[plug] Unattended reset of ADSL modem

[Steve Boak]

On Tue, 17 Feb 2009 04:46:28 pm Bernd Felsche wrote:
> Steve Boak <sboak at westnet.com.au> wrote:
> >On Tue, 17 Feb 2009 12:24:57 pm Matt Kemner wrote:
> >> On Tue, 17 Feb 2009, quoth Steve Boak:
> >> > My question is, how is this sort of problem handled in the commercial
> >> > world where this type of downtime would be intolerable? I've thought
> >> > of scripting an automatic reset through the modem control web page, or
> >> > reinstating a dialup modem to get limited access, but what do other
> >> > people do?
> >>
> >> In the commercial world we use modems/routers that don't have this
> >> problem
> >>
> >> :)
> >
> >Thanks everyone.
> >
> >Pulling all the comments together, the prevailing opinion seems to be 'Buy
> > a proper modem' :-)
> >
> >In the meantime, and because I like tinkering, I will work on automating a
> >reset triggered by ping failures.
>
> Got a spare serial or parallel port on the Linux router and a soldering
> iron?
>
> Easy enough to put a relay on there, drawing power from inside the
> Linux box for the relay coil, with the normally-closed contacts used
> to put power into the modem. You energise the relay when pings fail.
> (Your PPPoE-down script could also do it). Leave it energised for 90
> to 120 seconds and then return the power to the modem.
>
> You can make it "neat" by putting it on the inside of a PCI blanking
> plate, with plug and socket for modem power in and out.

I did the relay thing back in the 80's when my 8Mhz 80286 PC couldn't auto 
power off, with my own home designed ISA card interface and mains relay :-)

In an amazing bit of synchronicity while writing a response to this thread, my 
modem dropped out again. DSL link was up but PPPoE connection was dead, the 
same symptoms I have had previously.

Working with a Westnet support guy, we found they could see my modem 
connecting on the DSL level, but no matter what we did, no PPPoE data was 
getting through. They had no explanation and we couldn't resolve the problem.

As a last resort I phoned a couple of my neighbours. You guessed it, they were 
all out too (both Westnet and BigPond customers), with the same symptoms.

So I had to ring Telstra and wait in the queue...

Have you ever tried to tell Telstra that their infrastructure has developed a 
serious fault, which they claim can't possibly be the case, and had them 
insist that your phone is the problem even though it affects your neighbours 
too? 

If some of these support people had brains they'd be dangerous :-)

Several hours later it was resolved, but no idea what was done to fix it.

Steve