FTP problems with new Zyxel PK5001Z and station

[Intheswamp]

"Something" got touched by lightning several days ago and I just went through Centurylink's poor customer service. I'll leave out the gory details, but will say that when I got home my Dlink 655 was in a box along with the old modem, power supplies, and misc. ethernet cables...the worse part was that when I hooked the DLink back up I could access it! There *were* four wireless devices connected to that router regularly and another four or five devices of the kids' and grandkids'. Ok, enough of the fluff of the story, here's the meat of it.

I reconfigured the Zyxel to reflect my old network name and pass phrase. Things started connecting, the DVR and Blu-Ray player connected but I haven't used their wifi function so I don't know how well they will work. The wife's laptop is doing fine. The problem was/is my humble little Dell D610 laptop that is running the weather station. It has had no problem connecting to the router and internet but FTP is another story. With a fresh boot Cumulus would update my weather website along with WU, CWOP, and PWS with no apparent problems. BUT...about fifteen minutes after that fresh boot it would start getting FTP errors and nothing would get uploaded. Basically the only way to get it working again was to reboot the computer or log off of the network and log back in. It was (and still is) puzzling to me.

I accidentally happened upon a 'fix' for the problem. Upon rebooting the laptop on the last occasion I started Cumulus by clicking the Cumulus icon. I have been letting Startwatch do the starting up and monitoring of Cumulus for the last couple of months with no problems. I also have Cumulus Toolbox running....both Toolbox and Cumulus v194 run under Startwatch. Anyhow, this last time I rebooted I forgot to use Startwatch to start Cumulus...and Cumulus has been running without error for several hours now! All I can figure is that either Toolbox or Startwatch and the new Zyxel modem have 'issues' with one another.

I do like both Startwatch and Toolbox so I'd like to figure out what's going on so I can have them running again...especially Startwatch. But, for now I'm afraid to mess with things since it's days since the station and website has been consistent (I've already been put offline by WU a couple of times). One thing that is interesting is that when the FTP errors were hitting they would appear around the 15 minute mark after starting Cumulus...to the best of my recollection I have my Davis datalogger set to archive every 15 minutes...I don't know if there could be a connection there or not.

I've included a diag.zip and a ftplog.zip if anyone wants to check them out. Thanks for hearing me out and for any help you can send my way.

Ed

[Intheswamp]

Well, the "fix" was short lived. It looks like Cumulus started hitting FTP errors at 7:30pm tonight...so that run lasted about three hours, not long but much better than 15 seconds. It has now been running for about two hours without timing out. Any ideas are appreciated. Thanks.

Btw, I've been out watching the Perseids Meteor Shower. Have seen two or three good ones tonight (one really nice one with a smoke trail again) and several smaller ones. Nothing fantastic but I'm happy to be able to see what I do considering all the rain and humidity we've had!

Ed

[steve]

You're getting ftp connect failures, i.e. no response to from the server for 30 seconds when a connection is requested. As the only thing which has changed is the router, it would be reasonable to assume that it's the router that's the problem. But of course there's always the chance that some other bit of hardware has also been affected. I'm afraid I don't know what to suggest other than trying a different router; all Cumulus knows is that it can't talk to the server.

[steve]

It might be worth trying active FTP mode, but I think that's unlikely to help.

[Intheswamp]

The new router/modem is the only changed item in the network so I'm thinking it's the culprit, also. All I have to do to get FTP working is disconnect from the network and then reconnect...WU automatically starts updating and when the defined time comes around Cumulus updates the website. I may try setting FTP to active and see what happens...I've got nothing much to lose. I will probably connect the old equipment (DLink 655 router and Zyxel 660 modem) back up. It really irks me that I can't log into the DLink.

Ah well,...que sera, sera.

Thanks for the feedback,
Ed

[Intheswamp]

I ran the Centurylink/Zyxel "diagnositics" on the PK5001Z modem/router. This is what it came up with...I can understand the 'PASS' lines are good, but what about those "FAIL" marks? Ed

Diagnostic Test Results
Test Result
Ethernet: PASS
DSL PHY: PASS
Encapsulation Type: ATM
Encapsulation Test: FAIL
PPP Type: PPPoE
PPP Authentication: PASS
DNS Resolve: PASS
DNS #1: PASS
DNS #2: FAIL

[steve]

I don't know what the encapsulation test is. My guess regarding the DNS fail would be that the router can have two DNS servers configured, and the second one either isn't configured or isn't working.

[Intheswamp]

I ran the test again and "DNS #2" passed. I'm about ready to throw the blasted thing in the Gulf of Mexico...good thing the Gulf's 90 miles from me.

WU is updating right now but Cumulus is not. Aren't both of those updates via ftp?

Ed

EDIT TO QUICKLY ADD... Cumulus is now set to 'active ftp'.

[steve]

I ran the test again and "DNS #2" passed.

Then the second DNS server is configured, but didn't respond (for whatever reason) when you ran the test the first time.

WU is updating right now but Cumulus is not. Aren't both of those updates via ftp?

The only thing that uses ftp is your own web site. WU uses http.

Perhaps you need to adjust the MTU (maximum transmission unit) in the router; if you can find the setting, see what it is set to.

[BigOkie]

I ran the test again and "DNS #2" passed.

Then the second DNS server is configured, but didn't respond (for whatever reason) when you ran the test the first time.

WU is updating right now but Cumulus is not. Aren't both of those updates via ftp?

The only thing that uses ftp is your own web site. WU uses http.

Perhaps you need to adjust the MTU (maximum transmission unit) in the router; if you can find the setting, see what it is set to.

I forgot about how DSL is sensitive to the MTU because of the overhead of a PPPoE packet. Glad I switched to Cable (Docsis).

[Intheswamp]

Steve the MTU is set currently at 1492 (maybe somebody is a Christopher Columbus fan?) and says the maximum setting can be 1500.

Big Okie, I wish I could get away from this DSL but it's the only decent(?) option for me at my rural home (other options would be wireless cards, satellite dishes, etc.,.). And to add insult to injury there are two fiber optic cables running in front of my house (with Centurystink digging/ripping up my water lines, etc., in the process of laying them)...but, with that technology so close I can toss a rock at it I'm limited to a flakey 1.5mb DSL speed.

Ed

[Intheswamp]

And Steve, thanks for defining that Cumulus is the only thing using FTP. My education continues.

Ed

[steve]

1492 is the figure that is often quoted, but it seems that reducing to 1454 is frequently suggested as being better in some cases.

[Intheswamp]

I changed it to 1454 to see what happens but when I went to the website to refresh it it had already stopped updating (again)...only lasted 48 minutes this time. I then went to check WU and it too had stopped updating at that time. So, something is affecting both http and ftp? It actually showed a ftp timeout error at 12:33pm and the last update on the website as being at 12:48pm...fifteen minutes later. I disconnected from the wifi connection and reconnected and started an upload...it's working for now.<sigh>

Ed

[steve]

Sorry, looks like the MTU was a red herring. I'll stop guessing now.