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[Weaver]

Does anyone have any experience of using the Dlink DSL-320B DSL modem/routers on a long line?

AAISP sell these and I am currently trying them out. I have three if them, on a bonded group of lines. They are in modem-only mode, full bridge passthrough with PPPoE, the router function and any other high-level being disabled. This is how AAISP preconfigure all of them, (as AAISP say that in any case, the IP router s/w is buggy and generally crap). They come zero-config, true plug-and-play straight out of the box, which is nice.

* The good news: they support baby jumbo frames on the LAN, and so allow full 1500 byte MTU/MRU over PPPoE. They are true protocol-agnostic modems, so they are IPv6-friendly, and would presumably support other non-IP protocols happily.

* The bad news: they are really slow on my long (63.5 dB DS attn) ADSL1 line (4-5 miles long). they give only 1.5 Mbps DS instead on two lines, and a mere 1.0 Mbps on the third problematic line (which needs looking into).

[This compares with nearly 2.0 Mbps DS on a Zyxel 660- series modem, and well over 2.25 Mbps (were it not for BT DS sync-rate banding) using an old Netgear DG834-v3 with its TI AR7 chipset which is possibly a special match for the TI DSLAMs in the Broadford, Skye local exchange.]

Does anyone have any thoughts?

See AAISP shop: http://aaisp.net.uk/broadband-accessories.html

[loonylion]

Yes, I had one for a while, it's crap and never worked properly.

[Weaver]

thanks, loonylion. do you mean crap as far as adsl performance goes? or crap as a router?

[loonylion]

thanks, loonylion. do you mean crap as far as adsl performance goes? or crap as a router?

crap as in the interface was useless and it would only obtain a pppoa session under a very precise set of circumstances partly related to the lunar phase and alignment of celestial bodies.

It would say I was connected and had internet access but nothing worked.

[Weaver]

Original hasty conclusions about these modems showing poor performance on my long line withdrawn.

[Swapped some modems out iirc, and replaced all cables for the excellent Tandy DSL wall socket-to-modem cable -
    http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,15910.25.html
    http://www.tandyonline.co.uk/high-speed-rj11-dsl-cable-1m.html
]

Now as of 2015-11, the DLink DSL-320B modems are showing outstanding downstream sync rates, ~2300 in any event >2272, on two out of three lines, the third may perk up too to hit a similar level.

The DSL-320B is now the all-time record holder for d/s performance on my ultra-long lines. ("63.3" dB d/s attn., which I believe means "even worse" as it's the maximum reportable value.)

[Weaver]

Note that I am using them permanently locked into modem-only mode, which is how they come supplied from the AAISP Shop :: http://aaisp.net.uk/broadband-accessories.html

[loonylion]

Impressive, since the non-B DSL320 I had was utter crap.  Maybe Adrian's meddling in the configs helped too.

[Weaver]

@LoonyLion  - It may be that AA leant on DLink to make firmware changes and make good things happen. They did work with Huawei when they found a problem with the HG612 corrupting packets (!)

[Weaver]

@LoonyLion  - [Apologies if you've already told me,] Were you using your device as a router, or as a PPPoE modem only?

[loonylion]

I was trying to make it work as half bridge (modem only, pppoa auth on modem). but it didn't work properly in 'normal' mode either.