WAN connection drops on Asus DSL-N16

[UK Sentinel]

The DSL-N16 has a MediaTeK CPU which are really fussy/sensitive.

This was an interesting exercise and hopefully you have a good stable connection now ;-)

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[aising]

Hello,

I’m writing again to update about the issue I had some months ago. The WAN connection was dropping, but not the DSL line, when downloading at max. speed. I thought it could be related with ESET, the Ethernet connection or even the driver, and I thought I fixed because connection kept stable for a while… but I really didn’t. So I gave up and I used a new router I got.

Two weeks ago I decided to give a last chance to my Asus DSL-16 and I started to search on the Internet about the issue. I found people commenting the PPP Echo function for the Internet Detection causes the WAN disconnection: they say that when downloading at the max. speed the line can support, the router can’t even manage the PPP echo requests because the full bandwith is occupied and the echo fails, so when it fails X times in a row the router drops the WAN connection because it thinks the connection is down when it isn’t. So let’s say it’s a false positive.

I also remembered what you told me about writing ‘lcp-echo-interval 0’ in the additional pppd options, but that didn’t work at all. So I noticed the router has its own option for Internet Detection (Disable/Echo PPP), PPP Echo Interval and PPP Echo Max Failures. So I tested writing a 0 in both, PPP Echo Interval and PPP Echo Max Failures and for now I’m more than one week with zero disconnections. It looks you were right! Anyway, I’m not sure if this is a “normal” behaviour or it should be tuned by Asus on the firmware…

Now I got two doubts about it:

1. ¿What’s the difference between setting PPP Echo Interval/PPP Echo Max Failures  to 0 and setting Internet Detection as Disable?
2. ¿What happens if the WAN connection really drops but I’ve set PPP Echo Interval/PPP Echo Max Failures  to 0 or Internet Detection as Disable? ¿The router wouldn’t detect the WAN connection is down? ¿How does the router react on these cases?

Thank you and Merry Christmas!

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[UK Sentinel]

PPP Echo Interval – Sends an LCP-Echo request to the peer every (n) seconds

PPP Echo Max Failures  – Presume the Peer to be dead if no valid LCP-Echo request where received after  (n)   LCP-Echo replies ?

In simple English – PPP Echo Interval If this option is chosen, ppp will send an LCP echo-request frame to the peer every n seconds. Under Linux, the echo-request is sent when no packets have been received from the peer for (n) seconds. Normally the peer should respond to the echo-request by sending an echo-reply.

PPP Echo Max Failures  – this option can be used with the lcp-echo-failure (n) option to detect that the peer is no longer connected.

If Internet Detection is set to disabled and DSL link drops, you will  lose DSL connectivity and access to internet will be lost (always keep Internet Detection Enabled/PPP Echo).

Hope that makes sense

 

 

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[aising]

Understood. I’ve set PPP Echo Interval and PPP Echo Max Failures to 0 and now the connection seems stable.  I guess setting both to 0 means the router ignores the failures… Am I right? What happens if both values are set to 0 and the WAN connection really drops? The router would detect it and would try to start a new WAN session?

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[UK Sentinel]

If internet (synch) drops, it would have no way of measuring / sensing the drop, so would stay down, but it is interesting that you set your PPP Echo Max Failures to 0 to stop the false positives. as per (‘lcp-echo-interval 0) also achieves same result.

You would ideally have to schedule a daily weekly reboot of router (if yours support this option) but this could effect synch speeds etc ?

 

 

 

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[aising]

I will play a bit with both options to try to find two values that avoid false positives and at the same time measure the real drops. Anyway I think this is a weird behaviour. Do you think this could be a firmware matter?

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[UK Sentinel]

No, the MediaTeK chipets are real fussy / sensitive / cheap ;-)

Let us now how your testing progresses ?

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[matt1ghz]

Hi UK Sentinel, Ok so the MediaTek ios cheap, what are some good alternatives to the ASUS DSL-16N ?

 

Thank you :)

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[UK Sentinel]

matt1ghz wrote:

Hi UK Sentinel, Ok so the MediaTek ios cheap, what are some good alternatives to the ASUS DSL-16N ? Thank you :)

a few questions have to be asked before any guidance can be given,

• What services are you connecting to, G.fast, 35b Profile,  VDSL, ADSL, ? any IPTC services needed.
• Is usage for Home, Gaming, Office, Family protection. General  ?
• Is a modem Router combo preferred, or is a separate modem and router a consideration. ?
• Do you need IPv4 / IPv6 capability ?
• Will wifi be used, (Mesh) ?
• What is budget (given your region) ?

 

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[matt1ghz]

Hi UK Sentinel, LOL! ok here are my answers

What services are you connecting to: VDSL
Is usage for Home, Gaming, Office, Family protection. General: home
Is a modem Router combo preferred, Combo VDSL / ADSL + Wifi 802.11n
Do you need IPv4 / IPv6 capability ? IPv4 is ok but if it comes with IPv6 i will disable it
Will wifi be used, (Mesh): yes at least 802.11n but 802.11ac will future proof
What is budget (given your region): how about two good options then sort of middle priced and high end?

basically yuou menationed the ASUS DSL-16N uses a MediaTek chip which is “junk” what do you recommend instead, but two option if you have (middle and high end)   :)

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[UK Sentinel]

Ok, so all ASUS modem / router combos use MediaTeK except the DSL-AC88U which is rumoured to be no longer supported, so that removes ASUS equipment

Other modem router combo manufactures include:

 

• DrayTeK = Good
• AVM = Good
• Netgear = Ok (good hardware)
• TP-Link = Ok (not consistent firmware updates)
• D-Link = Ok (sometimes)
• Billion = Not Modern

(others are available)

 

 

AVM (Fritz!Box) – has good user interface and very reliable

Netgear – Software updates are sometimes poor quality but hardware is usual good quality

DrayTeK – are not easy to configure but are very reliable and a quality product

 

If you are not technical, then I would suggest the following devices.

 

• Netgear C7800 – Broadcom DSL chipset
• AVM (Fritz!Box)  7580 – 7583 – Broadcom or Lantiq (Intel) chipset
• DrayTeK  2862ac – Lantiq chipset

 

Unsure what products are available in your region but the Netgear and Fritz!Box are both safe options, Netgears are good allrounders where as AVM (Fritz!Box) is a  little more specialised and has a limited market.

if you have a poor or long DSL line (noise) then a Broadcom DSL chipset is a safe option

The units above I suppose are more to the higher end of the price bracket – so I am sure you can use the above as a guide to help you decide what fits your pocket .

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[matt1ghz]

Thank you Sir!

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