BFL Singles crashing my DSL Modem

[Jaryu]

I currently have 24 singles and I'm using CGMiner 2.4.1 win. I was going nuts at first trying to figure this out.. all of a sudden as soon as I would start the miner with 21 singles at first(before I got the other 3) then my internet would instantaneously stop working, about 5 seconds later my DSL modem which is upstairs 2 floors up linked to my wireless router would hang and start flashing all it's lights non stop like a Christmas tree a simple reboot restored the internet but any attempt to start ufasoft miner with all the units would cause the same problem the modem would crash and would require me to turn it off and turn it on again... after playing with it I noticed that if I only used 10 the modem wouldn't crash... so following that logic I added units until the problem would happen again... my current limit is 16 units, at 16 it works perfectly... but if I add a 17th unit the modem will hang shortly after the program sends the first found nounce(sp?)

Anyone has any idea what could be happening with this thing... I know the modem works perfectly fine for anything else...I can download and upload any amount of data while the 16 units are running and nothing happens. But just starting a single extra unit after 16 and have it on a different miner software or adding the extra to cgminer will instantly crash the modem even if it was fine for hours before.

[2112]

Maybe it is caused by RFI (Radio Frequency Interference)?

Try putting some ferrite chokes on the power and USB leads very close to where they enter the metal case of the mining devices.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrite_bead

[Luke-Jr]

I currently have 24 singles and I'm using CGMiner 2.4.1 win.

Well, nobody supports ancient versions of CGMiner. First thing to do is upgrade to BFGMiner 2.4.4 - or at least CGMiner 2.4.4 (but note future versions will likely have serious regressions in BFL support). Inevitably though, it sounds like there's a problem with your modem: software shouldn't be able to crash it no matter what they do.

[Jaryu]

I currently have 24 singles and I'm using CGMiner 2.4.1 win.

Well, nobody supports ancient versions of CGMiner. First thing to do is upgrade to BFGMiner 2.4.4 - or at least CGMiner 2.4.4 (but note future versions will likely have serious regressions in BFL support). Inevitably though, it sounds like there's a problem with your modem: software shouldn't be able to crash it no matter what they do.

Thanks I just downloaded both will will try in the morning with the higher versions and see how it works, I know the same thing had happened with cgminer 2.4.3 when I tried it so I didn't bother keeping it on. I'll call verizon too and ask for another modem just in case but like I said, it's a very strange coincidence that it never crashes with 16 but always crashes with 17 or more, I even ran 16 on cgminer and tried to run 1 more on ufasoft since cgminer doesn't allow multiple instances and as soon as ufasoft miner sent the first ok the internet dropped and I had to go up and restart the modem, tried several variations of this and so long as the number between the 2 miners didn't surpass 16 the modem didn't crash. If nothing else works after this, like the other poster mentioned I'll try the ferrite chokes.

[Dargo]

DSL can be a real PITA. Even though mine is running like a top right now, it was a serious fight to get it that way. I was experiencing all manner of fubar connection behavior and it took many rounds of having incompetent AT&T techs out to look at it. Finally, I got two half-competent techs. The first tech determined that I actually had two separate lines to the central office. He eliminated one and that helped. The second tech determined that the line that I had left was a POS and switched me over to one that actually worked. Anyway, the root of the problem was in the line quality, not my modem or anything else, but it often manifested as if the issue was with certain software that would kill my connection and require a modem reboot. I hope that's not your issue since it will probably take a good long while for your provider to get to the bottom of it.

[SolarSilver]

Anyone has any idea what could be happening with this thing... I know the modem works perfectly fine for anything else...I can download and upload any amount of data while the 16 units are running and nothing happens. But just starting a single extra unit after 16 and have it on a different miner software or adding the extra to cgminer will instantly crash the modem even if it was fine for hours before.

Crappy little routers with limited CPU power and not enough memory cannot

0. have an infinite state tables to do NAT and firewalling
1. swallow all the interrupts your packets generate

It's not about the bandwidth but about the amount of packets per second and how many concurrent TCP sessions that is causing your modem to hit a limit.

Is your modem also your router/firewall? Try to offload that functionality to another machine you can put in front of your modem and configure the modem as a bridge between PSTN/ethernet.

[Mobius]

I currently have 24 singles and I'm using CGMiner 2.4.1 win. I was going nuts at first trying to figure this out.. all of a sudden as soon as I would start the miner with 21 singles at first(before I got the other 3) then my internet would instantaneously stop working, about 5 seconds later my DSL modem which is upstairs 2 floors up linked to my wireless router would hang and start flashing all it's lights non stop like a Christmas tree a simple reboot restored the internet but any attempt to start ufasoft miner with all the units would cause the same problem the modem would crash and would require me to turn it off and turn it on again... after playing with it I noticed that if I only used 10 the modem wouldn't crash... so following that logic I added units until the problem would happen again... my current limit is 16 units, at 16 it works perfectly... but if I add a 17th unit the modem will hang shortly after the program sends the first found nounce(sp?)

Anyone has any idea what could be happening with this thing... I know the modem works perfectly fine for anything else...I can download and upload any amount of data while the 16 units are running and nothing happens. But just starting a single extra unit after 16 and have it on a different miner software or adding the extra to cgminer will instantly crash the modem even if it was fine for hours before.

Take a look at:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itpronetworking/thread/18667011-c034-43bc-ab2e-0e87bf811e5e

[nedbert9]

Anyone has any idea what could be happening with this thing... I know the modem works perfectly fine for anything else...I can download and upload any amount of data while the 16 units are running and nothing happens. But just starting a single extra unit after 16 and have it on a different miner software or adding the extra to cgminer will instantly crash the modem even if it was fine for hours before.

Crappy little routers with limited CPU power and not enough memory cannot

0. have an infinite state tables to do NAT and firewalling
1. swallow all the interrupts your packets generate

It's not about the bandwidth but about the amount of packets per second and how many concurrent TCP sessions that is causing your modem to hit a limit.

Is your modem also your router/firewall? Try to offload that functionality to another machine you can put in front of your modem and configure the modem as a bridge between PSTN/ethernet.

+1

Get a high end DSL modem.

http://www.asus.com/Networks/ADSL_Modem_Routers/DSLN55U/

[Clipse]

Quick and free solution, run pfsense as your router/firewall inside a VM on whatever machine you have available or you can install it on a dedicated machine. It would avoid all the static route issues crashing your router.

[TechCF]

Put the DSL modemrouter in "bridge" mode, so it is only a "dumb" modem, and run pfSense on some older HW. Or use your wireless router or another high end router. Most things you can buy are better than the stuff your ISP gives you. I have an Atom powered pfSense box and it works great with heavy traffic on 30/30 + 12/1 line. Never any trouble. But the Thompson that came with one of the clients could not even handle me seeding Ubuntu...

[Jaryu]

Put the DSL modemrouter in "bridge" mode, so it is only a "dumb" modem, and run pfSense on some older HW. Or use your wireless router or another high end router. Most things you can buy are better than the stuff your ISP gives you. I have an Atom powered pfSense box and it works great with heavy traffic on 30/30 + 12/1 line. Never any trouble. But the Thompson that came with one of the clients could not even handle me seeding Ubuntu...

Thanks everyone and specially you TechCF your idea to turnoff the router in the modem solved the issue. I am familiar with pfsense, had one running a while back but verizon upgaded my service and sent the new ADSL 2/2+ modem had to use it or I didn't get full speed 500KB/s~700KB/s I assumed I couldn't turn off the useless router part of it since the option is actually hidden in the router/modem menu. After doing a search I found it turned it off and it's just a dumb modem now and my linksys router is handling it fine for now so I won't rebuild the pfsense box just yet, unless it starts giving me issues :p hehe

now happly mining all the singles on BFGminer 2.4.4, it's nice being able to see all the miners on 1 window. Really good job on your branch version luke-Jr thanks, I actually wasn't aware of there being a separate miner based on cgminer until you posted, from reading the forum I assumed you worked directly on CGminer

[bulanula]

Get FIOS ... problem solved.

[pekv2]

Get FIOS ... problem solved.

Not available every where though. I'm still waiting on Verizon. I contacted google and they aren't planning to leave out of that university for their FIOS either.