Adpro Fastscan

[ispy]

came across this problem years ago with F3 on ISDN, ended up changing from user defined hayes to X21

[DannyTheTech]

It's as if they have a self destruct mechanism built in!! We have of late had numerous clients reporting higher than average ISDN phone bills. This is being put down by some to the the calls not being 'hung up' correctly anymore, some are suggesting it may be down to BT changes. Anyhow, it is becoming more frequent. Also, and this is the worrying one, we are increasingly losing connection to a number of units. When the engineer interogates the settings he is finding various changes in the user names, passwords etc. Some have defaulted, one unit even changed the passwords and changed the language to German!!

We are obviously upgrading to ADSL and FastTrace where budgets dictate.

Anybody else having similar problems?? Interested to see TechGuy's comments. Ta!

Hi Guys,

During my time at Adpro we used to get the problem with high phone bills about 3-4 times a year, after some research and some serious testing we found that the main cause was that the local exchange was not disconnecting the call, even though the customers connection has been disconnected. I will admit that BT were a total pain in helping out and would only really listen after it had been proved to be there fault. This was usually proved by checking an itemised phone bill (calls being made when the line was suposidly engaged etc). Another way to approach it was to ask for ARC/CMS Call logs which will show connections and disconnections and time ranges. If you think about it how many ARC's out there would be happy with a single connection being online for hours even days! They get hacked of if you have to many false alarms (and rightly so) so a nunsence connection would not be well received.

With regard to the systems loosing/changing settings, again i have seen this a bit. The guys in OZ did some serious testing with out any real conclusive results, but we found that any form of surge or spike can cause problems also as the unit is battery backed a faulty or dying battery could cause these problems. Depending on how old these units are it might be worth changing the battery on the board.

The Webway IP converters are pretty good and dont need the setting up that the MSS100 needed but it is not supproted by ADPRO so if somthing goes wrong with the site adpro cant realy advise regarding set ups and fault finding so it all depends on who you are happy to talk to really. Cant comment on price comparisons as i have no idea how much the Webway units are.

Just out of nerdy interest (as i no longer work for ADPRO) how many systems are you getting that are failing? are they all on ISDN or do you still have PSTN units?

Anyways hope that this helps

,

Dan

[daubs8]

Hi Guys,

During my time at Adpro we used to get the problem with high phone bills about 3-4 times a year, after some research and some serious testing we found that the main cause was that the local exchange was not disconnecting the call, even though the customers connection has been disconnected. I will admit that BT were a total pain in helping out and would only really listen after it had been proved to be there fault. This was usually proved by checking an itemised phone bill (calls being made when the line was suposidly engaged etc). Another way to approach it was to ask for ARC/CMS Call logs which will show connections and disconnections and time ranges. If you think about it how many ARC's out there would be happy with a single connection being online for hours even days! They get hacked of if you have to many false alarms (and rightly so) so a nunsence connection would not be well received.

With regard to the systems loosing/changing settings, again i have seen this a bit. The guys in OZ did some serious testing with out any real conclusive results, but we found that any form of surge or spike can cause problems also as the unit is battery backed a faulty or dying battery could cause these problems. Depending on how old these units are it might be worth changing the battery on the board.

The Webway IP converters are pretty good and dont need the setting up that the MSS100 needed but it is not supproted by ADPRO so if somthing goes wrong with the site adpro cant realy advise regarding set ups and fault finding so it all depends on who you are happy to talk to really. Cant comment on price comparisons as i have no idea how much the Webway units are.

Just out of nerdy interest (as i no longer work for ADPRO) how many systems are you getting that are failing? are they all on ISDN or do you still have PSTN units?

Anyways hope that this helps

,

Dan

Thanks Dan! I knew it was to do with BT and the calls not being hung up!! The latest one is

[SUBS]

Had something similar with a couple of Fastscan 3s a few years ago, changing settings, passwords etc.

Spoke to Adpro Tech (Mike I think) " you have got a decent PSU have you ? Not a poxy little 2A one ?" Sure enough, Changed the 2A Elmdenes for 3A ones and fitted batteries in and solved it.

Had other sites working fine, and still are, with the 2A ones fitted.

[DannyTheTech]

Thanks Dan! I knew it was to do with BT and the calls not being hung up!! The latest one is

[Niallthebomb]

Hi Guys,

Interesting thread. I have to admit that this is the first security forum I have come across so please excuse my newbie'ness. I hope I'm posting this to the correct forum.

I'm currently trying to help a company with their IT. Unfortunately, this covers their broadband/firewalled connection.

They have an Adpro TX system. We can access this system 'internally' using Adpro Video Central User Interface (lite) application. From within that we can arm, view, disarm etc. However, when trying to connect externally, we would sometimes get it to work once and then we could not connect from outside the network. The problem appeared to be with the modem/router (which is a BT Voyager 2110). Now I have played around with various settings on this router. I have used Portforwarding (using the ports specified with the Adpro manual) and I've even put the Adpro in a DMZ which effectively takes it from behind the firewall and puts it in front of the firewall. The kicker is I can spend hours messing around with the modem settings, not being able to connect and then all of a sudden it allows me to connect but after that one connection it won't allow a repeat connection (even though nothing has been changed on either the Adpro or the modem). The security company who installed the adpro sent one of their 'experts' out. I sat down with him, went through all the settings, he told me that it should work...but it didn't. We played around with a few more settings and it still wouldn't work. We put it back to the original settings and then all of a sudden it worked! We were able to connect in and out through the modem/router.

It's almost as if the connection is hanging after it is made. And that the port on either the Adpro or the modem is being occupied by a phantom connection. To say it's frustrating, would be understating it. The security firm stand by their original standing that is, it has to be the modem/router. But reading some of the previous replies to this thread makes me wonder whether it might be either the Adpro TX losing some of it's internal settings after a connection is made? Anyway, I have a new modem on order, it will arrive probably after the weekend. This should tell me if it's the Adpro or the existing modem.

I was just wondering if anyone else has come across this problem before and if so, how did they resolve it?

Thanks for any help or assistance in advance,

Niall

[DannyTheTech]

Hi Guys,

Interesting thread. I have to admit that this is the first security forum I have come across so please excuse my newbie'ness. I hope I'm posting this to the correct forum.

I'm currently trying to help a company with their IT. Unfortunately, this covers their broadband/firewalled connection.

They have an Adpro TX system. We can access this system 'internally' using Adpro Video Central User Interface (lite) application. From within that we can arm, view, disarm etc. However, when trying to connect externally, we would sometimes get it to work once and then we could not connect from outside the network. The problem appeared to be with the modem/router (which is a BT Voyager 2110). Now I have played around with various settings on this router. I have used Portforwarding (using the ports specified with the Adpro manual) and I've even put the Adpro in a DMZ which effectively takes it from behind the firewall and puts it in front of the firewall. The kicker is I can spend hours messing around with the modem settings, not being able to connect and then all of a sudden it allows me to connect but after that one connection it won't allow a repeat connection (even though nothing has been changed on either the Adpro or the modem). The security company who installed the adpro sent one of their 'experts' out. I sat down with him, went through all the settings, he told me that it should work...but it didn't. We played around with a few more settings and it still wouldn't work. We put it back to the original settings and then all of a sudden it worked! We were able to connect in and out through the modem/router.

It's almost as if the connection is hanging after it is made. And that the port on either the Adpro or the modem is being occupied by a phantom connection. To say it's frustrating, would be understating it. The security firm stand by their original standing that is, it has to be the modem/router. But reading some of the previous replies to this thread makes me wonder whether it might be either the Adpro TX losing some of it's internal settings after a connection is made? Anyway, I have a new modem on order, it will arrive probably after the weekend. This should tell me if it's the Adpro or the existing modem.

I was just wondering if anyone else has come across this problem before and if so, how did they resolve it?

Thanks for any help or assistance in advance,

Niall

Hi Niall,

Intresting problem there. To be honest i would go with the router causing the problem, BT voyagers are shocking at best (for security Apps anyways), one of the reasons that Adpro started selling routers was down to the fact that there are so many diffrent types out there and they can all act in slightly diffrent ways. I wouldnt say you have to go get an ADPRO unit as long as you are happy to set routers up (which it sounds like you are), however i woud advise in getting somthing like a ZYXELL (what ADPRO used but Badged) or DLink. The Reason that i say that i think that its down to the Router is that if the TX was having problems then the internal link would also fail as its using the same connectivity on the LAN as it is on the WAN (no port ranges can be configured in the TX only the IP, Mask and Gatway adresses).

Other problems could be to do with the asigned Static IP Address (for the Service) make sure that it is assigned and nothing else within the network is trying to use the port ranges (just to confirm they should be TCP 15000 to 15007 and UDP 15000 to 15200) also make sure that the Port fowarding is to the IP address of the TX and nothing else.

With regard to TX loosing settings, ill be honest (see above post) that i have only seen it on the TX system a couple of times (more on the older FastScan series) and that was when there was some serious problems with the unit. If this was the case you would have seen major problems with conectivity on the LAN before you even experanced problems with trying to get to the outside world.

Hope that this helps, And let us know if a new router sorts the issues.

,

dan

[digitalwitness]

Have to agree totally with the above post and with the security 'Experts' conclusion that it is most likely the router, not sure what the consecutive users on an Adpro is but not getting access to the machine and not being allowed login are two different issues. In other words if you are not even getting a login screen of some description then it is most likely not even reaching the TX.

[nitro]

here a good site i recommended,made by my colleage that help with router setup for eng and user alike

link

Regard

Ian.

[Niallthebomb]

Thanks Nitro, Dannythetech and DigitalWitness.

Modem is due on Tuesday. Funnily enough I have gone with the BT2700H. Will keep you posted.

Thanks once again guys.

Hope you have a good weekend.

,

Niall