1841 ADSL 2+ Issue

[markeelen]

Hi,

     Wondering if anyone out there may have an answer to my issue with one of my customers ADSL 2+ / 1841 problem.

I'm in the UK, and have a customer who has an 1841 with a HWIC1 ADSL. He has just upgraded from ADSL to ADSL 2+. I have an ADSL tester that I have checked the line with, and when the line syncronizes, I am getting 16 - 17 Meg down on this line using the tester. As soon as I connect up the 1841, looking at the interface dsl stats, it gets 7.1 Meg. I am wondering if this is a firmware issue, as I seem to remember that the DSL firmware is separate from the IOS. Am I correct?

Using show dsl interface atm 0/0/0 it shows that the line has SHOWTIME and it has picked up it is ADSL2+.

Any help with this would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Mark

[paolo bevilacqua · Accepted solution]

Post complete command output.

[markeelen]

Hi Paolo,

     Thanks for your speedy reply, I'm not on site at the moment, and as the router has no K9 feature set, I have not enabled any remote access to it. (it has a ASA5510 sat behind it doing NAT and firewall stuff!)

I have set the FA0/0 as IP Unnumbered to pick its address up from the Dialer 0 so really, its an expensive router to be used as a bridge to the internet.

I am going to site on Tuesday next week, so will get a copy of the output then and post it up, I will also get a screen capture from my tester.

It just seems strange that my tester is connecting at a much higher speed than this router. (The site is right next to the Telephone Exchange, so I would expect to see between 15 - 20 Meg) Tester is showing good SNR and Attenuation results.

Cheers

Mark

[ciscoamit_497]

Hi Mark,

ADSL 2+ is latest firmware...And it is different from IOS..When will u do the show flash, u can see a file for the adsl firmware.

So, no issues by upgrading it with ADSL 2+.

Thanks,

Amit

[markeelen]

Hi Amit,

     Thanks for the info, will I need a support contract to download this, as this customer currently has no Cisco Support in place for these?

Many Thanks

Mark

[paolo bevilacqua]

ADSL 2+ is latest firmware...And it is different from IOS..When will u do the show flash, u can see a file for the adsl firmware.
So, no issues by upgrading it with ADSL 2+.

Not correct. Al the DSL firmware supports ADSL 2+, but they come with different versions for different ISP and DSLAMs.

And when the router is using embedded firmware, there is no separate file in flash.

[markeelen · Accepted solution]

Hi Paolo,

     You are correct about there being no version in flash. The firmware seems to be part of the IOS version, but you can put a version of ADSL firmware on flash and have the router boot using it. I have found that without a support contract, you cannot get the latest ADSL firmware from Cisco, but in the UK, BT have the latest stable release that they are recommending for use with their network on their website.

     I have just downloaded this, and am in the process of testing this in my lab.

     I have tried to implement this on my old 2621XM running 12.4(15) / WIC1ADSL but it does not seem to pick up the firmware on boot. I'm guessing the filename is in an incorrect format for the IOS, but as this is my lab router, I have time to research this further.

For those of us in the UK that have difficulty with the Cisco/ADSL provider interface the link below is a great document:

http://www.cisco-bt-portal.com/iusr/DSL/Product_Bulletin_DSL.pdf

I am now going to test this firmware on a 1841 / HWIC1 ADSL. I am also using an 877 at home, so that will be next. I will report back on my findings.

Cheers

Mark

[paolo bevilacqua]

The old WIC card uses different firmware, so you can't test with that.

Thank you very much for sharing the link, it's very useful and will help a lot of people with similar issues!

[markeelen]

Hi Paulo,

     I just read that.. the HWIC uses the 20190 chipset, the WIC uses the 20150 one. I have done a quick test using the 1841 with a HWIC1ADSL on a ADSL 2 line (6km from exchange, so 56 Db Attenuation, getting 2Mb or so) and on using the BT recommended firmware, I'm getting loads of BER errors. Going to have a go at home, as I have ADSL2+ there with 16 Mbps or so. Will let you know how I get on.

Cheers

Mark

[aprathore]

Hi Markeelen,

There is a firmware for 1800 seriers router when you connect to BT network. I faced same issue and once upgraded It was working absoultely fine.

It is something like 'vdsl.bin.---'''

Best to to upgrade to EHWIC if you have some buget

Thanks

[markeelen]

Hi Amit,

     Thats what I would do... Unfortunately, my client does not have budget to replace these.

Right, after an afternoon of testing and trying the firmware BT recommend, my results are inconclusive. A bit more background on this may be useful:

Office ADSL:

1 x TalkTalk Business ADSL (sure this is ADSL2) 6km ish from exchange - this one is used as main business line.

1 x TalkTalk Business ADSL (sure this is ADSL2) 6km ish from exchange - I use this one for testing and my lab.

Home ADSL:

1 x TalkTalk Business ADSL - This is ADSL2+ 300m from exchange - aluminum cables on street, so no full 2+ Speed

1841 / HWIC 1ADSL on office line with IOS firmware 2.2 meg

1841 / HWIC 1ADSL on office line with adsl_alc_20190_0.0.026 firmware 1.8 meg - loads of BER errors

1841 / HWIC 1ADSL on home line with IOS firmware 14.5 meg

1841 / HWIC 1ADSL on home line with adsl_alc_20190_0.0.026 firmware 11 meg - loads of BER errors

From this I have deduced that the firmware BT is recommending is for their lines, I am going to check with TalkTalk tomorrow to see if they are using Annex M on their lines. - The BT document states that TalkTalk / Tiscali use Annex M on their DSLAMs.

This still does not help me with my original problem (my client is using Cerberus for his ADSL circuits), but it is helping digging a little deeper into ADSL.

Cheers

Mark

[markeelen]

Hi All,

     Quick note to say this issue is now resolved. Spent some time this afternoon looking into this and have tried the BT recommended adsl_alc_20190_0.0.026 firmware on site on the Cerberus ADSL2+ circuit. Needless to say, had similar results to our office and home with the circuit degrading from 7.1 meg to just over 6.

After speaking with our suppliers tech support department, I got hold of adsl_alc_20190_4.0.017.bin - tftp'd it to flash, renamed it to adsl_alc_20190.bin, and rebooted. - result, now sync'd at 14.5 meg.

For anyone with a similar problem, make sure to rename the firmware to adsl_alc_20190.bin - no matter what the version, as this is the filename that the IOS looks for as it boots.

Cheers

Mark