Re: WAN Port wigs-out (fwd)

Charles Scott (cscott@freeway.net)
Mon, 16 Oct 1995 13:34:51 -0400 (EDT)

I promissed that I would update you on the problems with our PM2ER-30
after it was updated to 3.1.4. Livingston has now updated the software and
this morning we reconnected the internal cable so that all 30 ports were
operational. A quick test shows that we still have a problem, most likely
hardware, and that the symptoms are the same.
The information on 3.1.4 is that it was updated to better handle errors
on the WAN port, but it certainly can't prevent them. I started by
pinging it with "ping -p ff {address}" and it went nuts again returning
the first 6 to 8 chatcters as garbage and causing multiple framing and
crc errors on the WAN port.
I have another call into Livingston to let them know.

Chuck Scott, Pres.
Freeway, Inc.
cscott@freeway.net

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 12:47:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: Charles Scott <cscott@onramp.freeway.net>
To: Dennis Simpson <dennis@bconnex.net>
Cc: jeff@mercury.jorsm.com, portmaster-users@livingston.com
Subject: Re: WAN Port wigs-out

Dennis:
Well, it looks like there's more comming out of the woodwork with this
problem. We've seen it here and are currently working with Livingston to
figure it out. The guy at the other end of the line from the one that
first gave us trouble had seen it before also, which is how we knew not
to bother calling the phone company again.
I thing you'll find that it works fine if you disconnect the buss cable
from the main board which goes to the other 2 10 port boards. You should
also be able to make it go crazy by pingin it with pattern "ff". What
made me do that was that it was having more problems with binary file
transfers and image files. Looks like lots of bits on give it trouble.
We are waiting for our rep at one site to reconnect the other 20 ports
so we can retest the unit with 3.1.4 (which Brian uploaded to the unit
the other day). We'll see if that does anything.
My personal guess is that it's a hardware problem, either ringing on
the data bus due to termination problems or problems with the drivers at
the WAN port or supply impeadance feeding those drivers. When we pinged
that unit with "ff", you'd see the first 4 to 6 characters come bach
trashed, then the rest would be OK.
I'll let you know what happens here.

Chuck Scott, Pres.
Freeway, Inc.
cscott@freeway.net

On Thu, 12 Oct 1995, Dennis Simpson wrote:

> > My PM2ER20 WAN port locks up about every 7 days or so. Didn't do this
> > at first but started about a month ago. There are CRC and FRAME errors
> > but not many (<10). Resetting w1 clears the problem. Not too bad a
> > problem as long as it doesn't go unnoticed for more than a few minutes.
>. . . . . .