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Low-lying Firmware issue on RV0XX?

TL-MiLeRE
Level 1
Level 1

Dear Forum.

Occasionally we experience problems with our internet connection. We are tracing this problem for quite some time now.

Due to the fact that we are little far away from the DSLAM we do not have the fastest DSL. We are trying to compensate this with two DSL lines and therefore use Linksys/Cisco RV042 (v.1.1) routers.

The effect is sort of loss of the ability to establich an internet connection. We first of all thought that this might have to do with our dual WAN environment. We've gone through the procedure to name the usual suspects like:

ISP, Modem, Router, Cables, Setup (MTU etc.).

Our aim was to find a way to make it reproducible. Now we think that we have found a way to proof that this is a low-lying firmware problem. We've been using all available firmware for testing

RV042 firmware 1.3.12.6-tm,

RV042 firmware 1.3.12.19-tm and

RV042 firmware 1.3.13.02-tm

and we've used different routers of the same model to make sure it is not hardware dependent.

It cannot have to do with dual WAN setup, because we have physically disconnected the 2nd wan port and changed the setup so that the router should not have used this port.

We have been able to see this problem with a computer that is directly connected to one of the RV042's LAN ports, no other network hardware inbetween. When using another router (D-Link) the problem disappears.

This problem can be seen on linux systems using traceroute only. We've tried on windows as well, but do not see this. We think that's either due to

a) "The MS Windows tracert command uses ICMP echo request datagrams instead of UDP datagrams as probes." or

b) timing, because the tracert program seems to be slower by default than traceroute.

As you can see, slowing down traceroute by inserting "-z 500" makes the effect disappear.

So does it have  to do with load as well?

There is no difference in the effect using traceroute with hostname or IP address. The effect is stable all the time.

To make it very clear we've made a small video which can be watched here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=fbuJB8LqXeo

When calling traceroute three times after another, on the third call we  ever see a delay/timeout. To us it looks as if this occurs every 8th  time!

Does someone have an explanation for it? Any idea how to fix it? Can  somebody check it on RV016 or RV082 routers?

Help appreciated!

Michael

Dear Forum.

Occasionally we experience problems with our internet connection. We are  tracing this problem for quite some time now.

Due to the fact that we are little far away from the DSLAM we do not  have the fastest DSL. We are trying to compensate this with two DSL  lines and therefore use Linksys/Cisco RV042 (v.1.1) routers.

The effect is sort of loss of the ability to establich an internet  connection. We first of all thought that this might have to do with our  dual WAN environment. We've gone through the procedure to name the usual  suspects like:

ISP, Modem, Router, Cables, Setup.

Our aim was to find a way to make it reproducible. Now we think that we  have found a way to proof that this is a low-lying firmware problem.  We've been using all available firmware for testing

RV042 firmware 1.3.12.6-tm,
RV042 firmware 1.3.12.19-tm and
RV042 firmware 1.3.13.02-tm

and we've used different routers of the same model to make sure it is  not hardware dependent.

It cannot have to do with dual WAN setup, because we have physically  disconnected the 2nd wan port and changed the setup so that the router  should not have used this port.

We have been able to see this problem with a computer that is directly  connected to one of the RV042's LAN ports, no other network hardware  inbetween.

This problem can be seen on linux systems using traceroute only. We've  tried on windows as well, but do not see this. We think that's either  due to

a) "The MS Windows tracert command uses ICMP echo request datagrams  instead of UDP datagrams as probes." or

b) timing, because the tracert program seems to be slower by default  than traceroute.

As you can see, slowing down traceroute by inserting "-z 500" makes the  effect disappear.

So does it have  to do with load as well?

There is no difference in the effect using traceroute with hostname or  IP address. The effect is stable all the time.

To make it very clear we've made a small video which can be watched  here:
3 Replies 3

I hope you are successful in getting Cisco to fix these hidden bugs  that they ignore and pass off as user misconfiguration or hardware  failures.  I just got a RV082 v2 unit replaced with a v3 unit because of  firmware problems, but because it couldn't be resolved they RMA'd the  hardware.  Now I'm having a different problem with the v3 unit.

The firmwares are different on the RV082 and RV016,  not that they couldn't suffer from the same problems, but I think they  actually have different problems.  On the RV082, v1, v1.1, and v2  hardware can use v2 firmware.  All 3 of these hardware revisions, when  running v2 firmware, exhibit timeout issues loading complex webpages and  will only partially load the first time, then correctly load on a  refresh (specifically ebay, and one other I can't remember).  It's hard  to nail down as a router problem, looks like DNS or ISP issues, but I  was able to resolve the issue by simply reverting several units to v1  firmware. (different locations with different ISPs and different  configs, all having same problem).  Interestingly, the severity of this  issue increases with number of users and ambient temperature at the  router.  Mounting a fan to actively cool the router was a partial  solution for one client, but it wasn't fully fixed until I reverted to  v1 firmware for them.  Only caveat here is v2 hardware can't be reverted  to v1 firmware, which is why Cisco gave me the RMA on the one v2  hardware I had in service.

I would help but don't have any Linux boxes (or  knowhow).  good luck to you, and I hope you're onto something here that  can help us all.

Thanks for your statement. Would be very helpful to see whether RV082 v3 shows the same effect. Don't you think you'll be able to boot a linux live image from CD/DVD/USB? You can easily download and boot any live image of any distribution. This link is for Debian:

http://www.debian.org/CD/live/index.en.html

If you attach a laptop to the lan port of the router and have DHCP enabled, all you should need to do is open a linux root-console and enter "traceroute -m 2 2.21.32.170". If you do not have DHCP enabled you need to assign a matching IP to the computers network card which can be done by entering "ifconfig eth0 netmask 255.255.255.0 up" on the root-console.

I'll see if I can find some time over the weekend to try this.

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