How to restart/reset interfaces on RT-N66u (Solving issues with lazy provider)

[PeterV]

[Solved] Issues with PPPoE(lost packets in ping, not on interface).

Hi.

At first - big thanks to the Merlin for his great work.

Second - please help me. I'm ask for advice .
I will try explain current situation :

• There is a local provider, and it is no any possible alternatives for him.
• Accordingly, they very lazy, and it's very hard to receive any respond from them.
• Internet distributes over twisted pair , using PPPoE.
• In recent weeks, began to appear frequently log records by pppd like "Timeout waiting for PADO packets" and "Unable to complete PPPoE Discovery".
• Restart of the WAN interface, via "service restart_wan", and even router usually can't help. But this issue can be solved, in case of physically removing RJ-45 jack from the router.
• Another issue showed packet loss when the ping to 8.8.8.8 or to other side of PPPoE - from 20 % to 70 % loss. Restart connection from the web interface or via "service restart_wan" - do not help. Only full reboot of the router can help. And again - physically removing RJ-45 jack from WAN iface on the router solve this issue.

And now I have some questions:

• Is it possible to fully down for some period of time or reset or restart WAN interface, not only ppp0, but including eth0, to made full reset connection from router to provider from my side? To achieve the effect, identical to physically removing RJ-45 jack from the router. Robocfg option disabled on eth0 - does not help.
• Is it exist another way to restart the network more deeply , but without reboot the router and loosing of the local connections via switch between devices in my home network.

The problem is I want to solve automatically ...

P.S. Firmware from Merlin , now - 374.42 (Merlin build).
P.P.S. Sorry for my English.
P.P.P.S. My provider, as I can see in logs, use MikroTik, and, second thing - it's interesting, I see propositions of the MPLSCP in the logs (Unsupported protocol 0x8281 received).
P.P.P.P.S. command like "ifconfig eth0 down; sleep 3; ifconfig eth0 up" didn't solve problem.

[Solution]
I've install small dumb D-Link switch in break between WAN port of the router and uplink to provider. Issue solved.
It's very strange situation. In case of unstable connection to uplink, I should see errors on eth0 or ppp0 interfaces, but nope seen.

 

[joegreat]

...But this issue can be solved, in case of physically removing RJ-45 jack from the router.
...And again - physically removing RJ-45 jack from WAN iface on the router solve this issue.

Hi,

Hmmm, sound strange but there is a common thing in this:
It sounds like the provider is reseting the connection when you disconnect the media (=cable)!

Maybe you can provocate a provider reset with "reseting the media via command line".

Let's try this approach:
1) Check your link speed of your WAN port

chief@RT-AC68U:/tmp/home/root# robocfg showports
Port 0: 1000FD enabled stp: none vlan: 2 jumbo: off mac: 00:01:5c:4a:46:41

2) Set new link speed of the WAN port
In my case I set 1000HD (to change from FullDuplex to HalfDuplex)

robocfg port 0 media 1000HD

This should provocate a media change and reset from your provider...

You can try also 100FD instead of 1000FD - if the provider supports it.
Or you change to HalfDuplex and back to FullDuplex to have full speed and two resets!

Let me know if it works!

With kind regards
Joe

 

[PeterV]

Hi,

Hmmm, sound strange but there is a common thing in this:
It sounds like the provider is reseting the connection when you disconnect the media (=cable)!

Yes, i think identical

Maybe you can provocate a provider reset with "reseting the media via command line".

Yes. Thanks for the right and short digest of my long post .

Let's try this approach:
1) Check your link speed of your WAN port

2) Set new link speed of the WAN port

This should provocate a media change and reset from your provider...

You can try also 100FD instead of 1000FD - if the provider supports it.
Or you change to HalfDuplex and back to FullDuplex to have full speed and two resets!

Let me know if it works!

With kind regards
Joe

Thanks, I will try. Previously I tried to set enabled disabled on the port, but changing speed or duplex - looks very promising.

 

[PeterV]

Breaking news ;-)

I've put d-link switch between router wan-interface and provider.
Last 3 days - no issues. Still looking.

 

[GGavan]

same problem, no solution

Hi,

I have the same problem with AC87U. With a 100Mbps switch between ISP and WAN it is working.
1. It is not ok to have this switch just for this. The router should work without.
2. I'm paying for 200Mbps but with this switch I can receive only 100 Mbps.

I tried with different FW, stock, merlin... still the same.
I think that the longest period without restart it was with merlin 49_2.
Now I have 50_0
Any idea? some tweaks?
Maybe a script to restart the router after x minutes of PADO error?

 

[joegreat]

Hi,

I have the same problem with AC87U. With a 100Mbps switch between ISP and WAN it is working.

2. I'm paying for 200Mbps but with this switch I can receive only 100 Mbps.

Hi,

And why not having a GigBit switch in between?
Solves the issues and gives full speed!

I understand that this is an "ugly soution", but sometimes working IT solutions are ugly...

This issue looks like a provider problem, where the router firmware can hardly do anything against it.

With kind regards
Joe

 

[GGavan]

I don't have one available to test and I don't know for sure if it is working with Gigabyte one. Buying one just for test...
All the problems appeared after I switched from 100 to 200 so in theory it is possible to have problems with the gigabyte switch.

 

[GGavan]

I asked the provider and they don't offer support for routers. They are saying to test direct with the computer connected to PPPoE which is working without problems. From their side, problem solved.

 

[masalitv]

Hi.
I have the same issue with my cable modem. For some reason WAN connection disappear after some time (it could be 5-6 hours delay). Before putting an extra switch between cable modem and router I want to try force WAN port to work 100FD rathen then 1000FD.

My router ASUS RT-AC56U with the latest firmware by Merlin (Asuswrt-Merlin 378.51)

I ssh to the router and ran

robocfg port 4 media 100FD

Nothing has changed. What am I doing wrong?

robocfg show
Switch: enabled
Port 0:   DOWN enabled stp: none vlan: 1 jumbo: off mac: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Port 1:   DOWN enabled stp: none vlan: 1 jumbo: off mac: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Port 2:   DOWN enabled stp: none vlan: 1 jumbo: off mac: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Port 3:   DOWN enabled stp: none vlan: 1 jumbo: off mac: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Port 4: 1000FD enabled stp: none vlan: 2 jumbo: off mac: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Port 8:   DOWN enabled stp: none vlan: 2 jumbo: off mac: 00:00:00:00:00:00
VLANs: BCM5301x enabled mac_check mac_hash
   1: vlan1: 0 1 2 3 5t
   2: vlan2: 4 5
  56: vlan56: 8t
  57: vlan57: 0 5t 7 8u
  58: vlan58: 0t 1 3t 4t 5t
  59: vlan59: 0t 1t 2t 3 4 7
  60: vlan60: 3t 5t
  61: vlan61: 0t 5t
  62: vlan62: 1 2t 3t

Thanks!