On Friday I had Infinity installed. Hurrah, going from 4mb to 55mm was a revelation.

I was however suffering the odd disconnection using the standard BT modem/router combo. This might be 12 hours or 24 hours between the drops.

Since I'd heard previously about the BT modem having heating issues, and since I also have a gigabit switch in the same place, I figured I would just splurge on the 2750n and get a modem/router/switch all in one as wlel as resolving the issues with the standard modem.

It arrived on Tuesday morning and I got it all plugged in to the existing kit to configure it without dropping my connection. The time was set, the settings inputted and everything loked good. So I unplugged everything and set up the 2750n in place of the HH3, the modem and my switch. On comes the power and I cannot connect to the web. The date has set itself back to 1970 but everything else was still as I had set it.

I had already downloaded the 1.5.2 RC1 firmware just in case and so flashed the unit. Once it back back up it still wouldn't connect, but at least I could tick the "use browser time" box which got it the right time. Then it managed to connect to the web and I could set it back to "use internet time". Finally online with the new toy and Iw as happy. Gigabit transfer speeds were solid, wireless was good, internet was fast.

3 hours later the connection dropped and the router dialled again.
Between 2 and 3 hours later it did the same.
2 hours later it did the same.

Now I went and got the 1.5.2 RC3 firmware and flashed that hoping that it might cure the issue. That was done at about 10 last night. This morning at 05:40 I went and checked the connected time and it was just 2 hours, not the 7:40 it should have been.

When it' working it's great, but it' dropping my connection more often than the BT standard kit. On top of that it was impossible to get online without setting the time, which wasn't possible without a beta firmware.

I'm at work today and will be checking the log when I get home to see what it's been upto. On the assumption that the same trend is going to continue I'll probably have to reset the device and see what happens if I start from scratch.

After much testing last night I have an update. It may be of some use to Draytek or someone else so here it is.

The pre installed firmware 1.5.1.2 will definitely not allow me to connect to the Infinity service. I do not know why. As soon as I put on one of the 1.5.2 firmwares (RC1/RC3/Final) it could connect just fine with no other changes being made. I did discover that the only way to connect up when the 2750n has booted from cold is to let it boot with NO RJ11 connected to the device. Allow it to boot up and finish twitching and only then put the RJ11 in. Booting from cold with the RJ11 connected resulted in only handshakes and training.

Anyway, as my last act last night before bed I disconnected my phone and skybox from the master socket, unplugged all 4 ethernet cables from the 2750n and disabled the WiFi. All this after a factory reset and a flash to the final 1.5.2 firmware (only available on the draytek.com site it seems). It was my hope that with no external influences the connection might remain stable so that I could then work on figuring out which of the above was the offending item.

This morning I woke and found that the Uptime was 7:33:00 and the connection time was 7:29:00. Success, the longest time that my Draytek has gone without losing the connection by a factor of at least double. I do not know if the firmware has fixed it or one of the other items. In truth after only 7 hours I don't even know if it is fixed, it could all just be coincidental. I'll be keeping it running as it currently is until tomorrow evening. By that point it should have been connected for some 48 hours. If it manages that then I'll be happy that the fault is occurring from one of the above things which are currently unplugged/disabled or the RC firmwares.

I am then off for 4 days in which I'll be gradually plugging in the other things one at a time to try and eliminate the problem.

Well so much for that!

I got home this evening to find that the connection had dropped. I have no idea when since the logs don't seem to keep everything, just the last x amount of items.

I tried a reboot to no avail. I figured that maybe it was the infinity itself which was down. I plugged the BT kit back in to see and it connected up first time.

So back to the Draytek I tried again with no success, then I tried downgrading the firmware, I tried resetting the device, I tried everything. It will NOT connect all.

It seems to sync and tell me that my profile is 13000 48000 but then the SNR down is reading 1600000 (0.1ms) which is somewhat higher than the usual 60-70.

So tomorrow morning Broadband Buyer will be getting a call for a refund.