I recently installed a TG585V7 in an effort to get better sync speed following BT's assignment of a 15dB target margin. The V7 doesn't allow you to override the margin, but it does sync at a vastly improved speed (nearly always >3Mbs, compared with nearly always <2Mbs ) compared to my old modem so I was initially happy. Now the V7 a few weeks old it's proven unreliable, locking up solid every few days and needing power cycled to get back in business. Recent comments from Kitz leave me feeling that this won't surprise anyone.
My initial thoughts are now to get a modem that allows margin tweaking, but I'm not so sure about that for following reason. Maybe I'm missing the point in which case please set me right...
...I live out in the sticks and power supply disruptions are surprisingly common. I'd say once wvery two or three weeks on average, recently. Now as far as I can make out, very few (if any?) modems allow a 'sticky' change to the margin to be configured such that it is retained after a power ciut. I reason that after a power cut, the modem will initially sync at a lower speed. I can then resync it manually to get the margin back, but by that time my BRAS profile will already have been reduced (by the initial low sync) so it could be up to 3 days before it all works again. I know that DLM is meant to use some kind of 'blip' logic so as to recover quickly from a single low-sync event, but I'm not sure it completely overcomes things.
So, is my reasoning valid and am I right proceed with caution? And/or, are there any recommendations for modems that allow a sticky change to the margin?
Since I've already bought one new modem recently, I may struggle to get purchase approval for another from the Head of Household Accounting (my Girlfriend). Any recomendations will have to be both convincing and inexpensive.