Sky Sagemcom F@ST2304 - installed

[Pengwern]

Hi Folks,

Ok, well my broadband and phone is due to go live on Thursday, but I've just had a text from OpenReach explaining they don't need to visit and that it will go live on Thurs.

So I checked phone line and it's back on, phone number calls out, but not inbound. With the phone line working I connected up the Sky Sagemcom F@ST2304 and it worked

My issues with the Sky Router is that my current router is already configured with DHCP reservations and IP range that I wish to use. However other than no WiFi-N, the new router seems to be ok at present (crosses fingers!).

I've got full signal wifi coverage throughout the house, and PowerOverEthernet adaptors for those that need faster streaming.


Stats: (Only been connected for about an hour, so still firmly in training zone)
Downstream Connection Speed 4095 kbps
Downstream Line Attenuation 5.0 dB
Downstream Noise Margin 16.4 dB

Upstream Connection Speed 605 kbps
Upstream Line Attenuation 4.8 dB
Upstream Noise Margin 20.5 dB


I have a couple of questions:
1) Should I leave the sky router in place during the training period? and then swapout after if so inclined?
2) When is best to call them for a gaming profile?
3) Do the stats look ok?
4) What does "Negotiation method 'MER'" refer to?
5) Are there any other specific issues with the Sky Routers to be aware of?

Thanks

[Pengwern]

Ok found MER :

" MER (MAC Encapsulated Routing) allows your router to perform routing on the LAN side and bridging on the WAN side. MER is needed only when your Network Service Provider doesn't support IP routing. MER adds NAT functionality, thereby providing greater security and more IP addresses for you LAN than what is provided by your NSP. "

[User05]

1) Leave the Sky router connected for profile optimisation. Once it's finished, then by all means use your own.
2) If you have a stable line, DLM will often leave delays at 8ms. I'd be very surprised if DLM didn't set your delays at 8ms (a 'gamer profile' as some refer to it) with your stats.
3) Stats look good - if being pedantic, perhaps the downstream noise margin looks low-ish, but assuming internal wiring is all good just leave things be and see how the training period goes. With your attenuation, you should end up with 20mbps.
4) Different method of authentication from PPPoA.
5) There have been issues with a some 2304Ns that start with mac address C8C not receiving a firmware update upon the router first logging in. I'd advise keeping your eye on it.

[Pengwern]

Thanks for the speedy reply.

1) I'll leave the Sky Router in place until training has completed.
2) Ah brilliant. Should I call up to confirm, or just leave it to do what it has to?
3) 20 Mbps would be amazing. The Sky guesstimator gave me 8-10Mbps, but I was hoping for faster, since my house backs onto the exchange! (I realise line length, not line of sight!)
4) Yup, just sussed it out. Cheers
5) Aye mines a C8C one too.

I'll change the IP range on it, and give it some of my reserved IP allocations, so it will be simpler to switch between them if needed.

Thanks for the advice.

[Scubbie]

For reference, the router will happily work with a different IP range and should be able to take the reserved IP addresses, but could I ask of you a couple of bit for feedback and offer some useful advice:

* could you comment on how you find moving around the router's pages as you add the settings?

* do use the backup method to save your custom settings, restoring them is a lot simpler should you need to reset the router at any stage in it's life

* when posting your stats, could you also include the 3 lines of 'Up Time' please, this will confirm to us whether DLM is running and if you have had the WiFi drop (a reported issue)

Many thanks.

[Pengwern]

For reference, the router will happily work with a different IP range and should be able to take the reserved IP addresses, but could I ask of you a couple of bit for feedback and offer some useful advice:

When I first looked at the settings, I couldn't find the reserved IP range. But sussed it all out now. I've set the IP range, and address reservations, turned my server back on and it's all working fine

* could you comment on how you find moving around the router's pages as you add the settings?

To be honest, it's easy enough to navigate. But when entering data, it's a little clumsy to use. For instance:
Entering IP Addresses, must remember to type [TAB] between the fields, rather than 127.0.0.1 ... or even multiple boxes where you press . and it changes focus.
Entering the address reservations ... once you've finished one, you then have to click ADD again, and be taken back to the add page, rather than "would you like to add another".
I can't find a way to change my DNS server for WAN ... I guess most "normal" users wouldn't be bothered, but I like to use OpenDNS for family safety, or Google DNS for speed
Firewall rules and services were easy enough.

* do use the backup method to save your custom settings, restoring them is a lot simpler should you need to reset the router at any stage in it's life

Will do, I tend to keep a text file log of things like that too. But thanks for the heads up.

Oh the SkyBackupSettings page, the help file is incorrect, it says "sky_settings.conf". But it's actually "sky_backupsetting.conf".

* when posting your stats, could you also include the 3 lines of 'Up Time' please, this will confirm to us whether DLM is running and if you have had the WiFi drop (a reported issue)

System Up Time: 3:51:18
Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN MER 887787 1377177 0 81539937 1901657943 3:50:33
LAN Up 350392 235598 0 315819635 44277768 3:51:18
WLAN Up 1278832 843246 0 1664507142 83510820 3:50:59
ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 4095 kbps 605 kbps
Line Attenuation 5.5 dB 5.1 dB
Noise Margin 16.3 dB 21.1 dB

Is that better, simple copy and paste?! No wifi dropping issues, and been using it all afternoon on work laptop.

Many thanks.

No, thank you for your help.

[Scubbie]

Many thanks for your response.

I was particularly interested in whether you found the router's interface slow to respond. With the Sagem 2304n I have, I find that it is very slow to change screens. Adding a list of MAC addresses for the 'Wireless Station Access List' was painful.

I was interested to see how your experience compared.

As for the stats, I've finding the image below the easiest way to post the full stats for this router at the moment.

It is important for you to realise that the WAN up time will reset sometime between 1am & 6am when DLM is working. LAN & WLAN should remain stable throughout. I have witnessed several drops in the WLAN time on my router, so again it would be nice to see how yours compares.

I've got all this, and much more, detailed out in a thread that's been going since last week.

http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/sky-r...formation.html

Thank you again.

[Pengwern]

No probs, happy to help.

I'd agree that it's not the fastest router in the world when it comes to displaying pages. But then again if it's serving up internet pages quickly, then I don't mind if it's own http engine is a little slack!

It's certainly nothing compared to the Billion/Draytek's that I've had before! :P

Sure, will do screen grabs and upload for stats.

I'm interested to find out how the connect speed changes overnight. I've read that some people it syncs overnight to the max speed for their line and stays there for the entire training period. Fingers crossed I get 20Meg

I'll keep an eye on my uptimes, and post some stats in your thread.

Oh as a tiny aside. Now my server is back up and running there are some downloads queued for midnight until 8am. Is it best to restrict it to light traffic during training time ... or can I hammer it?!:P

[Scubbie]

No probs, happy to help.

I'd agree that it's not the fastest router in the world when it comes to displaying pages. But then again if it's serving up internet pages quickly, then I don't mind if it's own http engine is a little slack!

It's certainly nothing compared to the Billion/Draytek's that I've had before! :P

Sure, will do screen grabs and upload for stats.

Many thanks, and also in anticipation of any others who can provide similar data. It might be useful to include screen dumps from inSSIDer too.

I've been used to prompt screen changes with an Edimax, a couple of Netgear and a Sky Sagem 2504 router. I personally found the 2304n to be slow to the detriment of the router.

I'm interested to find out how the connect speed changes overnight. I've read that some people it syncs overnight to the max speed for their line and stays there for the entire training period. Fingers crossed I get 20Meg

It varies. Since no one on this forum is party to the specific details of any connections (if they were, they couldn't say so anyway), it is hard to talk about specifics.

I would guess that if there is something that would help, it would be a nice clean connection between your home and the telephone exchange. In the ideal world, this would have only a few errors.

It is important not to keep turning the router on & off or unplugging the ADSL lead. These actions can be interpreted as problems.

I'll keep an eye on my uptimes, and post some stats in your thread.

Thank you.

Again, now it seems that I am getting a better picture of some of the issues, this is something that other members can help with too.

Oh as a tiny aside. Now my server is back up and running there are some downloads queued for midnight until 8am. Is it best to restrict it to light traffic during training time ... or can I hammer it?!:P

It shouldn't matter what you are doing, just use your connection as you would like.

Personally I have a PC running torrents 24/7. The only restrictions that I tend to place on it are the upload speed. During the day this is set to around 2/3rds of the max speed (65kB/s in my case) and at night it is set to 90kB/s. I found that higher than this impairs my browsing ability & can cause it more problems if left unchecked at night too.

[Pengwern]

I've updated your wifi issues thread. But I'll update here in response to your message:

Happy to provide information as and when. If this router suits my needs, then other than wifi, there is no need to change it.

I've downloaded inSSIDer, and chucked it on the work laptop.

Well I didn't get any speed change overnight. In fact the router WAN connection didn't restart at all! It's just supposition, but I think that since my connection doesn't officially go live until tomorrow afternoon, that the system isn't monitoring for a training period. This is especially so, since my stats are showing zero errors, but that it hasn't tried to reconnect to a faster speed.

Well I hammered the connection last night. Got some torrents to catch up on ;-) Might leave it running at 50% today, since I need the internet for working at home.