Do you guys have any experience with routers? because i have some questions

[4wd]

I hope you are having fun in your vacation 4WD!

-gexecuter (January 12, 2009, 08:23 PM)

All over now bar the paying of bills but it was very fun!

I dunno what electrical problem in my house is actually, all i know is something when we start some devices (like microwaves, electrical water heaters,etc.) the power goes out. It reallly hasn't caused much trouble since no stuff has been burned so it's just very annoying.

Sounds like too many items on the one electrical circuit or a dodgy electrical connection, either a socket or join.

I did what you told me and put 4 matchboxes below the router, low tech but it works.

Another idea would have been to mount it vertically to a wall using the screw holes on the back.  But I've found the low-tech method works just as well.

My ISP is indeed telefonica chile, i did try their name as the password with no luck. I dunno what username and password are you talking about.

Your ADSL connection requires a username/password to work correctly, for instance, without it you might not have access to your ISP's DNS servers which will make accessing any web sites quite hard, (as I just found out due to the screw up with my landline and change of ISP).

The only password that the tech guy gave was for connecting to the wifi in the notebook. If you mean the user/password that i had to use before i had the router then yes i do have that.

If you look at the pic, the two items marked with an asterisk are what's required, these are normally different from any dialup username/password you received.

Do you guys have any experience with routers? because i have some questions

I don't plan resetting the router anytime soon but one thing is tempting me, the Media Bandwidth Management is for splitting the bandwith right? i could use that to give my PC and the notebook a 50/50 % of bandwith each right? that could be really useful.

It's more for prioritising bandwidth, for example, I have a PC that does nothing but download from newsgroups 24/7/365.
It uses max bandwidth all the time, however, in Media Bandwidth Management I have set that PCs IP so that its Bandwidth Budget is 100kbps and it has a low Priority of 1, which basically means any other traffic has a higher priority and the bandwidth of that IP will be reduced to 100kbps in the event of another PC browsing the web, fetching mail, ftp xfer, etc, etc.
It's also set to borrow bandwidth from the Parent Class, (LAN 100Mbps), so if there is no other traffic it can hit the max bandwidth of 256kbps, (I only have 256/64 ADSL).

The pic below is of the settings for the Child Class NNTP under the Root Class of the LAN Media Bandwidth Management.

Do you guys have any experience with routers? because i have some questions

I just don't understand why your ISP is so anal about letting you have the information you need to be able to set up the modem/router for your circumstances.  Being able to access the routers will also tell you if any other bandwidth leeching PCs are connected - although you could try using NetScan to detect any strange PCs if you think there's one connected.

[gexecuter]

Thank you so much for replying 4WD and good timing too since i have a certain internet problem that hopefully you (and other people too) could help me with, i finally found the router's password which i hope would let me fix this annoying problem. I am just going to repost what i already had written awhile ago, take a look:


Recently i have been having a lot of problems with my internet and my ISP is basically useless since every method that they have suggested has failed. Basically sometimes when i go to a webpage i get redirected to "http://192.168.1.1/zCfgTryAgain.html" and get the Following message:

Object Not Found

The requested URL '/zCfgTryAgain.html' was not found on the RomPager Advanced server.


if i try any other site is the same thing and i also can't download anything so for all intents and purposes i have no internet. This used to happen before but for only minutes however recently it has lasted for hours even i reboot the PC and the router. After doing a google search the only thing i could learn is that the "http://192.168.1.1/zCfgTryAgain.html" is shown when the DSL line is not up which doesn't me help at all. My router is a Zyxel P-660HW-T1 v2 and i have the password for it so i was wondering if any of you could help me in figuring out the problem. I have also attached a screenshot showing all of you what i see when my internet is down.


Do you guys have any experience with routers? because i have some questions

Edit: oh yeah i also remembered that a very long time ago my isp changed my modem into an USB one because i couldn't connect to the internet with the regular modem, i think it was a problem with my ethernet port on my PC that screwed things because i never had a problem with the USB modem so i am wondering if this time it could be the same thing since the router uses the same ethernet port.

[4wd]

Thank you so much for replying 4WD and good timing too since i have a certain internet problem that hopefully you (and other people too) could help me with, i finally found the router's password which i hope would let me fix this annoying problem. I am just going to repost what i already had written awhile ago, take a look:

Recently i have been having a lot of problems with my internet and my ISP is basically useless since every method that they have suggested has failed. Basically sometimes when i go to a webpage i get redirected to "http://192.168.1.1/zCfgTryAgain.html" and get the Following message:

Object Not Found

The requested URL '/zCfgTryAgain.html' was not found on the RomPager Advanced server.


if i try any other site is the same thing and i also can't download anything so for all intents and purposes i have no internet. This used to happen before but for only minutes however recently it has lasted for hours even i reboot the PC and the router. After doing a google search the only thing i could learn is that the "http://192.168.1.1/zCfgTryAgain.html" is shown when the DSL line is not up which doesn't me help at all. My router is a Zyxel P-660HW-T1 v2 and i have the password for it so i was wondering if any of you could help me in figuring out the problem. I have also attached a screenshot showing all of you what i see when my internet is down.

-gexecuter (March 11, 2009, 10:10 AM)

When it happens access the router's interface and go to Maintenance->System Status, under the WAN Information you'll have your IP, netmask and VPI/VCI settings - if you haven't, the router hasn't connected to the ISPs equipment.

You can also go into Maintenance->Diagnostic and do an ATM Loopback test, it'll say it was successful if there's a connection.  The ATM Status should also show something besides all 0's, eg. your rxRate and txRate will be higher than 0.
Also check the Upstream/Downstream Noise Margins - if they're too high then either you're too far from the phone exchange or your phone line is noisy due to crappy joints, (trust me - I was a telecommunications tech for 19 years, even though you may not be able hear any noise on a normal phone call it doesn't mean it isn't there, it could just be affecting the frequencies that ADSL needs).

I live pretty close to what was the 7km limit of ADSL and I know I'm on copper cable all the way.
My figures are as follows:

Upstream Noise Margin
noise margin upstream: 31 db
output power downstream: 12 db
attenuation upstream: 17 db
tone   0- 31: 00 00 00 00 00 00 22 22 23 32 23 23 22 20 20 00
tone  32- 63: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone  64- 95: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone  96-127: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 128-159: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 160-191: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 192-223: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 224-255: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 256-287: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 288-319: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 320-351: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 352-383: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 384-415: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 416-447: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 448-479: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 480-511: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Downstream Noise Margin
noise margin downstream: 13 db
output power upstream: -1 db
attenuation downstream: 36 db
tone   0- 31: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone  32- 63: 45 56 66 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 54 55 44 44 44 44
tone  64- 95: 04 44 44 44 44 44 44 33 33 33 33 33 33 33 23 33
tone  96-127: 33 32 32 22 33 22 22 33 32 22 22 22 22 22 22 33
tone 128-159: 32 32 22 22 23 33 33 22 02 32 22 22 33 33 33 33
tone 160-191: 22 32 32 22 22 22 22 20 00 00 00 00 02 22 22 22
tone 192-223: 22 22 20 00 22 20 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 224-255: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 256-287: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 288-319: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 320-351: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 352-383: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 384-415: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 416-447: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 448-479: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 480-511: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Edit: oh yeah i also remembered that a very long time ago my isp changed my modem into an USB one because i couldn't connect to the internet with the regular modem, i think it was a problem with my ethernet port on my PC that screwed things because i never had a problem with the USB modem so i am wondering if this time it could be the same thing since the router uses the same ethernet port.

That page comes from the router, if you're getting it then your ethernet connection to the router is working fine.  But you can test it easily by plugging in your sister's laptop to an ethernet port on the router, if you get the same thing then it's not your PCs ethernet port.

EDIT: Oh yeah, one thing that's helpful is the little light on the front right of the router that tells you the status of the ADSL line.
Flashing Amber - Normal, data being tx'd or rx'd
Solid Green      - No ADSL connection.
Amber but occasionally flashes Green - No ADSL connection.
Green but occasionally flashes Amber - No ADSL connection, attempting renegotiation of connection.

Basically, when you're having your problem watch the ADSL status light for a couple of minutes.  If it flashes green occasionally or is solid green then your ADSL connection has failed due to something, (possibly just a crappy plug/socket connection on the line lead).

Also, while I think of it, how is your router connected to the phone line ?
ie.
a) Is it plugged directly into a socket with all your phones having individual filters, or
b) Is it plugged into an ADSL filter/splitter and there are no individual filters on your phones.

If you don't mind, you could go through your router's interface pages one by one using a screen capture program and then send the pages to me at [email protected] (one of a few disposable GMail accounts I have).  I promise I won't use the information for evil purposes¹.

BTW, to discover the password for your ADSL connection you can do the following:

Using Firefox:
1) Install GreaseMonkey add-on.
2) Go to http://userscripts.o...g/scripts/show/16033  (Visible Password)
3) Click the Install button
4) Right-click on the monkey in Firefox's status bar and make sure Visible Password is enabled - it will have a tick next to it.
5) Access the router interface and go to Advanced Setup->WAN->WAN Setup where the password will be revealed.
6) Take note of it and the Username, these are required if you end up resetting the router to factory defaults.
7) Disable Visible Password in GreaseMonkey.

1. Yeah, right 

[gexecuter]

So just now the internet came back however it's not like before, some pages won't fully load and some won't load at all until i make a manual reload. Anyway i went to Maintenance->System Status and i got the IP, netmask and VPI/VCI info, there was also a default gateway that read N/A. I dunno if that's important. The ATM Loopback test has failed every time that i have tried it. I also did the Upstream/Downstream Noise Margins test and here what i got:

Upstream Noise Margin
noise margin upstream: 25 db
output power downstream: 14 db
attenuation upstream: 31 db
tone   0- 31: 00 00 00 02 44 56 66 66 66 66 66 55 55 44 20 00
tone  32- 63: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone  64- 95: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone  96-127: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 128-159: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 160-191: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 192-223: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 224-255: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 256-287: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 288-319: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 320-351: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 352-383: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 384-415: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 416-447: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 448-479: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 480-511: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00


Downstream Noise Margin
noise margin downstream: 33 db
output power upstream: 12 db
attenuation downstream: 56 db
tone   0- 31: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone  32- 63: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone  64- 95: 00 00 02 23 33 44 44 55 55 65 66 66 56 55 54 55
tone  96-127: 55 55 55 55 44 45 43 33 32 22 20 02 33 33 33 30
tone 128-159: 02 00 02 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 160-191: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 192-223: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 224-255: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 256-287: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 288-319: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 320-351: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 352-383: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 384-415: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 416-447: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 448-479: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 480-511: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

I think my ISP is in Santiago , Chile which according to google maps is at a distance of 120 KM. I have no idea if these results are good or bad tough, probably bad considering my bad connection.

My Router lights have always been green, i don't think i have ever seen them being amber. They flash tough. Oh sometimes the DSL and the internet lights would be off.

The router is connected to a little box on the wall in my room, the box has a wire that goes to another other room where the only phone of the house is located. The box (i dunno how to call it) has a slot where you can put another phone line and that's pretty much what i can tell you about the box.

Sure tomorrow i'll send you screenshots of the router's configuration pages, hopefully you were joking about that stuff.

I already have the password of the ADSL connection, the support guy of my ISP was kind enough to tell me about it.


And thanks for helping me out 4WD.

[4wd]

So just now the internet came back however it's not like before, some pages won't fully load and some won't load at all until i make a manual reload. Anyway i went to Maintenance->System Status and i got the IP, netmask and VPI/VCI info, there was also a default gateway that read N/A. I dunno if that's important.

-gexecuter (March 11, 2009, 08:42 PM)

Default Gateway is just an arbitrary name entered to identify the ISP, it could be anything or blank, (N/A).

The ATM Loopback test has failed every time that i have tried it. I also did the Upstream/Downstream Noise Margins test and here what i got:

Upstream Noise Margin
noise margin upstream: 25 db
output power downstream: 14 db
attenuation upstream: 31 db

The figures for 'noise margin' and 'output power' are OK but the 'attenuation upstream' is a little high but still acceptable.

Downstream Noise Margin
noise margin downstream: 33 db
output power upstream: 12 db
attenuation downstream: 56 db

The 'noise margin' and 'output power' are fine however the 'attenuation downstream' is, to put it bluntly, crap.  A figure of 56db means you're receiving just under 1/500,000 of the signal strength as sent from the ADSL equipment in the exchange.

From the Whirlpool forums:

[Select]

Noise Margin (AKA Signal to Noise Margin or Signal to Noise Ratio)
Relative strength of the DSL signal to Noise ratio. The higher the number the better for this measurement. In some instances interleaving can help raise the noise margin to an acceptable level.

6dB or below is bad and will experience no synch or intermittent synch problems
7dB-10dB is fair but does not leave much room for variances in conditions
11dB-20dB is good with little or no synch problems* (but see note below)
20dB-28dB is excellent
29dB or above is outstanding

* Note that there may be short term bursts of noise that may drop the margin, but due to the sampling time of the management utility in your modem, will not show up in the figures.

Line Attenuation
Measure of how much the signal has degraded between the DSLAM and the modem. This is largely a function of the distance from the exchange. The lower the dB the better for this measurement.

20dB and below is outstanding
20dB-30dB is excellent
30dB-40dB is very good
40dB-50dB is good
50dB-60dB is poor and may experience connectivity issues
60dB or above is bad and will experience connectivity issues

I think my ISP is in Santiago , Chile which according to google maps is at a distance of 120 KM. I have no idea if these results are good or bad tough, probably bad considering my bad connection.

That's their head office - where they hide, charge you money and provide little support.

If your internet connection was provided from Santiago you wouldn't have any internet at all - the maximum effective distance at which ADSL1 can be used reliably is about 7-8km.  ADSL2(+) can extend that a little but not much.

Your ADSL connection is provided over your phone line from the local telephone exchange to your house - somewhere in your town there will be a rather drab building, (or possibly in the back of the post office if the building is big enough), marked Telephone Exchange.  Someone around town should be able to tell you where it is, (Police, Fire Depart., etc).  When you find it, measure the shortest distance between it and your house on your bike or in your car, (the actual distance the copper cable runs will be longer).  Or just ask the company who provides your phone service how long the cable run between your house and the exchange is - you might get someone helpful who'll tell you.

Depending on how far away it is will help determine where the problem might lie, (eg. if it's <3km then the fault is possibly crappy wire joins or faulty equipment).

You could try unplugging the phone line from the back of the router 3 or 4 times to clean it's connection, the same where the line from the router plugs into the box on the wall.  Plug/socket connections tarnish over time and that can introduce resistance into the circuit.
It could be that the ADSL filter itself has developed a fault or that any joins along the length of cable from the box on the wall all the way back to the telephone exchange have gone high resistance

My Router lights have always been green, i don't think i have ever seen them being amber. They flash tough. Oh sometimes the DSL and the internet lights would be off.

My fault, I assumed the 660 series would have the same colour LEDs throughout the different models.

The router is connected to a little box on the wall in my room, the box has a wire that goes to another other room where the only phone of the house is located. The box (i dunno how to call it) has a slot where you can put another phone line and that's pretty much what i can tell you about the box.

Sounds like a central ADSL filter/splitter, same as I use.

Sure tomorrow i'll send you screenshots of the router's configuration pages, hopefully you were joking about that stuff.

And thanks for helping me out 4WD.

No problem.

One other thing, on the Maintenance->System Status page there's a button marked 'Show Statistics', click on it and watch the stats for the WAN Port - ideally you don't want to see any Errors there.

[gexecuter]

19 of march update: Looks like i jumped the gun again, since monday i have been having frequent disconnects.The DSL and internet lights of my router go off for hours and they light up again after some time which can take hours, what's funny it's that when the internet comes back now it's back 100% not like before which was slow. My ISP went beyond useless yesterday when i got in touch with a guy that told me that he couldn't do anything, i really hate my ISP now. Today i tested the router's ethernet cable with the notebook to see what happenned, no change. Same thing when i swapped the cable (i had a spare) that goes from the router to the phone socket on the wall, no change. I have also noticed that the internet tends to come back when i try to call my ISP, i dunno if it's just a coincidence or if god likes to screw with me but i though it was worth mentioning. Sorry for presenting you with this problem 4WD when is my ISP that should help me, maybe i am being too soft with my dealings with them and should scream or something.





A little update 4WD: I think my internet connection is fine now, or at least i hope so. Friday night i called my ISP again and i got in touch with a guy who instructed me to change my WEP encryption key for something else, i did that but nothing really changed until some time later when i could browse the web like i usually do. It's been two days since that and everything been going smoothly except for a couple of times when i lost the connection but that only lasted few minutes. I still don't know what the hell happenned to my connection and i am pissed that my ISP didn't really help me at all, the problem just went away on it's own.

The 'noise margin' and 'output power' are fine however the 'attenuation downstream' is, to put it bluntly, crap.  A figure of 56db means you're receiving just under 1/500,000 of the signal strength as sent from the ADSL equipment in the exchange.

That sucks, maybe that was the cause of my problems but we can't really know for sure since this is the first time i have ever done that test. Does having my sister's notebook connected to the router affect the test somehow? i am gonna run the test tomorrow with the notebook off to see if something changes.

That's their head office - where they hide, charge you money and provide little support.

If your internet connection was provided from Santiago you wouldn't have any internet at all - the maximum effective distance at which ADSL1 can be used reliably is about 7-8km.  ADSL2(+) can extend that a little but not much.

Your ADSL connection is provided over your phone line from the local telephone exchange to your house - somewhere in your town there will be a rather drab building, (or possibly in the back of the post office if the building is big enough), marked Telephone Exchange.  Someone around town should be able to tell you where it is, (Police, Fire Depart., etc).  When you find it, measure the shortest distance between it and your house on your bike or in your car, (the actual distance the copper cable runs will be longer).  Or just ask the company who provides your phone service how long the cable run between your house and the exchange is - you might get someone helpful who'll tell you.

Depending on how far away it is will help determine where the problem might lie, (eg. if it's <3km then the fault is possibly crappy wire joins or faulty equipment).

You could try unplugging the phone line from the back of the router 3 or 4 times to clean it's connection, the same where the line from the router plugs into the box on the wall.  Plug/socket connections tarnish over time and that can introduce resistance into the circuit.
It could be that the ADSL filter itself has developed a fault or that any joins along the length of cable from the box on the wall all the way back to the telephone exchange have gone high resistance

I didn't know that stuff about ADSL1 and ADSL12 at all. The next time i am in town i might ask around about that special building, it could be kinda awkward asking my ISP directly. I may try unplugging the phone lines once in awhile to clean tough how do you actually clean it thoroughly?

No problem.

One other thing, on the Maintenance->System Status page there's a button marked 'Show Statistics', click on it and watch the stats for the WAN Port - ideally you don't want to see any Errors there.

When my connection was down i actually went there, it changed between "down", "initializating" and "up", there was a bunch of other stats like packages i think. Oh yeah i forgot to take a pic of that page and send it to you like i did the others, do you want it too?

[4wd]

Sorry I haven't got back to you sooner, other commitments got in the way as usual 

19 of march update: Looks like i jumped the gun again, since monday i have been having frequent disconnects.The DSL and internet lights of my router go off for hours and they light up again after some time which can take hours, what's funny it's that when the internet comes back now it's back 100% not like before which was slow. My ISP went beyond useless yesterday when i got in touch with a guy that told me that he couldn't do anything, i really hate my ISP now. Today i tested the router's ethernet cable with the notebook to see what happenned, no change. Same thing when i swapped the cable (i had a spare) that goes from the router to the phone socket on the wall, no change. I have also noticed that the internet tends to come back when i try to call my ISP, i dunno if it's just a coincidence or if god likes to screw with me but i though it was worth mentioning. Sorry for presenting you with this problem 4WD when is my ISP that should help me, maybe i am being too soft with my dealings with them and should scream or something.

-gexecuter (March 15, 2009, 08:29 PM)

Just from the symptoms you're describing, (barring a hardware fault with your ISPs DSLAM or the router), my vote goes with a cable fault of some kind.

I don't know if your ISP is also your telephone service provider, (TSP), but I'd be reporting a fault on the line of "intermittent disconnection" for your phone calls to your TSP, at the very least it should cause your telephone line to be tested from the exchange for faults such as Low Insulation Resistance (usually caused by rainy weather and poorly weather-proofed cable joints), High Loop Resistance (usually poorly done cable joints) and Excessive Line Capacitance (too many phones plugged in or some idiot has paralleled it with another unterminated cable pair).

If your TSP is really on the ball, (or at least halfway decent), they will also send a tech out to check the wiring connections at your house and check/change the phone.

The fault you're reporting isn't exactly true, (ie. it's happening on the ADSL not the phone), but since your ISP is absolutely useless, (they should have reported a possible cable fault to your TSP), then I'd have no compunction about reporting a fault on your telephone.

Just do not let the telephone people know that the fault is really to do with your ADSL otherwise you'll probably get charged a callout fee, (that's if you aren't already, here in Australia it depends on how much you pay per month for the service as to whether it includes free fault repair).

If they send a tech out, get friendly, offer him/her a cuppa and ask questions about your service like you're interested   (Unless they're the uncommunicative, "P!ssoff, I'm working." type.)

eg.
Is my phone line copper all the way back to the exchange?
Just out of interest, was my line within acceptable limits for Loop and Insulation Resistance?
Where is the exchange, I don't remember ever seeing it?

From the brief visit I recently had to Chile, I found the people to be rather helpful.  Of course, I was a tourist blundering about not someone who actually helps to pay their wages.

The 'noise margin' and 'output power' are fine however the 'attenuation downstream' is, to put it bluntly, crap.  A figure of 56db means you're receiving just under 1/500,000 of the signal strength as sent from the ADSL equipment in the exchange.

That sucks, maybe that was the cause of my problems but we can't really know for sure since this is the first time i have ever done that test. Does having my sister's notebook connected to the router affect the test somehow? i am gonna run the test tomorrow with the notebook off to see if something changes.

Won't make a difference, those are purely the figures from the line side of the router back to the exchange - it doesn't take into account anything connected via WLAN or LAN.

Depending on how far away it is will help determine where the problem might lie, (eg. if it's <3km then the fault is possibly crappy wire joins or faulty equipment).

You could try unplugging the phone line from the back of the router 3 or 4 times to clean it's connection, the same where the line from the router plugs into the box on the wall.  Plug/socket connections tarnish over time and that can introduce resistance into the circuit.
It could be that the ADSL filter itself has developed a fault or that any joins along the length of cable from the box on the wall all the way back to the telephone exchange have gone high resistance

I didn't know that stuff about ADSL1 and ADSL12 at all. The next time i am in town i might ask around about that special building, it could be kinda awkward asking my ISP directly. I may try unplugging the phone lines once in awhile to clean tough how do you actually clean it thoroughly?

Not knowing what type of plug/socket they use in Chile, the best/easiest way would be to (un)plug the plug half a dozen or so times, this is normally enough for a decent "clean" - more than I usually do.

One other thing, on the Maintenance->System Status page there's a button marked 'Show Statistics', click on it and watch the stats for the WAN Port - ideally you don't want to see any Errors there.

When my connection was down i actually went there, it changed between "down", "initializating" and "up", there was a bunch of other stats like packages i think. Oh yeah i forgot to take a pic of that page and send it to you like i did the others, do you want it too?

It would be interesting to note whether it was reporting any errors and if that count kept incrementing.

BTW, did the ISP provide the Zyxel and still they own it or did you actually buy it as part of their package ?

[gexecuter]

Just from the symptoms you're describing, (barring a hardware fault with your ISPs DSLAM or the router), my vote goes with a cable fault of some kind.

I don't know if your ISP is also your telephone service provider, (TSP), but I'd be reporting a fault on the line of "intermittent disconnection" for your phone calls to your TSP, at the very least it should cause your telephone line to be tested from the exchange for faults such as Low Insulation Resistance (usually caused by rainy weather and poorly weather-proofed cable joints), High Loop Resistance (usually poorly done cable joints) and Excessive Line Capacitance (too many phones plugged in or some idiot has paralleled it with another unterminated cable pair).

If your TSP is really on the ball, (or at least halfway decent), they will also send a tech out to check the wiring connections at your house and check/change the phone.

The fault you're reporting isn't exactly true, (ie. it's happening on the ADSL not the phone), but since your ISP is absolutely useless, (they should have reported a possible cable fault to your TSP), then I'd have no compunction about reporting a fault on your telephone.

Just do not let the telephone people know that the fault is really to do with your ADSL otherwise you'll probably get charged a callout fee, (that's if you aren't already, here in Australia it depends on how much you pay per month for the service as to whether it includes free fault repair).

If they send a tech out, get friendly, offer him/her a cuppa and ask questions about your service like you're interested smiley  (Unless they're the uncommunicative, "P!ssoff, I'm working." type.)

eg.
Is my phone line copper all the way back to the exchange?
Just out of interest, was my line within acceptable limits for Loop and Insulation Resistance?
Where is the exchange, I don't remember ever seeing it?

From the brief visit I recently had to Chile, I found the people to be rather helpful.  Of course, I was a tourist blundering about not someone who actually helps to pay their wages.

My ISP and TSP are one and the same, i have one of those phone + internets packs so unfortunately your idea is a no go.Anyway i am now conviced that the problem is not on my end because some funny happened last friday, i got my internet back 100% and it really hasn't disconnected at all.The same thing happened the other weekend and i was able to use my internet just fine, i don't think it's just a coincidence that during the weekends the router was able to connect to the internet. Is now monday i am still able to surf the web unlike last time which gives me a little hope. If i get a disconnect again i am gonna call my ISP and tell that if they don't send a tech down here they may as well cancel my internet service, i think that would get their attention.

Won't make a difference, those are purely the figures from the line side of the router back to the exchange - it doesn't take into account anything connected via WLAN or LAN.

Oh, that's too bad

Not knowing what type of plug/socket they use in Chile, the best/easiest way would be to (un)plug the plug half a dozen or so times, this is normally enough for a decent "clean" - more than I usually do.

I did that when i was testing the spare cable that i had laying around. I did found a dust bunny in my original cable plug tough i don't think cleaning it really changed anything.

It woud be interesting to note whether it was reporting any errors and if that count kept incrementing.

BTW, did the ISP provide the Zyxel and still they own it or did you actually buy it as part of their package ?

I think they still own the router since they didn't give me a box or anything, plus they never gave me the router's password.