Hi

I have a 2860n on a BT line with ADSL provided by Sky. The cable run from my house to the exchange is about 2.8 miles and the run is all underground and is about 5 years old. The 2860n was purchased about 3 weeks ago from DABS in the UK and came with firmware 3.7.1 which I upgraded last Friday to 3.7.3 from the Draytek UK site due to the IE10 issue. The issue I’m having, outlined below, occurs with firmware 3.7.1 and 3.7.3. The 2860 has DSL Version 05-03-03-00-01-01.

For the first week the 2860 worked ok on the Sky link and I didn't see many drops. The 2860 gave about 8Mb download (as tested via speedtest.net) and the Sky supplied NetGear gave about 9.5Mb at this time. The drop in speed was annoying but the 2860 was reliable. Since the 18th of this month the 2860 will only keep the ADSL line up for a maximum of 5 minutes, sometimes only 30 seconds. When the ADSL line drops the 2860 reconnects immediately. The 2860 shows an ADSL S/N ratio of 6dB with the occasional drop to 5dB. Line attenuation sits around 40. Up speed is about 1016000, down speed is 999600. The odd thing is if I connect the Sky supplied router the link is perfect and never disconnects. If I run a ping -t against Google I never see a drop via the Sky router but I see plenty on the 2860 as the ADSL line drops and recovers. The Sky router’s logfile also never shows any disconnects either. I've replaced the ADSL filter+ cable and the filter is plugged in to the test port on the BT line. Phone audio quality on the line is perfect.

I've configured the ADSL line on the 2860 as follows but nothing seems to make any difference.

VPI 0
VCI 38
Encapsulation type VC-MUX
Protocol PPPoA
Modulation type Multimode (also tried G.DMT)
MTU tried 1400 up to 1490
DSL Mode ADSL Only (also tried ADSL/VDSL)
DSL MODEM code: tried all options including default

The Syslog of a disconnect is shown below:

1582013-11-26 10:09:13 Nov 26 10:09:10 Router1 PPP Closed : Remote Terminating (PPPoA)
1582013-11-26 10:09:18 Nov 26 10:09:16 Router1 PPP Start (PPPoA)
1582013-11-26 10:09:19 Nov 26 10:09:16 Router1 CHAP Login OK (PPPoA)
1582013-11-26 10:09:19 Nov 26 10:09:16 Router1 IPCP Opening (PPPoA); Own IP Address : 176.248.xx.xx Peer IP Address : 2.127.xx.xx; Primary DNS : 90.207.238.97 Secondary DNS : 90.207.238.99
1582013-11-26 10:09:21 Nov 26 10:09:19 Router1 PPP Closed : LCP Time-out ()

Is there anything else I can try? I never see a drop with the Sky router but the 2860 drops continually and always gets a new IP address, making VPNs impossible. I may well have something misconfigured but the 2860 did work fine for the first week, though was slower than the NetGear which may indicate there was an issue then. I could use the Sky router plugged in to the WAN2 port of the 2860 but if in need to do this I don't really need the 2860. The 2860 doesn't crash or reboot, I can see the ADSL line just drops and then comes back up via Syslog.

Thanks

Mainly posting because Latest firmware is 3.7.3.3 from here
ftp://ftp.draytek.com/Vigor2860/
However it may be a bug because according to some users it still reports 3.7.3 but is not same firmware ... was fixed few issues
http://www.forum.draytek.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=18858#p78247

You can set manual Modulation type to adsl2+ only or adsl2 if gives you the option
set the correct MTU from your ISP
set DSL Mode ADSL to adsl only

Now this will not help much as you tried before but at least will synchronize quickest (all modems when starts up, are checking what modulation to use so delays may occur until lock with the line)

I am not Sky user but You may also need to check the authentication like username or password or the PAP or CHAP if the correct one
Search (google) your error message Router1 PPP Closed : LCP Time-out ... you may find few answers until a sky user reply you

Hi

Thanks for your response.

I'll try the new firmware tonight, that's great. I've set MTU to Sky's setting, I tried to drop it to try an increase reliability. I've played with a lot of settings to try and make the router stay up. Authentication wise I think I'm ok, this line ran a 2820 for a couple of years with the same authentication details without issue. When the line is up the internet works fine. The LCP time out seems to be a DrayTek message, there are others reporting it but only on DrayTek routers.

Hopefully the firmware will fix it, if not I'll have to return the unit to DABS.

Thanks

thanks for update
Not sure if is related with you because did not read all 7 pages (could be faulty modem issue) but found this
helpforum.sky.com/t5/Broadband-Setup-Connection-WiFi/Broadband-disconnecting-frequently-Sick-of-it/td-p/974052

Also is worth to open open a ticket with the support team before you return it & see what they say ... they reply fast
http://www.draytek.co.uk/support/techquery.html

Hi

Many thanks for your help! I've created a ticket for support, I'll report back on what happens next.

Thanks

Hmm!!!!!!!!

I went back through my old backups from the router and I restored a backup from just after I moved from firmware 3.7.1 to 3.7.3. The router appears to be perfect now and has not dropped in the ADSL line in over 50 minutes. The weird thing is that I can't see any difference in the settings in the config that works and the config that fails. I have not changed anything in the config, I can only assume some corruption has occurred somehow in the settings. I'm not out of the woods yet but keeping comms up for more than 5 minutes was rare and now we are at 50 minutes something has changed. When I hear back from DrayTek I'll ask them about this as something odd is going on. The change of ADSL reliability occurred as soon as the old backup was restored and so I assume this has been the change, not a Sky/BT change.

Thanks for everyone's help.