ADSL Instability

[tmohan]

We have the following setup:

Cisco 2801 using Advanced IP Services ver 12.4 (24) T5 IOS

Installed cards consist of HWIC-4ESW, VIC2-2FXS and HWIC-ADSL-M.

The ADSL connection is connected to BT and is setup for ADSL2+

We have an ADSL instability issue where the ATM interface intermittently loses connection and we encounter a high number of dropped packets, RED-Soloman EC, CRC and Header errors.

The firmware on the ADSL card is AMR-3.0.014 and looking this version up on the internet shows it as an unstable version on the Cisco 800 router range.

To combat this Cisco have created a firmware upgrade which is installed during a reboot. Does anyone have any knowledge of any firmware upgrade for this ADSL card when installed in a Cisco 2801?

If not, has anyone come across this issue, any advice gratefully received

Upgrading at this point to version 15 would involve upgrading the DIMM and Flash therefore we would prefer  a simpler fix due to the amount of routers.

[Phillip Remaker · Accepted solution]

Generally, you do not want to alter the firmware directly, unless under guidance by the TAC.

That said,

http://www.cisco.com/cisco/software/release.html?mdfid=281993180&flowid=534&softwareid=282821763&release=4.0.17&relind=AVAILABLE&rellifecycle=&reltype=latest

should take you the the firmware in question

Once you have the firmware you want,

1. Download the new firmware file and rename the file "adsl_alc_20190.bin".
2. Copy the firmware file to the flash:
3. For the new firmware to take effect, reboot the device.

The  firmware file should not be renamed when being copied  to the flash ,
Since the router looks for the presence of file named "adsl_alc_20190.bin"
to initiate the flash upgrade process

If IOS is now able to find a valid firmware in the flash then it would
always use that rather than the firmware embedded in IOS .If users want to
use the embedded firmware, you have to ensure that there is no valid
firmware file in flash.

[tmohan]

Cheers Phillip. That was exactly what I was looking for.

We have installed the firmware file on 3 routers and will monitor them closely On the positive side these 3 ADSL lines were initially down and would not come up with a reboot but with the new firmware installed, have successfully come back online.   Thank you for your input it is greatly appreciated.