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telserv
join:2002-01-15
Thornhill, ON

2 recommendations

telserv

Member

[Other] SOLVED: odd DSL connection problem after speed upgrade

I've just upgraded from 0.5 Mbps to 7 Mbps DSL. It worked for a few days, and then quit completely. I've just finished a two day outage, and hope this description makes someone else's life easier.

Problem Definition: Unable to download email or do any web browsing. Web browsing sessions would time out. All diagnostics (ping, traceroute) would usually, but not always, pass.

Symptoms:
-P-660R modem was able to make a DSL connection (solid DSL light on), and didn't show any errors.
-The pfSense router / firewall showed that it was connected to the ISP
-The ISP excelled in troubleshooting by telling me "Well, we can ping your address".
-Wireshark was used to check the WAN connection, and showed packets moving back and forth. (actual analysis wasn't done, and many of the packets were UDP so they didn't need to be acknowledged)
-PRTG network monitor showed that connections to some sites worked and some didn't.
-One at a time, I swapped out the PC, the router, the P-660R modem, and the symptom never changed!

What should have grabbed my attention faster, was that the pfSense firewall / router showing between 4 and 10% packet loss on the WAN connection. Well gee, that small amount of lost packets shouldn't cause a complete outage, shouldn't it?? It might slow things down, but not completely stop email and web browsing completely, right? WRONG!

I finally dragged everything over to the home demarcation jack, and, SURPRISE, everything worked from there. This proved that the problem was due to the internal cat. 3 wiring in my home.

CONCLUSION: Four to ten percent packet loss means a completely failing DSL connection.
HELLFIRE
MVM
join:2009-11-25

1 edit

1 recommendation

HELLFIRE

MVM

Thanks for posting and glad you figured it out in the end.

What twigs for me is your statement here
said by telserv:

that the pfSense firewall / router showing between 4 and 10% packet loss on the WAN connection.

a) how was pfsense configured to do this in the first place, and b) to what target(s) was it setup to do so?

If it was set up as a basic ping test done periodic from the PFSENSE to target w.x.y.z, and NORMAL conditions is
0% loss, then that'd IMMEDIATELY alert me to start looking at the pfsense itself and work my way upstream to your ISP.
said by telserv:

that small amount of lost packets shouldn't cause a complete outage, shouldn't it??

Depends on a couple of factors. ICMP is the simplest way to verify end-to-end connectivity, but it shouldn't
be relied on exclusively to figure out whether something is or isn't working.

My 00000010bits

Regards

bdnhsv
join:2012-01-20
Huntsville, AL

1 recommendation

bdnhsv

Member

pfsense can monitor your default gateway (or another IP) using a service called apinger. It's been known to be a little buggy.
HELLFIRE
MVM
join:2009-11-25

HELLFIRE

MVM

...ahh, good to know bdnhsv See Profile , I _HOPE_ it's SOMEthing SOMEone SOMEwhere is working on.
Otherwise Windows' ping (target) -t works 100%, and pretty sure *nix has its own
equivalent :)

Regards