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[timh]

Hi,

Having recently moved house I have been connected on ADSL max with F2S.  I'm finding that almost every evening (usually from 6-7pm) my Netgear DG834 router loses sync and seems to get stuck in a connect/disconnect cycle (I've observed it for up to 2 hrs) until I power it off for a few mins and then power back on at which point it is then fine until the next evening.

My SNR Margin usually runs at 6db dropping down to 2-3db in a fairly peeky fashion (monitored using the excellent Routerstats program) but my connection seems stable at all other times apart from this early evening spasm.

I appreciate that noise may occasionally cause a loss of sync, but what does confuse me is why my router then fails to properly reconnect until I power cycle it.

It seems to me this is more of a router issue rather than having continual noise on the line.  I'm going to try and get some logs via router stats during the early evening issue to confirm.
The router has latest f/w and has been reset to factory defaults and then reconfigured.  I have also tried different adsl filters and rj11 cables. This has all been performed from the BT test socket (i.e. all extension wiring disconnected).  Router was used in previous house on 2Mb fixed, with no issues whatsoever for approx 1 year.

My line stats are:
RX Attenuation 55db
Synch speed approx 3500-3700kbps

[timh]

Well it appears I dont have the latest f/w !  The netgear support sites lists v3.01.25 as the most recent, however googling for dg834 f/w shows there is a v3.01.29 - I'll update to this and see if it resolves the issues.

[roseway]

When I used a DG834 I upgraded to the 3.01.29 firmware, and it seemed just a bit better than 3.01.25 in a few small ways, including a quicker resync after a connection drop.

Eric

[kitz]

tim you may be very interested in this thread
http://usergroup.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,3550.90.html

I thought I would give 3.01.31 a try on my DG834v2, so I installed it last Tuesday. Since then my connection has been rock solid with the lowest SNR of 6db from a target of 12db. I wonder what the problem is with this release and why it is not published on the Netgear website? On the other hand 3.01.25 is totally useless on my connection.

Read about that page carefully though to make sure you are stealthed properly.

[timh]

Thanks for your input guys.  I will try out V3.01.31 and the older v1.05.00 (which some on that thread suggest has given them best stability).

It certainly does appear that netgear have a f/w issue!

[kitz]

good luck and let us know how you get on

[timh]

Well - got home and router was recycling as usual.  Powered off and back on again and it then stayed connected.

Firstly I tried the v3.01.31 f/w and this was completely unstable, SNR was all over the place dropping down to -4db a couple of times causing router to lose sync.

Then downgraded to v1.05.00, this is more stable and hasn't yet lost sync, but has dropped down to 0db once or twice in the last 30mins, but on average is about 4db.  Strangely the attenuation has increased by 3db - but I guess this f/w just interprets the data with a different value.

I'll run with the older f/w for a day or so and see how it reacts tomorrow evening.

[kitz]

>>  v1.05.00, this is more stable and hasn't yet lost sync

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you ..
Dont think I'd worry too much about it dropping to 0dB as long as the connection remains up and stable.
Theres quite a few here with the Netgears that see the same thing and its one of its best points that it does seem to be able to hang on to the connection when the SNR Margin falls.

[mr_chris]

> it does seem to be able to hang on to the connection when the SNR Margin falls.

Yes, it does... I've seen the margin down to -1dB and remain in sync... although if you are actually using your net connection at the time it will eventually resync due to the line errors going crazy.

I'm currently on 3.01.25 and I would try 3.01.31 just to see, but I've had a steady 7.7Mbps sync for as continuous 1,291 hours (thats nearly 54 days!) - so I don't really want to mess that up. Previously I would sync at the full 8Mb, then my SNR would drop and I'd resync at about 5Mb. So even though my BRAS profile is only 6.5Mb rather than 7.15Mb I'm happier than if it was only about 4Mb!

So next time I reboot the router I may stick on the new firmware just to see if it makes a difference, but for now I'll leave it, I'm afraid.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[timh]

Heres current status:

Following morning after downgrading f/w to v1.05.00, the router just rebooted itself 3-4 times within the space of an hour or so - this of course lost wireless link etc.  I'd heard this version had a bug that caused occasional reboots, but this was more than just occasional.

So decided to then try the V3.01.29 - this has been more successful.   I've had 2 evenings so far without the normal connect/disconnect cycle and as it stands the router is showing 48 hours uptime on LAN/WAN and Wireless.

Fingers crossed.

P.s. tested for port security using shieldsup (www.grc.com) and all comes back stealthed.

[roseway]

My fingers are crossed for you.

Eric

[timh]

Just a quick update.  Things have been much better for the past week now having upgraded to V3.01.29.  Although I still appear to get occasional loss of synch, it doesnt get stuck in a cycle for hours on end as before and doesn't seem to even drop my vpn connection into work.

I did notice the other day however that I had synched at a lower speed 3324kbps, and this dropped me down to a 2500 profile - which I wasnt too happy with.  However I'm synching again at 3500kbps + and my profile has raised up again to 3000.

Thanks for all your help and advice.

[kitz]

>> Things have been much better for the past week now having upgraded to V3.01.29.

Thanks for letting us know your experiences.

Hope things are a lot more stable for you now that your bras profile has been re-increased.

[mr_chris]

Ok my router decided it was going to hang up this morning so I upgraded to 3.01.31.

Although now my SNR seems to have gone up to 12dB and this new firmware seems to be more conservative so my sync has dropped to 7104 pushing my IP profile down to 6000

So now i have to wait until my SNR goes above 12dB to resync and hopefully get a sync rate above 7392kbps to get me 6500 BRAS profile back 

Ho hum... at least it's working, not sure what caused it to hang up - although after 1600 hours of uptime I guess it needed a rest??

Will keep you informed

[kitz]

>> after 1600 hours of uptime

hmm..  you were only bragging this w/e too that youd been up for over 2 months 

>> so my sync has dropped to 7104

What was your SNR margin - did you sync when your neighbour turns their immersion heater on or whatever it is they do that causes the margin to plummet?

>> SNR goes above 12dB

damn at the 12dB target that you must have on your line..  would have thought that after 2 months of continous sync your target SNR would have decreased. :/