Is my problem the router or the provider?

Hi,

I've been having problems with my Freedom2surf connection for weeks
now, and it can sometimes be down for hours. I'm unsure whether it is
the provider, or my router, but rebooting the router doesn't help. Can
anyone help?

I have a Netgear router. When the problem occurs, the lights on the
router are still ok; indicating that the ADSL is working. However, when
I go into the router diagnostics, and the log, I can see that the LCP
is down.

The log shows:
LCP allowed to come up
Initialize LCP
LCP allowed to come up
Initialize LCP

And so on.....

I am also unable to ping IP addresses, so the connection is gone
competely.

Any help would be appreciated, so I don't have to buy another router to
test it ;-)

Many thanks

Paul

Paul wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've been having problems with my Freedom2surf connection for weeks
> now, and it can sometimes be down for hours. I'm unsure whether it is
> the provider, or my router, but rebooting the router doesn't help. Can
> anyone help?
>
> I have a Netgear router. When the problem occurs, the lights on the
> router are still ok; indicating that the ADSL is working. However, when
> I go into the router diagnostics, and the log, I can see that the LCP
> is down.
>
> The log shows:
> LCP allowed to come up
> Initialize LCP
> LCP allowed to come up
> Initialize LCP

I had seen similar faults on the Portsmouth North exchange; ADSL carrier up and
working OK, but LCP 'Hello' packets being sent by the router are not ACKd. I'm
not sure exactly what the fault is, but it does need to be reported to BT, and
does not require BT to visit your premises (although your ISP will probably
insist that you make a time available, and risk being charged). You cannot
report the fault yourself, you must go through your ISP.

> I am also unable to ping IP addresses, so the connection is gone
> competely.

Without LCP, no IP exchange is possible, so ping will not work.


For what it's worth, F2S have had a number of problems recently, having been
bought out by Nildram and Pipex in turn. Customer traffic metering has been
off-line now for nearly two months.

> I've been having problems with my Freedom2surf connection for weeks
> now, and it can sometimes be down for hours. I'm unsure whether it is
> the provider, or my router, but rebooting the router doesn't help. Can
> anyone help?
>
> I have a Netgear router. When the problem occurs, the lights on the
> router are still ok; indicating that the ADSL is working. However,
> when I go into the router diagnostics, and the log, I can see that
> the LCP is down.
>
> The log shows:
> LCP allowed to come up
> Initialize LCP
> LCP allowed to come up
> Initialize LCP

Turn it all off for an hour. Then try again. I have a similar problem
occasionaly and it works for me.

Peter Crosland

Paul wrote on 10 Jul 2006 02:39:15 -0700:

> Hi,
>
> I've been having problems with my Freedom2surf connection for weeks
> now, and it can sometimes be down for hours. I'm unsure whether it is
> the provider, or my router, but rebooting the router doesn't help. Can
> anyone help?
>
> I have a Netgear router. When the problem occurs, the lights on the
> router are still ok; indicating that the ADSL is working. However, when
> I go into the router diagnostics, and the log, I can see that the LCP
> is down.
>
> The log shows:
> LCP allowed to come up
> Initialize LCP
> LCP allowed to come up
> Initialize LCP
>
> And so on.....
>
> I am also unable to ping IP addresses, so the connection is gone
> competely.
>
> Any help would be appreciated, so I don't have to buy another router to
> test it ;-)
>
> Many thanks
>
> Paul

If turning the router off and on again solves it, try setting your DNS
servers in the DHCP settings to those specified by your ISP rather than
leaving the router to get them via DHCP. If you do this your PC will talk
directly to the ISP DNS servers rather than the router running a DNS relay
cache - I've noticed that recently my DG834 would start dropping the
connection and continually list LCP coming up, and changing this setting
fixed it. I think there may be a problem in the DNS relay caching that
causes the router to "throw a wobbler" - for want of a more technical term
:P

Dan

"Spack" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Paul wrote on 10 Jul 2006 02:39:15 -0700:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I've been having problems with my Freedom2surf connection for weeks
>> now, and it can sometimes be down for hours. I'm unsure whether it is
>> the provider, or my router, but rebooting the router doesn't help. Can
>> anyone help?
>>
>> I have a Netgear router. When the problem occurs, the lights on the
>> router are still ok; indicating that the ADSL is working. However, when
>> I go into the router diagnostics, and the log, I can see that the LCP
>> is down.
>>
>> The log shows:
>> LCP allowed to come up
>> Initialize LCP
>> LCP allowed to come up
>> Initialize LCP
>>
>> And so on.....
>>
>> I am also unable to ping IP addresses, so the connection is gone
>> competely.
>>
>> Any help would be appreciated, so I don't have to buy another router to
>> test it ;-)
>>
>> Many thanks
>>
>> Paul
>
> If turning the router off and on again solves it, try setting your DNS
> servers in the DHCP settings to those specified by your ISP rather than
> leaving the router to get them via DHCP. If you do this your PC will talk
> directly to the ISP DNS servers rather than the router running a DNS relay
> cache - I've noticed that recently my DG834 would start dropping the
> connection and continually list LCP coming up, and changing this setting
> fixed it. I think there may be a problem in the DNS relay caching that
> causes the router to "throw a wobbler" - for want of a more technical term
> :P
>
> Dan

My Netgear DG632 tends to fail after any configuration changes. A "reset to
factory condition" (and input username/password again) is needed to get it
going again. This is a problem common to all of this model. A search of the
internet will reveal all sorts of netgear issues... though *some* models
seem to be okay.

"Rialto" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:e8u367$uov$(E-Mail Removed):

> "Spack" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Paul wrote on 10 Jul 2006 02:39:15 -0700:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I've been having problems with my Freedom2surf connection for weeks
>>> now, and it can sometimes be down for hours. I'm unsure whether it
>>> is the provider, or my router, but rebooting the router doesn't
>>> help. Can anyone help?
>>>
>>> I have a Netgear router. When the problem occurs, the lights on the
>>> router are still ok; indicating that the ADSL is working. However,
>>> when I go into the router diagnostics, and the log, I can see that
>>> the LCP is down.
>>>
>>> The log shows:
>>> LCP allowed to come up
>>> Initialize LCP
>>> LCP allowed to come up
>>> Initialize LCP
>>>
>>> And so on.....
>>>
>>> I am also unable to ping IP addresses, so the connection is gone
>>> competely.
>>>
>>> Any help would be appreciated, so I don't have to buy another router
>>> to test it ;-)
>>>
>>> Many thanks
>>>
>>> Paul
>>
>> If turning the router off and on again solves it, try setting your
>> DNS servers in the DHCP settings to those specified by your ISP
>> rather than leaving the router to get them via DHCP. If you do this
>> your PC will talk directly to the ISP DNS servers rather than the
>> router running a DNS relay cache - I've noticed that recently my
>> DG834 would start dropping the connection and continually list LCP
>> coming up, and changing this setting fixed it. I think there may be a
>> problem in the DNS relay caching that causes the router to "throw a
>> wobbler" - for want of a more technical term
>> :P
>>
>> Dan
>
> My Netgear DG632 tends to fail after any configuration changes. A
> "reset to factory condition" (and input username/password again) is
> needed to get it going again. This is a problem common to all of this
> model. A search of the internet will reveal all sorts of netgear
> issues... though *some* models seem to be okay.
>
>
>
>

If its an Easynet LLU that's your problem. They have horrendous software
problems. I left them and rejoined the BT MAX service and no probs any
more.

Peter

Thanks everyone,

Unfortunately, restarting the router does not seem to work, and neither
has upgrading the firmware, so I've reported it to my service provider.

My only concern is that they will try to blame my router, but I'll see
how it goes. I just hope they are quick about it!!

Thanks again.

Paul