- One third of routers potentially faulty?
- Posted by Martin Jay on October 22nd, 2007
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/22/zen_ar7_infineon_bt_fault/>:
"Zen Internet has uncovered a potential problem with the Texas
Instruments AR7. The chip is at the heart of about a third of routers
in use worldwide today - including Linksys and Netgear kit.
Zen has told its customers not to buy models that contain the chip
because they provide an unstable connection.
Phil Long, a technical support manager at the firm, said: 'The
evidence is saying there's something about these chips that causes
intermittancy.'
Long explained that Zen fingered the issue when BT engineers were
called to test lines for subscribers suffering repeated
disconnections. BT staff test for a wiring problem using hardware
based on chips made by Speedtouch, a rival of the AR7.
In many cases, the BT man would report back that there was no problem
with the line, and the customer would be stung with an £169
unnecessary call-out charge"
--
Martin Jay
- Posted by Eeyore on October 22nd, 2007
Martin Jay wrote:
Conexant chipset here thankfully.
Graham
- Posted by Gaz on October 22nd, 2007
"Martin Jay" <martin@spam-free.org.uk> wrote in message
news:5baph3ph6te93lo6evhbjuqidsea056d5n@4ax.com...
ROFL, the dg834g is the most stable mid level router on the market place,
and it contains the ti ar47.
Gaz
- Posted by Mortimer on October 22nd, 2007
"Gaz" <gazter@msn.com> wrote in message
news:5o3prfFl3r8iU1@mid.individual.net...
The V1 and V2 versions of it do, but the V3 does not. I wonder what
proportion of DG834Gs in use are V3?
- Posted by Eeyore on October 22nd, 2007
Mortimer wrote:
Tsskk tsskk. Whem nanufacturers make significant changes, the least they could
do is change the model number. I recently came across that very same criticism
in another group unrelated to broadband.
Graham
- Posted by Mortimer on October 22nd, 2007
"Eeyore" <rabbitsfriendsandrelations@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:471CE064.C635CF3C@hotmail.com...
I agree. Any significant change like this, especially one which requires
different firmware upgrades to be downloaded from the web site, should
always trigger a change in the model number as opposed to just the
version/revision number. But marketeers thing only of "branding", not of any
after-sales support problems that they may be storing up for the company!
- Posted by jim on October 22nd, 2007
On Mon, 22 Oct 2007 14:50:11 +0100, Martin Jay
<martin@spam-free.org.uk> wrote:
If a BT engineer was called out for a line fault that was actually a
problem with the customer's router then the call charge would in fact
be "necessary" as it was not BT's fault
jim
- Posted by Gaz on October 22nd, 2007
jim wrote:
The charge should be levied on the isp however, and the ISP recover it from
the customer, as the customer has no broadband contract with BT.
Gaz
- Posted by Soruk on October 22nd, 2007
On Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:13:27 +0100, Gaz <gazter@msn.com> wrote:
I guess that would depend whether it was the customer or the ISP that
requested an engineer visit.
--
-- Michael "Soruk" McConnell Eridani Star System
MailStripper - http://www.MailStripper.eu/ - SMTP spam filter
Mail Me Anywhere - http://www.MailMeAnywhere.com/ - Mobile email
Second Number - http://secondnumber.matrixnetwork.co.uk/
- Posted by Mark McIntyre on October 22nd, 2007
On Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:13:27 +0100, in uk.telecom.broadband , "Gaz"
<gazter@msn.com> wrote:
The callout is to test the physical line, not the broadband.
--
Mark McIntyre
- Posted by Martin Jay on October 22nd, 2007
On Mon, 22 Oct 2007 22:49:15 +0100, Mark McIntyre
<markmcintyre@spamcop.net> wrote:
How does that work, then? Let's take my setup as an example. I use
AOL for broadband and rent my phone line from BT.
Let's say I get up tomorrow morning to find my AOL broadband service
isn't working. I phone AOL and they arrange for a BT Openreach
engineer to visit my property to fix the fault.
A BT Openreach engineer arrives a few days later and notices that my
router is unplugged. He plugs it back in and all systems are go
again.
Wouldn't BT Openreach bill AOL for the visit, and they would then
(probably) pass the charge on to me?
--
Martin Jay
- Posted by kráftéé on October 23rd, 2007
Martin Jay wrote:
Correct, as would be the case if there was any internal problems
- Posted by Mortimer on October 23rd, 2007
"kráftéé" <kraftee@b&e-cottee.me.uk> wrote in message
news:vaWdnUh-0-fJrYDanZ2dneKdnZydnZ2d@bt.com...
What is the best (eg cheapest) way of getting internal house wiring problems
investigated and fixed? Having identified that the broadband is OK at the
master test socket but has slower broadband or sometimes non-existent
carrier with the house wiring plugged in (even at the front socket on the
master socket), where do you go from there?
Since it's house wiring, it doesn't need BT to fix it, but who are the best
people to use? Does it need someone a bit more specialised than a general
purpose electrician?
This is preinstalled under-the-plaster wiring to various sockets around the
house, not lengths of loose wiring strung over the banisters!
- Posted by Gaz on October 23rd, 2007
Mortimer wrote:
A retired BT engineer, or a former engineer are the best, not many of them
in the phone book though. To an engineer it is all very easy......
Gaz
- Posted by Graham. on October 23rd, 2007
"Mortimer" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:13hrgcb1d1c3632@corp.supernews.com...
The answer to that is simple. You are, with the help of this group.
OK, what I guess you have at the moment is several branches of
internal wiring each ending in a socket with an ADSL filter plugged
into it. Using multiple filters is the easiest way to retro-fit ADSL
in many homes but it is not ideal.
What you want to do, is fit a filter** at the master socket, and connect
the internal wiring to its POTS output. The filters on the other
phone sockets will now be redundant as there is no ADSL signal
on these. If your router or modem can be plugged into the master
socket then job done.
If however the router or modem needs to be somewhere else, you
need to send the unfiltered phone-line to that location, terminating
in a separate socket. There may well be an unused pair of wires in
the existing cabling to facilitate that.
**As an alternative to using an ordinary filter you can buy a
filtered replacement faceplate for the NTE5 master socket
from solwise.co.uk or clarity.it. This certainly makes a neater job
as all the wiring is done atthe back of the faceplate.
--
Graham.
%Profound_observation%
- Posted by Mel on October 23rd, 2007
"Mortimer" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message news:13hph4i1495f714@corp.supernews.com...
and it has got a TI AR7 chip in it.
I wouldn't know about the new V4 though.
- Posted by Gaz on October 23rd, 2007
"Mel" <news.spammel@spamgourmet.com> wrote in message
news:471e65ab$0$47155$892e7fe2@authen.yellow.readf reenews.net...
I didnt comment back because i wasnt sure, but i was always under the
impression that the v3 was the TI ar7. Thanks for confirming it.
These are the only routers i recommend, as others have very high failure
rates, i was a big fan of the 3com office connect series, but things move
on, and the 3coms are completely unable to reliably manage adsl2 on long
lines...
I ahve heard about issues with the N series of netgear routers, anyone who
deploys them for a living got any feedback?
Gaz
- Posted by Mortimer on October 23rd, 2007
"Gaz" <gazter@msn.com> wrote in message
news:5o7aaeFl5qj2U1@mid.individual.net...
I bought a DG834N for a customer who already had a Belkin PCI card in her PC
because it was advertised as having the greatest range - and her setup
needed every bit of range that it could get to cross a yard between the
house where the router was and the wooden shed/office where the PCs were.
Sadly the Belkin card and Netgear N router weren't compatible, and neither
were the adaptors buklt-into two laptops, even just using the Wireless G
capabilities of the router. I forget what the problem was, but they wouldn't
authenticate properly - forget whether it was permanent or intermittent
problem.
When I asked in my local shop which is good for advice, they said that
they'd had lots of compatibility problems with the N and advised me to
replace it with a DG834PN. In their experience, the DG834N would only work
properly to Netgear N wireless adaptors, not to G ones. The PN worked fine -
and it came with a free WPN111W USB adaptor which gave a bit of extra signal
strength because it could be positioned on the end of a USB cable higher up
and out of the "shadow" of the desktop PC's case.
Signal is still prone to fading to useless if she parks her 4x4 in the way,
so I warned her to park it out of the way! Sadly there's nowhere inbetween
where a range-extender could be placed, and the shed and house are on
different meters so Ethernet-over-mains is not possible. However as long as
the car is not in the way the PC is usable.
It's strange that the signal should be so weak. The router is placed up
against the window on a first floor, looking towards the single-storey
wooden office only about 30 or 40 feet away which doesn't have metal foil on
the plasterboard inner skin. Router is placed horizontally which is what is
recommended since it has MIMO diversity aerials.
- Posted by hoochxy on October 24th, 2007
On Oct 22, 4:40 pm, "Mortimer" <m...@privacy.net> wrote:
Which version does Sky Broadband use?
- Posted by Mel on October 24th, 2007
"hoochxy" <hoochxy@googlemail.com> wrote in message news:1193203342.236366.29570@v29g2000prd.googlegro ups.com...
No AR-7's there.
Apparently they've got a couple of new routers in the pipeline, one of them
is a different make.
