Excitel works fine on LAN but Frequently Disconnects on the Modem/Router (Checked 2 Modems Already)

[ajgamer]

Hello, I have installed Excitel at home 2-3 days back and I've been facing Frequent Disconnects since the very first hour of installation.

I have already tried multiple Modems/Routers to see the issue.

> TP-Link TL-R470T

I received a lot of disconnections on this including Lost Carrier, Lost Service and User Request. It was so bad that disconnection happened 60-70 times per hour (One Disconnection per minute). I couldn't able to load Google.com.

> TP-Link TD-W8970

Here also, I received a lot of disconnections including Lost Carrier, Lost Service and User Request. I noticed multiple disconnections per hour. Pretty much unstable and unable to use.

> Directly to Dell Laptop (Excitel Wire to Laptop's Ethernet Port via. Dial-up Connection)

This seems to be the most stable. I haven't noticed any disconnection with it so far. I ran for numerous of hours with it. Sometimes I see the 100-140ms ping when I ping to the default gateway (Excitel's Gateway such as 146.196.32.1). Though average is somewhere 4-5ms.

Few Other Information:

> Wire Installed from LCO

Wire LCO has installed from the Pole to Home is 2 Pair, 4 Wire Ethernet. (So it's basically 4 wires inside the cover instead of 8).

> Error Types in the Excitel Session History

I am seeing Lost Service, Lost Carrier, User Request errors mostly in the Session Log of the my.excitel.com. Screenshot: Screenshot

> Packet Loss to Google.com (ping www.google.com -t)

I am seeing 1-2% Packet Loss but mostly it increases in the evening to late night. I'm also seeing more disconnection in the night itself.

> Most common time of Packet Loss and Disconnection

There is no fixed time, But it generally happens mainly around 10-11AM, 3-4PM and then it continuously happens whole night from 7PM-Morning.

And, About Packet losses, it increases a lot in the night.

if you could point out some information and help me out in this strange issue.

Thanks.

 

[dpandey]

Not sure what excitel is, but do you live in an apartment? Wifi channels in my apartment are overcrowded. The ISM band is unusable for anything serious. Bought a 5GHz AP and things have been good.

 

[ajgamer]

Not sure what excitel is, but do you live in an apartment? Wifi channels in my apartment are overcrowded. The ISM band is unusable for anything serious. Bought a 5GHz AP and things have been good.

I don't know why do you think the issue is related to WiFi. I've not even mentioned anything about the WiFi.

Issue is related to Frequent Disconnections from ISP to Modem.

I request you to please read the whole OP and you will understand the issue.

P.S.: I've been using WiFi for more than 10 years now and I know the basics for it. There is no WiFi involved in this whole situation.

 

[mk76]

@vivek.krishnan

 

[6pack]

did you test the mtu between the isp and your router? Have you checked if the router disconnects frequently by putting the lan wire into normal lan port instead of wan port?

google dns is already slow in india and i'm seeing google sites have lots of packet loss from past month (atleast on my isp too). I'm seeing packet loss of 65% sometimes on all google sites when they don't open at all. My isp gets internet from Airtel and i've tested to see where the packet loss is and its mostly from Airtel's side on the order of 80%+. Probably some really bad caching or peering going on in Airtel servers.

do you know how to use traceroute in windows or mytraceroute in linux?

 

[vivek.krishnan]

Try to add a switch in front of the device and check. This seems to be an issue with the physical layer.

EDIT - weirdly, I had posted this yesterday and seems it did not get posted!

 

[dpandey]

MTU mismatch failures are catastrophic. You won't be able to work even for a few minutes.

Carrier loss is most likely a HW issue. Very high chance that both the TP link routers use the same ethernet chip (OP, can you confirm), hence similar behavior.

Few things to try:

Bring another company's router in the mix and see what happens (prob a higher quality equipment from Asus/D-link). Edit - Or as @vivek.krishnan suggested, uplink to Excitel through a switch.

Check the ethernet stats when the wire is connected directly to the laptop. If the noise on the cabling is high, you should see drop/error stats go up.

 

[ajgamer]

did you test the mtu between the isp and your router? Have you checked if the router disconnects frequently by putting the lan wire into normal lan port instead of wan port?

google dns is already slow in india and i'm seeing google sites have lots of packet loss from past month (atleast on my isp too). I'm seeing packet loss of 65% sometimes on all google sites when they don't open at all. My isp gets internet from Airtel and i've tested to see where the packet loss is and its mostly from Airtel's side on the order of 80%+. Probably some really bad caching or peering going on in Airtel servers.

do you know how to use traceroute in windows or mytraceroute in linux?

Hi, I am not sure. How MTU works.

I think with the basic modem, normal LAN Ports can't connect to the Excitel (Since it needs dedicated WAN). But with my load balancer, I'm today checking the last left WAN Port #4.

Yes, I know how to do the tracert.

MTU mismatch failures are catastrophic. You won't be able to work even for a few minutes.

Carrier loss is most likely a HW issue. Very high chance that both the TP link routers use the same ethernet chip (OP, can you confirm), hence similar behavior.

Few things to try:

Bring another company's router in the mix and see what happens (prob a higher quality equipment from Asus/D-link). Edit - Or as @vivek.krishnan suggested, uplink to Excitel through a switch.

Check the ethernet stats when the wire is connected directly to the laptop. If the noise on the cabling is high, you should see drop/error stats go up.

Okay, I tell you something weird @dpandey and @vivek.krishnan

I talked to the three-four people using Excitel. I asked them about the modem they are using. All of them said this particular model number that is TP-Link Wireless N Router WR841N

I ordered this instantly and put my Excitel Wire on this modem. I ran it for 24 hours and it didn't disconnect once (except for Admin Reset which I believe something has to do with the ISP's connection reset - this is a normal as it happens for everyone).

So, with this new modem I didn't face any disconnection.

The question arises are why do this cheap Rs. 850 works fine with the Excitel and why not Rs.10,000 Router not working.

I want to use my Load Balancer, so that whenever Excitel goes down. I can switch back to the Airtel automatically until Excitel comes online again.

1. By the way, @vivek.krishnan Do you use Excitel or something?

2. And, Do you mean to say with the switch is that to buy a cheap TP-Link Switch. Put that in between the router and the excitel wire?

Example: Excitel Wires ------> TP-Link Switch -----> TP-Link Modem/Router

 

[vivek.krishnan]

Yes. I dont use Excitel, but I had a similar issue with my ASUS N13 where I had to put a switch before the router else was having issues.

 

[dpandey]

Here is my hypothesis. Your ethernet cabling is bad and is picking up a lot of noise, quite possibly beyond acceptable levels. At this point, its a lottery. Some equipment will work some will not.

Can you do the second experiement I suggested, check the ethernet error stats when the excitel cable is connected directly to Dell.

Two ways to check error stats (do preferably both, I have never debugged windows, so more information is better):
https://www.raymond.cc/blog/detect-packet-errors-in-your-network-lan-connection-status/
'netstat -e' on command prompt