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bblebou
join:2001-04-09
Boston, MA

bblebou

Member

Westell DGNIcon (Modem Browser)

Hi- I have a Westell B90-36R516. Used the modem browser utility to get some information on the modem. Under the "DSL" tab- the "Line Statistics" section, my data rate is listed at: 96 Up/608 down. What does this mean? Also, where can I learn how to evaluate what the other setting in this tab mean? See attachment.
Thanks in advance,

BB
JTS33
join:2003-05-03
USA

1 recommendation

JTS33

Member

Noise Margin - higher is better. indicates how much noise can increase on your DSL line before the signal is lost. Yours look very good.

Attenuation - lower is better. measures the signal loss between the CO and you. Yours look OK.

Output power - higher would compensate for higher attenutation.

Data rate - the data rate your line is provisioned for. You must've gotten Verizon DSL waaay back and never got upgraded, because those are pretty low numbers.

I sound like I know my stuff, but you can do the same by doing a quick Google search and reading through some of the links.
ZapperO
join:2001-01-27

ZapperO to bblebou

Member

to bblebou
Hey bblebou,

If I wanted to get a copy of the Westell Modem Browser software, any suggestion on where I could download it?

[text was edited by author 2003-05-10 17:19:08]

jb
Premium Member
join:2000-09-24
Brick, NJ

1 recommendation

jb

Premium Member

You can download it from a link in this thread.
»Westell Diagnostic Icon

Alex G Bell
join:2002-07-02
Boston, MA

Alex G Bell to bblebou

Member

to bblebou
Will it work through a router?

Sedated3
Shooting Rubberbands At The Stars
Premium Member
join:2002-11-02
Brooklyn, NY

Sedated3

Premium Member

said by Alex G Bell:
Will it work through a router?
Unfortunately, no.

Best wishes,
Sed
Sedated3

Sedated3 to bblebou

Premium Member

to bblebou
As JTS33 See Profile mentioned, you must have gotten the account a while ago.

Bell Atlantic and later Verizon used 608kbps/96kbps provisioning on the "640/90" advertised rates, which were grandfathered on May 1st, 2001. Somewhere along the line someone forgot to upgrade your provisioning to 864/160 which is how the 768/128 accounts are set up.

608/96 accounts from experience yield about 505kbps at best downstream and about 83kbps at best upstream.

HTH,
Sed

Pathfinder5
Dazed Confused
Premium Member
join:2000-03-26
New York, NY

Pathfinder5 to bblebou

Premium Member

to bblebou
I have a B90-36515. When I run the Browser I only get this tab.
Is it not compatible with this model?

Sedated3
Shooting Rubberbands At The Stars
Premium Member
join:2002-11-02
Brooklyn, NY

Sedated3

Premium Member

Yes PF! Just hit CTRL-ALT-F7 when you have that window focused. You should see five other tabs at that point.

Cheers,
Sed

Pathfinder5
Dazed Confused
Premium Member
join:2000-03-26
New York, NY

Pathfinder5

Premium Member

I knew if anyone had the answer you would.

Thanks SED.

Sedated3
Shooting Rubberbands At The Stars
Premium Member
join:2002-11-02
Brooklyn, NY

Sedated3

Premium Member

You're very welcome.
TrustedZero
join:2001-08-25
Claremont, CA

TrustedZero to bblebou

Member

to bblebou
Wow thats a great program, and I didn't even know it existed until today.

Just a heads up to anyone else running XP, you must disable the windows firewall for the program to work. Took me awhile to figure out why the program wasn't working :P
bblebou
join:2001-04-09
Boston, MA

bblebou

Member

Sed- you are absolutely correct. 505 down, 83 up was about it. I think I took care of it now though, should be upgraded to 1.5/128 by May 20th. Now at least, I have a way to make sure they've provisioned my service properly using the Modem Browser.

BB

Madness
Like a flea circus at a dog show
join:2000-01-05
Lynn, MA

Madness to bblebou

Member

to bblebou
Hmm, my Westell is a B90-36R515 and the util found the modem during the install, then said it was not supported (????), then quit install! Is the '15 no good here?
ZapperO
join:2001-01-27

ZapperO

Member

I'm having the same problem with the identical modem! Any tech gurus have ideas on a work-around or fix for the problem?...latest firmware already installed.
JTS33
join:2003-05-03
USA

1 recommendation

JTS33 to Madness

Member

to Madness
said by Madness:
Hmm, my Westell is a B90-36R515 and the util found the modem during the install, then said it was not supported (????), then quit install! Is the '15 no good here?

Stolen from Sed's newsgroup posting :

Hi everyone, I posted the message(s) on DSLReports along with other users,
notably Dr. Dan regarding the Westell (c) Modem Browser.

Here's one of the notes verbatim, shortly after Dan was kind enough to forward
the utility to me:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------

Dear Westell Users:

Just to post a message regarding the Westell utility called the modem browser,

The above discussed Westell Diagnostic Icon (c) utility [Modem Browser]
mirrored at »mbrowser1.webhop.net (which is my PWS) and is *only of any
use to owners of deprecated Westell ADSL bridge models A90-36R515,
B90-36R515/516 and C90-51x .* . If you own a newer Westell, keep reading,
Westell has made the new utility available on their website.

To install, connect your modem DIRECTLY to your NIC (ie disconnect your
router.)

After installation, focus on the program window and press *CTRL-ALT-F7* to
view line statistics.

Use the utility at your own risk. Don't change VPI/VCI or other virtual
channel config. Changing virtual channel parameters will render your
connection useless until they are returned to their old settings- this is not
a tweaking utility but rather a modem performance monitoring utility.

It will however allow you, an owner of a product and a subscriber of an ADSL
line to have some gauge of your line's signal levels and performance, a common
feature in newer products.

I believe this to fall within the fair use boundaries as I paid for my modems
as many others and continue to pay in the form of monthly bills. It provides
the customer a valuable diagnostic tool which can save both us and the ISPs
some time. Of course I will remove the utility if asked by the copyright
holder.

--

If you're an owner of one of the current Westell ADSL models A90/B90-2100-*
Westell has made the A90/B90-2100 (current models) diagnostic utility
available at their website here: »www.westell.com/pages/ve ··· izon.jsp

--
My DSL turn-up statistics:

I'm using a Verizon (East) 1500/128 ADSL line.
The stats are from my Westell B90-36R515-01

Bootstrap 1.00.00
Firmware Ver 06.01.02
Tranceiver ModemAlcatel Firmware Ver 3.8.124

Noise Margin: 30.0dB up / 16.0 dB down [**]
Output Power: 12.0dB up / 20.0 dB down
Attenuation: 31.5 dBm up / 49.5 dBm down
Data Rate: 160 kbps up / 1792 kbps down

I have seen deviation only in one reading, "NOISE MARGIN Downstream: 12.0dB -
21.5dB , usually hovering around 16-18.

Pertaining to the noise margin in dB. From what I read, it can be thought of
as a safety margin.

The utiltiies should also allow you to view HEC, FEC, CRC and instances of
sync loss. There is a logging feature which can be used to produce a graph
(with a bit of extra code).

I've posted as a followup several screen shots from the modem browser utility
for my older B90-515 modem in 0.verizon.binaries.

Reference threads on DSLReports:

»Westell Diags
- Information for the A/B/C90-36R51x browser.
»Westell Diagnostic Icon -
Another thread about the browser including links
»Westell Diagnostic Icon
- "
»Westell Diagnostic Icon
- Doctor Dan verifies that the utility works with C90's.

Remember to press CTRL-ALT-F7 to reveal the 'juicy' information tabs and
PLEASE do not change your VPI/VCI settings. In case you do, you can restore
them to 0*35.

This message applies ONLY to Westell ATM users. Sorry Fujitsu guys and gals

--
Regards,
Sedated

Sedated3
Shooting Rubberbands At The Stars
Premium Member
join:2002-11-02
Brooklyn, NY

Sedated3 to Madness

Premium Member

to Madness
 
 
Madness, I also have a B90-36R515; works just fine.

You're the second person who mentioned that the utility wouldn't install.

A quick observation -

I noticed that the utility available from Westell is identical to the 'older' version of the utility that some of us got from users on the site [mbrowser1.webhop.net], however the older utility is packaged with Installshield.

As a lark I tried installing the version available from Westell, fully expecting it to come back with an unsupported modem version error, however to my surprise it worked fine.

I remember that when I installed the "older" modem browser on a Westell B90-36R516 which was not upgraded to firmware 6.01.02 , the utility upgraded the modem from 6.00.08 to 6.01.02 ... I can only guess that this, and Installshield adds to the file size.

Suggestions

Try installing the one available from Westell @ »www.westell.com/content/ ··· stic.exe

If that doesn't work, try installing the older one @ »mbrowser1.webhop.net

If it still doesn't work, upgrade your modem to Firmware 6.01.02 / Tranceiver Ver: Alcatel 3.8.124 with this file: »www.westell.com/content/ ··· rade.exe ...

There's a description of the upgrade here: »www.westell.com/pages/ve ··· _pc.jsp? however I'm unsure if the link will work due to Westell using session IDs.

If all that still doesn't work, perhaps the utility can't find your modem? (Yeah I know, I'm fishing ) ... I remember that some of the other Westell upgrades wouldn't work without a NIC to TCP/IP binding and refused to run on my wife's laptop until I remembered removing the binding to stop DHCP freezes..

Curious.. Could you please post a screen capture? Thanks in advance.

--
Hope this helps
Sed
ZapperO
join:2001-01-27

1 recommendation

ZapperO

Member

Hey Sedated,

Using the diagnostic.exe, I was able to setup and successfully use the tool. Works great! Here is my info:

P.S. Using the built-in Win XP PPOE client, I was able to get a speedtest of 1454/379 using an old d-link DI-701 I was able to get 1411/372...strange!

Thanks for everyone's help!

Alex G Bell
join:2002-07-02
Boston, MA

Alex G Bell to bblebou

Member

to bblebou
Hey guys:

I tried installing the software on my trusty old B90 515 and it would not load. I, however, also own a newer B90 516. When I tried installing it on that modem it installed and ran.

Out of curiosity, after I sucessfully completed the install, I then rehooked up my old 515 and tried to run the installed program on it: it ran fine!!!

I also had tried running the program through my router but it alas could not find the modem. I noticed I had trouble telneting to my router after that(!), but I rebooted and it appears to run fine now, abiet slow for some reason in telnet mode. I hope the software did not try to mess up my router!
Alex G Bell

Alex G Bell to bblebou

Member

to bblebou
Nope! Rebooted the computer and now telnet runs fine on the router.

Sedated3
Shooting Rubberbands At The Stars
Premium Member
join:2002-11-02
Brooklyn, NY

Sedated3 to Alex G Bell

Premium Member

to Alex G Bell
BTW I noticed that as well. Once the program is installed, even the modems that fail to be found work with it.

Strange indeed, I'm no guru, and I'm too tired to think straight. So suffice it to say I am glad it didn't screw up your router AGB

G'night!
Sedated3

Sedated3

Premium Member

I asked Gwion if it was alright to sticky the above two threads until we can a little co-operation going and get it all into the FAQ; as most of it post-dates the immediate VZ roll out.

Thanks Gwion! I hope this helps some people understand the changes. The GTE thread is very informative.
93254336 (banned)
Weapons Of Masturbation
join:2001-10-20

93254336 (banned) to Sedated3

Member

to Sedated3
Same thing here. The diagnostic program seems a bit temperamental, but it eventually finds the modem.

- Dan

misiek
Premium Member
join:2000-12-25
Round Lake, IL

misiek to bblebou

Premium Member

to bblebou
Where can I get it?
TIA.
93254336 (banned)
Weapons Of Masturbation
join:2001-10-20

93254336 (banned)

Member

said by misiek:
Where can I get it?
Check out this post from Sedated:

»Re: Westell Diagnostic Icon

- Dan

Steimes
I make internets
Premium Member
join:2002-01-08
Belle Vernon, PA
·Verizon FiOS

Steimes to bblebou

Premium Member

to bblebou
I looked on google but found no result, is there a simmilar program for the C90? When a tech came to my house hew had a 'line tester' that seemed to do the same thing as this program, more or less. Is there a program that can emulate this tester for the c90?
93254336 (banned)
Weapons Of Masturbation
join:2001-10-20

93254336 (banned)

Member

I've run the Westell diagnostic utility on a C90-36R516... worked perfectly.

- Dan

batterup
I Can Not Tell A Lie.
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Netcong, NJ

batterup

Premium Member

said by 93254336:
I've run the Westell diagnostic utility on a C90-36R516... worked perfectly.

- Dan
I have the "Westell B90-36R515-01" I downloaded and installed the »mbrowser1.webhop.net/ . It will not work through a router and lacks some of the diagnostics ability of the newer Westell 2xxx modems.
93254336 (banned)
Weapons Of Masturbation
join:2001-10-20

93254336 (banned)

Member

said by batterup:
I have the "Westell B90-36R515-01" I downloaded and installed the »mbrowser1.webhop.net/ . It will not work through a router and lacks some of the diagnostics ability of the newer Westell 2xxx modems.
Yeah, the Westell Diagnostic utility won't work through a router; the DSL modem must be directly connected to the PC.

- Dan

Sedated3
Shooting Rubberbands At The Stars
Premium Member
join:2002-11-02
Brooklyn, NY

Sedated3 to Steimes

Premium Member

to Steimes
Steimes
>> Is there a similar program for the C90

According to Dan's post in one of the most recent Westell forum threads on the subject, the utility works with a C90-36R51x (?)

Give it a try, make sure the modem is in bridge mode and directly connected.

You might want to first try the smaller executable right from Westell's Verizon page quoted several times above or mbrowser2.webhop.net (bit by bit identical.)

Dan's comments on the subject of C90s/DGNIcon are:

Quote: 93254336 See Profile

"Yes, the Westell utility works perfectly with my C90 (revision F).

"

More detailed info:

»Westell Diagnostic Icon

As I'm posting from a VERY legacy pc and not from home,

Cheers,
Sed
[text was edited by author 2003-05-20 00:30:06]