then again, I have never run it without the UPS.

 

[Andrew24]

ditto

Hi There

I am also experiencing a very similar situation with the router you mentioned.
I am hunting for the firmware upgrade or software upgrade as I don't really want to buy a whole new ADSL router/modem device.

Did you find another solution to your problem?

I will post a link to the firmware if I find it

 

[devnull]

man have i been scratching my brain to try and work this one out lol. if anyone finds an update please let me know