Traverse Viking ADSL-2+ Card Problem
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Can you get line stats from the modem?
Steve
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A little Caig Deoxit on a Q-tip does wonders for oxidation on electrical contacts. I have not, as yet, replaced my line cord, but I used Deoxit once to clean the RJ11 contacts on the LinITX modem card–I'm not quite where I want to be, likely because I still had to jiggle the RJ11 plug to achieve sync, but as you can see looking at the graph below, things have improved somewhat--I'll have to try a second cleaning. The modem card probably sat on the shelf at the dealer for several years and there was no silica gel (to prevent oxidation) in its package when I received it.
The LinITX modem stats (checked when I initially configured the card) are similar to those achieved by my prior modem, with ca. 17.5Mb/s/1.0Mb/s speed and 11.5/11 dB S/N--the only difference being the downstream attenuation, which was ca. 33 dB instead of ca. 27 dB--the difference may have been due to the oxidized RJ11 contacts (although it has been my experience that different DSL modems sometimes report different stats). I have not tried accessing the stats via pfSense as yet--that will come after I find a complete solution for my line cord problem. My little secret, however, is that I actually work for my ISP in the town in which I live, so I can look at my stats by accessing the DSLAM at my workplace. I'll keep you updated on my progress.
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My little secret, however, is that I actually work for my ISP in the town in which I live, so I can look at my stats by accessing the DSLAM at my workplace.
Ah, well that would help. ;)
Thanks for the tip on Deoxit I've not tried it. Could be a US only product?Can you access the modem via telnet/ssh? Are there further line stats or error rates etc there? Could be useful for anyone who doesn't have access to their DSLAM. :)
Steve
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So now I've cleaned both ends of my RJ11 cable plugs and jacks with Deoxit, however, I still have some residual packet loss. I don't think it is the cable, as I experimented with various ones a couple of years back when I also replaced my NID (yes, I did it myself–so I know it was done right), installed a Tii ADSL2+/POTS splitter in the NID, and re-terminated all my phone and DSL wiring (cat 5e) in my house inside a sealed box with punch-down blocks. The residual packet loss problem, therefore, is likely in my ISP's wiring outdoors. I can try lowering my DSL speed, but I somehow don't think that will solve the problem. I likely have the most tweaked DSL line in town, but I'll try to get on my ISP's case about finding a bad splice outdoors.
The major telephone companies here in the Colonies, as you may already be aware, have in recent years shifted their focus entirely from copper landlines to wireless services. The copper is left to degrade on the poles--some of the lines are as old as 70 years (as in the lead cable my ISP recently retired in my town)! The companies just won't spend money to replace their aging copper plants. My ISP has an excellent FTTH service, but it has not deployed it in my town and has halted deploying the service in areas in which it has not already done so in favor of spending all of its money on wireless projects--it is really a rather pitiful situation that our government tolerates in the name of Capitalism.
The DSLAM shows occasional CBC and UBC errors on my line--most often when my telephone rings. I'll keep you posted on my progress.
Oh, and I discovered that I had not fully seated my RJ11 plug in my LinITX modem's RJ11 jack--it's now fully seated and it fits o.k.--sorry for my mistake jonesr!
Here follows a graph of my remaining residual packet loss as it stands this morning:
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I lowered my DSL download speed this morning at ca. 9:08 am from ca. 15 Mbs to ca. 10 Mb/s to see if it would reduce my packet loss, however, the speed change had the opposite effect–it significantly increased my packet loss (by over an average factor of two)! I wonder what could cause this increase when the speed change served to increase my S/N by ca. 6 dB? Perhaps the source of my packet loss is not my telephone line after all?
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It could be an issue with apinger itself. Quite a few people have reported that though mostly with ridiculous figures like >100% packet loss!
Do you see packet loss if you just run a ping test?Steve
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I'm still collecting data, then I'll try the ping test. Here is a graph of when I lowered my download speed to ca. 5 mb/s, attaining a ca. 21.5 dB S/N. Note the continued increase in packet loss as I lower the speed and thereby raise the S/N.
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Steve:
Doing repeated simple pings to my DSLAM (IP address changed below to disguised it) I get no packet loss:
PING 12.9.74.1 (12.9.74.1): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 12.9.74.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=127 time=16.261 ms
64 bytes from 12.9.74.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=127 time=16.658 ms
64 bytes from 12.9.74.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=127 time=16.686 ms–- 12.9.74.1 ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 16.261/16.535/16.686/0.194 ms -
Back to ca. 15 Mb/s with increased power and S/N, both downstream and upstream; this can't be right–it's got to be an apinger problem. Yup, restarting apinger tames its readout:
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Try setting apinger to use a different remote address. Preferably something close to you.
Steve
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I tried a different IP address in apinger and basically got the same packet loss results. On the other hand, I tried running the ping tests at dslreports.com and saw no packet loss. Also, all ISP tests on my DSL line indicate it is stable. I am trying another, off site, ping test to my IP address and will report back on it when I obtain the data.
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A 24-hour Ping Test (via dslreports.com) shows zero packet loss in tabulated data and graph (notch down in graph shows transition from Interleaved mode to Fastpath mode):
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I'll go home and check, I'm not sure if you'd be interested trying a different PCI ADSL modem as I have a case of ones that I use to sell and get a pretty penny for on eBay. I actually just fig them out planning on selling them again for some extra dough. I'll post the model and if your interested cover shipping and one is yours.
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The card I've got is a Songoma S518 ADSL Card 2005 Rev. C (low profile model with full size bracket), about 3 years ago I was getting over $100 each for them. Your welcome to one if you want to try a different adapter, just cover S&H.
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The Sangoma S518 is a real modem, rather than a router/modem on a PCI card. As such it requires a specific driver and I'm not sure one exists for FreeBSD. There is a Linux driver though so it may have been ported.
Edit: Not listed on the main support site but there is a FreeBSD driver: ftp://ftp.sangoma.com/FreeBSD/wanpipe/
Not sure if anything newer than FreeBSD 6 exists though.Steve
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I would not mind having one of the Songoma cards, but it would be of no use to me unless there is a current driver for it that will work with pfSense–and the specs I found for it seem to indicate it does not do ADSL2+ as it has a download bandwidth limitation of 8 Mb/s. I also have explored purchasing a commercial-grade modem, however, they are very expensive--my LinITX card seems to be sailing pretty smoothly now.
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My pfSense router has run for 23 days now without a reboot or PPPoE disconnect–I was hoping to report on it here after a month without a reboot, however, my local power utility experienced a brownout this morning that forced a reboot--but I guess I'll call my new ADSL2+ modem card a success at this point anyway. Thanks, jonesr, for your card recommendation!
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Not a problem, I am glad you are happy with it.
If anyone else has been following this thread I still have one of these cards and would be happy to send it to anyone in return for a donation to the pfSense project.
Completely off topic, but I met someone recently who I told me he had met two people writing 802.11n drivers for FreeBSD, and told them they were wasting their time and to do something worthwhile with their lives. He and I share the same first name, you have just reminded me to make a donation to the FreeBSD project in our name.
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Sounds like a useful individual. ::)
Steve
