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[kitz]

Another new vdsl2 modem/router enters the market place.  So far none of the available routers ticked all the right boxes for me, either because the cost was too high or they didnt offer gibE networking.


I'm seriously in the market for an vdsl2 combined modem/router/1gb switch.... of which there is a distint lack of routers that fit this bill at the sub £150 mark, but I noticed today that Broadband buyer is now selling the recently released Zyxel VMG8324-B10A for £110.23

I had previously had my eye on the Zyxel SBG3300-N, which sounded good, until I noticed that it didnt seem to play well with Apple devices.  Since I use the ATV a lot, finding out that it had problems streaming from IoS made me think twice.. as it was about its only downfall that I could find.   (This may now have been corrected as I notice ZyXel also released new firmware on 4th of March for the  SBG3300-N .

Anyhow specs of the ZyXEL VMG8324 can be found here.

Wireless

    IEEE 802.11n 2.4 GHz with up to 300 Mbps data rate
    Wireless Protected Setup (WPS)
    WEP data encryption (64/128 bit)
    WPA/WPA2, WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK
    Wi-Fi scheduling

    Multiple SSID (up to 4)

VDSL and ADSL Compliance

    VDSL/ADSL2+ compliance
    VDSL2 (G.993.2), band plan Annex A, Annex B(over POTS)
    Support profile 8a, 8b, 8c, 8d, 12a,12b, 17a
    VDSL1 (G.993.1)
    ADSL2+ (G.992.5) support Annex A, I, M
    ADSL2 (G.992.3) support Annex A, I, L, M
    ADSL (G.992.1) Annex A
    ANSI T1.413 issue 2
    G.INP (G.998.4)

    G.vector (G.993.5)

I dug around and found out that it contains a BCM63168 chipset, so I should imagine that it would work with DSLstats?
I cant really find much more out about this router other than this post on the Zen Forums where it seems to be used by Eirecom.

Anyone else heard anything about this particular router?

[roseway]

This page is very informative: http://tjworld.net/wiki/Zyxel/VDSL_IAD

It says that access to the Broadcom CLI is hidden by default in the telnet interface, but you can break out of this into the regular Busybox shell where all the expected Broadcom commands are available. So it does seem probable that DSLstats will work with it.

[kitz]

Thank you eric.  Yes that informative site seems to have been written by the same guy as on the Zen forums.

Ive been cheeky and asked if he can get DSLstats working with it

[kitz]

As has been mentioned these routers are also known as F1000 and used by Eirecom.

If anyone is interested in one of these Eirecom routers for research purposes, then a kind kitizen has offered to obtain one at cost to him (possibly in the region of about £35).

We know that the F1000 has Eirecom firmware, and from the post on the Zen forum and his blog that it is possible to put standard Zyxel firmware on it, we just dont know the exact procedure atm.

http://tjworld.net/wiki/Zyxel/VDSL_IAD   

Theres an Eirecom userguide here,

http://business.eircom.net/media/modem_user_guide.pdf


---
Edited to add
the relevant Zen thread is here and Ive also just sent a message via the Zen forums too, asking about flashing the F1000

[kitz]

Update I have heard back for TJ.  Unfortunately the Eircom F1000 cannot be directly flashed to standard ZyXel firmware via the http interface.

AIUI TJ wasnt quite sure exactly what he did, as he was tried several permutations via the CFE or console shell before he realised it had worked.

He would need another F1000 to attempt to re-create his steps.   Ideally it would be nice if TJ could join us here to discuss this further  (hint hint)

[dmcdonnell]

..
If anyone is interested in one of these Eirecom routers for research purposes, then a kind kitizen has offered to obtain one at cost to him (possibly in the region of about £35).

These are proving difficult to find here in Ireland as they have only recently been distributed. I have managed to buy only one after a week of effort. It is locked to Eircom.

The ZyXel source code is available on TJ's blog. I have asked Eircom for their code but don't hold your breath on that, I am not an Eircom customer. Perhaps a kind Kitizen of the Republic who is, might ask them to supply the source code as required under the terms of the GNU GPL license.

There are many extremely capable individuals on this forum who may wish to advance our understanding of this device. I am happy to post it, and the power supply, to the UK for cost, £35 including postage. Given what TJ has managed, and published, to date, I believe early progress may be possible with the device in the hands of a talented person.

If more units become available, I will advise.

[dmcdonnell]

Anyone expert on using binwalk? (www.binwalk.org)

I extracted mtdblocks 0 (rootfs), 1 (data) and 2 (nvram) from the ISP branded Zyxel VMG8324-B10A:

-rw-r--r--  1 mac mac 21889024 Jan  1  2013 mtdblock0.bin
-rw-r--r--  1 mac mac   4194304 Jan  1  2013 mtdblock1.bin
-rw-r--r--  1 mac mac     131072 Jan  1  2013 mtdblock2.bin


mtdblock0: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8w9evGfsK03RnBXZWN6WllaM0U/edit?usp=sharing

mtdblock1: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8w9evGfsK03dnJPYy1xTFd5WFk/edit?usp=sharing

mtdblock2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8w9evGfsK03NmpFTTlJUzR4TEE/edit?usp=sharing

[kitz]

Not me I'm afraid. Sorry :/

[Iam_TJ]

I'd like to clarify and expand on kitz's summary of my email in reply to his enquiry:

On 13/03/14 21:00, [email removed] wrote:
> Trying to find out more information on this router.  Ive posted questions in the Zen forum below your post, and its also being discussed here
> http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php?topic=13669.0
>
> Are you able to provide any more information please on using the F1000 with standard Zyxel firmware.

If it isn't also Eircom firmware the HTTP update function will refuse the firmware (embedded brand/version IDs).

That means you have to update firmware manually using the CFE or the console shell admin interface. Unfortunately, I tried so many permutations to get that to work that when it finally did I was so surprised I forgot to document it immediately!

I'm currently waiting on an ISP in Denmark to send me several devices (VMG-8{3,9}24-B10A) so I can begin hacking properly with the aim of, at some point, getting OpenWRT working flawlessly with them - not sure how feasible that is now but if it is possible the ISP wants to switch to OpenWRT rather than the Zyxel firmware since they've had a litany of bugs Zyxel have been fixing before they can
distribute the IAD to customers.

Once those devices have arrived I'll be able to experiment again and document how to replace the firmware, and more importantly, how to edit and cross-compile custom firmware.

Then I'll be focusing on the OpenWrt port.

So, it's not that I don't know how, it's that I've forgotten the precise formula. I probably have it captured in the serial-port log-file of that session. However, that doesn't help anyone else.

In order to enable firmware upload via CFE (Broadcom's Common Firmware Environment - the bootloader for many of their devices) it is necessary to first unlock the expert commands. That has to be done by generating a code that is keyed on bits from each device's primary MAC address - every device has a different unlock code.

As I said, I'm awaiting the arrival of several of these devices so that I can get to work on replacing the Zyxel/Broadcom firmware as far as is possible where the binary blobs aren't necessary for hardware interaction.

Once they arrive I can refresh my memory on how I figured out the unlock code and provide a tool to do that as part of my exploration of the devices.


----
Edit by admin - removed email address.

[kitz]

Hi TJ and thanks for joining us

[dmcdonnell]

Binwalk 2beta usefully extracts the rootfs from the mtd0 firmware. Eircom have a different, slightly earlier, firmware on their website: http://broadbandsupport.eircom.net/download/zyxel/firmware/F1000-Firmware/Firmware/100AAHA4b2.bin

The installed version ends D0 rather than b2. Comparing the mtd0 and website images, it would appear that the first 128k is the Broadcom CFE, followed by the rootfs.

[sankukai35]

Hi all,

the link http://tjworld.net/wiki/Zyxel/VDSL_IAD is broken.
Is there someone who have the command used to enter the modem shell with the serial interface ?

Thank you a lot by advance

[burakkucat]

The link works for me. Screenshots attached below . . .