:-) That's why I said "*never* have a [normal disconnect]", and hedged
that even then they -might- just have a very bad line or modem. Even
if you had a 90-95% lost carrier rate, you presumably had a -few-
normal disconnections, and an analysis of call patterns should come
to the conclusion that you have a very bad modem or phone line. My
experience so far is that most customers who are able to connect at
all do manage to have -some- normal terminations, even if the majority
are unplanned drops.
You should only assume it's normal for a user that -always- terminates
with CCC or LC (possibly with other known bad conditions) and -never-
with the PPP Term Req or Normal LAPM Disconnect. And even then, it
wouldn't hurt to ask that user directly if they have any problems.
I only have two users who have all their normal disconnects register
as CCC or LC. But factoring out those two takes my "abnormal disconnect"
percentage down from about 12% to about 10%, for a typical month I
just looked at on a given RADIUS log file.
In my non-copius spare time, I'm working on a script/tool that will
automatically parse the RADIUS logs, looking for users who have a higher
percentage of abnormal disconnects. The idea being that I can then
contact those customers and ask them if they are having problems with
random disconnects, offering them help in fixing things if they are.
I've done this for a few that were noticed with some semi-manual
processing of the logs --- they were A) pleased that I contacted them
instead of waiting for them to complain, and B) very pleased when we
were able to get them running more smoothly. (Using modem firmware
upgrades, speed limiting, K56Flex instead of v.90, and in one case,
replacement of the modem.) It might take a little more of my time to
do this, but it pays off in customer loyalty -big- time.
Michael Bryan
pmu@ursine.com
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