Billion UK Forum

Taking advice from you, billion_fan, for downloading f/w 2.32d.dh65 f/w on to my Windows machine rather than my Mac and then re-updating my 8800's f/w, I found I couldn't recall from where I originally got this version of the f/w. It was definitely from somewhere on this site, but goodness knows where. No matter, I thought, as someone else recently asked as to where it could be obtained and you gave the link. So I attempted - on my Windows machine this time - the link for that. I found it and clicked on it but unfortunately got the usual message " You do not have the permissions to .....". So, I logged in and tried again. But as soon as I clicked on the link, it took me to the right sublink but logged me out again! I tried many times but the thing was just circular; I simply was unable to reach the sublink and therefore the f/w file.

Any idea why this happens? Since 2.32d.dh65 seems to be the most popular version of f/w in use by users of this forum, why don't you simply provide a link for it at top of the 8800 series webpage, alongside 2.32e, dh52, and others?

Firmware is attached

Thanks, I've now downloaded it. Tomorrow I'll put it to use on my Windows machine and see how it fares. Keeping my fingers crossed that I won't have the dire flashing problem (lack of any visual feedback of the process) that I had on the Mac.

billion_fan wrote:Firmware is attached

Hi, billion_fan,

I reflashed my 8800NL this morning (Wed 8th). This time I did it specifically on my old Windows machine, rather than my Mac. In Windows if you select the file's Properties, sometimes there's a security warning found which can be unblocked with a click of the mouse, so I did that first. I then temporarily disabled the antivirus running on the Windows machine. Not sure whether these made any difference at all but certainly this time the firmware update process showed a progress bar and was a lot more stable. It took about 5 - 7 mins to complete the 'update' (this being 2.32d.dh65 over the top of what I suspected was a corrupted 2.32d.dh65). Possibly, this took longer than normal, maybe due to parts of the previous firmware having becoming corrupted.

In my particular case, it only made sense to choose to put the 8800 back to the factory defaults at the end of the re-flashing, so of course after it completed the latter, the router couldn't achieve a full line sync; I had to re-insert all the various parameters like username, password, VLAN ID, etc, before it could do that. Remember, I've just changed from ADSL to VDSL operation also.

I'm glad I was persistent about this because before, in various screens, some of the descriptions were corrupted. They now show correctly. Goodness knows what else might have got fouled up within the firmware from the previous attempt, on the Mac. The 8800 doesn't seem to like Safari, at least not my version of that browser.

I've subsequently inspected the DSL stats and, understandably, the DLM has reacted and bumped up the downstream SNR from 7.0dB to 8.8dB, with a lowering of about 0.4dB on upstream. The bit rates themselves haven't changed, though. Not so sure if I believe those bit rates. Interleave depth downstream has automatically increased from 1 to 16.

I've completed practically all of the configuring that's probably necessary, so if I now allow the 8800 to get on with its job, I'm hoping that some further retraining of the line will eventually cause the DLM to lower those SNR figures again.

Incidentally, in the 8800, what do you recommend be done with Power Management? Advanced Setup > Management > Power Management. By default, all of the following are enabled:

MIPS CPU clock divider when idle
Wait instruction when idle
DRAM self refresh
Energy efficient Ethernet
Ethernet auto power down and sleep

I'm pretty sure I disabled all of those, under ADSL. I presume that all five settings refer to operation of the 8800 and therefore have no bearing on any attached device? Can I safely disable all of these? I think the last one on that list is already catered for by my Windows and Mac machines.

gatekeeper wrote:MIPS CPU clock divider when idle
Wait instruction when idle
DRAM self refresh
Energy efficient Ethernet
Ethernet auto power down and sleep

I'm pretty sure I disabled all of those, under ADSL. I presume that all five settings refer to operation of the 8800 and therefore have no bearing on any attached device? Can I safely disable all of these? I think the last one on that list is already catered for by my Windows and Mac machines.

Those are just power saving features, I just leave them enabled on my 8800AXL. I get full speed with them left as they are.

7800nUser,

My main concern is whether leaving them enabled, particularly the last two in that list which look like they're designed to deal with the Ethernet wired connections (which I specifically use but which users who principally run their routers wirelessly probably don't), could produce some strange Sleep issues when interacting with my Mac. Getting the Sleep function working properly on any personal computer is at best a fraught exercise. Hitherto, on my ADSL connection I'd had all five disabled and no issues at all had arisen with my Mac's Sleep function (which turns off the Ethernet connection) or with turning off Windows on my old Windows machine, so maybe keeping them that way would, for me, be the best policy. I'll see if the detailed user manual explains what they're all about.

Any advantages of using this older firmware over 2.32e?

My 8800NL shipped with 2.32e and it's never caused me any problems.

dave_j wrote:Any advantages of using this older firmware over 2.32e?

My 8800NL shipped with 2.32e and it's never caused me any problems.

2.32d.dh65 will give you 1mb better upload speed. (same sync rate, but 1mb increase when running a speedtest)

If you haven't had any issues with current firmware I would leave it as is

billion_fan wrote:

dave_j wrote:Any advantages of using this older firmware over 2.32e?

My 8800NL shipped with 2.32e and it's never caused me any problems.

2.32d.dh65 will give you 1mb better upload speed. (same sync rate, but 1mb increase when running a speedtest)

If you haven't had any issues with current firmware I would leave it as is

Thanks, I'll leave things as they are at the moment then.

Last time I tested I was getting around 17Mbps upload with a full 20Mbps up sync rate, so not too worried about gaining an extra 1Mbps.