Kitz Forum

Broadband Related => Broadband Hardware => Topic started by: jack21 on June 19, 2015, 06:42:55 PM

Title: ZTE ZXHN H168N ADSL/VDSL2 modem/router
Post by: jack21 on June 19, 2015, 06:42:55 PM
I'd spotted this model being sold by Kikatek some time ago, but they had none left by the time I enquired. Anyway, I found some on eBay this week - new ones from a Hungarian seller at around £28. So ordered one on tuesday, and it arrived today (friday) - speedy service! New, undamaged and well-packed.

After setting it up via its web GUI, perhaps took a little more time than usual, I put it online and was very pleased with the stats.....very slightly down on sync compared to my 8800NL, but even lower error rates. Stats were obtained from a 'Status' web page. Used it online for several hours and was happy with its performance.

However, though I got telnet access and logged in (after some trials) I could not get any useful info from the CLI environment....its shell is unlike any I've previously encountered.......but I will try again now its offline. So I can't yet tell what its chipset is, and I can't yet harvest and graph  its stats with DSLstats (as I do with 8800 or HG612 via a Raspberry Pi).

It is a really nice, compact bit of kit, though, and quite a number of features not commonly seen, especially on such a cheap item. Even if I don't make progress with its stats, it will be a useful backup, or for use where stats harvesting isn't needed.
Title: Re: ZTE ZXHN H168N VDSL2 modem/router
Post by: les-70 on June 19, 2015, 07:28:54 PM
  I looked at a firmware file and I believe it has a broadcom chipset, 63168 I think.  You might try to get super user or root access from the telnet.  That sometimes opens up more commands. 
Title: Re: ZTE ZXHN H168N VDSL2 modem/router
Post by: roseway on June 19, 2015, 07:35:24 PM
The only ZTE device I know anything about is the ZXDSL931vII. Getting access to the Busybox shell and the full Broadcom CLI involved a multi-stage login procedure. If you look at the "Special login" page of DSLstats and select the ZTE ZXDSL931vII (near the top of the drop-down list) you'll see the sequence of commands which had to be entered. The second response is the login password which is device dependent.

I don't know if the ZXHN H168N requires the same sort of sequence, or what DSL chipset it uses, but it might be worth exploring.
Title: Re: ZTE ZXHN H168N VDSL2 modem/router
Post by: jack21 on June 19, 2015, 08:14:56 PM
@les-70
Broadcom 61638 chipset  wouldn't surprise me, Les; the stats I could get from the 'Status' page were so similar to those from my 8800.

@roseway
The sequence I'd been following is akin to that I've now seen as you describe, Eric, in DSLstats, except the username and passwords varied.
telnet 192.168.1.1
root
public
enable 
zte          (there is then some limited info to be got at here, but nothing I'm after)
shell
......and then I'm stuck.....it is asking for another login, but every name I try is rejected, never mind getting to another password....then exits from telnet after a few name attempts.
Title: Re: ZTE ZXHN H168N ADSL/VDSL2 modem/router
Post by: jack21 on March 02, 2016, 02:22:10 PM
Update:

Just for completeness-sake, here's my update on this device:

It did perform almost as well VDSL-wise as the Billion 8800NL but wouldn't work with any stats-monitoring utilities I tried.
Its web-based stats access is passable, but it wouldn't work with Routerstats (unable to logon) , and because I could not get thru its multi-stage telnet login, would not work with DSLstats.

Yesterday I gave it some more attention and managed to achieve progress with stats-monitoring. I wrote a Bash script to gather stats from its recently-discovered-by-me hidden-URL page, then also had the idea of using Routerstats Lite in 'user-defined' mode to get and graph key stats. Both methods work, but the RouterStatsLite was the simplest to achieve. Both techniques are made possible by discovering that if a separate browser is used to connect to the ZTE and display its stats, the other methods don't need to cope with the logon/authentication process demanded by the ZTE, and will continue to harvest stats (their activity keeps the web connection alive).
Title: Re: ZTE ZXHN H168N ADSL/VDSL2 modem/router
Post by: mxhelmy on June 23, 2018, 07:36:57 PM
Here is a screenshot of the stats from inside the modem, the modem here is the ZTE ZXHN H168N V3.1 which has the Mediatek chip.
So far so good, But I still don't know much about the commands of it, it's the it takes the trendchip style commands like

Code: [Select]
wan vdsl2 set target_snrm 0000
here is a cat /proc/cpuinfo

Code: [Select]
# cat /proc/cpuinfo
system type : Ralink MT751020 SOC
processor : 0
cpu model : MIPS 34Kc V5.5
BogoMIPS : 430.89
wait instruction : yes
microsecond timers : yes
tlb_entries : 64
extra interrupt vector : yes
hardware watchpoint : yes, count: 4, address/irw mask: [0x0000, 0x0348, 0x0650, 0x02c0]
ASEs implemented : mips16 dsp mt
shadow register sets : 1
core : 0
VCED exceptions : not available
VCEI exceptions : not available

processor : 1
cpu model : (null) V5.5
BogoMIPS : 323.58
wait instruction : yes
microsecond timers : yes
tlb_entries : 64
extra interrupt vector : yes
hardware watchpoint : yes, count: 4, address/irw mask: [0x0000, 0x0348, 0x0650, 0x02c0]
ASEs implemented : mips16 dsp mt
shadow register sets : 1
core : 0
VCED exceptions : not available
VCEI exceptions : not available

processor : 2
cpu model : (null) V5.5
BogoMIPS : 323.58
wait instruction : yes
microsecond timers : yes
tlb_entries : 64
extra interrupt vector : yes
hardware watchpoint : yes, count: 4, address/irw mask: [0x0000, 0x0348, 0x0650, 0x02c0]
ASEs implemented : mips16 dsp mt
shadow register sets : 1
core : 0
VCED exceptions : not available
VCEI exceptions : not available

processor : 3
cpu model : (null) V5.5
BogoMIPS : 323.58
wait instruction : yes
microsecond timers : yes
tlb_entries : 64
extra interrupt vector : yes
hardware watchpoint : yes, count: 4, address/irw mask: [0x0000, 0x0348, 0x0650, 0x02c0]
ASEs implemented : mips16 dsp mt
shadow register sets : 1
core : 0
VCED exceptions : not available
VCEI exceptions : not available
Title: Re: ZTE ZXHN H168N ADSL/VDSL2 modem/router
Post by: ray on June 30, 2019, 10:57:18 AM
@jack21, if you were able to get shell access of router ZXHN H168N, please tell me the username and password, as I have got this unpopular device and trying to play around it.
Title: Re: ZTE ZXHN H168N ADSL/VDSL2 modem/router
Post by: jack21 on June 30, 2019, 11:33:31 AM
@ray
Sorry, no, I didn't manage to get past the stage of the multi-logon process I described earlier in the thread, so wasn't able to reach the CLI DSL stats commands. I had no joy from ZTE support when I contacted them (response: "Consult the ISP who supplied it to you").
I liked the H168N's performance and features in use, and it certainly did as well as my Billion and Zyxels in DSL performance  terms, but because of the lack of full detailed stats it didn't meet my needs, so was withdrawn from service and recycled. Now back to using my trusty Billion 8800NL (V1).
Title: Re: ZTE ZXHN H168N ADSL/VDSL2 modem/router
Post by: ggeorgiev on September 27, 2022, 02:14:11 PM
Hello,
Got a glance for ZTE H166 modems, and I have a lot to tell about - use those for over 5 years in my company, had several hundred going trough my hands. With 9806h dslam I managed to get 94Mb/s measured speed via the H166 modems in ideal conditions. Real use with lines under 150 meters gives about the same. Never tested bonding, as Ethernet ports are 100Mb/s, so not much sense for dsl bonding.

Good points:
 - Cheap, ~$22 per unit with delivery for 100+ of those to Canada
 - Stable, does not disconnect randomly
Bad points:
 - Will burn within 8-12 months at 100% rate if used with VDSL; the dsl chip (forgot the make, it's ~$3 in China) works extremely hot.
 - Stupid cooling design - if you put the modem on flat surface, you close bottom aeration slots. I drill two holes on the bottom  and one on top for aeration, stick two radiators to the dsl chip, one in front, one in the back, and it still burns, albeit slower.

I am moving away from H166 modems. They are probably designed for adsl, where I imagine the dsl chip will have less load. Avoid those.
Check images for more information.