Orange livebox (ADSL router thing)

[hotrodder]

Box of witchcraft as far i'm concerned but may have a problem, thought i'd run it past everyone here before suffering the call centre...

Internet connection typically good, reliable and fast. Been with them for years. Recently the livebox has been randomly loosing 'syncronization'. Sometimes the livebox says it's link down, sometimes it's 'syncronization in progress'. Switch it off and back on again and it's back up and running, might go for days without issue and then crash several times in as many hours. Will not reconnect itself if left but always responds to a simple switch off and on again.

Am wondering if old ADSL filters could cause this sort of behaviour or if it's more likely to a problem with the witchcraft box or the phone line (BT line, orange broadband is free jobby)

Any ideas?

 

[the snooper]

can you upgrade the firmware for the box that might help
random disconnects are usually software problems

just looked on the orange web site and you can upgrade the firmware

 

[hotrodder]

Ahh, thought it was supposed to do that by itself. I will investigate, cheers

 

[Windy Miller]

I have found that when the router gets a bit old it needs more reboots. Not sure why this is but they just seem to get cranky as they get old. Same thing happened to me as I got older!

 

[rikrobson]

It might be filters, but if it were then you would get problems when using the phone. It's more likely an issue with the line or the router itself. Orange will get you to change the filters. (its an easy fix) so you may as well get some new ones.
if you can get the line attenuation and snr figures off the router over a period of time to see if they are fluctuating. this will indicate a line issue.

 

[Drains]

Hmm. We're getting similar problems with the Livebox. Sometimes it drops the wifi, sometimes the landline internet connection. It can get a bit frequent. Might try the firmware update for starters. I was thinking though, if it's not performing, and old, will Orange give us a new one?

 

[hotrodder]

Right, tried updating it and it said it's already upto date. Age thing... it's one of the first (livebox 1.1), usually switch it off with the 'puter but sometimes forget. Doesn't make odds to the randomness i.e. might stay on and connected for days at a time and then decide to bug out several times in quick sucession or can switch it on in the morning go to check email and have it immediately drop out only to stay connected once rebooted

Rarely use the landline (0800 use only, if it rings it'll be a recorded message trying to sell me things most of the time) but have never had problems. ADSL filters are as old as the livebox, got to be 5+ years

Noise has been consistantly 15.3dB, attenuation 24.5dB everytime i've checked today. Don't know if that's OK or bad but no issues so far today, will keep an eye on it

Drains, i've been wondering the same thing. You'd hope they'd swap it out as it's theirs but mine is the free offer job that came with a mobile contract. I've been out of contract for a while now which should help my bargining point with Orange but can see them trying to push a different package on me

 

[Paul.]

My livebox does exactly the same, stays connected for days then might drop out 3 or 4 times in as many hours, one day last week it was off for 24 hours, then just came back, Orange telephone support is not very good, they just work of scripts and send out new filters, I had better results sending them emails, but of course you need another connection for that, and its not instant either
The few problems I have had have been external, I usually eliminate the internal connections by plugging straight into the BT master socket with everything else disconnected,
you may be interested in www.orangeproblems.co.uk if you ignore the rants there is some useful information on there, some of the members work for Orange tech support and are very helpful.

 

[hotrodder]

Been playing with google and got a fair few hits to that site Paul. Several threads i stumbled onto there about sync issues (fast flashing @ light), common theme being livebox is 'losing sight' of the broadband and is most likely a problem between livebox and master socket.

Next time it drops out i'll have a move around, plug it directly into the master and see about treating it to a new adsl filter

 

[Sparkey]

Blimey! Even my livebox has the same problem! and i'm in France!
Will try to get them to swap it for a new one, really like the usb socket on it...to hook up the printer!

 

[kristiaan_d]

i think this is a livebox problem most of the time as a friend of mind hated his whilst he had it. i know its no use to you but ive just signed up with orange for broadband and i got a nice swanky Netgear router, i was expecting a livebox as i was preping my old netgear for service again when the box arrived and i got a nice shiny new netgear one.

 

[hotrodder]

Still not sure. Losing the extension and plugging directly into the master made it a bit more reliable but not replaced filters yet. Due to the live printer thing put things back how they were and still seems a bit more reliable so simply breaking and remaking connections appears to have helped a little

Noise and attenuation improved fractionally afterwoods too, now stable at 14.9 and 27.5 respectively