60E-DSL - vDSL IPOE Service Issue

[terry_jjr]

https://kb.fortinet.com/kb/documentLink.do?externalID=FD41696

I have been following the above link when trying to connect a 60E-DSL unit running 5.6.7 firmware to the Telstra NBN.

The service is an IPOE/Dynamic one so no username and password.  I also have an NBN service at home with another ISP which is also IPOE.  I am unable to get the fortigate to connect to the service.  I tried testing it with a standard ADSL2 PPPOE service at the office and it works, so I know the DSL port is ok.  If I flash the pre-release firmware which is used in the KB above, I can see upload / download line rates, but both ISP services remain offline.  Has anyone had any success getting the 60E-DSL unit to talk to a IPOE based VDSL service?

Thanks,

Terry

[bens]

I attempted to do some debugging last night  but I will either need some more guidance around debug levels/commands available in the GA firmware or I'll need a development version to test with to get anything meaningful. The output was very verbose but during negotiation there is not very much information presented which is relevant.

I used the following debug commands:

# diagnose debug application dsl -1

# diagnose debug enable

The only information I could discern was that the modem was cycling through the following states:

SILENT[512]

HANDSHAKE[768]

FULL_INIT[896]

EXCEPTION[1]

IDLE_REQUEST[255]

A value labelled as "n" also flipped between 278 (when SILENT/EXCEPTION) and 4185 (all other states).

This matches with my previous observations which indicated that the modem was cycling through sync attempts and failing each time.

I also gained access to the DM200 (which is a Lantiq XWAY VRX220 SoC) in Bridge Mode through the Fortigate and found it does not Sync quite as well as the Broadcom chipset used by the Optus Sagemcom, I get the following statistics:

Downstream Speed: 65.12Mbit

Downstream Attenuation: 21.2dB

Downstream SNR: 11.40dB

Upstream Speed: 14.46Mbit

Upstream Attenuation: 25.5dB

Upstream SNR: 12.30dB

I have limited experience with line quality evaluation but I believe the above indicates the line is not the best, but definitely serviceable. I'm not sure which chipset the FG60E-DSL is using, but the fact that the Lantiq seems to have no issues (besides the lower sync speed) seems to indicate a stable negotiation should be possible.

[colinvs]

Hi Terry/Ben,

Have you managed to fix the issue? I have a FortiWiFi 60E-DSL running v6.0.5 now and am about to do a cut-over to Telstra NBN so would like to check out whether it's still an issue before going onsite.

Thanks.

Colin

[bens]

Hi Colin,

I still have not achieved successful line sync with my device on my service but given others experiences this is likely limited to the quality/condition of my line/service. It does appear that a successful sync is more difficult to achieve than with the other VDSL2 modems I have tried.

All I can confirm is that, when using 6.0.5, the modem did not cause any error conditions/lock-outs on the line/port and that the DHCP lease is successfully negotiated and maintained on the ethernet port when using another VDSL2 device (Netgear DM200) in bridge mode.

Regards,

Ben

[colinvs]

Thanks Ben, I might still give it a try on the Telstra NBN and let you guys know how it goes.

Cheers,

Colin

[terry_jjr]

I am booked to go to one of our sites that has a Telstra NBN FTTN vDSL service on Monday.

I will be taking the unit with me for about 20-30 minutes of testing.  It is on firmware 6.0.5 and is default with the modem interface set to DHCP.  No other config at this time.  I'll update this post on Monday afternoon.

[terry_jjr]

Hooray!  I got sync and a working connection.  Configuration is as follows:

1. Fortigate DSL unit with firmware 6.0.5

2. Teltra NBN FTTN 2/25 service IPOE / DHCP

3. Fortigate is factory reset.

4. Plug DSL RJ11 from wall in to DSL port and waited about 2 minutes.

5. Did absolutely nothing and it worked as is. No profile changes.

6. Testing allowed admin access via DSL and connected using FortiDDNS address on interface.

7. Conducted 2 speed tests with consistent results.