Actiontec Elec. Inc.
What does it mean when the LED lights on a GT DSL Gateway flash and or change color?
POWER LED:
Possible colors are:
Normal:
When the GT DSL Gateway
DSL Gateway is starting
Red for 2 to 3 seconds,
LED is solid Green, and
is powered up.
Red, Amber and Green
is functioning normally, the Power light will change color as the
up. During a normal device power up, the Power LED is first solid
followed by flashing Green for 15 to 30 seconds. Lastly the Power
it remains solid Green for the rest of the time the DSL Gateway
Abnormal:
Power LED not illuminated:
Either the device is turned off or some element of the power supply has failed. Possibly
the AC power at the outlet, DC power from the Power Supply or DSL Gateway itself.
Power LED is solid Red:
Indication of possible hardware generated lockup, hardware failure or incorrect firmware.
Power LED is solid Amber:
Indication of firmware generated lockup or firmware corruption or incorrect firmware.
Power LED only flashes Green, cycles through colors or GT restarts continuously:
Indicates possible incorrect Power Supply voltage, corrupt or incorrect firmware.
DSL LED:
Possible colors are:
Green
Normal:
When the GT DSL Gateway is working correctly, the DSL LED will begin flashing almost as
soon as the Gateway is powered up. The DSL LED can flash at two different speeds. The
modem begins by flashing at the slower speed when the DSL cable is not connected or it
can not detect a DSL signal. Once a signal is detected the LED begins flashing at a much
faster rate. The change in speed is easy to see since it is approximately twice that of
the slower speed. When the LED begins flashing at the higher rate, it will not be long
before the DSL signal is acquired, and the modem is trained up. The DSL must remain
trained up (Solid Green DSL LED) for the modem to make an Internet connection.
Abnormal:
DSL LED not illuminated:
This is typically due to a Router firmware being loaded onto a DSL Gateway. Though
unlikely, other reasons could be a corrupt firmware or hardware failure.
DSL LED flashes continuously, never training up (DSL LED is never solid Green):
If the LED is flashing slowly it indicates that the DSL modem does not detect a DSL
signal. Possible reasons could be that the DSL line is crossed, incorrectly connected or
bad. Other reasons might be that there really is no signal on the DSL line, because it
has not been provisioned yet, it was configured incorrectly or configured on another
line.
If the LED is flashing quickly it indicates that the DSL modem sees the signal but that
there is too much noise on the line for it to be able to train up. This could be because
the DSL line has too much noise, because the DSL Filters are incorrectly installed or
because the DSL Filters are not installed at all.
If the DSL LED goes through the normal steps, but then after it becomes solid Green it
starts flashing all over again, and goes through the steps from the beginning again and
again, it too indicates noise on the DSL line. Just like the quickly flashing LED it
could be because the DSL line has too much noise, because the DSL Filters are incorrectly
installed or not installed at all.
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Actiontec Elec. Inc.
INTERNET LED:
Possible colors are:
Red and Green
Normal:
A Green LED indicates a successful connection to the ISP (Internet Service Provider).
When the connection is made the LED becomes Green and remains solid Green, until it
begins to flash when network and Internet traffic begins to pass through it. However, the
Internet connection can not be made, until the DSL has trained up and the DSL LED is
solid Green.
Abnormal:
The DSL LED would still need to be solid Green, but after it is, if Internet LED turns
Red it indicates that when it attempted to connect to the ISP, it failed. This type of
failure is often due too authentication failure or some other type of misconfiguration of
the Gateway by the user or DSL account misconfiguration by the ISP.
Internet LED not illuminated:
Indicates that there is no connection to the Internet or it was lost, that the DSL
Gateway may still need to be configured, the DSL LED may be flashing (i.e. not trained up
or lost train) or if the Internet connection is up, the Internet LED may have failed.
LAN, USB or Ethernet LED:
Possible colors are:
Green
Normal:
The LED is illuminated when there is a successful connection to another device, such as a
USB cable connected to a PC or an Ethernet cable connected to a computer or network hub.
The LAN, USB and Ethernet LEDs are solid Green when there is a connection, and begin
flashing when there is network traffic.
Abnormal:
LAN, USB and Ethernet LED not illuminated:
Indicates no connection, either a bad cable, wrong type of cable or a bad USB or Ethernet
port on the PC or Gateway.
Wireless LED:
Possible colors are:
Green
Normal:
The Wireless LED does not operate exactly like the LAN, USB and Ethernet LEDs. Those LEDs
are illuminated when there is a connection, but the Wireless LED is illuminated when the
DSL Gateway's wireless functionality is enabled. The Wireless LED gives no immediate
indication that a computer or device has connected to it. The only indication that a
computer or other device is connected is when network traffic causes the Wireless LED to
begin flashing.
Abnormal:
Wireless LED not illuminated:
Indicates that the Wireless has not been enabled yet, an incorrect non-wireless firmware
was loaded or the Gateway (or at least the Wireless LED) has failed.
Resolutions:
These types of problems can often be resolved by power-cycling the gateway or resetting
it (See the FAQ regarding Resetting the GT, for directions). Before replacing a DSL
Gateway a Recovery should always be attempted, unless the problem is obviously a physical
one (rattles, smoke, etc…). Many times reinstalling the firmware via a Recovery program
can restore an unresponsive unit, to full functionality.
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