How can I diagnose an intermittent router failure in a remote office?

It's a Draytek Vigor 2820, the only way I can tell it's stopped working is when they ring to tell me they can't dial in. On site diagnostics (asking users what lights are showing) show that the router has lost it's ADSL connection which means that I can't connect to it externally. Reboots do not fix the problem. As soon as they plug their spare router in it works straight away, problem is that it doesn't do VPN.

If left for a couple of days and plugged back in it works fine.

Any ideas?

eBay

He takes PayPal, free international shipping...

Depends how much your time and your client's time is worth, I guess.

tanstaafl.

I'm with Doug, sounds like hardware on its way out. My 2820 also failed on me, started giving very high latency when routing.

So much for my theory of spending more money = longer life hardware

I'm not back to a two box solution, with my old Thomson TG585n as a modem (as it was useless as a router/AP) and an ASUS RT-N66U doing the routing with Tomato.

Which reminds me, must start a thread discussing my woes with Tomato

Yeah, agree with that

New router ordered, I am the client and I don't have the time to spend on this.

It's a factor, but the environmental and usage factors are probably just as important.

And these things can just go bad...

More expensive usually means better warranty and support, though. Of course, a move from "nonexistent" to "miserable" isn't necessarily much of a step up.

One of the reasons I run Apple routers is that Applecare on a computer will extend to cover the router as well. They even extend coverage to any Apple router bought two years prior to buying Applecare, making the maximum warranty period 5 years.

Yeah, problem with warranty is mostly that they make you do all sorts of pointless diagnostics on the thing before issuing an RMA. It's easier to just buy a new one.

I have just upgraded the FW to see if that cures it but after that it'll be new router time

I've got 50p says it's blown capacitors.

Do you want me to send it to you so you can prove that?