There is no Spoon

[fjs]

Hello, forum. If I had more time, the question would be shorter.

I am attached to the MRPOY Exchange using the O2/Be LLU, as an O2 customer. ADSL2plus, G992.3. For a description of O2 Customer Service, see dilbert.com, Jan 22nd 2012. Phone Rental is BT Line Saver. If you think BT is bad, try O2 Telefonica for a landline.

I may or may not have connection difficulties, dependent on your viewpoint.
BT test systems say there is no line fault, even when the voice line crackles on the Quiet Line Test.
O2 tier one, two, and three support just shout at me.

The problem is that I lose sync in bursts, and cannot regain sync w/o a cold restart of any bridged connecting device, a DG834 or TG585v7, say. This is an increasingly frequent event.

The only way to solve the problem has been to bridge a 2700HGV, firmware 6.1.1.48-enh, and use that. With a target SNR of 9db, I have a usable connection.

I have a separate router, running TomatoUSB.

The loss of sync seems primarily related to RF interference, The line is also poor. 1.2 km approx from exchange, line attenuation 28db. Sync around 12500 kbits/s at target SNR of 9db. The NTE5A is 3 metres off the ground near the garage ceiling, above the electricity Consumer Unit. I have 2 metres of vertical CW 1308, possibly acting as an aerial.

Street light flickers - was attended to by Council.
Neighbour has Christmas tree lights on 5m fir tree at boundary. Turned off, hopefully for good, on 26th February.
Builder 50m away starts cutting blocks whilst I am watching RouterStats trace. 10 losses of sync in 30 minutes.

Running RouterStats on Mac OS X is challenging.

I have changed faceplate from Austin Taylor -who I think have ceased trading - to a Pressac VDSL Faceplate, which has in built RF3 style chokes. This has caused an improvement, so I am left with 1 or 2 resyncs per day.

The question

Asbokid has shed his identity, so I doubt his work will continue. Does anyone know if there are differences in the handling of loss of sync events by different 2Wire models?

2700HGV, with differing firmware versions, and the 2701?

I have an annoying event between 0600 and 0700. Loss of sync occurs, which may be due to a motor vehicle, even at a target SNR of 9db. The 2wire retrains, and moves the SNR to 14db, where it stays.

I would seek to avoid this.

Suggestions would be appreciated.

[Steve]

  Sorry I can't offer any help with the 2Wire and I'm not sure what else you can do , AAISP are still offering to take on faulty lines 

[fjs]

Thank you. AAISP's tariff is based on use. The router I use logs this. The cost of moving to them would be prohibitive.

The interaction between the DLM and CPE transceiver is poorly documented. It is not a clean negative feedback setup. Only one ISP uses SRA. The 2Wire behaves differently to other devices, hence the question.

2Wire news...I would point out that the specious LAN traffic results on unused ports under 6 series firmware can be removed by changing the port settings of unused ports to a setting other than 'Auto'.

[Simon]

We do have one or two 2Wire experts who will hopefully see this, but I'm not one of them. 

However...

[Tacitus]

I have changed faceplate from Austin Taylor -who I think have ceased trading

AFAIK they are still trading.  Certainly their website is still live.   http://www.austin-taylor.co.uk/

[fjs]

Last order date from Austin Taylor was 17th February, hence the assertion.

[Ray]

 

[asbokid]

Asbokid has shed his identity, so I doubt his work will continue.

Shed his identity?! You make me sound like a snake shedding its skin!

The project to 'gain a shell' on the 2Wires is ongoing, in fact we are working on it tonight.

We've now built JTAG software that works on almost all models of 2Wire.

http://hackingbtbusinesshub.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/open-source-trimedia-jtag-tools/

The JTAG tool is good for the 2Wire Medusa-based 1800HG (the very first BT Business Hub),  the 2Wire Ares-based 2700 and 2701 (the later of the Trimedia-based BT Business Hubs), as well as the 3600 and the 3800, two models of 2Wire routers used by AT&T for its U-Verse VDSL2 FTTC service.

There are a couple of oddities in the 2Wire family which might be studied at a later date (the older 2700 and the 2071a sold only in Oz). These devices are both based on the short-lived 2Wire Perseus CPU.

Does anyone know if there are differences in the handling of loss of sync events by different 2Wire models?

The software - version for version - appears identical in the 2700 and the 2701.

However the two devices have different Analog Front Ends and Line Driver (AFE/LD) chipsets, so performance and stability is likely to vary.  The later 2700 models are based on the STMicro ST20184 AFE while the 2701 is based on the Silicon Labs Si3112 AFE.

See http://hackingbtbusinesshub.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/dsl-chipsets-in-2wire-kit/

cheers, a

P.S. See the (unread) reply to you of Feb 11 which explained most of the above!

[Steve]

  Asbokid and thanks for efforts with the HG612

[asbokid]

Asbokid and thanks for efforts with the HG612

Hi Steve, thanks for the warm welcome!

The HG612 is excellent for the diagnostics it can provides on a line, so hopefully the ECI will be the same if we can get it cracked too!

cheers, a

[Simon]

[asbokid]

Thanks Simon!  What a friendly place this is 

cheers, a

[Simon]

Usually.