Kitz Forum
Broadband Related => Broadband Hardware => Topic started by: dambuilder on April 14, 2016, 08:15:42 AM
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Well I've finally decided that I've had enough of the ASUS DSL-AC68U combined modem/router even after trying it with the new firmware and still getting the interleaved/fastpath/interleaved/fastpath merry-go-round.....
So after some research I think I'm split between Draytek, Netgear and Billion combined routers. Initially I was just looking at Billion as they have loads of fans (not the windy type lol) and great reviews as well as a Broadcom chipset whereas the Vigor which also has loads of fans etc has a Lantiq chipset and Netgear do both. Now the reason I'm split/unsure is that I'm on an ECI cab which has a Lantiq chipset.
So the questions are; Should I match the chipsets by going down the Lantiq route? What are the advantages? And if I don't match by going down the Broadcom route what are the advantages/disadvantages?
Any feedback most welcome
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I like you am on an eci cab. I like to have stats running so the only disadvantage of usin an eci modem is you will only get the stats direct from the modem.
I did find an eci modem gave the best sync rate when g.inp was running on my line.
You could always pick up an old bt or eci modem and flash it with openwrt and access the stats if your router would support a modem in front of it.
My 8800nl also synced lower than the eci with g.inp. without g.inp the billion had a higher sync rate
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Thanks for the reply.
I already have an ECI BTO modem as well as an unlocked Huawei HG612. What I'm looking for is a combined modem/router that I can just leave plugged in and forget about ish....
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And just for info on how bad the ASUS DSL-AC68U is as a modem; I've only had the HG612 connected since last night and Fastpath has been restored already and it's reporting G.INP enabled (ECI cab) as well, whereas before the weekend when a reconnected the ASUS it wasn't.
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Thanks for the reply.
I already have an ECI BTO modem as well as an unlocked Huawei HG612. What I'm looking for is a combined modem/router that I can just leave plugged in and forget about ish....
Personally I prefer seperates purely due to the fact if you make changes to an all in one and it wants to reboot it will resync and may affect your speed. If your hg612 is unlocked you coild monitor it with hg612 stats.
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agree with skyeci for the same reasons, its undesirable to have router problems affecting the modem.
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Thanks and points taken re using separates which effectively is what I do now. But still is there any advantage/disadvantage (even with separates) of matching the chipset of the modem to the cabinet?
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Possibly but again the only advantage I saw was with g.inp enabled. I want to have stats uploaded to mydslwebstats so for now I will not be using the eci modem. As g.inp was disabled on my line for whatever reason be it OR or the modem I might as well stick with ability to have stats.
I would consider unlocking your eci modem Then you can compare your stars between the hg612 and the eci. You could even see an increase in DS rate with the ECI. Mine gained .
I just unlocked a spare eci and it was failry easy following the forum guides.
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Cheers skyeci.
I was tempted to unlock the ECI but thought there was no way of doing it without actually modifying the hardware in some way? If there's a software/firmware way then I'd give it a go...
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I have recently bought a new TP-Link Archer VR200 from Maplin for £69.99. It has the lantiq VRX-268 chipset which matches brilliantly with an ECI cab. I used to get about 67Mbps with my previous Billion 8800NL (the stats remain on MDWS if you are interested). These are my current telnet stats from the TP-Link:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Welcome To Use TP-LINK COMMAND-LINE Interface Model.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------TP-LINK(conf)#adsl show info
INDEX=1
{
enable=1
status=Up
linkEncapsulationRequested=
linkEncapsulationUsed=G.993.2_Annex_K_PTM
modulationType=VDSL2
lineEncoding=
allowedProfiles=
currentProfile=
dataPath=
interleaveDepth=0
lineNumber=0
upstreamCurrRate=20000
downstreamCurrRate=70545
upstreamMaxRate=24014
downstreamMaxRate=70320
upstreamNoiseMargin=67
downstreamNoiseMargin=58
upstreamAttenuation=176
downstreamAttenuation=169
upstreamPower=135
downstreamPower=46
ATURVendor=
ATURCountry=
ATUCVendor=
ATUCCountry=
totalStart=4502
showtimeStart=451
quarterHourStart=0
X_TP_Bitswap=On
X_TP_SRA=On
X_TP_AdslModulationCfg=VDSL2
X_TP_AnnexType=Annex A/B
X_TP_SupportAdslMode=VDSL2:A/B;T1.413:A;G.dmt:A;ADSL2:A,A/L/M;ADSL2+:A,M,A/L/M;ADSL Auto Sync-up:A/L/M;Auto Sync-up:A/B/
L/M
}
cmd:SUCC
TP-LINK(conf)#
My hope is that once BT roll out the rumored 3dB profile I may max out the line!
PS. I briefly had a DrayTek a few weeks ago. It was awful, it locked up every night and needed to be rebooted in the morning.
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Cheers skyeci.
I was tempted to unlock the ECI but thought there was no way of doing it without actually modifying the hardware in some way? If there's a software/firmware way then I'd give it a go...
You only need to drill 3 x 1mm holes on the board, I didnt bother soldering mine and just left the header pins whilst flashing it. Once it was completed I just took them out. Thats the only hardware mod I had to do. The rest was software based only. The flashing process took about 10 minutes. I would love to use it more but I like my stats online which the eci is unable to do at the moment plus with losing g.inp it's not worth using at the mo.The openwrt version does give you good stats info though
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http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/231887970610
Good seller and it works as I had one done in case I messed the one up I was learning on ???
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I've also sent off an ECI modem today to get the update, seems like a brilliant hassle free deal. I'm on an ECI cabinet, but have seen no sign of G.inp up until now. I do though live in hope.
toulouse
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I've also sent off an ECI modem today to get the update, seems like a brilliant hassle free deal. I'm on an ECI cabinet, but have seen no sign of G.inp up until now. I do though live in hope.
toulouse
Had g.inp about 2 weeks then disabled and no sign of its return. Fastpath is now displaying the same latency which is great of about 12ms. About 7mb down on ds but resonably happy as latency is more important than speed for me
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I have recently bought a new TP-Link Archer VR200 from Maplin for £69.99. It has the lantiq VRX-268 chipset which matches brilliantly with an ECI cab. I used to get about 67Mbps with my previous Billion 8800NL (the stats remain on MDWS if you are interested). These are my current telnet stats from the TP-Link:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Welcome To Use TP-LINK COMMAND-LINE Interface Model.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------TP-LINK(conf)#adsl show info
INDEX=1
{
enable=1
status=Up
linkEncapsulationRequested=
linkEncapsulationUsed=G.993.2_Annex_K_PTM
modulationType=VDSL2
lineEncoding=
allowedProfiles=
currentProfile=
dataPath=
interleaveDepth=0
lineNumber=0
upstreamCurrRate=20000
downstreamCurrRate=70545
upstreamMaxRate=24014
downstreamMaxRate=70320
upstreamNoiseMargin=67
downstreamNoiseMargin=58
upstreamAttenuation=176
downstreamAttenuation=169
upstreamPower=135
downstreamPower=46
ATURVendor=
ATURCountry=
ATUCVendor=
ATUCCountry=
totalStart=4502
showtimeStart=451
quarterHourStart=0
X_TP_Bitswap=On
X_TP_SRA=On
X_TP_AdslModulationCfg=VDSL2
X_TP_AnnexType=Annex A/B
X_TP_SupportAdslMode=VDSL2:A/B;T1.413:A;G.dmt:A;ADSL2:A,A/L/M;ADSL2+:A,M,A/L/M;ADSL Auto Sync-up:A/L/M;Auto Sync-up:A/B/
L/M
}
cmd:SUCC
TP-LINK(conf)#
My hope is that once BT roll out the rumored 3dB profile I may max out the line!
PS. I briefly had a DrayTek a few weeks ago. It was awful, it locked up every night and needed to be rebooted in the morning.
I was looking at the TD-W9980 until i saw your post about the Archer VR200 (I too am also on an ECI cabinet) so how does the Archer VR200 compare to the TD-W9980 on line speed? Iv'e been looking at all in one (lantiq chipset) so far theres the Netgear D7800 and FRITZ!Box which are both expensive then the two I mentioned above
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The TD-W9980 will probably sync about the same speed. The Archer VR200 has AC wifi which may suit you, and it also supports MER I read on here recently.
If you are on an ECI cab, a Lantiq based modem/router seems to be the way to go.
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If you're thinking about the future, and if vectoring eventually arrives on ECI cabinets, the VR200 should support vectoring, but the TD-W9980 currently does not and probably won't (you could put OpenWRT on it, but then I think you'd lose the 5GHz wireless).
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does the vr200 have bridge mode?
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does the vr200 have bridge mode?
You can look around the UI here http://www.tp-link.com/resources/simulator/Archer-VR200_V1_Emulator/index.htm
Iv'e just ordered one of these on Amazon, will be interesting to see how the lantiq chipset in this compares to the Bhub5 and ECI modem
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Nice one Geekofbroadband! Mine has been great all week. In fact last night I saw an attainable rate to 74140 on my line which is unheard of.
Keep us updated how it goes on your line please.
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will be interesting to see how the lantiq chipset in this compares to the Bhub5 and ECI modem
It may be that the chipset itself is much the same, but lots of other factors may affect the performance. Things like the board layout and quality of other (analog) components used, or how much interference the supplied power adapter outputs. And of course the DSL firmware of the HH5A and ECI modems may not be the most up to date, although this may not matter so much on an ECI cabinet.
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So going back to my original question and reading the posts in this thread I assume that YES it's normally advantageous to match the chip-set of the modem to the cabinet?
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There's really only anecdotal evidence, so the real answer is "Maybe, maybe not".
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So going back to my original question and reading the posts in this thread I assume that YES it's normally advantageous to match the chip-set of the modem to the cabinet?
All lines work differently. On my line for example lantiq chipsets (Matching chipset ECI cab) are just overall better, I get lower pings, higher downloads and higher uploads. Broadcom chipsets are still stable on my line but just dont perform better, Iv'e tested with (Billion BiPAC 8800NL, Openreach HG612 modem, and BTHub5 type B) and they all under perform the BThub5 type A and ECI modem, Heres a couple of screenshots comparing the BTHub 5 type A vs the BTHub 5 type B
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Nice one Geekofbroadband! Mine has been great all week. In fact last night I saw an attainable rate to 74140 on my line which is unheard of.
Keep us updated how it goes on your line please.
So it came today, set up was easy connected straight away, I downloaded the latest firmware for it then factory reset from the UI.
The overall quality of it is good for the price, and the wireless I have found to be worse than the BTHub5 (I got 1 bar on my note 3 which has AC wifi from 2-3 feet away), the UI is nice though probably the best UI out of Netgear, Asus, Billion and the home hubs, its fast too. I cant see an uptime for the router or connection anywhere though which is annoying.
The DSL connection does appear to be better though, Im going to leave it plugged in for a while see it it improves because I have had routers being disconnected all the time recently on the line. Also its showing a very high error rate on the download but i think this is an error with the firmware as it hasn't changed and was the same number before i factory reset as well, does yours show this?
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Hi, yes the errors appear to be from the showtime phase ie. when it syncs up. I saw this behaviour too. I manually set (within 'DSL Settings') to VDSL2 and Annex A/B. Now when it syncs up I get about 19500 packet errors immediately reported down and 0 up. Obviously once it is up & PPP is sorted the errors just increase very gradually as per normal.
I noticed there wasn't an uptime timer too. I now just copy the connection stats from the GUI into a txt document when it boots up. I have never seen a reboot have exactly the same sync speed, so if the connection speed changes you know you have had a reboot.
My line is now running at 74Mbps. This is as fast as it has ever gone by at least 6Mbps over the last year!
(https://forum.kitz.co.uk/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FCuWxunK.jpg&hash=51285a59a1f32614cd649ebfb933b44efd783efe)
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I just tried manually setting the SRA tick box (in DSL settings) to disabled. Now the connection errors statistics don't appear when this router/modem syncs up:
Upstream Downstream
Errors(pkts) 0 7
:)
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Hi, I realise this is quite an old thread but would like to re-open for new suggestions on a decent modem/router for FTTC on an ECI cabinet. I'm 4,327m away from the cab.
I've used the Billion 8800 router and BT HH 5 but thinking perhaps it's time to invest in a Lantiq chipset as I do suffer from drops (although have to stability on BT is far far better than when I was with TalkTalk).
I'm struggling as I'm trying to find a router that supports vectoring and g.inp as well as have parental controls to control time online based on MAC address (the only feature I like about the BT HH5).
Saying that, I've no idea if my cabinet supports g.inp and vectoring and I'm not sure how to find out.
If anyone has any suggestions of what to buy and how I can find out if my cab supports the above, would be much appreciated.
Thanks
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Saying that, I've no idea if my cabinet supports g.inp and vectoring and I'm not sure how to find out.
You should be able to check via CLI commands/in the firmware on the Billion 8800 whether your line uses g.inp (likely) and vectoring (unlikely).
I don't have the commands to hand though and you might just find it easier to use DSLstats (http://dslstats.me.uk) to get the data which I believe works with the 8800.
DSLstats can also be used with mydslwebstats.co.uk if you wanted to monitor your line on an ongoing basis/remotely
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Matching cabinet vendor chipset makes no difference to most.
Broadcom chipsets performed better on my ECI cabinet than any Lantiq chipset I tried.
Don't worry about vectoring. Your ECI cabinet will never get vectoring. Hopefully G.INP will be rolled out eventually though so worth getting a modem that supports it. Most should support G.INP at least on the downstream. ECI doesn't do it on the upstream anyway.
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Ok many thanks j0hn and gt94sss2.
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I thought the Lantiq chipset devices got higher speeds than Broadcom when G.INP was on the ECI cabinets.
I'm 4,327m away from the cab.
This must be a mistake, I don't think FTTC can work at all at a distance of over 4km from the cabinet.
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I never had the pleasure of trying G.INP when connected to my PCP's ECI cabinet. Certainly on fastpath and interleaving the HG612 outperformed the 2 Lantiq devices I tried.
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I have found matching lantiq to lantiq has a positive affect on error rates, however at a reduced sync speed, if the line is interleaved the sync speed reduction is huge, it appears to apply FEC overheads twice.
Since 99% of people seem to have sync speed as the priority I would consider broadcom the best choice for everyone regardless of ECI or hauwei cabinet. Especially with the known ECI modem g.inp issues.
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I've heard the Broadcom chipsets ensure very stable connection but lower slightly lower synchronization rate.
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I've heard the Broadcom chipsets ensure very stable connection but lower slightly lower synchronization rate.
I'd say that's the opposite for most members on this forum. The Broadcom chipsets sync higher than any other on VDSL2 profile 17a for the majority. The best of which is the BCM 63168.
We only have Broadcom/Lantiq(Infineon) DSLAMs though. That may not be the case in other countries with other DSLAM vendors.
This obviously doesn't apply to everyone, every line is different.
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I have found matching lantiq to lantiq has a positive affect on error rates, however at a reduced sync speed, if the line is interleaved the sync speed reduction is huge, it appears to apply FEC overheads twice.
Since 99% of people seem to have sync speed as the priority I would consider broadcom the best choice for everyone regardless of ECI or hauwei cabinet. Especially with the known ECI modem g.inp issues.
That definitely matches my experience. I'm on an ECI cabinet and my Billion 8900AX-2400 syncs reliably at 14999 DS (banded, interleaved) and 535 US. I tried a DrayTek 2760 as an experiment and it only synced at 11399 DS, although it was better US at 626. Since DS is most important to me it was a no-brainer to switch back to the Billion.