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[Weaver]

Am always on the look out for alternative modems for ADSL2 (or routers that can be reconfigured as straight modems). As long as they are ultimate performers on an ultra-long line, and are without security holes and not buggy or unreliable. I've asked about this before, but any new candidate recommendations gratefully received. I will of course need three of them.

[AUG]

HUAWEI HG612,at least easy to buy through Ebay.

[jelv]

How much would I have to pay you to take a Plusnet TG582 off my hands? 

[psychopomp1]

I'd highly recommend the Draytek Vigor 130 (supports both vdsl2 & adsl2+), its predecessor the Vigor 120 v2 is a cheaper alternative (supports adsl2+ only).

[Weaver]

I trialled a Draytek Vigor 130, loved it, but it was just slow on my ultra-long lines (4.6 mi, 67 dB attn.) using G.992.1.

[psychopomp1]

In that case it might be worth trying out the BT 2700HGV Business Hub or Speedtouch ST585v6. They might be old models but have a legendary status for hanging on to extremely long ADSL lines like grim death. On my old 60db atten line, the 2700HGV used to give me a sync of nearly 3.5 meg!!

[Weaver]

I keep hearing good things about the 2700HGV.

I love the SpeedTouch devices, incredibly sophisticated CLI functionality by the way. You could fall into it and drown, could be a bit intimidating if you got completely lost. I tried one out briefly a very long time ago, so long that I can't remember what the stats were and things have changed a lot since then. Has anyone used one as a straight modem rather than as a router?

* I wonder if either of these devices are a viable choice nowadays, because of capacitor aging and so on?

Btw, background: I don't have unreliable lines, my lines are superb, in fact I believe they are remarkable for their length, although I have lost quite a bit of performance (in both directions) during the last eight months or so. (This could possibly be down to increased crosstalk or if not it will probably be some external RF noise source.)

I'm just interested in higher sync speeds with the same level of stability.

I'd be very sorry to lose my 1500 byte IP MTU/MRU (requires 1508 bytes Ethernet Mac payload on the LAN including PPP and PPPoE), which I get with the current DLink DSL-320B-Z1 units or the Draytek Vigor 130. [I don't know how much of a problem (possibly zero) it would be having to live with a reduced MTU such as 1492 because of PPPoE on the LAN. A lot of people in some countries do live with 1492, iirc.]

If I could just get the same sync rate from the Vigor 130 as with the Dlinks then that would be me dream device, as it speaks PPPoA on the DSL line as opposed to PPPoEoA and so gains back that extra couple of percent throughput completely wasted due to PPPoEoA overhead. (I did work it out, can't remember the exact numbers just now though. Iirc it's one extra ATM cell in the case of 1500 bytes IP PDU length so that would be 33/32 = 3.125%, but obviously far far worse for really small packets.)

[jon_]

My lines are approx 6K long, one is around 62dB attenuation, the other 58dB. 

I've tried a Billion 8800NL which worked very well, and would sync reliably at about 2.9meg down on a 6dB profile on the 'worse' line.
I now have a pair of TP Link W8968's with the sharedband firmware - they sync at about the same (just a shade under 3Meg) on the 62dB line, and 3.6M on the 58dB line, both on a 6dB profile. Both seem to be very reliable so far - current connection uptime is about 16days. The also support SNR tweaking if needed, although I haven't fiddled with that yet... Looking at the instructions they support bridge mode...

Big advantage of that the TP Links have is that the are only £27!

[Weaver]

@jon_ Definitely worth a look, particularly so as your line is almost comparable with mine - 7.3 km, 67 dB downstream attn. - and I sync at ~2.8 Mbps on the best line of the three I have. That's at a downstream target SNRM of 3 dB using ADSL2. Your attenuation is better and your line is shorter, unfortunately, but I have to also give you extra plus points for your higher target SNRM.

A very valuable tip concerning the TP Link units. Many thanks for that.

[Berk]

I keep hearing good things about the 2700HGV.

I had a couple of those, unlocked the first and it was very good. The line was typically 1.5Mb-2Mb and I eventually teased 2.5Mb-3Mb out of it. Sadly broke the 2700HGV and the replacement didn't unlock in the same way so ended up flashing a Netgear 834GT with the DGTeam firmware and iirc it was almost on par with the 2700HGV.

I moved shortly after to a new address on the same exchange and got 3.5Mb for a while, but then something happened and our connection quality deteriotated and I could never get more than 2Mb after that. I am very thankful that we can get fibre now!

The 2700HGV info is here iif you don't already have it: http://bt2700hgv.tripod.com/ir1002700HGV.htm