We have a new V2832n router and have had major issues with it. The installation site is very simple, its a serviced office so an ethernet cable comes from a Cisco switch in the comms room and gives out an private IP via DHCP. When we installed the new 2832n to replace an old Netgear router it really struggled to get an IP address via DHCP and only worked around 10% of the time. If we set the connection to static then it connected but we were getting 50-90% packet loss when pinging google. The router also would often lock up and stop responding to ping on the LAN interface so would require a reboot. I had an old Vigor 2820n in my car so i installed that and it worked perfectly first time no problem, packet loss was 0% and internet speed good. Draytek support asked us to try various things but same issue, we were also able to replicate the problem in our own workshop so the unit was replaced under RMA.

Anyway, i went back today with the new 2832n and got the exact same problem. The router locked up twice and internet was all over the place. I changed the WAN interface from auto to 100 Full Duplex and it stopped crashing but internet wasnt right. Packet loss when pinging google was 10%, web pages took ages to load and i really struggled to get a speedtest to even run. I switched back to the 2820n and everything works fine again.

The WAN settings in both the 2832 and 2820 were identical, set to always on, static IP, MTU 1500 and auto negotiate.

Has anyone got an ideas what could be causing this issue?

Have you tried popping a spare switch between the cisco switch and the WAN port on the 2832.

So I connected the Draytek WAN into the back of my BT Homehub at home to run some tests. Internet worked great and did a bit of work while connected. I then realised the BT LAN ports are gigabit so I ran a couple of tests with the Draytek WAN set to Auto Neg and also on 100 Full, MTU was left on 1500.

Firefox - Speedtest.net Beta Version
Gigabit = 42Mbps / 8Mbps
100FD = 22Mbps / 0Mbps

IE 11 - Speedtest.net Classic Version (Flash)
Gigabit = 45Mbps / 9Mbps
100FD = 28Mbps / Fail

So it seems the issue may lie when the WAN port is set to or connected to a 10/100 connection. We have a 250Mbps connection with Virgin Media Business, so i repeated my testing but plugging the Draytek WAN port into the Virgin router and running speedtest.

When Draytek WAN set to auto = 211Mbps / 14Mbps

When Draytek WAN set to 100FD and 100HD = 0.6Mbps / Fail
Also web pages take 1-2 minutes to load

So this is the third environment now where having the Draytek WAN either set to 10/100 or connected to a 10/100 router/switch the internet speed is unusably slow.

Is there an issue with the v2832 range of routers i wonder?

Probably your 'service provider' is running VRRP on their core switches or routers.

You need to connect to the Draytek via Telnet and issue this command, to allow it to learn VRRP MAC addresses:

ip arp accept 5

So i have parked this for several weeks due to holiday and other projects and decided to pick it back up again today. Went onto the Draytek website and saw that a new firmware was released in the last few days, looking through the release notes i found this...

Improved interoperability of Ethernet WAN2 interface

So i connected the Draytek back up and tested the issue as before, when the WAN2 connection was 10/100 lots of packet loss and speedtest wouldn't run, upgraded the firmware and BANG...it started working!!!!

So after hours on the phone to Draytek support and them not believing there was an issue it looks like they finally fixed it. As you can imagine im a bit annoyed that after so many hours on the phone and site visits they didn't even bother to call me and tell me about the new firmware.

Anyway, issue resolved