I had an ECI modem which worked fine. I bought a 2nd-hand HG612 some months ago and unlocked it as was interested in logging stats. It worked fine until recently, but one morning DSL was flashing and it just wouldn't connect. I swapped back to the ECI which was fine, and assumed the Echolife was faulty even though I could talk to its web interface.
So when another cheap Echolife became available I bought that and tried again - same problem. DSL flashes (for hours) and the status alternates between "initialising" and "establishing link".
However - a friend has tried them and they both work fine for him! He's also on PlusNet and connected to the next cabinet along the road; and I assume that's using the same DSLAM type (I don't know if mine is ECI or not, but I didn't think it really mattered).
So - why would an ECI modem work for me, but two HG612s that work OK 500 yards away don't work here? (Friend is much closer to his cabinet than I am to mine if that's significant)