New Spark Futura Modem upload issues on 4g

sigod:

I think i've figured out what is happening and it's not on my side.

[ Your Router ]
|
| (Event A: The Router's Daily Timer)
| - Configured to check in once every 24 hours.
|
V
[ The ISP's ACS System ]
|
| (1. The Flawed Handshake)
| - Router tries to contact the server at 12:00 PM NZST.
| - The specific server it tries to connect to is in a scheduled maintenance window.
| - (BUG #1: Lack of Load Balancer/DNS Fallback) The connection fails, logging the "Inform Fail" error.
|
V
[ Your Router's Ongoing State ]
|
| (Event B: The Random Request)
| - At a random time later in the day, the server-initiated connection request arrives.
|
V
[ A Server in the Farm ]
|
| (2. Successful Connection)
| - Your router successfully connects to an active server.
|
V
[ The Flawed Provisioning Script ]
|
| (3. The Two-Part Bug)
| - The script runs on the server.
| - It contains two separate errors:
|
+-----> (BUG #2: Mis-provisioning)
| - The script sets the router's upload speed to 1/4 of what it should be.
|
+-----> (BUG #3: Forced Disconnect)
- The script forces a network session reset.
- This is why you get disconnected.

And this:

+-------------------------------------------------+
| |
| [ Your Router's Schedule ] |
| -------------------------- |
| - Daily Inform (Scheduled) |
| - Connection Request (Random) |
| |
+--------------------------|----------------------+
|
V
+--------------------------|----------------------------------------------------+
| |
| [ THE ISP'S SERVER FARM ] |
| ------------------------- |
| |
| (The 12 PM "Inform Fail" Bug) |
| - Your router's daily check-in tries to connect. |
| - BUG #1: The server is temporarily unresponsive. |
| - Result: Connection Fails. |
| |
| (The Random "Connection Request" Bug) |
| - The server sends a command to your router. |
| |
| +------> [ Path A: The Good Server ] <-----------------------------+ |
| | - Has the correct provisioning scripts. | |
| | - BUT... | |
| | - (BUG #2: The Disconnect) A systemic script runs | |
| | that forces your connection to drop. | |
| | - Result: Internet disconnects. | |
| +------> [ Path B: The Bad Server ] <-----------------------------+ |
| | - Has the incorrect provisioning scripts. | |
| | - AND... | |
| | - (BUG #2: The Disconnect) A systemic script runs | |
| | that forces your connection to drop. | |
| | - (BUG #3: The Bad Speed) A separate script runs | |
| | that sets your upload speed incorrectly. | |
| | - Result: Internet disconnects AND speed is low. | |
| +----------------------------------------------------------------------+

I could be wrong just trying to figure it out.

Hi Sigod,

I can give you a more accurate steer on the process above.

Router Scheduled informs
- "Daily" are either 24 hours or 5 minutes if waiting for a provisioning update. These are known as Periodic Informs, they can be set to any value but these are the ones used for the Futura
- "Random", aren't really random. They're when Spark need your device to come in to receive instructions or return data immediately, you could receive many of these over a short period if a customer agent is actively working on an issue with your modem. Your router doesn't receive these daily, only as and when a specific need arises - you may never see one on a device that doesn't need to be interactively managed.

One thing you missed is an IP Address change, and that's the real killer on 4G connections. Every time the Router flips to a new IP address that triggers a connection to tell the backend the IP address has changed. If you have a sub-optimal 4G connection or your cell is overloaded this can happen frequently, of course the 4G IP flipping is probably what’s killing your upload as well, you probably don't see a connection drop but because the source IP changes on the Router it can cause lots of weird stuff to happen.

ISP Servers
- Firstly, there is no maintenance window. The servers receive traffic 24/7.
- The "schedule" for 24 hour Inform isn't midnight. It's 24 hours from the last time it occurred, if your router was rebooted at 14:25, then the next 24 hour inform with be at 14:25. If it informed a change of IP address at 15:15, it's next Period Inform will be at 15:15 the next day. What you've probably seen is some upstream network maintenance like a cell tower reconfig/restart, these would have reset the IP address triggered an inform and for some reason network engineers love to group all this stuff together on the hour at midnight/1am/2am/3am/4am.

So the Inform Fail "bug", it's not really a bug is a design feature of the protocol standard. If the Router doesn't get a respond from the server it enters a lengthening back-off retry cycle until is succeeds.

and on to the final part - the provisioning script
This part is just wrong I'm afraid.
There isn't anything that is sent that causes a connection drop except in the case of a firmware upgrade being loaded to your Router, however IIRC the whole router itself would reboot rather than just a connection drop. Bug #2 just doesn't exist.
The connection speed thing is also not handled by this system, if your speed is being changed it's somewhere in the Core Network. Again I'd suspect this is going to be a 4G cell issue and/or a bug in the router firmware that trying to be helpful, detecting a flaky 4G signal and reducing the upload speed itself in an attempt to make the connection stable (and slow) rather than fast and unstable.

Hope that helps,

sigod

michaelmurfy

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