New Firmware for Fritz!Box 7390

mervl · Apr 05, 2012, 15:39:33

Quote from: Ardua on Apr 05, 2012, 14:15:55
I spoke too soon. I had a 'no obvious reason' disconnect at 9.06am and my downstream has risen by 1.2Mbps to just under 18 and my upstream has fallen back to 888 from 1048. Never seen the upstream that low in the past 12 months. My log also shows a phantom call last night. I haven't had one of those for weeks.

I never used it on ADSL variants, but would guess that as a VDSL modem with "backwards" compatibility with earlier variants of DSL there's likely to be a bit of trouble. Hopefully things will be better for you with VDSL2 - not long now? ADSL modems are notorious - some better than others. I too have got the phantom call back, after loosing it with the Febuary beta. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view) BT are pushing the copper's capabilities and trying to save costs with their hefty investment to bring better services to the final 10% and their commercial roll-out, so with antique analogue and more skimping on maintenance (correction, repair) I surmise that variable performance is something we are all going to have to get used to.

I'm still not sure that AVM's tinkering with the firmware is necessarily advantageous: one of the perceived advantages of the OR modem is I think it uses a Broadcomm chipset which matches that used by BT in the cab, rather than the Ikanos chipset in the Fritz. I just get the feeling that each time I upgrade it takes a bit of time for them to become familiarised again.

By the way, sorry for the cheek, but I'm trying to drum up interest for a better and simpler stats comparison project to which anyone interested could contribute on the Fritz!Forum on Mom'ilc's site if you (or other Fritz' users) could find time to respond to my post over there!!

FritzBox · Apr 05, 2012, 17:08:57

@merv, do you still have to wait for posts to be moderated over there?

Will be discussing FTTC with my ISP later on tonight hopefully

mervl · Apr 05, 2012, 17:43:38

@FritzBox: I've made the point that's a b. nuisance, and you do get pre-authorised (usually after a couple of posts). It's the spamming prob.

@Ardua: A thought, has the firmware changed your stability settings?

Ardua · Apr 05, 2012, 18:29:54

Quote from: mervl on Apr 05, 2012, 17:43:38

@Ardua: A thought, has the firmware changed your stability settings?

Just checked. Stability settings haven't changed. Downstream SNR is 4 and upstream 6. Since the increase in downstream speed and reduction in upstream I have zero errors upstream. Downstream the CRC rate remains as before but I am now getting FEC errors which was not the case with v.20 and its predecessors: I imagine that this is due to the high connection speed. I will now let the connection do its own thing as I am not a great believer in fiddling.

FritzBox · Apr 05, 2012, 19:00:13

My FEC Errors for the last 15 mins is 1840140

Ardua · Apr 05, 2012, 19:34:46

Quote from: FritzBox on Apr 05, 2012, 19:00:13
My FEC Errors for the last 15 mins is 1840140

Obviously, I have no need to worry. Currently showing 3226 in the past 15 minutes.

FritzBox · Apr 05, 2012, 19:53:11

Doesn't really seem to have any adverse effects, still no disconnections, so it can error as much as it likes

Lance · Apr 05, 2012, 22:30:00

FEC errors are an indication that interleaving is doing its job. If you didn't have them before then your line wasn't previously interleaved.

Ardua · Apr 06, 2012, 08:39:18

Quote from: Lance on Apr 05, 2012, 22:30:00
FEC errors are an indication that interleaving is doing its job. If you didn't have them before then your line wasn't previously interleaved.

My line contains to purr along at 18Mbps down and 0.88Mbps up compared to 16.5Mbps down and 1.05Mbps up a day or so ago. The only thing that I have done is update the firmware to v.21. Is interleaving an automatic process controlled by the system? My downstream SNR has remained at 4 since the speed increase and the overall error rate has fallen. I am not in anyway unhappy or bothered: I am just curious.

Steve · Apr 06, 2012, 09:45:02

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/interleaving.htm

Ardua · Apr 06, 2012, 10:19:36

@ Steve Thanks. Still doesn't explain why after 12 months my upstream speed has fallen. I thought that I would check to see whether this was just a 'blip' so I unplugged my FB for 30 minutes whilst I went out for a paper. It has re-synch'd at exactly the same speeds. Somewhat academic with 5 days to go to an FTTC install but interesting nevertheless.

Ardua · Apr 10, 2012, 11:44:28

After nearly 4 days of chugging along at 18 down and .888 up, my router log shows a disconnect at 4am today and speeds have reverted back to a more usual 17.2 down and 1.06 up.

Glenn · Apr 10, 2012, 12:04:21

I had a disconnect around that time too, last 30 mins - 1 hour.

mervl · Apr 10, 2012, 18:41:00

Quote from: Glenn on Apr 10, 2012, 12:04:21
I had a disconnect around that time too, last 30 mins - 1 hour.

BTw again? Nothing here in the SE (connected to red6 @ Stepney Green, though we have worked planned overnight on the 16th apparently according to the useful Zen checker). I always find that speeds on a resync vary by a margin of +/- 10% on my (reliable) FTTC connection (and firmware updates make no difference, so I'm really not sure what all AVM's tinkering achieves, seems like swings and roundabouts, as I would expect); on ADSL (equally reliable) it used to be up to, and sometimes over, 25%! There's no guarantees with residential copper, not for the money we pay Openreach at Ofcom's dicktat anyway.

I'm not sure whether AVM's Ikanos chipset is the best thing to use with BT's usual Broadcomm equipment (as used in OR's modems) - my connection seems to take a bit of time to settle down after an upgrade, though it doesn't give rise to any resyncs.

pctech · Apr 10, 2012, 19:21:46

The feed from an FTTC modem is simply an Ethernet connection so I thought the only thing the router did was act as a PPPoE endpoint to provide the credentials for authentication and mange the upper layers of the TCP/IP stack such as IP addressing.

For any changes to sync speed to occur surely would requiire changes in the firmware running on the modem which detects the line characteristics and negotiates sync speed?

Ardua · Apr 11, 2012, 08:09:56

Quote from: pctech on Apr 10, 2012, 19:21:46
The feed from an FTTC modem is simply an Ethernet connection so I thought the only thing the router did was act as a PPPoE endpoint to provide the credentials for authentication and mange the upper layers of the TCP/IP stack such as IP addressing.

For any changes to sync speed to occur surely would requiire changes in the firmware running on the modem which detects the line characteristics and negotiates sync speed?

Yes and no. Surely, it depends on whether the Fritz!Box is being used as a router connected to the BT-provided modem or as a standalone unit using the FB's built in VDSL capability. As stated above, the FB uses an Ikanos chipset.

didahdit · Apr 11, 2012, 11:08:49

Upgraded. ADSl2+ syncing about 400bps slower than the old version. No improvement on the analogue line noise problem so can't connect a handset to the Y connector - it has to go direct into the wall socket. Have sent off a grumblegram.

Ardua · Apr 11, 2012, 13:34:53

Quote from: didahdit on Apr 11, 2012, 11:08:49
Upgraded. ADSl2+ syncing about 400bps slower than the old version. No improvement on the analogue line noise problem so can't connect a handset to the Y connector - it has to go direct into the wall socket. Have sent off a grumblegram.

The only advice that I can offer after a year on ADSL2+ is have patience. My connection rate rose from 9Mbps on transfer to ADSL2+ and then it rose to 18Mbps - that said, it took a few months before I saw any significant fall in downstream SNR. You are in a 10 day training period and, as I understand it, BT will not listen to any complaints until the training period is over. I am sure Support will explain the detail better than I have done. Best of luck.

didahdit · Apr 12, 2012, 18:57:00

Tks Ardua. I'm not really worried about the slightly slower speed although it's not what you expect after a new release - or is it? I just wish they could get the analogue telephone to work as expected via the Y lead. Maybe I've just got an iffy cable. I might try and get another one made up. Not something I could do myself without suitable crimping tools but I know a man who does. Bob

Ardua · Apr 12, 2012, 19:39:24

Quote from: didahdit on Apr 12, 2012, 18:57:00
Tks Ardua. I'm not really worried about the slightly slower speed although it's not what you expect after a new release - or is it? I just wish they could get the analogue telephone to work as expected via the Y lead. Maybe I've just got an iffy cable. I might try and get another one made up. Not something I could do myself without suitable crimping tools but I know a man who does. Bob

What's the problem with your phones? I have 2 Fons and a Gigaset handset connected to my FB ( via DECT) and they all work fine. I have a filtered faceplate and an inline filter ( ie; a double filter). CLI works fine and the only issue that I have is the occasional phantom call. It happens in the quiet hours and I have Do NoT Disturb enabled so it is really not an issue.

didahdit · Apr 12, 2012, 21:00:49

Analogue handset connected to the telephone outlet on the Y cable has very low level transmission plus excessive sidetone (background mush). I also have a Siemens digital handset plus two DECT fons. The Siemens phone via an RJ45 connection on Fritz with a SIP Phone number works fine as do the DECT phones answering a SIP call. However the DECT phones suffer bad transmission if the call comes in via the analogue line. So it's a pain cos I can't connect my BT analogue number to the Fritzbox and utilise the DECT phones.
Analogue connected direct to faceplate works just fine. Originally I had a plan 1a (parallel phone) connected to the BT junction box but I've disconnected that so there is a direct single connection from the BT network to my box/faceplate.

Ardua · Apr 12, 2012, 21:33:51

I am not sure that I can help as I do not use an analogue handset and I am not sure what you mean by 'telephone outlet on the Y cable'? I did plug an analogue headset in yesterday just to check that an extension socket was still live and I couldn't ring out with the FB connected. I unplugged the FB and everything was fine. Reading the manual, page 24 does indicate that analogue devices should be connected to the FON 1 or FON 2 sockets. Have a look at Whirlpool.net.au - they have a lot of FB users with phone issues/solutions. Sorry that I cannot be of more help.

didahdit · Apr 12, 2012, 21:56:18

That's OK Ardua. I'll await the response to my grumblegram. Thanks Bob

Ardua · Apr 14, 2012, 14:02:21

Apparently, there is yet another beta available for the FB7390 - 84.05.22-22182. I haven't installed it as some of the download sites look a bit dodgy to me. It is not showing in Fritz!Labs but some have said it can be downloaded from AVM ftp. I confess that I couldn't find it.

FritzBox · Apr 14, 2012, 14:26:23

Quote from: Ardua on Apr 14, 2012, 14:02:21
Apparently, there is yet another beta available for the FB7390 - 84.05.22-22182. I haven't installed it as some of the download sites look a bit dodgy to me. It is not showing in Fritz!Labs but some have said it can be downloaded from AVM ftp. I confess that I couldn't find it.

Can't find it either