ADSL Router external access to solve trouble

OK i wanted to know if there is any way of trying to gain access to an ADSL router externally to solve its connectivity issues,

The ip is static fixed how ever the ADSL router has internet access problems which means it has no internet and the username and password need to be inputted.

There must be a way to solve it externally from another location rather than going to the location of the ADSL router and connecting directly to the ADSL router via ethernet cable

Edited by deleted (Fri 14-Dec-12 11:39:28)

But if it's not connected to the internet, how will you access it remotely?

thats what am trying to find out if the settignsi n the router are deleted or resetted and the router is not conected to the internet but theres an constent fixed ip to that location is there another way to connect to it ?

When this happens, does the router still have sync with the exchange?

I'm a bit puzzled by the need to connect via ethernet to input the username and password for the internet. Is the normal connection wireless, and is that failing as well?

If so, it implies a factory reset of the router is happening and setting the wireless to defaults, (settings which have been changed?), as well as losing the other stuff.

Sorry i couldnt make my self any clearer now the router cant access the internet so ill have to go to the router to its location get a laptop of pc connect to it via ethernet cable and set it up but the location fo the router is to far

and i was wonderign if theres a way of connecting to it from my office which its static ip address bare in mind the router is connected to the phone line but not to the internet because theres something wrong with the settings

is there a way of adjusting the settings

?
You haven't answered any of my questions.

Is this router just serving something dumb, like a webcam?

Most routers retain their settings and will reconnect in the event of a power cut, so the internet is always on. I think you need a new router.

The router serves computers laptops wirelessly and wireless devices

these are technicolour ones and once the reset button is pressed the settings are deleted no idea why

You have to do a saveall in the CLI to save the settings to flash memory.

I understand that but its deleted for some reason and i wanna know if its accessible remotly to redo the settings

In reply to a post by gt11990:

these are technicolour ones and once the reset button is pressed the settings are deleted no idea why

Why?
Because that's what the reset button, (the one accessed through a tiny hole), is for. It should not normally ever be pressed. It's called a factory reset, to remove all user-entered settings and also reload the run-time firmware which can get corrupted.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

You have to do a saveall in the CLI to save the settings to flash memory.

That won't survive a Factory Reset if that's what he really means.

I think some ISP's use TR069 to remotely configure routers. I know Plusnet can do this with Technicolor routers.

But we don't know if the router has sync. I asked twice, but ....

In reply to a post by gt11990:

is there a way of adjusting the settings

No! You need to connect to the router with Ethernet cable connected to your computer and reconfigure the router settings.
A power failure will not cause a router to lose the configured settings.

If it's only the ISP login settings he doesn't need ethernet. Wireless is fine. But it sounds as though for some (so far uknown reason) someone is using the factory reset. In which case your post is the easiest.

BatBoy, (and myself), wondered about a faulty router, but hard to tell with almost zero answers to questions. I also wondered about it being unmanned, e.g. a webcam up a church steeple or similar and the recent extreme cold causing a reset.

But - he long ago got the answer about remote access. What on earth is going on, with people there and no-one able to do the settings which shouldn't be getting lost anyway, is a complete mystery.

Unfortunately the OP is not helping us help him.

i think i cant explain what i really want clearly sorry for that everyone forget the fualty router or webcams this is what i really want

the router is fine, used to connect to the internet but the settings needs checking

but i have to go next to the router and check locally which i cannot doo

i want to access if remotly over the internet which i can do but i cant do it now becuase the router is not connected to the internet but its connect to the phone line


all i want is,

is there a way which i can remotly connect to the router over the internet even tho the router is having touble getting a stable connection

i just want to find out a way to access it remotly over the internet

To put it simply.

In the current state NO.

thank you

now my second question aint there any way on earth i could ever access it with out it having internet connection becuase come on there must be something engineers who make the routers have designed

which allows connection to be made even if there aint no interent connection come on we cant go locally to every router and check their settings and fix em

If there is no connection, how can you connect to it?

We Engineers are clever, in fact incredibly clever so much so that we can achieve anything, well almost! The one thing we cannot achieve is "The Impossible".

yes i know engineers are clever i didnt mean in a bad way just thinking they must have something that even if the router has no internet connection but still connected tot the phone line there might be a way to access it

If it was a commercial high availability device then as a back up for on line maintenance via the internet the fall back method would be to dial into the router via a telephone connection.

Since you are talking about a domestic device then this isnt an option.

You need to get someone local to fix it so it can connect to the internet.

Think of it this way (in very broad and simplistic terms) ...

To get things going, the router connects to the exchange equipment. (Establishes sync).
The router sends ISP login details to the exchange equipment.
The exchange equipment sends a request to the ISP equipment that the router wants a conversation. (PPP session).
The ISP equipment sets up your connection to its routers to the outside world of the web/internet. (Establishes a PPP session).
Job done.

You want to do it in the opposite direction. So do all the hackers in the world.

Someone somewhere, (you), says please let me connect to IP address 123.456.788.123
Your ISP routes that request to the ISP that owns the 123.456.nnn.nnn range.
That ISP says "what the heck?" That router isn't connected at the moment. Sod off hacker!

ok guys thanks

Have you checked that the phone line itself is working - by plugging in a simple corded phone etc?

Also do the 1707 Quiet Test.


If the line is working, then try another router IF you have one available.

As the others have said, if there is a failure at any point that prevents the router connecting, the ISP can not readily connect to that router, except by a very convoluted arrangement which would probably take a few days to put in place, at some expense.

=================================================

Keep in mind that "The Internet" is really "piggy-backed" on the local (Openreach) phone line ("The Last Mile"); and will fail if the phone line has "failed", hence the splitters that are used to separate the two signals at the user end.

Something similar occurs at the exchange end, so that in practical terms, the multi-plexed broadband signals from everyone on that exchange, follow different paths from the phone signals.


For example, say your broadband etc was working but you wanted to have a parameter changed by your ISP.

You use your corresponding phone connected in to the same splitter etc, to ring the ISP.

The audio conversation will normally use different routings, going through different exchanges to you ISP, yet your broadband router is right beside you, and the ISP's equipment may be similarly beside the person at that end.

The difference in distance terms may be considerable.

Typo - 17070

Surely, if the distance is a problem, ring someone on site, have them connect a laptop, and then talk them through the set up .........

This thread is ludicrous! If the router is not connected to the Internet, then obviously there is no way to connect to it remotely over the Internet

In reply to a post by gt11990:

the router has no Internet connection but still connected tot the phone line there might be a way to access it

Like talking to it? Do you really believe that it listens to voice commands?

now my second question aint there any way on earth i could ever access it with out it having internet connection becuase come on there must be something engineers who make the routers have designed

You could have a Cisco router with a dialup modem connected to its serial port and call it up over the PSTN line, but otherwise you're relying on a working internet connection to access the thing that err connects to the internet. The problem is self evident.

configuring routers remotely is like sitting on a branch with a saw in your hand.

good network design may build a treehouse, but its still out on a limb

In reply to a post by gt11990:

now my second question aint there any way on earth i could ever access it with out it having internet connection becuase come on there must be something engineers who make the routers have designed

What you seem to be asking for here is a device, or a combination of devices, which:
- Acts as a broadband modem/router, and has a main function of connecting to the internet using ADSL
- Has a backup communication method when the main method fails
- That the backup method either (a) connects automatically to the internet in some other way,
- Or (b) that the backup methods "waits" for an incoming data connection that is not via the internet.
- When both the main method or the backup method is in use, the router's maintenance page is available remotely
- The backup method needs to be reliable even if the configuration of the main router device goes haywire

Well, I have seen some things that meet your requirements, but not all in one go, and certainly not in cheap domestic routers.

Plain domestic routers are designed to be cheap, and therefore expect to be run in attended operation. If you want to design something that reliably works in unattended operation, you need to be thinking of more expensive options. If you want something that remains reliable even in the event of failures, you need to be building in backup solutions - and test them against a list of failures.

But there are things around that could help you:
- Some devices offer a backup connection should the main ADSL connection be dropped. I have seen routers that offer the backup as a POTS modem that dials out (for example, A Draytek Vigor solution which is available here).
- Other routers are available that use a 3G dongle as a backup. Again, a Draytek solution exists that uses 3G failover (though I don't know how automatic it is).
- Routers are available that can connect to more than one phone line, using it as either a load-balanced solution (both connected simultaneously) or as a failover option. Again, a Draytek solution exists for this too

But do you notice something about all of those solutions? They start with expensive routers, and then require you to have an extra means of connecting to the internet - a second account with an ISP (although some will probably let you have a single DSL and dial-up account).

The last backup method - where the device waits for an incoming connection - is reminiscent of what a POTS modem would do, back before broadband existed. I'm sure you could work a solution out that combined a cheap ADSL router along with a 56K modem configured in auto-answer mode - though you would probably need a 3rd device (with LAN and serial port) that connects all the equipment together. Any competent enthusiast could probably hack that together with, say, a Raspberry Pi.

Finally, you need to accept that there are just some failure modes that will be impossible to recover from automatically, remotely - and so would demand a site visit. Total configuration failure of a single device would certainly be high on the list of these problems, so would suggest that your backup needs to require additional devices - which (unfortunately) multiplies the chances that something goes wrong.

So...

It is all possible, but it requires planning, setup, and almost certainly has ongoing costs associated with it.

What were you wanting to do with this?

which allows connection to be made even if there aint no interent connection come on we cant go locally to every router and check their settings and fix em

If you are building a business that depends on these devices then "come on we cant go locally to every router" is a failure scenario that you ought to have been planning for. Can you afford a 3G dongle (and the associated account at the mobile company)? Can you afford a second phone line? Can you design a local setup with multiple devices? If not, then tough - the business will need to plan a certain number of site visits.

Edit:
But...
If the question relates to a failure that has already happened, in a location where you haven't already planned to cope with failure, then the answer is: Tough.

Edited by deleted (Sat 15-Dec-12 02:28:42)

Heh .

You omitted the option of training one, preferably two, people at the site to follow a set of simple instructions that several ISPs provide to their customers, to be able to reset the connection parameters. A task that nearly every internet-connected household has managed.

The OP still hasn't confirmed that he really meant someone has used the factory reset, and if they did - why. (He seemed to think a reset should leave things unchanged ).

If the target site in this case is a business, using the OP as a "supply and configure" provider, gawd! He'd better make sure he finds a good lawyer. (These come in a range of prices).

I read the "we can't go locally" to mean we as a community and remote routers in general. Rather than we - his business and a number of such sites under his aegis.

I was approaching it from the entirely unattended option, but if there *are* humans present then you make it worse & better simultaneously.

Better because you *can* train someone to take steps, but worse because you can't train *everyone* to act reasonably.

It is hard to work out exactly the level of problem we're looking at here - real or imaginary, actual or planned, personal or business. There are few details...

In reply to a post by gt11990:

these are technicolour ones and once the reset button is pressed the settings are deleted no idea why

If you disable the factory reset button will that prevent further problems.
http://npr.me.uk/telnet.html#button

Neat!