I recently (20 Oct) bought a 2860ac to replace my BT Hub4 with separate vdsl modem. It was delivered with 3.8.2.3_VT1 firmware, I set it up with Draytek's recommended settings for BT infinity and all seemed fine, synchronising at 20000/79995, much better than the BT kit.
On 25 Oct, I updated the firmware to 3.8.4_BT but unfortunately this coincided with an outage in my local exchange and I've had problems which I'm trying to diagnose.
The vdsl connection keeps dropping every day or so, and subsequently reconnecting at slower sync speeds. Suspecting the firmware upgrade, I downgraded to 3.8.2.3_VT1 but this didn't appear to solve the problem. I phoned BT support and eventually arranged for a BT OpenReach engineer to come and check things out. He came on 3 Nov and checked the phone line and said that it was very good. He then reset my profile on the exchange and this seemed to clear the problem as the router re-synced at 20000/79995. Unfortunately since then, the line has dropped out 6 times with the sync speeds getting lower each time.

I've set up syslog to a usb drive and this is what the log entries look like when the line drops.

Code:

<158>Nov 9 12:31:00 DrayTek: PPP Closed : Remote Terminating (PPPoA) <166>Nov 9 12:31:00 DrayTek: WAN1 PPPoE ==> Protocol:LCP(c021) TermReq Identifier:0x27 ## <166>Nov 9 12:31:00 DrayTek: WAN 1 is down. <150>Nov 9 12:31:00 DrayTek: [WEB]Dynamic DNS Setup> Force Update

Questions:
- Is there anything I can do to determine the cause of the line drops
- Should I get BT to check things again
- Should I reconnect the BT kit to see if the line drops
- Could my 2860 be faulty

Apologies for the rambling post but I'd be grateful for any advice/thoughts.

Thanks for reading.

Mark

Here are my current status details:

Code:

> vdsl status ---------------------- ATU-R Info (hw: annex A, f/w: annex A/B/C) ----------- Running Mode : 17A State : SHOWTIME DS Actual Rate : 72120000 bps US Actual Rate : 20000000 bps DS Attainable Rate : 89820224 bps US Attainable Rate : 26114040 bps DS Path Mode : Interleave US Path Mode : Fast DS Interleave Depth : 1512 US Interleave Depth : 1 NE Current Attenuation : 15 dB Cur SNR Margin : 6 dB DS actual PSD : 5. 8 dB US actual PSD : 5. 8 dB NE CRC Count : 0 FE CRC Count : 1036 NE ES Count : 0 FE ES Count : 814 Xdsl Reset Times : 0 Xdsl Link Times : 1 ITU Version[0] : b5004946 ITU Version[1] : 544e0000 VDSL Firmware Version : 05-06-07-05-01-07 [with Vectoring support] Power Management Mode : DSL_G997_PMS_L0 Test Mode : DISABLE -------------------------------- ATU-C Info --------------------------------- Far Current Attenuation : 0 dB Far SNR Margin : 9 dB CO ITU Version[0] : b5004946 CO ITU Version[1] : 544eb206 DSLAM CHIPSET VENDOR : < IFTN > >

Most of the line quality issues are due to modem DSP code. Try setting your VT1 (3.8.2.3 or 3.8.4) to the 566207 modem code on WAN >> General Setup >> WAN1 page. You are not the only person to have this problem though apparently there is "no problem"!.

I had 3 sites doing this and going to modem code 566207 fixed them all. Well almost, one site with a less than good VDSL line re-syncs every couple of days but the other 2 stay up all the time. Prior to this, on BT, VT2 or VT3 they all started to re-sync every 2 to 30 mins at random. I am still blaming cabinet FW upgrades but I have no proof, all sites close in Essex. I've got a few posts about it all scattered about this board.

All that said it does look like your cabinet has different vendor from mine so I am not too sure how that affects the situation.

Here is what I get on my home line now: -

Code:

> vdsl stat ---------------------- ATU-R Info (hw: annex A, f/w: annex A/B/C) ----------- Running Mode : 17A State : SHOWTIME DS Actual Rate : 80000000 bps US Actual Rate : 19999000 bps DS Attainable Rate : 84724000 bps US Attainable Rate : 29419000 bps DS Path Mode : Fast US Path Mode : Fast DS Interleave Depth : 1 US Interleave Depth : 1 NE Current Attenuation : 9 dB Cur SNR Margin : 7 dB DS actual PSD : -3.-9 dB US actual PSD : 13. 6 dB NE CRC Count : 15 FE CRC Count : 118529 NE ES Count : 5 FE ES Count : 10168 Xdsl Reset Times : 0 Xdsl Link Times : 4 ITU Version[0] : 00000000 ITU Version[1] : 00000000 VDSL Firmware Version : 05-06-06-02-00-07 [with Vectoring support] Power Management Mode : DSL_G997_PMS_L0 Test Mode : DISABLE -------------------------------- ATU-C Info --------------------------------- Far Current Attenuation : 0 dB Far SNR Margin : 15 dB CO ITU Version[0] : b5004244 CO ITU Version[1] : 434da48c DSLAM CHIPSET VENDOR : < BDCM >

Many thanks for the info, jedi98 - much appreciated. I've just loaded firmware 3.8.4_VT1 with 566207 modem code at your suggestion, so I'll now have to wait and see (fingers crossed).
I'll let you know how I get on.
Cheers

If draytek are supplying the 2860 with 3.8.2.3_VT1 firmware it is starting to make me think that somebody there knows something that they are not mentioning. Since at least 3.8.2.2 the download page has recommended the BT version (basically the same as VT3) with modem code 576D17. The VT1-3, STD (non-vector) and BT variants are all released at once so there must be a reason why they sent out with VT1.

There is no reason that you cannot use the openreach modem on WAN2, I have mine set up as an emergency backup. When the line went totally wacky (which was very sudden) I used the openreach modem until I could figure out how to stabilize it. The openreach modem produced a very stable connection, if slightly down on upload speed.

I was just reading your reply, jedi98, when my line just dropped and re-synced. Not quite sure what to do next. I'm thinking of putting the BT modem in WAN2, just to see if the line is more stable using that and try to determine if it is the Draytek or the BT infinity connection playing up. When I used it with the Hub4 before I bought the Draytek, the line used to re-sync about every 2 or three weeks, but always in the middle of the night and always reconnected at the same/similar sync speed.
Is it worth trying firmware 3.8.2.3_VT1 with 566207 modem code?
Any thoughts?