AT&T 2Wire 2701HG-B Disconnects / Drops

[lauriebl]

So far so good, last night after I changed the settings listed by the AT&T Angel, I didn't have a single disconnect. I will see how it goes today! Thanks.

[glassheart828]

Hi going on day 5 now with NO drops, amazing!  Keep me posted on how yours is doing, just curiousity

[StevenTX]

Hello all, I have been having very similar problems with this gateway.  It started about a month ago, when I would get booted offline multiple times a night and then the gateway would restart again.  The most annoying thing about this is I'm an online gamer, and when this happened I would get kicked out of whatever game I was in.  Frustrating to say the least.  So I came across this forum, and I tried the settings changes recommended by the "AT&T Angel" (wireless mode to B, unchecking Packet Flood box in firewall) and this worked perfectly for about a week.  Now I'm having a new problem, I don't get booted off, but instead my internet speeds and ping will suddenly drop drastically and remain that way until I restart my gateway.  I usually run about 2.5 download/0.4 upload/0.35ms ping.  When this happens my download/upload are terrible, and my ping jumps to about 400 ms.  This makes online games totally unplayable because of lag, and everything else is slow too.  This has started happening almost everyday and lately it has been multiple times per day, with the only way to fix it being restarting my gateway.  And yesterday was the first time that restarting the modem online didn't work, I had to go unplug the gateway to get my ping and speeds to return to normal.  Does anyone have any suggestions??  This is getting really frustrating 

[StevenTX]

Here are some stats from my 2WIRE Management and Diagnostic Console.  Please keep in mind that since I reset my modem last night, I have not had any problems yet so I don't know if this will show my previous issues.  It's only a matter of time though, that has only been a very temporary fix.

DSL		Down		Up
Current Rate:		3008 kbs		512 kbs
Max Rate:		10220 kbs		1056 kbs
Current Connection:
	Current Noise Margin:		19.0 dB		21.0 dB
	Current Attenuation:		17.7 dB		16.0 dB
	Current Output Power:		2.8 dBm		2.4 dBm
ATM		Cells		Errors		%
Transmit:		129481		0		0
Receive:		832393		0		0
IP		Bytes		Packets		Errors		%
Transmit:		5133009		31009		0		0
Receive:		38850162		38037		0		0

[StevenTX]

And here is the troubleshooting page, notice the uncancelled echo reading of suspicious.  I don't have an alarm system or home phone though, the only thing the phone line is running to is the modem.

Troubleshooting – DSL Diagnostics

General Information
DSL Line (Wire Pair):	Line 1 (inner pair)
Downstream Rate Cap:	3008 kbps
Downstream Atten. at 300kHz:	14.7 dB
Uncancelled Echo:	17.6 dB	Suspicious - check phone filters and alarm
VCXO Frequency Offset:	-55.1 ppm	Ok
Final Rx Gain:	17.0 dB	Ok
Impulse Noise Comp. Tones:	0	Ok
Excessive Impulse Noise:	0	Ok
Impulse noise protection:	0.00
Delay of latency path:	0.25 ms

Training History

	Downstream		Upstream
Time	Line		Rate	Max1	Max2	Max3	Mgn1	Mgn2	Attn	Pwr	CRCs	FECs	INP	DLY		Rate	Max	Mgn	Attn	Pwr	CRCs	FECs		Mode	Vendor	State	Exit Code	Echo	VCXO	Rx Gain	INC Tones
2011/10/25 06:30:21 PDT	1		3008	8128	8128	8128	13.5	17.0	17.8	2.8	0	0	0.00	0.25		512	1048	21.0	17.0	0.4	0	0		G.DMT Annex A	Alcatel	230/105	IDLE_REQUEST	18.7	-55.5	17.0	0
2011/10/25 06:30:40 PDT	2		0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0	37.6	0.0	0	0	0.00	0.00		0	0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0	0		G.DMT Annex A	Alcatel	91/39	IDLE_REQUEST	-6.3	-55.5	23.2	0
2011/10/25 10:53:55 PDT	1		3008	8128	8128	8128	12.5	19.0	17.7	2.8	2	0	0.00	0.25		512	1056	21.0	16.0	2.4	0	0		G.DMT Annex A	Alcatel	229/103	N/A	17.6	-55.1	17.0	0

[Sparky_06]

You certainly seem to be the go-to man for these 2Wire disconnect issues. I wonder if I might as you to take a look at our DSL diags info and give us your interpretation of what you see.

Same scenario as others that have posted. Constant disconnects. I just plugged the 2Wire directly into the wall outlet (was connected to surge protector). We no longer have home phone, just DSL line.

I'm hesitant to change the wireless mode to 802.11b as I cannot afford to bring my network to a screeching halt because I depend on fast access for my job. I may try though if you think it is worth a shot as I can always change it back.

Would appreciate your input.

Here's the DSL diag info:

General Information
DSL Line (Wire Pair):	Line 1 (inner pair)
Downstream Rate Cap:	6016 kbps
Downstream Atten. at 300kHz:	26.4 dB
Uncancelled Echo:	-14.2 dB	Ok
VCXO Frequency Offset:	-58.7 ppm	Ok
Final Rx Gain:	25.3 dB	Ok
Impulse Noise Comp. Tones:	0	Ok
Excessive Impulse Noise:	0	Ok
Impulse noise protection:	0.00
Delay of latency path:	0.25 ms

Training History

	Downstream		Upstream
Time	Line		Rate	Max1	Max2	Max3	Mgn1	Mgn2	Attn	Pwr	CRCs	FECs	INP	DLY		Rate	Max	Mgn	Attn	Pwr	CRCs	FECs		Mode	Vendor	State	Exit Code	Echo	VCXO	Rx Gain	INC Tones
2011/10/25 22:40:46 CDT	1		6016	8128	8128	8128	15.9	16.0	30.3	12.2	0	0	0.00	0.25		768	1132	18.0	15.0	11.9	0	0		G.DMT Annex A	Alcatel	229/103	N/A	-14.2	-58.7	25.3	0

Notes:
Time	Time of last update
Max1	Max. rate at start of connection
Max2	Current or final estimated max. rate
Max3	Current or final estimated max. rate without INC
Mgn1	Noise margin at start of connection
Mgn2	Current or final noise margin
DLY	Delay of latency path

Bitloading

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
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[cb6614]

Hey Steven!

Welcome to the forum. Kudos for reading the previous posts and then posting your diagnostics info from the 2WIre, that really helps when determining the issue. Looking at your info I have to say, the line looks fairly clean to me. Your signal to noise ratio is higher than 6.0dB so this doesn't look like an "interference" thing, the sync rate is 3008Kbps downstream so you're getting the speeds a 3Meg connection should, and the attenuation on the line is between 14 and 17dB so I would guess your loop length is probably somewhere under 6K feet. From the line stats, this looks like a connection that could support 6Meg service but is provisioned for 3Meg service. From what I'm seeing here, there's not really an issue with the signal. That's not to say that you could copy this same diagnostic info from the modem at a time when you're having the problems and get completely different values. I would recommend watching the connection and when you start having problems again, take a screenshot of the page you posted earlier and post it here again so we can compare. The best guess I could take right now with your signal looking the way it does would be either an issue with some form of "outside interference" or some kind of "software" issue where you've got too much data passing through the connection? The outside interference could be a traffic light, security light, radio broadcast, or anything like that. If that's the case here, you'll lose the DSL signal during certain times every day when the interference is at its worst. A "software" issue could be any kind of malware/virus, P2P sharing client, or I've even seen issues where Google Music Beta uploads have caused problems. Do you download torrent files, use Limewire/Frostwire, subscribe to Google Music, use Remote Potato for offsite media sharing, Audio Galaxy for music, or anything like that? Those type programs can hog your upstream data bandwidth and cause intermittence as well. I'll watch for your next screenshot and we'll try to go from there. Good luck.

[cb6614]

Hi Sparky!

Welcome to the forum, and again Kudos to you for posting your 2Wire's diagnostic info with your question. Getting rid of that surge protector was a good idea because I've seen a lot of surge protectors knock those gateways out of sync. If that hasn't resolved your issues, the next thing I would look as is your downstream sync rate. If you subscribe to 6Meg service, your sync rate should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 8000Kbps downstream. That's known as a MAX SYNC profle. Your modem's sync rate is displayed as 6016Kbps downstream so the next thing I would look at would be your line's attenuation. The attenuation you've posted is 26.4dB and that indicates your loop length to be somewhere under 6 to 7K feet and should allow your modem to sync much faster than the 6016Kbps. Normally in cases like this I would question the length of the data cable connecting the modem to the wall jack. It should be no more than about 10-15 ft long because the DSL signal will degrade over RJ11 cable thats much longer than that. The next thing that could be part of the issue is if the modem is filtered on a Stand Alone DSL connection. Actually a DSL modem should ONLY have a filter installed at the jack where the modem connects if the modem is sharing the jack with another telephony device. In those cases, the modem should be connected to the "DSL" side of the filter and the phone to the "Phone" side of the filter. Otherwise, the modem should be unfiltered, connected directly to the wall jack, and the filters should be installed on EVERY other phone device that connects to the line the DSL modem uses for the Internet connection. I wouldn't worry about changing the 802.11x WLAN settings on the modem. I'd only recommend adjusting those if you have wireless client machines that often show "searching" for a wireless network to connect to. One other thing, the bit loading info you posted here. When you post your info from the modem in a manner where you "copy and paste" the forum will reformat the data to fit the page. Bit loading requires you to be able to see the graph exactly as it is displayed in the modem so taking a screenshot and posting it is much better. Good luck and let us know if any of these suggestions help. 

[StevenTX]

Thanks for responding .  I don't use any of those programs you mentioned that would cause interference.  I have noticed it is usually at night time when I have problems, although it has happened during the day occasionally.  Could this be because there is a higher internet usage by everyone at night?  What confuses me is if it is just interference, why did I just start having these issues in the last month or two?  Could my modem be going bad, it's only 2 years old though?  I will definitely repost my diagnostic page when I have problems again, naturally I haven't had any problems since my last post a day or two ago lol.  When it happens again maybe I can provide some more helpful info.  Oh i forgot, I do have my modem plugged into a surge protector, could that be causing these problems?  Thanks again

[cb6614]

Good morning Steven,

The programs I mentioned weren't really about "interference" and I apologize if I wasn't clear. Those programs were about "bandwidth". That's one of the first things that anyone should always check when they've got intermittence and slow speeds for DSL service because those type of applications use a lot of upstream bandwidth. The DSL service that most people subscribe to is actually known as "ADSL" or "Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line" and this type of connection provides considerably higher bandwidth downloading from the Internet than uploading to the Internet (more on "ADSL" can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymmetric_digital_subscriber_line). When you've got an application that uploads a lot of data via a DSL connection, that connection can appear sluggish or even become intermittent. It's like trying to move a golf ball through a garden hose but enough about that since you're sure this isn't the case with your connection.

If you're only experiencing issues at certain times of day, then you may have an issue with "saturation" where the demand for bandwidth meets or exceeds the service provider's ability to provide the bandwidth but we'll get more into that later. That surge protector you mentioned could certainly have an affect on the modem. For some reason, I've seen a whole lot of 2Wire's experience issues when they're drawing their power from anything other than the regular wall socket. Not sure if its an issue with the power supply or an issue where the other devices connected to the same power source as the 2Wire can knock the modem out of sync. You might try moving the 2WIre to a regular wall outlet then seeing if you're issue continues. If that doesn't resolve the issue, then we'll look elsewhere. Remeber when you're troubleshooting, it's like taking "baby steps". We take one step at a time then we see if that step fixes the problem. Hope you're doing well and again, good luck. 

[StevenTX]

Good morning to you cb, I'll definitely try plugging directly into the wall socket.  I haven't had any problems now for the last two nights, not sure why.  I haven't found any pattern or anything to when it messes up.  One more question until I can post a more helpful diagnostics page, my modem's power cord is too short to reach the nearest wall outlet where it is currently located.  Can I safely use an extension cord connected to the modem's power cord to reach the outlet?  Thanks again for your response

[BIGBOSS]

can someone help me out? i play online too so i know for sure my connection sucks when bullets don't register.

Current Noise Margin:	5.0 dB (Downstream) 14.0 dB (Upstream)
Current Attenuation:	63.0 dB (Downstream) 31.5 dB (Upstream)
Current Output Power:	16.2 dBm (Downstream) 11.9 dBm (Upstream)
DSLAM Vendor Information:	Country: {0x0F} Vendor: {ALCB} Specific: {0x00}
PVC Info:	0/35

[CBrandonB]

Hey Boss, welcome to the forum. Looking at your line attenuation and signal to noise ratio makes me wonder, what speed tier do you subscribe to?

[BIGBOSS]

My download is 1.5mbps and my upload is 384kbps if thats what your asking.

[cb6614]

@Boss
If your speed package puts you subscribing to 1.5Meg DSL service, the attenuation on the line should be okay at 63dB. That would put your loop somewhere over about 16 to 18,000 feet which would disqualify you for 3 or 6Meg service but at 1.5Meg you should be fine. The thing that concerns me with the info you posted is your downstream signal to noise ratio. A stable DSL signal shouldn't have a noise ratio under about 6-7dB because less than that and you'll start dropping connections. Your signal to noise ratio being 5.0dB tells me there is something interfering with the DSL signal on your line. Do you have DSL and home phone service or is it only DSL with no phone line. Either way, the only time your modem should have a filter installed on it would be if the modem is sharing its data jack with another device like a phone, fax, credit card machine, DirecTV satellite receiver, or something like that. Anything else you plug into ANY phone jack servicing that line MUST have a filter installed at the phone jack in the wall before the devices phone cable is plugged into the wall jack. Check to make sure that all your jacks are filtered properly and if the modem doesn't share its data jack with another device, don't filter the modem. The other thing I would want to know is what are your downstream and upstream data rates from the user interface of the modem? Kudos for posting the noise margins and attenuation, but without the data (or "sync") rate, we're missing part of the whole picture. Good luck on resolving the interference and let us know how it goes.

[BIGBOSS]

DSL Line (Wire Pair):	Line 1 (inner pair)
Protocol:	G.DMT Annex A
Downstream Rate:	1536 kbps
Upstream Rate:	384 kbps
Channel:	Interleaved
Current Noise Margin:	10.0 dB (Downstream) 15.0 dB (Upstream)
Current Attenuation:	63.0 dB (Downstream) 31.5 dB (Upstream)
Current Output Power:	16.3 dBm (Downstream) 11.9 dBm (Upstream)
DSLAM Vendor Information:	Country: {0x0F} Vendor: {ALCB} Specific: {0x00}
PVC Info:	0/35

[BIGBOSS]

DSL Cumulative Errored Seconds:	4	4	0	0:49:05
DSL Severely Errored Seconds:	0	0	0	0:00:00
DSL Corrected Blocks:	1969	1969	16	0:00:13
DSL Uncorrected Blocks:	5	5	0	0:49:05
ISP Connection Establishment:	1	1	1	0:48:54

i was getting around 500 corrected blocks per second and had about 200,000 in 2 hours yesterday before i reset my modem.  I dont think this is good for playing games like Call of Duty. I also time out when lots of things are happening at once. A tech came in 3 days ago and put my line on interleaved and that messed me up even more playing FPS games.since it adds more ping..

[cb6614]

@Boss
Much better! Now we can see a bunch of things about your connection. Your modem is IN SYNC at 1536Kbps downstream and 384Kbps upstream which would be considered "normal parameters" for a 1.5Meg DSL connection. The DSL signal is "interleaved" which means that you've probably reported intermittence to the help desk a few times and they've been unable to resolve the source of the interference so they've added what's called a "noise profile" to the line for stability. The problem is that some 2Wire modems don't like an interleaved DSL signal so interleaving the signal only causes more drops (but that's only with "some" 2Wires). Your "Current Noise Margin" is at 10dB down and 15dB up. Did you change something, find a phone or other device that wasn't filtered properly, or something like that? With those noise margins your connection should be stable and you could just about have the help desk remove that noise profile. The other thing I noticed is your PVC info is listed at "0/35" which state do you live in? If you're using AT&T's DSL service anywhere in the continental US other than the southeastern region, your PVC info should be "0/35". If your in the southeastern region (NC,SC,KY, GA, TN, FL, AL, MS, or LA) your PVC info should be "8/35". Let us know how things are going, if you were able to isolate and resolve whatever was causing the interference on your line. Good luck!

PS: I just noticed your reply under the diagnostic info you posted. That noise profile the tech had added to your line adds stability to a line where you can't resolve the source of interference but the cost of doing so is that it adds latency to the transmission of data through the conneciton. You're sacrificing "speed" for "stability" but if you can successfully find and resolve the source of the interference, you can probably get rid of that noise profile or at least reduce to a minimum and all would be good. 

[BIGBOSS]

i didn't find anything but when i woke up this morning i noticed the red dsl light on my gateway but i didn't pay much attention since i wasn't using the internet. The dsl light continued solid red and since i was already frustrated my connection sucked, i decided to hit the modem a few times just cause i was mad. That might have solved the problem because i didnt absolutely no change to anything. i noticed the solid red dsl light when a tech came over 3days ago and tried to fix my line from the at&t box on the street. I also had my line attenuation at about 30 downstream and 15 upstream last year. I tested out my internet right now playing online call of duty on playstation and my connection is still bad. Most every game my ping is on  2bar and few time on borderline 2/3 bar. 2bar is said to be 200+ ping while 3bar is 100+. When im in the middle of everything my connection completely freaks out so i stay on connection interruption for about 3minutes straight not being able to move at all. I also called at&t to downgrade me back to my 768 download package because none of these problems occured until i upgraded to 1.5. Also when the tech came by, he said i had a decent line, but it could be better. I'd rather have an excellent clean line even if it costs me some bandwidth (excluding latency/ping) of course.

[BIGBOSS]

also just in case this helps in any way. Did a tracert on the server i play on but im pretty sure i lag more when i play

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\owner>tracert 209.170.124.76

Tracing route to 209.170.124.76 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms home [192.168.1.254]
2 49 ms 50 ms 48 ms adsl-99-74-151-254.dsl.lsan03.sbcglobal.net [99.
74.151.254]
3 52 ms 50 ms 50 ms dist4-vlan52.lsanca.sbcglobal.net [67.116.100.66
]
4 50 ms 281 ms 52 ms 151-164-100-114.lgtpmi.sbcglobal.net [151.164.10
0.114]
5 88 ms 90 ms 66 ms 151.164.98.89
6 57 ms 52 ms 55 ms 12.83.60.130
7 53 ms 52 ms 50 ms ggr6.la2ca.ip.att.net [12.122.129.29]
8 113 ms 83 ms 338 ms 192.205.34.14
9 49 ms 52 ms 50 ms las-b1-link.telia.net [80.91.245.112]
10 50 ms 49 ms 52 ms 213.155.141.4
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * *

[cb6614]

@Boss Ouch! You hit your modem? Man that's never a good idea, those 2Wires are already fussy when it comes to being knocked around and you could have easily jarred something inside the modem. If it's still working, it's probably best not to hit it again and I'd probably be thankful its power light isn't flashing red at you too. Don't get me wrong, I totally feel your pain. I've had days when my machines have gotten me so frustrated I've wanted to throw them on the ground and stomp on them but it's really not their fault. Besides, all that would do is damage them and then I'd be out the cash to replace them. Since we've been chatting today and with what you've posted here so far, I'm starting to think this might be a "distance" issue. It sounds like you're too far out for anything more than 768K but you didn't know and you upgraded to 1.5Meg service. After the upgrade, you started reporting intermittent connectivity and they found that you're too far away for 1.5Meg so they moved you back to 768K service. Sometimes when those orders are processed to change speeds, I've seen where they don't flow through the system correctly. Now it sounds like you're account is set for 768K on the billing side but your DSL signal is still being sent to the modem at the 1.5Meg. If that's the case, that's probably what's causing the ongoing intermittence. It happens more often that you'd think. 

If you're supposed to be getting 768K service, you can call tech support, tell them that you've recently upgraded but found the faster connection to be unstable. Tell them you ordered another change back to 768K but you're still having the intermittence that started after the upgrade so you think you might still be on the 1.5Meg profile. If you are, tech support can have the "network" engineers change the profile over the phone in a matter of minutes and you should see immediate relief from the dropped connections. I might also ask them while they're changing your sync profile, to see about removing that noise profile too. If they remove it, be sure that you look at your noise margins before getting off the phone with the help desk. If you can maintain a signal to noise ratio at 7dB or more up & downstream without that interleave, then you should be golden. You'll have the slower 768K DSL speed but you won't have to deal with all the latency that noise profile creates on the connection so your game shouldn't be so sluggish. One other thing… If you're pretty sure that you're supposed to be getting the 768K service instead of 1.5Meg, I don't think you can have it changed until Monday. I think the "network engineers" that make those adjustments have already gone for the night and then I'm pretty sure they don't work on Sundays. If that profile's wrong and you call tech support all you want while the network people are gone, get the biggest geek who's got the best intentions, or even his supervisor but neither one can do a thing about the profile without the network people because they just don't have access to the systems to make the changes. Good luck and let us know how it goes. 

[MerryMarjie]

OK, here it is November 1st, and I should like to announce that I haven't had an outage for a week. What did I do? Nothing.  About a week ago, our weather started getting cooler, with nights in the 40's, and suddenly, no more outages, even though it's been fairly warm during the day, from 75° to 85°.  Last winter I experienced the same thing, no outages from around September to February.  I'm still using the 2Wire modem (because it automatically connects immediately after an outage), plugged into a surge protector, with all settings the same.  Before this occured, I was still having about 50 disconnects a day, and when they stopped, they stopped.

Now, I have no idea what the WEATHER has to do with the outages, but AT&T may want to investigate this phenomenon because I can see from these messages that a lot of people experience the problem in WARMER weather (I live in El Paso where it's warm a LOT!).

Just a thought --- do my lines need insulation?  Any comments?

[cb6614]

Hey Merry, glad to hear your connection has been stable at least for a little while.  I'm also glad you mentioned the weather possibly having an effect on your connection. That reminds me of a situation where a person I talked to had similar issues. They mentioned their Network Interface Device (NID) was on the side of their house that got direct afternoon sun. They put a large box over the NID for a couple of days and found the intermittence stopped. That gave the repair tech reason to suspect the NID was insufficiently insulated, the tech replaced the NID, and that solved the problem. I don't know if that might be something you should try when the temperatures rise again or not, it just depends on where your NID is located. I guess if it starts again, anything's worth a try. Just cover your NID with a large cardboard box or something that will shield it from the direct sunlight long enough to see if the intermittence will stop. If it does, call support and tell them about it so they can get a tech out to inspect your NID. Good luck and let us know how it goes. 

[MerryMarjie]

Thank you for the suggestion! Yes, the NID does face the sun during the afternoon into evening, but would that also account for the numerous outages during the middle of the night? I would get up at 5 and see that disconnects had occurred a few hours before.

[cb6614]

I doubt it could account for the disconnects at night unless it's from condensation after a hot day. You probably have a combination of things happening and will have to resolve each one by one. That's the bad part about "troubleshooting". Good luck though.

[desmolift]

Reduced my wireless bandwidth from 54Mbs to 11Mbs, “G” to “B” all ERR_DMA problems have gone away and I now have no DSL disconnects.  BTW, I tried the Firewall workaround by itself, it did not fix the problem.  I now have the Firewall workaround removed and only the G to B workaround.

After reading through all the information I can find on this, at this forum and other places and experimenting with my own 2701 2wire, I believe, 2wire has a hardware problem.  I understand not all problems are the same, but if you are getting frequent DSL disconnects and getting ERR_DMA in the Training Statistics read on.  In all of my cases when my DSL connection goes down, it’s associated with an ERR_DMA within my training statistics.  Albeit, I have no inside understanding of the architecture of this modem, but in my experience of writing device driver software for communications equipment, this is most typically associated with a bus timeout.  I suspect there are 4 subsystems (or more), the Ethernet, the Wireless interface, the DSL side and the CPU all attempting to get access to the packet memory.  It may be possible there is a collision on the bus by multiple devices at which one of the subsystems does not get the bus in time to transfer its data to memory.  This would explain why reducing the bandwidth from “G” to “B”, 54mb to 11mb, statically reducing the chance of the collision occurring.  Or you can surmise the bandwidth of the internal bus to memory is not adequate for all subsystems on the bus to access memory at the same time.  Or this is simply a hardware bus timing problem within the architecture of this modem. This would also explain why AT&T and 2wire appears to not be dealing with this problem, simply because really addressing the problem would require a field upgrade of all the effected modems out there.   Also, a software upgrade is not likely to address this type of problem, therefore no update.  Given our expanding Ethernet and wireless networks at home, the demand of our devices and the increase in speed of our DSL connections, it’s quite possible the 2701 2wire modem is out of its design specs.  If other vendors modems are showing similar problems, then this could be due to similar architectures, ie. the same chip sets.  Personally, I don’t want to give up my 54Mb wireless connection or weaken my firewall.  I purchased this modem with the understanding that I had these features and they worked up until now.  In my view AT&T owes me a modem that works, whatever issues AT&T has with 2wire is not my business nor do I care, its AT&T’s name on my modem.  Replace your 2wire modem with a better designed modem, like the Motorola Netopia 3347 from AT&T.  Or try building your wireless network with a wireless access point connected via Ethernet to the modem, I have successfully used the ENGenius in the past to get 54Mbs back.  It’s really a shame that 2wire and AT&T have not stepped up to this problem.  Think of the costs to AT&T answering up to all these service calls surrounding this issue from level 1 to level 2 to line guys (I also had a line guy here)!  If someone at AT&T has any connection to 2wire (someone must) have them read through this thread please.  It only takes a few minutes…. And have them post some real information, take responsibility and ownership!  AT&T, what process do I follow to get my modem replaced?

[mbej2000]

I have been having the same issue as everyone on here. Have reset almost every day for last month for it to only work 5-10 minutes at a time. I actually failed an online test because my teacher told me it was my fault that I did not have dependable Internet. I have called customer service to only remain on hold for 30 minutes and could not continue to hold. I have hooked up different modems and routers. I give up and am searching for a different Internet provider. Good luck to everyone!

[desmolift]

OK I called tech support....again...  After waiting a long time to talk to someone, they were of no help, the manager refused to talk to me, stating he could not help call someone else.  AT&T tech support doesn't even acknowledge this problem exists.  The tech support agent was at a loss and attempted to transfer me to several different places, equipment, business, etc.  Eventually she got me to someone who took my replacement order. But here's the catch.  According to them, the 2701 2wire is the flag ship modem!  You can not get any other modem with built in wifi & ethernet.  (Although on AT&T's website the Motorola 3347 is an option, I was told this is not an option and I can go buy it if I wanted it).  The replacement 2701 cost me $12 for shipping, returnable within 30-days full refund.

I can only hope that the replacement 2701 is of a higher hardware revision or maybe a different manufacturing lot that does not exibit this ERR_DMA problem.  I don't feel good about this.  I am begining to search cisco, d-link, netgear, DrayTek for alternative solutions.  I'll report back after installing the replacement 2701 later this week.

[Distressedtothe…]

I hope to god somebody can help me out here, I've had my AT&T 2wire wireless modem hooked up for about 3 months and it's been working fine up until like 2 days ago where randomly it will just keep restarting for like 4 hours at a time. Then connect for a random period of time and disconnect again. My Internet is dhcp but my router is ppoe. I reconfigured it to work with my Internet by switching it to dhcp, but it's been working for 3 months and all of a sudden it just turned stupid -_- grrr help!?!

[glassheart828]

09-28-201101:15:54 PM   THIS IS A REPOST TO HELP YOU TRY BACK IN SEPT. HOPE IT WORKS....KEEP ME POSTED.....

Ok for any of you, like me (see previous posts) I have had nothing but problems with my Gateway 2wire (my third in 18 months!)  After being on the phone on and off for almost 2 months now, 3 technicians, I finally found what I think is the At&t angel!

Finally after hours and hours of explaining and explaining I found a woman that said they have been having many problems with the 2wire and it is a simple setting.  After I told her I loved her lol, I did the settings and guess what?  Normally I would have been booted off DSL 14-15 times in an hour....NOTHING has happened.  I am going to give you step by step what she told me to do and if you want to try, you have nothing to lose.  Here goes:

Go to 192.168.1.254 in your address bar and it will take you to your modem/router panel.  On the right you will see Fire Wall Summary, click on that (not the lock), go to advanced settings on top and it will call for your password.  On the right side of the next screen you will see UNDER ATTACK DETECTION, if there is a check mark in Packet Flood box uncheck it and save.  Now go back to the top and click on Home Network on the bottom column you will see Wireless Mode if it says 802.11g/b, change it in the drop down to 802.11b and save. 

Since I have done this the rep. explained the the packet flood setting is for virus protection but sometimes with high speed internet it 'hiccups' as data is coming in and that is what is knocking US off.  She assured me that they have found by talking to many people and the manufacturer that this is the key to stop the disconnecting.  Let me know if this helps anyone..Peace out LOL

PS she said if this doesn't work ask for a "home run" jack in your house.  It would eliminate filters and ONLY get DSL signal and your phones would just be phones.

[glassheart828]

Ok for any of you, like me (see previous posts) I have had nothing but problems with my Gateway 2wire (my third in 18 months!)  After being on the phone on and off for almost 2 months now, 3 technicians, I finally found what I think is the At&t angel!

Finally after hours and hours of explaining and explaining I found a woman that said they have been having many problems with the 2wire and it is a simple setting.  After I told her I loved her lol, I did the settings and guess what?  Normally I would have been booted off DSL 14-15 times in an hour....NOTHING has happened.  I am going to give you step by step what she told me to do and if you want to try, you have nothing to lose.  Here goes:

Go to 192.168.1.254 in your address bar and it will take you to your modem/router panel.  On the right you will see Fire Wall Summary, click on that (not the lock), go to advanced settings on top and it will call for your password.  On the right side of the next screen you will see UNDER ATTACK DETECTION, if there is a check mark in Packet Flood box uncheck it and save.  Now go back to the top and click on Home Network on the bottom column you will see Wireless Mode if it says 802.11g/b, change it in the drop down to 802.11b and save. 

Since I have done this the rep. explained the the packet flood setting is for virus protection but sometimes with high speed internet it 'hiccups' as data is coming in and that is what is knocking US off.  She assured me that they have found by talking to many people and the manufacturer that this is the key to stop the disconnecting.  Let me know if this helps anyone..Peace out LOL

PS she said if this doesn't work ask for a "home run" jack in your house.  It would eliminate filters and ONLY get DSL signal and your phones would just be phones.