I have two AT&T adsl lines. For years, I used a Syswan load balancer, which worked great with minimal issues. It finally died. I replaced it with a Peplink balance 20 - the user interface of the Peplink was much easier to understand, and helpful w/r/t setting static IP’s on the LAN for certain devices. It worked well for the first 4.5 months. It would cease working every two-three weeks, but after a reboot, it would work. In the last 1.5 months, it drops constantly. When it drops only the power light is on and there is no way to connect with the web user interface. Instead, I have to completely reboot the unit, which only works intermittently. I’ve measured the temperature on the inside of the cabinet, which is typically around 76 degrees Fahrenheit - the outside of the unit has never measured above 82 degrees Farenheit. AT&T has tested both lines and found them to be clear. When the unit is down, I can successfully ping the AT&T gateway for each of the adsl lines. I’ve had a ticket outstanding with Peplink for more than a month but other then permitting remote access, they haven’t indicated modifying any settings that could resolve the issue. I believe the unit is faulty but open to any suggestions for settings. Issue recurs regardless of firmware 6.3.3 build 3231 or 8.0.0 build 3623.
This is certainly not expected behavior. I’d suggest posting the ticket number here so the folks @ Peplink can correlate the ticket with your further comments. That’s a long time to have a ticket open.
Would you please share the ticket number ?
Ticket is #9060603
@995Greg and @11640Greg,
This is strange. Can I confirm there is no light for Status LED? Possible to take a photo of the front panel of Balance 20 when the problem is occurring? Then share the photo here.
Based on my understanding, the tech support advises changing the health check target to the gateway of the WANs to isolate the problem. Do you mean the both WANs of Balance 20 able to ping to the WAN gateway and no health check fails when the problem occurs?
Thanks.
Yes - that’s correct PL support recommends setting the health check target to the gateway of the WANS. I did that and also enabled the B20 to permit them to remote access. Because the unit goes down regularly (it seems to be down permanently right now - green power light - but otherwise, non-op) I don’t know that they’ve ever been able to remote access. I’ve sent them more than 7 diagnostic reports, at least 4 with the health check target set to the gateway of the WANS, and other than requesting more reports, have received no information about what might be causing the issues (I think the unit is defective). I’m not aware of anyway for an enduser to read the unit’s diagnostic reports, and PL support has told me it’s only for them - so I can’t review the unit’s healthcheck data. Separately, I have created a ping report (target=WAN gateway) in terminal that shows 14 failed pings, pinging the WAN gateway once per second for 10,000 seconds.
@11640Greg, there is 2 problems now based on my understanding.
- WAN Health check failed.
- Device failed to boot up permanently.
We have no way to troubleshooting for problem 1 now since the device failed to boot up.
As mentioned, please provide the photo for the front panel of the Balance 20 which shows your reported issue. This allows us to gain approval to proceed RMA. Please help follow up with me in the ticket.
Thanks.
Fatal Flaws sending the unit back. NO idea why it’s non-op. Here’s a summary: Rural user - at the end of one of AT&T’s longest DSL runs. The unit runs it’s own line health check using ping mechanism. To the best I can determine, if it detects latency above 200ms or ANY packet loss, it will drop both connections. Initially, this occurred about every 3 weeks. Eventually, it started happening multiple times a day. Because the device web interface becomes unavailable whenever this occurs - other than going to the device and physically rebooting it (unplug, wait 10 seconds, replug) there is no way to get the unit reconnected from a computer station attached to your LAN. It’s completely inconceivable why Peplink designed the device and it’s user interface this way. I returned the unit. I’m now using a Linksys LRT224 which has worked flawlessly for several days (7/20/2019). The only comparative downside for the Linksys is that it’s web interface is less elegant, particularly for reserving LAN IP’s for certain devices. That’s a very minor give-up, however, for a device that can resolve occasional packet loss and occasional latency above 200 on its own with no admin intervention (my packet loss% over a 4 day period is .8%, max latency 591.8ms, avg latency 26.5ms). As I mentioned above, eventually, the Peplink would only boot intermittently - which I can’t explain. PEPLINK won’t tell you what’s in the diagnostic reports the unit develops. The Linksys generates a detailed SYSLOG that you can review on your own, but also keeps the system and your connection up despite the packet loss and latency described above. Even if you disconnect the WAN connections, the Linksys user interface is still available on your LAN.
@11640Greg, I still wait for your response of the photo which shows the device failed to boot up permanently. This allows me to gain the approval for the RMA. You may report back if you are facing the same issue with the replacement unit in the future. We are ready to support you.
Thanks.
Ticket is #9060603