Kitz ADSL Broadband Information
adsl spacer  
Support this site
Home Broadband ISPs Tech Routers Wiki Forum
 
     
   Compare ISP   Rate your ISP
   Glossary   Glossary
 
Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Pages: [1] 2 3 4

Author Topic: ECI model B-FOCuS V-2FUb/I Rev.B Experiences  (Read 18618 times)

Blackeagle

  • Reg Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 257
ECI model B-FOCuS V-2FUb/I Rev.B Experiences
« on: April 02, 2014, 09:56:26 AM »

Having obtained an adaptor to unlock these, I dug one out of the cupboard where it has lain unused for the best part of two years, and within ten minutes it was unlocked.  As BT originally fitted one of these, I know it's meant to match the DSLAM and therefore I was curious to know whether any improvement would be seen on my line.  As regular kitizens may remember, my line from the DP to the CAB is 100% Aluminium  :(  Errors abound, and it won't support much above the 40/2 its currently running at.

Anyway, the modem was duly installed, along with a Tenda 5 port switch (which was extremely badly received !) to allow access when online (Thanks custard for pointing that out).  Stats were grabbed using eDMT as I was disappointed to find most of the ECI's stats page was not filled out.  Initial readings appeared very similar to the HG612, although sync speed was slightly less.

Further testing indicated that the ECI was not susceptible to a sudden SNRM drop when turning on my plasma TV.  The HG612 loses at least 0.5dB when it's turned on and this does not return until the set is switched off.  Both modems were located in the same place, powered from the same socket and used the same xDSL cable from the frontplate. The test was carried out several times to ensure accurate results.

All however, was not rosy in the eyrie.  During a subsequent attempt to refresh the HTML page of the modem, it became apparent that connectivity had been lost.   A telnet session was established, which connected OK, but attempts to send a command via the pipe failed, with no return of the Alpha # prompt.  Terminating the session proved to be the only way out.  Rebooting would have cured this, however it was decided to leave things as they were as net connectivity was fine.

Sometime during the night (as I found upon rising), internet connectivity had been lost.  Little LED's indicated a session was established, but no DNS resolution was possible and pings to google's DNS servers failed.  The HG533 was rebooted as this acts as the gateway, and although reliable, has been known to fall over once or twice in the past. Didn't help  :no:
At this point I should have checked the switch, but instead I rebooted the ECI.  When this didn't restore connectivity, I rebooted the switch, which did !!

This morning I awake to the same situation of no connectivity.   The wife was incandescent !!!!  She listens to the radio online via XBMC as VHF and DAB reception here can be rather poor at times.  As she cannot listen to her favourite breakfast show, I get an ear bashing !!

This time I reboot both the HG533 and the Tenda switch but to no avail.  Http connectivity to the ECI does not work, and telnet produces similar results of logging in but 'piped' commands failing.

The result of this is that the HG612 is once again responsible for connectivity.  Looking at the stats, I can see that in the two days the ECI was online, interleaving has fallen from 1380 to 849, SNRM is around 1dB better for downstream, at ~7.2dB, although I put this down to syncing at around 8.30am. 

The ECI, for me at any rate, just seems to be too 'flaky', falling over at the slightest opportunity.  Of course, it may just be that the modem has a slight fault and as I'm not quite yet prepared to give up, I have another one that can be unlocked and pressed into service to see if it is any better behaved.  Two days of dodgy connectivity did not give me a chance to formulate an accurate opinion of which router may perform better and I would like to be able to leave the ECI online for at least a week.  Sadly, this particular router won't be online anytime soon.

(Blackeagle apologises for the length and rambling nature of this post!!  It is somewhat longer than I originally intended  :-[)
Logged
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI -- TalkTalk Broadband since 2006

kitz

  • Administrator
  • Senior Kitizen
  • *
  • Posts: 33881
  • Trinity: Most guys do.
    • http://www.kitz.co.uk
Re: ECI model B-FOCuS V-2FUb/I Rev.B Experiences
« Reply #1 on: April 02, 2014, 07:02:17 PM »

Interesting read. 

>> I can see that in the two days the ECI was online, interleaving has fallen from 1380 to 849,

Which implies the DLM thinks your line is more stable with the ECI, despite the losses in connectivity. 
Out of interest, did you happen to notice the amount of errors generated whilst using the ECI modem?   Just wondering if the fact that the Huawei's SNRm dips  whilst the TV is on if this is causing an increase in errors....  and in due course how the DLM would react to any errors.


I notice you say you have another ECI to try, so it would be interesting to see how that performs too and/or if it was just that eci that was flaky :/
Logged
Please do not PM me with queries for broadband help as I may not be able to respond.
-----
How to get your router line stats :: ADSL Exchange Checker

Blackeagle

  • Reg Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 257
Re: ECI model B-FOCuS V-2FUb/I Rev.B Experiences
« Reply #2 on: April 02, 2014, 07:23:35 PM »

DLM seems stable, even with the high error counts I get.  Over a 31 day period, my line stats didn't alter at all, so DLM doesn't seem to be reacting to them.  I am currently unsure whether DLM brought down the interleaving with the ECI connected, or whether it was the 8.30am sync  :-\  Further testing is definitely needed, although it's unlikely to be this week.

I have already unlocked the second ECI (and marked the case) so as to be able to test with it.

You can see clearly in the attached grab the TV being on, then turned off, then on again for about 5 minutes.  If it turns out that the ECI does not exhibit this behaviour, then if I can get it to stay connected reliably, it'll probably stay.

I would need to do something about the graphing though.   eDMT is OK but I've got so used to dslstats now  :)
Logged
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI -- TalkTalk Broadband since 2006

custard

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 83
    • Geeky Dentist
Re: ECI model B-FOCuS V-2FUb/I Rev.B Experiences
« Reply #3 on: April 02, 2014, 08:40:29 PM »

I've found that telnet has a tendancy to become unresponsive to some commands with both the ECI/I and ECI/r. Eventually I could not login which was only fixed via a reboot or serial access to restart telnet.
I had been using the ECI/r recently when this happened so I opened up the lid while still been connected to internet and was able to send the a telnet restart command.

In the ECI/r thread Asbokid talks about disabling BTagent to stop the freezing.
Otherwise wires may need to be permanently connected to UART and tunnelled out the case until a simpler solution is found.

I had an increased sync of 2.5mb with both ECI's over the HG612.

Unfortunately I have damaged my ECI/r and have reverted back to the hg612 for now.
Logged

Blackeagle

  • Reg Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 257
Re: ECI model B-FOCuS V-2FUb/I Rev.B Experiences
« Reply #4 on: April 02, 2014, 11:46:23 PM »

Yes, I did see the reference to killing the btAgent stuff. I tried that after the first reboot, in the hopes that it would help but sadly, it didn't.  I'm not thrilled at the thought of having to leave it serially linked all the time, but I guess it's an option. When I lost http access, but still had telnet, I tried killing the httpd daemon and restarting it, but it didn't help.

Perhaps the flakiness of connectivity is a reason for BT to lock down the router? Certainly, I'm not full of confidence with it now!!

Perhaps I will run it offline for a bit, see if there is a pattern to locking it up.
Logged
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI -- TalkTalk Broadband since 2006

burakkucat

  • Respected
  • Senior Kitizen
  • *
  • Posts: 38300
  • Over the Rainbow Bridge
    • The ELRepo Project
Re: ECI model B-FOCuS V-2FUb/I Rev.B Experiences
« Reply #5 on: April 03, 2014, 12:13:16 AM »

Perhaps the flakiness of connectivity is a reason for BT to lock down the router? Certainly, I'm not full of confidence with it now!!

In all honesty, I think it was nothing more than a means to disable any "fiddling", thus providing a consistent CPE functionality across the entire installed end-user base which, in turn, would allow statistics to be remotely harvested allowing the (then) new product to be analysed "across the board".

Quote
Perhaps I will run it offline for a bit, see if there is a pattern to locking it up.

That would be a good experiment as, whatever your findings may be, the result will add to the knowledge base for the device.
Logged
:cat:  100% Linux and, previously, Unix. Co-founder of the ELRepo Project.

Please consider making a donation to support the running of this site.

Blackeagle

  • Reg Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 257
Re: ECI model B-FOCuS V-2FUb/I Rev.B Experiences
« Reply #6 on: April 07, 2014, 10:39:10 AM »

I've now run the ECI/i for around 48hrs offline.  During this time, a simple script has been running to grab each of the modem's http pages every 10 seconds.  This has not produced any loss in connectivity with the ECI and both telnet and http access are available. 

The vast majority of this test has been with the m/board out of the case.  I can't shake the suspicion that heat may be involved , therefore the board has been replaced into the case, and the test continues !!

I would have suspected the other unit to be faulty, were it not for other kitizens mentioning similar loss of connectivity.  To further prove/disprove this theory, the same tests will be conducted with the modem online in both its standard state and with some form of cooling (yet to be fully devised  ::)) in place.
Logged
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI -- TalkTalk Broadband since 2006

Blackeagle

  • Reg Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 257
Re: ECI model B-FOCuS V-2FUb/I Rev.B Experiences
« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2014, 12:12:01 PM »

Cooling devised !!!!

A 55mm 12Vdc 4000RPM fan has been mounted, with the aid of blu-tack above the Lantiq SoC, and wired directly to the incoming 12Vdc.  No current issues as the fan is rated 0.15A and the router 1.25A.  The PSU currently connected can supply upwards of 5A  :)

A slight modification had to be made to the lid as there is a plastic peg which was fouling on the fan.  This was removed. A VDSL2 outage is scheduled in the eyrie for around 9AM tomorrow for a changeover of modem. 

If the ECI/i shows the same line improvements as the last one, and the cooling proves effective in providing stable access, then it will likely remain.  Time will tell !!
Logged
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI -- TalkTalk Broadband since 2006

custard

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 83
    • Geeky Dentist
Re: ECI model B-FOCuS V-2FUb/I Rev.B Experiences
« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2014, 01:12:13 PM »

Blackeagle - I've now connected to the ECI/I semi permanently via UART.
I'm finding I can knock out the telnet on demand by overloading it with multiple commands. I am then able to restart telnet via the serial but this seems to then knockout the serial connection. :no:
So if I then overload telnet again I have lost both serial and telnet which can only be regained via a reboot...

Logged

Blackeagle

  • Reg Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 257
Re: ECI model B-FOCuS V-2FUb/I Rev.B Experiences
« Reply #9 on: April 11, 2014, 09:27:45 AM »

Blackeagle - I've now connected to the ECI/I semi permanently via UART.
I'm finding I can knock out the telnet on demand by overloading it with multiple commands. I am then able to restart telnet via the serial but this seems to then knockout the serial connection. :no:
So if I then overload telnet again I have lost both serial and telnet which can only be regained via a reboot...

Hmmm, yeah.  I think this could be due to limited memory.  I doubt there is much error checking going on and I think it would be easy to overflow a buffer or stack by sending commands too fast.

My ECI has now been in circuit for 24 hrs.  Currently I have both http and telnet access.

I'm working on some software to get stats off it in near real time, much like DSLstats etc.  Currently it's collecting stats every 10 seconds although I have had to write a bit of error handling, as the ECI has a habit of returning spurious data occasionally (or maybe its my code  ???).

Currently it's only grabbing downstream stats, but it is only a matter of setting a flag to get the upstream details.  I also need to add graphing as its only updating text labels at the moment but that shouldn't be too difficult.

Currently its Windoze only  :o  I know, I know, but it's much easier to design a nice, polished UI in Redmond based software than it is in Linux.  It should run under Wine anyway but I haven't tested that yet.

It's probably not going to be as polished as Eric's offering, but I doubt DSLstats will ever support the ECI. eDMT is fine, but it's only a snapshot, and you have to OK numerous pop up windows each time you refresh the data.  I wanted something that could graph in realtime, hence this attempt.

Initial findings vs the HG612 indicate that the ECI consistently reports DS figures for band 2, although at a line attenuation 0f ~73dB the band is not in use.  The 612 however, reports no figures for this band.  Of course it's firmware could be written to ignore unused bands completely, but it's still nice to have a figure.

Sync is very slightly down.  39992 vs 39997, but interleaving is (I think) slightly lower.

Compared to the first ECI/i that I tried, this one has proved so far to be more stable.  :)
Logged
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI -- TalkTalk Broadband since 2006

custard

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 83
    • Geeky Dentist
Re: ECI model B-FOCuS V-2FUb/I Rev.B Experiences
« Reply #10 on: April 11, 2014, 05:40:06 PM »

You should be able to check your interleaving level on the webpage or via the telnet commands

Code: [Select]
Alpha # echo "g997csg 0 0" > /tmp/pipe/dsl_cpe0_cmd
Alpha # cat /tmp/pipe/dsl_cpe0_ack
nReturn=0 nChannel=0 nDirection=0 ActualDataRate=19992000 PreviousDataRate=20000000 ActualInterleaveDelay=950 ActualImpulseNoiseProtection=26
Alpha # echo "g997csg 0 1" > /tmp/pipe/dsl_cpe0_cmd
Alpha # cat /tmp/pipe/dsl_cpe0_ack
nReturn=0 nChannel=0 nDirection=1 ActualDataRate=59504000 PreviousDataRate=67212000 ActualInterleaveDelay=975 ActualImpulseNoiseProtection=30
I've had interleaving switched on last night after multiple reboots while testing yesterday.

I also found on one occasion when a piped command failed that I lost webpage access. I was able to regain this by simply killing the pid associated with the piped command.

It would be great if you could develop a program. :thumbs:
« Last Edit: April 11, 2014, 05:45:44 PM by custard »
Logged

Chrysalis

  • Content Team
  • Addicted Kitizen
  • *
  • Posts: 7382
  • VM Gig1 - AAISP L2TP
Re: ECI model B-FOCuS V-2FUb/I Rev.B Experiences
« Reply #11 on: April 11, 2014, 05:59:57 PM »

my telnet also dies on the unlocked ECI I have, at the time asboguy was around but he couldnt repeat it so was no fix suggested.

I also had processes chewing up 100% cpu on my ECI as well.  So the modem didnt seem too healthy, although I believe it did lower error rates on my line.

A way to get a modem with the same chipset as the ECI is get a fritzbox 3370, but sadly they removed the bridge mode function (was in very early firmwares).  Bridge mode can be done via telnet but getting into telnet on the 3370 is tough due to it usually been done on the voip ports that exist on the 7390.  Not to mention the fritz 3370 is very expensive for what it is.
Logged

Blackeagle

  • Reg Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 257
Re: ECI model B-FOCuS V-2FUb/I Rev.B Experiences
« Reply #12 on: April 11, 2014, 09:21:05 PM »

You should be able to check your interleaving level on the webpage or via the telnet commands
It would be great if you could develop a program. :thumbs:

Yeah, I know what my interleaving currently is, in fact my monitor reports it.  What I meant was I'm not sure how the ms value the ECI reports equates with the value reported by a Broadcom chipset, as it reports an interleave depth.  If the values equate directly (i.e. the Broadcom chipset reports a millisecond value) then its definitely lower.

Currently, all the data I'm grabbing is downstream only, but adding Upstream isn't difficult.  I can just add a flag to the code and pass it into each data gathering routine.

I've noticed (and wonder if you could confirm this), that the max attainable rate doesn't appear to change, either from the telnet info, or the webpage.

Currently,  I've only written code to graph SNRM, but I think it's relatively easy to graph the static stuff like QLN so that will be added last.   I'm also not graphing the band plan SNRM's, just the average although I guess I could add it as an option as I'm getting the data anyway.

Occasionally, the ECI sends bad data.  This is currently handled by just reporting the issue in the status bar - it doesn't stop the sampling.

Planned graphs are :-
  • SNRM - Already working for D/S
  • Speed - Everyone graphs this!!  Easy to add.
  • Bitloading - Bit(sic) of work to do here to parse the output.
  • CRC errors - Need to figure out how to get them !!
  • FEC errors - Same as above
  • QLN - Know how to get this, just need to write some code as a one shot deal
  • Gain - Know how to get this too - does this change with time ?

Feel free to suggest other stats to graph.  Gonna try and work a bit on this over the weekend.

Will post a screenshot when I get the chance  ;)
« Last Edit: April 11, 2014, 09:39:05 PM by Blackeagle »
Logged
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI -- TalkTalk Broadband since 2006

custard

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 83
    • Geeky Dentist
Re: ECI model B-FOCuS V-2FUb/I Rev.B Experiences
« Reply #13 on: April 11, 2014, 11:13:50 PM »

I don't think I've seen the max attainable change in real time but i'll keep an eye on it to confirm.

Try this for interleave depth
Code: [Select]
Alpha # echo " g997fpsg 0 0" > /tmp/pipe/dsl_cpe0_cmd
Alpha # cat /tmp/pipe/dsl_cpe0_ack
nReturn=0 nChannel=0 nDirection=0 nNFEC=96 nRFEC=16 nLSYMB=6072 nINTLVDEPTH=253 nINTLVBLOCK=96 nLPATH=0
Alpha # echo " g997fpsg 0 1" > /tmp/pipe/dsl_cpe0_cmd
Alpha # cat /tmp/pipe/dsl_cpe0_ack
nReturn=0 nChannel=0 nDirection=1 nNFEC=85 nRFEC=16 nLSYMB=18342 nINTLVDEPTH=863 nINTLVBLOCK=85 nLPATH=0

Do you want 15min stats for CRC/FEC? otherwise there is daily, showtime or total?

I suppose you could add in ES aswell...

That program looks to be coming on great!!
Logged

NewtronStar

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 4898
Re: ECI model B-FOCuS V-2FUb/I Rev.B Experiences
« Reply #14 on: April 11, 2014, 11:14:52 PM »

Will need to compare your averages with DSLSTATS and HG612_Modem stats and you may need some Beta testers to hand the best ones already have a spanner in there hands ready to poke it.  :D
Logged
Pages: [1] 2 3 4
 

anything