UPC modem/router Technicolor TC7200

MickeyD · 18-07-2014 12:06pm

I'm running this in DMZ mode with wireless disabled and I'm getting regular packet loss, like 1-10 dropped packets every minute or two. I don't have any downloads/uploads going. A similar ping to the cable modem and external router I'm using have no dropped packets. Any ideas? Do I just have a dud modem? Most of the time its unnoticeable but others it'll drop long enough to lose connection to online games etc and is getting a bit annoying. Sample ping to boards.ie IP (ping every second, only logging dropped packets):

18/07/2014 11:50:05.73 "Request timed out."
18/07/2014 11:50:56.23 "Request timed out."
18/07/2014 11:51:48.73 "Request timed out."
18/07/2014 11:52:23.73 "Request timed out."
18/07/2014 11:52:59.73 "Request timed out."
18/07/2014 11:56:50.23 "Request timed out."
18/07/2014 11:58:32.23 "Request timed out."
18/07/2014 11:59:25.73 "Request timed out."
18/07/2014 12:00:01.73 "Request timed out."
18/07/2014 12:00:19.23 "Request timed out."
18/07/2014 12:01:11.73 "Request timed out."
18/07/2014 12:02:21.73 "Request timed out."

Edit 2:
It seems that the disconnects happen every 15 mins, like LoBo - I get an increase in timed out packets during these periods at very regular intervals. I'm running it with my router as the DMZ address and not bridge mode though, but the devices attached to the router are on a .1.x network and the modem is on .0.1 - could this cause an issue? Router is a Netgear WDR3700.

Edit: Signal strengths
Upstream:
Transmitter # Channel ID Lock Status Frequency Modulation Symbol Rate Channel Type Power
1 7 Locked 55200000 16QAM 5120000 ATDMA 55.2
2 6 Locked 44000000 16QAM 5120000 ATDMA 53.0
3 0 Unlocked 0 N/A 0 N/A 0.0
4 0 Unlocked 0 N/A 0 N/A 0.0

Downstream:
1 1 Locked 482000000 256QAM 6952000 41.9 -4.3
2 2 Locked 490000000 256QAM 6952000 41.9 -4.5
3 3 Locked 498000000 256QAM 6952000 41.4 -5.4
4 4 Locked 506000000 256QAM 6952000 41.1 -5.2
5 5 Locked 650000000 256QAM 6952000 38.9 -8.0
6 6 Locked 658000000 256QAM 6952000 39.0 -8.4
7 7 Locked 666000000 256QAM 6952000 39.5 -7.3
8 8 Locked 674000000 256QAM 6952000 38.2 -7.2

white_westie · 18-07-2014 9:44pm

LoBo wrote: »

It's gone a whole day and looks like everything's working great. Thanks for that!

Not sure if your read through what Merlin's firmware is, but unlike Tomato or DDWRT, he just tracks the official ASUS firmware and applies a few fixes, as well as back porting some enhancements he has made over time.
Maybe your router was running an old version of the ASUS firmware, and even upgrading it using stock may have fixed your problem!
Have you switched your TC7200 back into bridge mode and let your ASUS run the show?

Not sure if it's any use, but Merlin's firmware supports using dnsmasq so if you use any smartdns service it is useful to configure.

WW

white_westie · 18-07-2014 9:50pm

MickeyD wrote: »

Edit: Signal strengths
Upstream:
Transmitter # Channel ID Lock Status Frequency Modulation Symbol Rate Channel Type Power
1 7 Locked 55200000 16QAM 5120000 ATDMA 55.2
2 6 Locked 44000000 16QAM 5120000 ATDMA 53.0
3 0 Unlocked 0 N/A 0 N/A 0.0
4 0 Unlocked 0 N/A 0 N/A 0.0

Downstream:
1 1 Locked 482000000 256QAM 6952000 41.9 -4.3
2 2 Locked 490000000 256QAM 6952000 41.9 -4.5
3 3 Locked 498000000 256QAM 6952000 41.4 -5.4
4 4 Locked 506000000 256QAM 6952000 41.1 -5.2
5 5 Locked 650000000 256QAM 6952000 38.9 -8.0
6 6 Locked 658000000 256QAM 6952000 39.0 -8.4
7 7 Locked 666000000 256QAM 6952000 39.5 -7.3
8 8 Locked 674000000 256QAM 6952000 38.2 -7.2

Not sure if you have a signal problem on your upstream link, as you are syncing on 2 channels, whereas I have only seen it either being on 1 or all 4 channels. Also, only even seen power levels <50 - other's might know what a good range should be!
Either way, I think a call to UPC is in order.

18-07-2014 9:54pm

white_westie wrote: »

Not sure if you have a signal problem on your upstream link, as you are syncing on 2 channels, whereas I have only seen it either being on 1 or all 4 channels. Also, only even seen power levels <50 - other's might know what a good range should be!
Either way, I think a call to UPC is in order.

It doesn't look great. +55dBmV on the upstream is too high considering that the maximum is +58. -8.4dBmV is also poor, although probably not too low.

MickeyD · 19-07-2014 12:05am

Cheers for that guys. I flashed my router with dd-wrt, switched to bridge mode, used 2nd port, same subnet etc and it seems to have fixed the 15 minute disconnections but still getting a fairly high level of packet loss - probably down to the signal levels.

I'll get an engineer out to look at the line and maybe see if I can replace the modem if that doesn't fix it.

MickeyD · 19-07-2014 10:35am

Hmm actually I spoke to soon, still getting disconnects or external net access goes down completely.

Interestingly if I connect my PC directly to the cable modem I don't have any problems (except a small bit of packet loss probably due to signal levels). My router worked fine before with a similar setup but with the old EPC2425 modem. No idea why its not working now..

19-07-2014 11:09am

It has to be a compatibility issue between the TC7200 and something in the Asus router. I've never had a problem with my AVM router and the fact that it works fine when connected directly to your PC seems to point towards some sort of compatibility issue.

MickeyD · 19-07-2014 11:14am

It's a netgear but yeah you're probably right. Tried changing to the latest dd-wrt for it but nothing doing. Could possibly be a setting I can change but google isn't throwing anything up. I'll try find another router I can test it with.

19-07-2014 11:23am

MickeyD wrote: »

It's a netgear but yeah you're probably right. Tried changing to the latest dd-wrt for it but nothing doing. Could possibly be a setting I can change but google isn't throwing anything up. I'll try find another router I can test it with.

Ah sorry, think I was confusing you with someone else!

LoBo · 21-07-2014 9:59am

Just to report back in, after a few days I'm seeing the disconnects again. They aren't every 15 mins, but when they happen they are exactly on a 15 min marker from each other (like 1h 45, then 15, then 1h, etc between disconnects).

Must be something with the asus + TC7200.. hope someone can find a fix

white_westie · 21-07-2014 10:35am

LoBo wrote: »

Just to report back in, after a few days I'm seeing the disconnects again. They aren't every 15 mins, but when they happen they are exactly on a 15 min marker from each other (like 1h 45, then 15, then 1h, etc between disconnects).

Must be something with the asus + TC7200.. hope someone can find a fix

Don't know what's going on with your setup, but as I said, I have no problems with my combination.

Might be worth posting your current setup/configuration here to see if it triggers any help.

Only suggestion I have is to see if you can borrow another cable router to see if your problem goes away!

degsie · 21-07-2014 11:53am

Upstream signal levels are a real concern, you are probably chasing your tail until you get that checked with UPC. I suspect your problems are related to this. A quick call will confirm.

LoBo · 21-07-2014 7:25pm

white_westie wrote: »

Don't know what's going on with your setup, but as I said, I have no problems with my combination.

Might be worth posting your current setup/configuration here to see if it triggers any help.

Only suggestion I have is to see if you can borrow another cable router to see if your problem goes away!

I have the TC7200 set up on 192.168.0.1 in bridge mode (achieved via the hidden web page, not telnet method, if that's important??). I have the wifi on the TC7200 switched off. I have the RT-N16 in wireless router mode, with a static ip of 192.168.1.1 and its default gateway set to 192.168.0.1 (wan connection type is 'static ip'). Most of my other settings are unchanged from defaults I imagine.

Maybe you could post a settings backup of your RT-N16 and I could try that?

white_westie · 21-07-2014 8:33pm

LoBo wrote: »

I have the TC7200 set up on 192.168.0.1 in bridge mode (achieved via the hidden web page, not telnet method, if that's important??). I have the wifi on the TC7200 switched off. I have the RT-N16 in wireless router mode, with a static ip of 192.168.1.1 and its default gateway set to 192.168.0.1 (wan connection type is 'static ip'). Most of my other settings are unchanged from defaults I imagine.

Maybe you could post a settings backup of your RT-N16 and I could try that?

Not sure if you are mixing up your terms there, because if your tc7200 is switched to bridge mode you should be getting a upc public ip address
e.g. something like 46.7.x.x not 192.168.0.1
Also if your tc7200 is switched into bridge mode, most of the config menus disappear.
You can test this by connecting your pc directly to the tc7200 and see what address it is assigned.
In windows Open command box and run 'ipconfig' to check

Don't forget you can also connect to the public ip address of the tc7200 on address 192.168.100.1 (applies to all upc router)

LoBo · 21-07-2014 11:04pm

Hm. Well on the RT-N16 under WAN settings the WAN IP is set to 192.168.0.2 with a default gateway of 192.168.0.1. The RT-N16 is then managing DHCP for computers around the house on the 192.168.1.x subnet.

I'll check what ip the laptop gets with a direct connection to the tc7200 tomorrow.

Also check out the strange 15 min interval regularity of the disconnects. This is just from this evening from an IRC channel I was idling in:

[19:57] * Disconnected (Connection reset by peer).
[20:12] * Disconnected (Connection reset by peer).
[20:42] * Disconnected (Connection reset by peer).
[20:57] * Disconnected (Connection reset by peer).
[21:12] * Disconnected (Connection reset by peer).
[21:27] * Disconnected (Connection reset by peer).
[21:57] * Disconnected (Connection reset by peer).
[22:27] * Disconnected (Connection reset by peer).
[22:42] * Disconnected (Connection reset by peer).

wiz569 · 22-07-2014 1:15am

If your LAN ip is 192.168.0.2 then your gateway should also be 192.168.0.2, and your router should be handing out ip's in the 192.168.0.x subnet range as far as I'm aware,starting from 192.168.0.3

MickeyD · 22-07-2014 10:19am

If the TC7200 is in bridge mode your WAN IP should be an 89.x address and your router probably should be set to 'DHCP' WAN mode instead of static configuration - unless you're using DMZ on the TC7200 and not bridge mode?

Anyway I might have fixed my issue - Lobo, if you log into the TC7200 (192.168.100.1 if in bridge mode) and go to wireless, make sure both 'Enable' and '802.11' mode are set to 'disabled' for both radios. I only had 'Enable' off but since I've turned off both it seems to not be disconnecting anymore. Some sort of weird routing mode must be still enabled until both options are turned off.

LoBo · 22-07-2014 12:04pm

Trying WAN connection type 'automatic IP' instead of 'static IP' now MickeyD. I saw that 802.11 mode was still 'enabled' for 2.4ghz radio so disabled that, but got a disconnect a minute later, so not sure if that's it.

Will see now if there's any improvement.

MickeyD · 22-07-2014 2:15pm

Hmm spoke too soon, it disconnected again after 4 hours and wouldn't reconnect til I manually did a WAN DHCP refresh.

LoBo · 22-07-2014 3:20pm

It's been a couple of hours without disconnects since I switched wan mode to automatic ip. Will see though as a few days ago it was fine for a day after I changed a setting and I thought it had fixed it

MickeyD · 22-07-2014 4:14pm

I wonder if it's something on UPC's side - maybe they are recycling IP addresses before the DHCP lease is over when the DHCP client is something other than an official UPC device.

white_westie, did you clone the mac address of the cable modem on your asus?

white_westie · 22-07-2014 7:30pm

MickeyD wrote: »

white_westie, did you clone the mac address of the cable modem on your asus?

No, never have.
Just looking at my ASUS WAN setup page and i have
WAN connection type: automatic IP
Enable WAN: yes
Enable NAT: yes
Enable UPnp: No
Connect to DNS server automatically: yes
MTU: 1500
Authentication: None
Nothing in Special Requirements for ISP

I would say they are the defaults for the WAN connection type.

Regarding the TC7200, I'm on software version STD6.01.27, and under the wireless tab I just have the 2.4 and 5GHz disabled on the radio pages, but the 802.11 Mode is as default (i.e. mixed)

In relation to your wan disconnects described earlier, before I got the TC7200 I just had the EPC2203 modem, and it was connected to a Buffalo router. I do remember once when it was flashed with a version of Tomato I did get random disconnects on the WAN interface which had to restarted by either power cycling the router, or forcing it to renew it's address, however it did go away when I flashed it with another varient of Tomato.
Assuming you where you using the latest stock version of the firmware, and now it has DDWRT, maybe it's worth trying a flavour of Tomato or OpenWRT if your router supports it!

WW

white_westie · 22-07-2014 7:33pm

LoBo wrote: »

It's been a couple of hours without disconnects since I switched wan mode to automatic ip. Will see though as a few days ago it was fine for a day after I changed a setting and I thought it had fixed it

Lobo, are you still seeing a 192.x.x.x address as your WAN address on your ASUS, because if you are, then your TC7200 is not in bridge mode.

MickeyD · 22-07-2014 7:47pm

It's defo been more stable since I changed that option on the modem but it could just be a fluke. I'll give OpenWRT a shot if I'm still having problems after I get word back from UPC about my line quality (Tomato isn't available for my model it seems but there is another one called Gargoyle).

LoBo · 22-07-2014 10:30pm

Well I had been on 'static ip' mode for the WAN settings, so I had picked the IP address of the asus (and default gateway), perhaps wrongly so.

Now that it's on 'automatic ip' mode I don't have those settings. How would I see?

My PC is on wifi and has 192.168.1.2 as an IP with a default gateway of 192.168.1.1 (that's the asus). It's just set to get everything via DHCP.

Since I switched to automatic ip 10 hours ago I haven't had a disconnect. Will report back tomorrow

white_westie · 22-07-2014 10:51pm

LoBo wrote: »

Now that it's on 'automatic ip' mode I don't have those settings. How would I see?

Good to hear things a showing some stability.
When you log onto your ASUS router, go to the Network Map page, and in the upper middle panel you will see your WAN IP.
Hopefully you will have an address like 89.x.x.x or 46.x.x.x
If it's a 192.x.x.x address then your tc7200 is not in bridge mode.

LoBo · 22-07-2014 11:13pm

Ah yeah it's coming up as my public upc IP 109.255.172.x

LoBo · 23-07-2014 11:25am

MickeyD wrote: »

Hmm spoke too soon, it disconnected again after 4 hours and wouldn't reconnect til I manually did a WAN DHCP refresh.

Looks like we have the identical issue. Disconnects are MUCH rarer now (one happened at midnight yesterday after about ~12 hrs disconnect-free) and one overnight (not sure what time).

These disconnects however don't reconnect automatically. Like you describe I had to go to the wan settings page and click save, without changing anything.

MickeyD · 23-07-2014 8:31pm

I've tried installing OpenWRT to see if that will change anything. I think it might just be a problem with our modems though, or else an incompatibility issue on the hardware level. I'm going to see if the same thing happens with a laptop hooked straight into the modem for a few hours.

white_westie · 23-07-2014 10:20pm

Sorry lads, have no more suggestions to try!
I have my ASUS router 2 years now and the TC7200 just over a year, and have never had the symptoms you are experiencing.

WW

UPC modem/router Technicolor TC7200

Comments