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[jamesbob]

Background Info

I live in a rural part of the southwest UK and we don't have FTTP yet. I have old copper wired supplied VDSL.

A few years ago I had fantastic help from this forum rewiring the home internals to remove the "star topology" of the telephone sockets coming from the master socket:
https://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,25136.0.html
That improved my speed from 28.9 Mbs down 6.9 Mpbs up to 40 down 9 up - a fantastic improvement from just fixing home wiring.

In recent months the reliability of the line has gone down with intermittent drops, and some days having 10-20 DSL drops as reported by the modem.
The balance of up/down has also changed - it has settled on 50down/8up. Today it is 59.99 Mbit/s and 8.49 Mbit/s up.

My ISP has told me there is nothing wrong with the line, and that I'm lucky to get such a connection given the distance to the exchange, and also that the exterior is poorly built with wind and rain able to get under the rubbish cover around the BT wiring outlet. When it rains a lot we subjectively notice poorer internet.

The ISP thinks I need new home equipment including the microfilter and maybe also the DSL modem too. I am sceptical because (1) I don't use a DSL filter / splitter between the modem and the wall socket because there are no phones in the home. And this has worked fine for years, and (2) because going back 20+ years, all my modems have lasted years and don't seem to suffer "wear and tear" as the ISP person phrased it.

Question: What modem should I get? See the following for some additional context.

I have a Fritzbox 7530. It apparently has an Intel (lantiq?) DSL chipset and it seems to work well. The modem reports the exchange is an "Infineon".
I did try upgrading to a 7530 AX but that dropped connections several times a day, which surprised me. I am not certain but I am told the 7530AX has a Broadcom DSL chipset.

So this seems to go counter to the common advice to go with Broadcom.

I have used Netgears, D-Links, Draytek, etc in the past and I prefer the Fritz because (1) it doesn't pretend the huge antennae have benefit, (2) it has low power consumption 6Amps vs the 12A for the 7590, (3) the "OS" and web ui is really simple and appears to have been refined to good quality over many years.

I haven't tried the famous Zyxel's because I'm led to believe they have low-powered wifi and in this home we do need signal in several rooms and the Fritzbox 7530 is just about ok, I'd love to have higher "bars" on the wifi clients if possible. In fact I'm surprised that directly downstairs - 2 metres down through paper thin new-build floors,  the wifi bars are not 100% on modern phones and laptops.

[jamesbob]

Here is an example showing the pattern of errors and DSL drops just after a reboot (which cleared previous logs sadly).

[tubaman]

If you have already tried another modem/router are are still getting multiple line drops then I'd suggest there is a fault somewhere. Things like visible exterior junction boxes are certainly a good place to start looking as if they are getting wet inside it can cause issues like this.

[meritez]

Would you be interested in separating the modem from the router, as then you could have superb wifi and an easy way to diagnose your vdsl connection

[Edinburgh_lad]

The Intel/Broadcom debate is a myth only supported with some subjective observations on different forums, since there are lots of other factors that can influence the sync., as you observe yourself. Each line is different and so if a specific modem works best for you, then that's great.

Openreach don't define the quality of the line in terms of 'there's nothing wrong with it', but in terms of it being within parameters or not. Noise is to be expected. Up to a number of line drops, too. In your case it's 8 per day and not every day, so your ISP will probably conclude that it's ok. 

There's already some pattern emerging from your graph. Something introduces noise around the evening until during the day, then there's a break. Overnight storage heater?

[tubaman]

Would you be interested in separating the modem from the router, as then you could have superb wifi and an easy way to diagnose your vdsl connection

I'll second that one as I now have separate modem, router and wifi thanks to the modem in BT's 'Smart' Hub 2, which I have to have for their Digital Voice service, syncing over 6Mbps lower than my previous Zyxel device. It also has the advantage that you can fiddle about with the router and wifi as much as you like without ever having to drop the VDSL connection when you reboot etc.

...
Openreach don't define the quality of the line in terms of 'there's nothing wrong with it', but in terms of it being within parameters or not. Noise is to be expected. Up to a number of line drops, too. In your case it's 8 per day and not every day, so your ISP will probably conclude that it's ok. 
...

I'd be surprised if they considered 8 line drops per day to be acceptable and I suspect that DLM will get grumpy with that before too long.

[Chunkers]

I have a Zyxel (8924) modem, like you I live in the boonies, no fibre available. 10+ years ago when my line was really poor Broadcom was the only chipset that could reliably maintain an ADSL connection, I tested almost all of them at the time.  My line has improved but I have continued to use the Zyxel to this day but I also have a Fritz!box 7530 (which I have tested but do not use) -  it reliably connects at a higher speed. If the 7530 had a proper bridge mode I would consider using it instead. . other chipsets have improved over time

My thoughts

- The Fritz!box has a good modem, I agree with your comments, unless yours is faulty it is risky to assume replacing it will improve things
- Like others I prefer separate devices for modem, router, wifi i.e. choose your modem, locate your WAP's, get a good basic router and then upgrade them independently (Fritz!box does however integrate these services quite well)
- I think Wifi coverage is best improved through using WAP's and more of them. I have found that comparative wifi performance between (branded) devices for the most part is in small - they are all limited to the same power e.g. 2 well placed WAP's > 1 Amazo Turbo 2000 expensive router
- Maybe look at cleaning up and sealing up your connection box?

C

[jamesbob]

Thanks for the replies everyone - all very useful to help me think about what to do.

As someone with a a bit of technical background I would like to believe that after many years of DSL modem chipsets and maturing standards, most of the chipsets would be pretty good - and that the difference between boredcom / intel / others would be marginal.
 
When I tried the 7530AX it very much dropped the line frequently and the difference to the 7530 non-ax was stark. Should I put it down to just a bad batch?

The reason I'm persisting on this point is that I don't want to waste money on a new modem to find it drosp the line whereas a new, albeit old model, 7530 would keep the line.

Also - due to space reasons I can have a separate modem and wireless AP.

[Edinburgh_lad]

@tubaman

Where I live, they considered that to be acceptable. 20+ visits of Openreach always included the line was within its parameters. A CEO complaint about the patch lead and his management style eventually reduced, though not eliminated, the number of drops. I believe the patch lead no longer is at this exchange.

I think whether the automatic management of the line kicks in depends on Openreach's setting for the area. I deliberately restarted my modem more than 20 times at any one occasion, repeating that several times, and nothing. The bloody thing wouldn't increase SNR and lower the speed to address disconnections. It was only when I used a DrayTek router to force the line to sync at a higher SNR and lower speed that it actually happened, or when the engineer did so from his end (on the wee machine that they have when they visit the property).

[tubaman]

@Edinburgh_lad that's interesting as in the past I've had DLM up the SNR on my line after a bad storm that you'd think would be classed as a wide area event, although saying that it has been stable for quite a few years now so I wonder if Openreach have relaxed it somewhat?
With respect to my own line (circa 850m and syncing about 43Mbps) I'd be unhappy with one drop each day let alone multiple ones, but perhaps I've just been lucky.

[parkdale]

Hi, The Fritz!Box 7530ax has a Broadcom chipset and the 7530 is Qualcomm based but has a Lantiq xDsl driver.

I use the Fritz!Box 7590 which has the Lantiq chipset.

https://techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/AVM_FRITZ!Box_7530_AX
https://techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/AVM_FRITZ!Box_7530

Line faults like this will produce dropouts it's very rare for the Router Modem to fail but has happened to me in the past.... but as you have 2 and both display the problem to a greater or lesser extent, would tell me the line is at fault.
Getting Openreach to fix it....  But only your ISP can raise faults for them to fix it.

[Edinburgh_lad]

@Edinburgh_lad that's interesting as in the past I've had DLM up the SNR on my line after a bad storm that you'd think would be classed as a wide area event, although saying that it has been stable for quite a few years now so I wonder if Openreach have relaxed it somewhat?
With respect to my own line (circa 850m and syncing about 43Mbps) I'd be unhappy with one drop each day let alone multiple ones, but perhaps I've just been lucky.

Not sure if they've relaxed overall, or rather, knowing that there are problems within a specific area, they can switch that option off. Otherwise, lots of customers would have ended up with high SNRs and low speeds, and so wouldn't meet the minimum speed set out by ISPs. Which means more call-outs at the local exchange, which they wouldn't be able to manage. Certainly the pandemic has highlighted the complacency of Openreach and the poor state of their network, not to mention how behind the UK is in terms of FTTP roll-out in comparison to other countries.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Certainly the pandemic has highlighted the complacency of Openreach and the poor state of their network, not to mention how behind the UK is in terms of FTTP roll-out in comparison to other countries.

How so?  I'm not exactly thrilled with how Openreach operate but these seem rather bold claims.

[meritez]

How so?  I'm not exactly thrilled with how Openreach operate but these seem rather bold claims.

Copper stop sell has accelerated FTTP retraining removing many isdn2 and isdn30 trained engineers who were also very good with copper faults.

[Edinburgh_lad]

How so?  I'm not exactly thrilled with how Openreach operate but these seem rather bold claims.

In my area certainly. Years of neglect. During the pandemic everyone went online and so the network didn't cope as well as it should have. We relied on the Internet connection more and expected it to be of a better quality. We've had more upgrades/replacements of cables, master sockets, internal wiring during the pandemic than ever before. For example, the cable from the pole to the house was of an incorrect grading. This highlighted issues that hadn't been addressed before through regular maintenance. Another example was the cable from the outside pole to another one being of a poor and degrading quality. It's been like that for 20-30 years - zero maintenance. High resistant faults that I don't believe Openreach in my area didn't know about, pretending to be surprised, unable to access. All of a sudden my area was teeming with Openreach vans and Openreach engineers, whereas previously, you wouldn't even tell that the exchange was nearby.