This is now the 2nd time I’ve experienced this issue with my Surf Soho MK3 running the latest 8.3.0 firmware.
With no prior warning and no change in anything I’ve done with the router, I find that there’s no establishing a connection to the ISP yet alone the secondary WAN licences connection that I signed up to so I could run it as a VPN router.
An Ifconfig shows that the connection between my computer and the router is fine (its on its own VLAN) or: “active” but I notice that in the detailed description of the connection it has (Full-Duplex TXPause and RXPause)
The other evidence I’ve got that I’m hoping will help troubleshooting is the dashboard page (admin page) shows “unable to connect” followed by “cable disconnected” and FWIW, it can’t be the cable as I substituted a backup cable and its the sam e problem “txpause and rxpause”…
So what’s causing the transmit and receive pause?
System:
laptop running open BSD
All connections between the ISP box to the router and from the router to the computer are Ethernet CAT5 cable…
I assume rebooting the ISP modem fixes things?
Maybe fall back to firmware 8.2.1.
Also, check the support.cgi page for Ethernet statistics.
And for the benefit of others, please provide the make/model of the ISP modem.
I didn’t expect a reply from this man himself! My admin page is largely built on the clear instructions provided on your router security page and its always been reliable for the year or so I’ve been running it now on both 8.2.1 and 8.3.0, and including since I added the GP WAN licence so I could use it with NordVPN as a “VPN router”. Did you push for getting this option enabled with Nord? If so congrats bcos the $30 GP-WAN licence fee is quote bearable for the secure VPN router setup it allows for.
Anyways, the troubleshooting: If the ISP modem reboot solved it before (can’t recall) then its certainly not working this time as I’ve turned off and then on both the ISP modem and then router only to find the same problem (No connection of either regular WAN to ISP or the VPN router WAN that I have on a separate port and VLAN.)
I cnst see this support.CGI option you refer to. I have, however gone into " System" → Event log" and “device” to see various entries dating back to 19/8 which is about the time I last had this problem… I don’t see any entries that aren’t explained by my typical pattern of physically connecting the WAN port to my ISP modem and then my laptop to the usual Ethernet port.
It would be helpful perhaps if the surf Soho had some proper activity lights other then just the basic on/off indicator light, but on peering at the back of it whilst its not working I see the two lights on either side of the connected either cable (WAN poet) being constantly lit up just like the ISP modem before periodically going off for a few seconds before trying to do what I can only assume is some kind of handshake process with the ISP modem that never works… The ISP modem shows similar lighting patterns throughout this process…
Thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks for the reply to date…
Did you push for getting this option enabled with Nord?
I did not.
Problems connecting to modems has been the worst thing I have run across with Peplink. I thought those probems were behind us.
Let me suggest you try this two ways.
turn router and ISP modem off.
boot ISP modem and give it 2 minutes for good luck, then boot router
If that fails, everything off again
Boot router and give it 2 minutes, then power-on the ISP modem
The two LEDs on the Ethernet ports is one of the nice features of Peplink routers. Asus, for ex, does not have them. It does help in that we know the problem is not something physical. When the lights blink it tells you the two devices are talking, just not fully understanding each other.
In the LAN/WAN Ethernet details section note the speed of the connection between the router and modem and whether it was negotiated or not. Speed should be 1000Mb/s and full duplex. If not, thats a problem.
Again, what is the ISP modem make/model?
And, try living with the older 8.2.1 firmware for a while to see if the problem happens there too.
This should be understandable. And you need to understand any problem before fixing it.
The Surf SOHO can log all data traffic on the LAN. So, turn on this logging while the ISP modem off and no client devices are connected to the router (you can connect to it). Then power on the ISP modem. The log buffer will probably fill in a minute. Make a diagnostic report (its in the Status tab) and send it to Peplink. The logging is turned on in the support.cgi page where it is called Network Capture.
Thanks again for the helpful reply Michael.
Yesterday, as part of my troubleshooting efforts I focussed on the ISP. By asking the right questions I learnt that my connection appears to have been “dropping out” where it connects between the ISP and my NBN modem (ISP modem) since about mid July.
I was a little surprised to hear this though, because its only since 19/8 or thereabouts that I noticed any connection issues.
Nonetheless I’m gonna look at using this support.CGI page to produce a report. I’m v privacy and security conscious. That’s why I use the Surf Soho in the first place. If I generate this report and send it to peplink what potentially private info will it give? Will it include my ISP password? My GP-WAN (VPN router) password? Or will it just give the IP address of my VLAN like I expect?
Regarding the ISP modem, its a no name/generic/standard modem issued by the Australian NBN co… I can’t even see a brand…
PS: I tried the power cycling of both ISP and router modem noting that I never leave them connected whilst they’re doing the NBN handshake, and only proceed to connect them via Ethernet once boh are fully green lighted…
When an internet connection is failing the FIRST thing to check are the lights on the modem. Keep a cheat sheet next to the modem so you know what the normal lights are.
Some (many?) modems have a web interface. Maybe learn how to log in to yours and poke around to see what a normal state looks like. There may be an event log.
I don’t know if the diagnostic report will reveal your passwords.
I’m typing this to you now in the early part of the day here in Australia. As usual I have nil connection issues in this (non peak) time of the day.
As I look at the lights on the back of the soho box I see little that distinguishes it from when its not functioning (and in the txpause and rxpause that IFCONFIG shows for the connection) There’s a green and an orange light on each side of the ethernet port, with the orange light blinking intermittently when I load content, but the green light staying solid. The only difference I can tell between this normal state and when its faulty is that when faulty it periodically shuts down both lights (which coincides with the NBN (ISP) modem doing the same, before then both coming on moments later as if it was trying to establish some sort of handshake which must not work. Now this would seem to suggest that there is indeed an issue between the router and the NBN (ISP) modem, but then this seems to be ruled out by the fact that it ALWAYS works when I connect the two during non peak times of the day when my NBN (ISP) connection seems fine.
Is it possible that the Peplink cries foul when, even though its local connection to the laptop is fine, it notices that the NBN modem hasn’t got a connection to the ISP? NB that I’m running it with a GP-Licence for the WAN (VPN router) option enabled whereby I load up a .ovpn file for it to negotiate a connection with my VPN provider.
PS: I thought you were well versed in the output of any/all diagnostic reports that a surf soho might produce. Are you saying therefore that you’re uncertain because its possible that it captures (and thus shares) certain info, like the ISP pword for example, but just doesn’t display it in the log of captured events?
PS: I think I tried to save the Event log or Device report log several days ago but it saves it with a weird extension that I don’t think my system (OpenBSD) would be able to open… like a .report file or some such… Any ideas on what the report can be opened with?
EDIT: I’ve just done IFCONFIG with a working connection to see how it might report the ethernet connection differently and remarkably it still shows the txpause and rxpause after
“media: Ethernet, autoselect, (100Base TX, txpause, rxpause)
status: active” so that’s a great lot of use!