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  Bill_MI Bill In Michigan Premium,MVM join:2001-01-03 Royal Oak, MI
·Comcast
| Re: Firmware rasied noise margins on 643 GDM, did you know you'd wet my appetite on this? 
I'm probably more than 2db away from being able to go back to FastPath (not SafeMode) but you never know. I'll probably call ZyXEL for the first time and see if such a thing exists for my P645's chipset (I imagine this is a factor). Anyone know? | |
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 |  |   Bill_MI Bill In Michigan Premium,MVM join:2001-01-03 Royal Oak, MI
·Comcast
| Re: Firmware rasied noise margins on 643 Even without knowing exactly how noise margins are measured I'm sure it's hard to ever say there's some value that, when crossed, looses sync. The nature of the noise has to be a factor.
That said, water typically causes unbalance in the line. You may hear audible noise (usually "hum") on POTS. I had that for a while here a few years ago and I had to eventually predict rain, make a service call, to catch a lineman when it was bad. A real pain but eventually got it. | |
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 |  |  |  |  |   gdm Premium,MVM join:2001-06-15 Mchenry, IL clubs: | Re: Firmware rasied noise margins on 643 I know but once you have a taste of full you just don't want to give it up. I am going to check the NID in a little bit and scheduled SBC to come out and check the boxes. Thanks Hall!!!!! | |
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 |  |  |  |  |  |  |   Bill_MI Bill In Michigan Premium,MVM join:2001-01-03 Royal Oak, MI
·Comcast
| Re: Firmware rasied noise margins on 643 Very little except that copper line between you and the central office affects noise margin. I'm speculating from my background when I say the chipset in the modems is probably not a part of a ZyXEL firmware upgrade and that chipset pretty much determines performance, noise susceptibility, etc.
But like I said... I keep an ear out for things like "long reach" options that might have a shot at getting me solid in FastPath. Technology does improve and there's a real drive to squeeze ADSL performance (SafeMode a typical example that probably didn't exist in 1997 when I first discovered this problem and solved it... sort of ).
I've considered getting a different modem just to try it - but such data is hard to find. I can bet the farm modems cannot be created equal, even within the same model, when talking about the fringe of performance. But heck, I'm not going to try 50 of them. LOL! [text was edited by author 2003-04-05 11:30:00] | |
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 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |   gdm Premium,MVM join:2001-06-15 Mchenry, IL clubs: | Re: Firmware rasied noise margins on 643 Bill, I think it would be worth a shot to call zyxel and ask them what the curren firmware for the 645 is. It won't hurt to upgrade.:) | |
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 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  ccarlin
join:2000-12-28 Deerfield, IL
| Re: Firmware rasied noise margins on 643 Well I was the other one that tried this and my margins definitely increased. My downstream went from 6.5 (right before upgrading) to 9.5 and is currently at 11.5.
I have been up for 20 hours straight since doing this. I will wait and see how well it works on an evening during the week when I typically can't hold sync. | |
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 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |   Bill_MI Bill In Michigan Premium,MVM join:2001-01-03 Royal Oak, MI | Re: Firmware rasied noise margins on 643 FastPath or SafeMode?
I just reviewed the first 5 days of April and I'm averaging 10db noise margin downstream (my limiting factor). But the lowest was 6.5 and highest 11.5. Those 6.5 times kill me FastPath yet stay solid SafeMode. | |
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 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |   Bill_MI Bill In Michigan Premium,MVM join:2001-01-03 Royal Oak, MI
·Comcast
| ZyXEL isn't available 'til Monday but I'm looking at some updated f/w for my P645. Can either or both of you tell me what you have in menu 24.2.1? It should look like this:
ZyNOS S/W Version: V2.50(EK.3) | 8/31/2001 ADSL Chipset Vendor: Alcatel, Version 3.8.124
I found: ZyNOS F/W Version : V2.50(EK.4) | 9/19/2002 | |
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 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |   Hall Premium,MVM join:2000-04-28 Dayton, OH | Re: Firmware rasied noise margins on 643 EL ships whatever they have in stock and whatever works. I've got a "special" 642M myself. -- -= Mindspring MaxDSL via Covad 1536/384 TeleSurfer Pro =- | |
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 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |   Bill_MI Bill In Michigan Premium,MVM join:2001-01-03 Royal Oak, MI
·Comcast
| Re: Firmware rasied noise margins on 643 Well, GDM And CCarlin - you have the latest for Covad on the P643 - V2.50(AY.4). I found out Earthlink hasn't officially blessed the latest for my P645 (which I got online anyway) which is V2.50(EK.4).
But to the best of his knowledge, no ADSL parameters are invloved in these upgrades. Two people claiming a few more db of noise margin is significant, though.
CCarlin - I'm really curious how your performance is on the new f/w. I may want to have a backup modem before attempting to FLASH my P645 - these ISP-unique versions make me nervous.  | |
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 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |   gdm Premium,MVM join:2001-06-15 Mchenry, IL clubs: | Re: Firmware rasied noise margins on 643 Bill what's the noise margins? | |
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 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |   Bill_MI Bill In Michigan Premium,MVM join:2001-01-03 Royal Oak, MI
·Comcast
| Re: Firmware rasied noise margins on 643 Sorry, I edited after excitement! I have lots of noise margin data (every hour since last April... no kidding!).
I'll be able to plot noise margin (downstream is the limiting factor) for a week before and a week after, I hope. [text was edited by author 2003-04-07 20:41:45] | |
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  gdm Premium,MVM join:2001-06-15 Mchenry, IL clubs: | See something is up with this new firmware:) it's just not in my head:) | |
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 |   Bill_MI Bill In Michigan Premium,MVM join:2001-01-03 Royal Oak, MI
·Comcast
| Re: Firmware rasied noise margins on 643 I was wondering if a forced re-train may have done that with noise margins anyway. Well, what poo-pooh's that theory is that 13.5db is the highest I've ever seen this month - so it just may be real.
EDIT: I log noise margin every hour and 11.5db was the April high. [text was edited by author 2003-04-07 20:50:39] | |
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 |  |   gdm Premium,MVM join:2001-06-15 Mchenry, IL clubs: | Re: Firmware rasied noise margins on 643 Now remember bill in my case safe mode the highest I could get was 10db down and averaged 8db or lower. When I upgraded the highest I got was 14db and goes down to 12db. Usually it's around 13db most of the time. | |
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 |  |  |   Bill_MI Bill In Michigan Premium,MVM join:2001-01-03 Royal Oak, MI
·Comcast
| Re: Firmware rasied noise margins on 643 The question of the hour is if it equates to better noise performance (a.k.a less SYNC loss). For all we know something may have changed an arithmetic bug so the numbers change but performance doesn't. Remember... pessimists are NEVER disappointed. 
EDIT: I'm inquiring in the ZyXEL forum. [text was edited by author 2003-04-07 21:00:13] | |
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 |  |  |  |   Hall Premium,MVM join:2000-04-28 Dayton, OH | Re: Firmware rasied noise margins on 643 One important thing you guys are overlooking. You see noise margins of 'x' and 'y' from your end. At the same time, what does Covad see on theirs ?? -- -= Mindspring MaxDSL via Covad 1536/384 TeleSurfer Pro =- | |
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 |  |  |  |  |   Bill_MI Bill In Michigan Premium,MVM join:2001-01-03 Royal Oak, MI
·Comcast
| Re: Firmware rasied noise margins on 643 Hall, the 2 numbers always compared but it's been a while since I heard the DSLAM end. The DSLAM has a set of parameters but they compared so exactly I always figured they exchange each other's numbers. Only the modem can measure signal-to-noise ratio received, the DSLAM cannot, right?
EDIT: Or do you mean upstream? Upstream has never been an issue here - is it anywhere? Upstream is the low-freq end and (in our case) the narrower bandwidth. My upstream noise margin never gets below 18 (but I'll watch that, too). [text was edited by author 2003-04-07 22:01:31] | |
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 |  |  |  |  |  ccarlin
join:2000-12-28 Deerfield, IL
| Well Monday night and I have been up the whole time. That is a first for a weeknight in about a month or so.
Not sure if the firmware had anything to do with it but it certainly didn't hurt.
My downstream noise margin is currently only 10.0 but maybe it went down lower every evening and that was why I couldn't hold sync?
By the way I am in Safe Mode and have been for a while so 928 is tops for me. Which is fine since my distance dictates that I am lucky to get that. Speed tests are giving me a 776/326 rating. | |
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 |  |  |  |  |  |   Bill_MI Bill In Michigan Premium,MVM join:2001-01-03 Royal Oak, MI
·Comcast
| Re: Firmware rasied noise margins on 643 Here's 7 days of my Noise Margin Downstream. The very last 2 data points are since the f/w upgrade. -- Expert Opinions: $10 ... I Shut Up: $20 | |
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 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |   gdm Premium,MVM join:2001-06-15 Mchenry, IL clubs: | Re: Firmware rasied noise margins on 643 I haven't found anything on it either. | |
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 szanke
join:2003-03-15 Smyrna, GA
| I was in Safe Mode due to sync issues for about the last month using the 643 and TeleSoho 1500/384 service. I just flashed my firmware to V2.50(AY.4) | 11/08/2002 and immediately saw an increase of about 4db in noise margins and a 5db decrease in relative capacity occupation downstream. I called tech support and asked to be put in Fast Path. My downstream noise margins in Fast Path since the firmware flash are about 3 to 3.5 db higher than they were when when I was having sync issues. Hopefully it will remain stable.
Downstream Noise Margin relative capacity occupation: 82% noise margin downstream: 9.5 db output power upstream: 12.0 dbm attenuation downstream: 64.0 db | |
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 |   gdm Premium,MVM join:2001-06-15 Mchenry, IL clubs: | Re: Firmware rasied noise margins on 643 Very interesting. Szanke so far all of ours have remained stable. It may decrease 1-2 db but it usually goes up to.
Form me in safe mode 14/18 are my peaks. I average about 12.5-13/17. | |
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 |   Hall Premium,MVM join:2000-04-28 Dayton, OH | 9.5 is still borderline, isn't it ?? | |
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 |  |   Bill_MI Bill In Michigan Premium,MVM join:2001-01-03 Royal Oak, MI
·Comcast
| Data Update Hour 166 was the f/w update. It's kinda obvious *something* changed. You just know I want to try FastPath again (last summer was the last time I tried it). | |
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 |  |  |   gdm Premium,MVM join:2001-06-15 Mchenry, IL clubs: | Re: Data Update Do it Bill!!!! Come on you know you want to:):) | |
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 ccarlin
join:2000-12-28 Deerfield, IL | Well I am still up and running, this is the longest I have ran without any real downtime in a long while. Two weeknights in a row without loosing sync (well I lost once but it came right back up and never went back down). | |
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  Hall Premium,MVM join:2000-04-28 Dayton, OH | Have you guys inquired in the Zyxel forum ?? Maybe there's a Zyxel tech who hangs out there and can comment on this... -- -= Mindspring MaxDSL via Covad 1536/384 TeleSurfer Pro =- | |
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 |  See 21 replies to this post |
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  Gibigiane
@sun.com | Just a note that I also upgraded my 643's firmware with the version on the Covad website and my noise margins definitely showed an improvment (10db to ~15db). | |
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  Sebastian Premium join:2000-12-22 New Haven, CT
| is there a way to upgrade the zyxel 645M firmware? does it even have one? if so how?
I tried using telnet with IP address 192.168.1.1 but i can't connect, do you think they changed it, speakeasy/covad?
honestly, i am not sure what model it is... i say 645M because that is what it says on my DSL order.. but the modem itself just says "Prestige 645" -- will code for free. [text was edited by author 2003-05-17 02:53:29] | |
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 |   Bill_MI Bill In Michigan Premium,MVM join:2001-01-03 Royal Oak, MI
·Comcast
| Re: Firmware rasied noise margins on 643 Sebastian, I just posted my 20 cents on the ZyXEL P645 here: »Cant Log Into 645 Modem
ISP customization seems to be a moving target so I tried to be as generic as possible. Even the same ISP seems to have used various versions of config. | |
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