[sf-lug] WESTELL , INC., MODEL : B90 - 36R516, REV : E, (&G) etc. (was: Re: "all better" (up again): Re: (temporarily) down: SF-LUG (but lists up) ... likewise some BALUG bits down ...)

[Michael Paoli]

I've done some searches/research on it before, ... but not in quite a
while.  If powercycling of the DSL modem "fixes" (even "temporarily")
the issue it's not issue with the data lines - should be able to
disconnect/reconnect those, introduce noise, etc., and so long as
they're reconnected and not too noisy, DSL modem should resume doing
what it's supposed to do.  Since it persists until power cycled, it's
not issue with the data lines (DSL & Ethernet).  It might be somewhat
sensitive to power glitches or the like, but the failure seems a bit too
regular (at least statistically) - and also also too rare, for that to
be a particularly probable explanation.  So, that mostly leaves the
device itself, and its firmware.  Same issue with two different firmware
versions ... that doesn't mean it's not a firmware bug - could be bug
common to both.  Or, might be something in the hardware/firmware, that
sometimes, just certain bits of data, or whatever, cause it to stop
working.  The basic symptoms and (temporary) "fix"(/work-around),
repeated far too often in my log [slightly redacted/edited]:
lost Internet IP connectivity over DSL
DSL modem shows three solid green lights on top
unable to ping router IP [default router IP on other end as ISP]
power cycled DSL modem - this corrected the problem

And the hardware (less the serial #):
WESTELL , INC.
MODEL : B90 - 36R516
The one currently connected:
REV : E
And the other one:
REV : G

I also have in my logs:
2003-10-29
...
upgraded firmware on:
WESTELL , INC.
MODEL : B90 - 36R516
REV : G
S/N [redacted]
from:
ModemAlcatel141 Alcatel DMT Firmware
to:
ModemAlcatel367 Alcatel DMT Firmware Ver3.6.70

Regardless, older prior firmware on the REV: G, or the newer firmware,
same issue.  The REV: E I've not upgraded the firmware on.  Thought I
might've had it's firmware version number noted in my log, but don't
seem to have that ...  as it has no IP address and is a (mostly)
unmanaged device, not particularly easy to check on the installed
firmware version (last I recall, required some utility to be run on
Microsoft Windows ... and personally, with negligible exception*, I
don't have nor use Microsoft Windows).

*one laptop I bought came with Microsoft Windows XP - no real choice on
that ... I almost never ran Microsoft XP on it.

Documentation?
I sort'a doubt these still exist where they were, but might be
retrievable via The Internet Archive?  Anyway, (much) earlier I did
retrieve and save these (sorry, didn't note protocol nor port - but
probably default on the latter):
www.westell.com/content/downloads/WestellPVCutility.exe
www.westell.com/content/downloads/diagnostic.exe
www.westell.com/content/sales/36r515_userguide.pdf
www.westell.com/content/support/wrspd_custref.pdf
www.westell.com/pages/software/faq.jsp?PROD_ID=36R516&PRODUCT=36R516
Oh, ... mtimes might help if one wants to (try to) hunt 'em down in
The Internet Archive ...
$ (find www.westell.com -type f -print | while read -r x; do TZ=GMT0 \
> stat -c '%y %n' "$x"; done) | sed -e 's/\.00* +0000 / /' | sort
2002-01-17 17:13:01 www.westell.com/content/support/wrspd_custref.pdf
2002-12-11 23:10:21 www.westell.com/content/downloads/diagnostic.exe
2003-05-27 13:47:59 www.westell.com/content/downloads/WestellPVCutility.exe
2004-01-05 14:58:49 www.westell.com/content/sales/36r515_userguide.pdf
2004-08-08 17:37:49  
www.westell.com/pages/software/faq.jsp?PROD_ID=36R516&PRODUCT=36R516
$
I also notice I don't (at least explicitly) see firmware listed there.
I'd guestimate either the firmware is/was within the binary (maybe even
more than one version)?, or perhaps (less likely) the utility would
download the firmware before proceeding to install it.

Also, the firmware that I upgraded - don't think I have the older
version - I don't think it gave any option to first save the older
firmware version.  I think at the time I did the firmware upgrade, the
product was still supported by Westell ... though the units I have were
were probably well out of warranty by that point in time.

> From: "Daniel Gimpelevich" <daniel at gimpelevich.san-francisco.ca.us>
> Subject: Re: [sf-lug] "all better" (up again): Re: (temporarily)  
> down: SF-LUG (but lists	up) ... likewise some BALUG bits down ...
> Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2016 19:04:41 -0700

> On Tue, 2016-03-22 at 18:37 -0700, Michael Paoli wrote:
>> ... same intermittent issue.
>
> It could be the wiring on your line. Nevertheless, have you done a web
> search for that model number with "connectivity loss?"