HELP I'm getting RUINED!

Matsaki

Matsaki

Registered
I am using a ISDN router before my modem (Zyxel Prestige 10001H) and I suspect that the router is connecting to the Internet when my Computers is shut down...

I was wondering about my very high monthly bill for my ISDN connection, and therefore ordered a itemized bill for last Month.

Guess if I was surprised when I could see that I have made about 5,600 calls to my ISP in ONE Month. I could also see that about 97% of the call's where between 5-20 sec.

So now I am suspecting my router to be the thief... :mad:

Can somebody give me some clues and help before I am RUINED!!! This extra 5,000 calls cost's me about $200,00 a Month.
 
Such short calls usualy indicate the router is unable to login. (the connection IS established for a few seconds). The connection is made, login is attempted, fails, and the router disconnects. The router will retry the dialup a number of times.

best way to go is to check
a) if you can delay, disable or limit the number of redial attempts
b) investigate if your login settings are optimal for your isp
c) check to see there are no other systems on perhaps your local lan with spyware, wchich will continue to trigger the dialup attempts.
d) check the minimum call duration in teh router, usualy, a call shorter then 2 minutes is useless, since the starting charge is equal to a 2 minute call.
 
this doesn't explain why - can you just disconnect the router (maybe just use a power strip to allow switching power off) when you should not expect any internet use.
 
Yes I can just pull the phone plug, but if it's the router I will buy a new one. I just have to find out that it's the case first?
 
Do you leave your machine on all the time? You are probably Dial-On-Demanding all the time for dumb stuff like DNS resolution, or other extraneous stuff. This happens a lot.

You'll probably need to add dialing filters onto your ISDN router to stop it making calls for trivial things.

If it's a cisco, I can give you a basic template that will stop it dialing randomly for silly things.

-colin.
 
No mostly I shut them down or have the in sleep mode and the router is a Zyxel Prestige 1001H
 
dial on demand does not commonly generate such short calls unless you specificaly programmed the router to close within seconds of inactivity.

Only failed calls which are retried cause 10-20 seconds call.

Repeating internet activity like dns, sntp (time), spyware etc etc should cause the line to remain open for at least sessions of minutes, or even permanent depending on your inactivity timeout setting of the router.
 
Here are the main menu of the router:

Prestige 100IH Main Menu

Getting Started Advanced Management
1. General Setup 21. Filter Set Configuration
2. ISDN Setup
3. Ethernet Setup 23. System Security
4. Internet Access Setup 24. System Maintenance

Advanced Applications
11. Remote Node Setup
12. Static Routing Setup
13. Default Dial-in Setup
14. Dial-in User Setup
15. SUA Server Setup 99. Exit




And here maybe I could change the Idle Timeout?


Menu 13 - Default Dial-in Setup

Telco Options: IP Address Supplied By:
CLID Authen= None Dial-in User= Yes
IP Pool= No
PPP Options: IP Start Addr= N/A
Recv Authen= CHAP/PAP IP Count(1,2)= N/A
Compression= Yes
Mutual Authen= No Session Options:
PAP Login= N/A Input Filter Sets=
PAP Password= N/A Output Filter Sets=
Multiple Link Options: Idle Timeout= 100 Max Trans Rate(Kbps)= 128

Callback Budget Management:
Allocated Budget(min)= 0
Period(hr)= 0
 
if that time is in seconds, i.e. 100 seconds, it should be fine. Given the very short calls it still looks like login failures to me.

You have a specified bill, does it include times ? were you unable to use internet at any time, and are at those times short calls listed ?

or, if it is a short idle timeout, are there a lot of short calls listed at times that you KNOW you were internetting (reading forums etc).
 
In the itemized bill I can see that the short calls is between 5-30 sec. and they are when I'm not using internet. This calls are made when the Computers are switched off or in sleep mode.
 
I now see that all the short dialups is dune when Im connected. That will say that the seccond line is being used for some unknown reason???
 
It looks like your ISDN modem is set up to use both A and B channels, since you've got the max. speed set to 128k. Is your ISDN service/ISP configured to let you use both channels?

We had a similar problem a few years ago where our ISDN modem was attempting to use both channels, but we were only paying for and subscribing for 64k (one channel). The B channel constantly tried to dial up and connect, but wasn't allowed to, hence a lot of second-long calls. We weren't actually billed for it, but it sounds similar to your problem. We thought we were allowed to use both channels, but were mistaken and had to call the ISP to get it sorted out.

Is your ISP allowing you to use both channels? Can you set your ISDN modem to only use the A channel and see if that helps?
 
Out of curiosity, do you have access to satellite? It seems as if ISDN isn't the best option out there these days.
 
Well there is internet via satellite available, but to have a upload and download via satellite the equipment is very expensive :( ($1400)
 
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