I had a three month old pm2er30 running 3.3.3 (latest I could find) and it
gets stuck spitting out abort errors about 4 times a day. I have had a linux
box sitting next to it constantly monitoring the w1 error counters and reset
the port once one increases rapidly. Telco replaced the entire copper feed (!)
and has run every conceivable test including BERT, BPV, all kinds of traffic
patterns, ... we got ONE SINGLE BIT ERROR in 48 hours ! I even installed a
$5000 UPS unit cause "it could be the power" *sigh* I've got sites running
200+ days flawless without UPS. Even replaced the csu/dsu, v.35 cable, comos
(tried 3.0.4, 3.1.4, 3.3.1, 3.3.1c1, 3.3.2, 3.3.2c1, 3.3.3 and I would have
tried others if I had the images), portmaster, the hub and on the other side
the cisco2503 including its v.35 cable and its IOS version (btw: each time it
happens it nicely reports line up, protocol down) and hell, even the modems
"maybe one is malfunctioning and causing some weird interference" all to
no avail ...
Until, in an act of sheer desperation I installed an 18 month old portmaster
running comos 3.1.4 (yeah right, old code) it has been there for 5 days, saw
exactly 1 abort and 0/1 frame errors and the port hasn't been stuck yet.
I suppose I could own 2 portmasters with exactly the same hardware problem
but the main issue is: if a linux box sitting next to it can deal with it then
CERTAINLY something can be built in the comos to fix it as well (support has
a very long mail from me describing exactly how it manifests itself which
they answerd "have telco run tests") Mind you, my problem ain't solved yet,
although I have not yet tried to recreate the problem on another site the
moment I need to connect something to the W1 port of those two boxes remains
one I await with fear.
--Steven.
PS: Even with all its problems I still prefer portmaster above cisco2511
but this is getting a very subjective opinion ...