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[IronRod]

Hi Guys,
This is my first post on this forum although I admit that I have been something of a regular lurker here for about 4 years!! I always appreciate the knowledge and insight that the regular contributors have to offer and refreshingly, this is one of the rare corners of the internet where discussion don't seem to degenerate into arguments

Anyway, I was hoping to get some help with a modem dilemma. I'm currently in the process of switching my ISP to Zen, who supply a Fritz!box 3490 to new customers. I'm going to retain most of my current setup which consists of a Microtik router, Ubiquity AP and my original Open Reach ECI modem supplied when I first signed up for BT Infinity. I'm connected via a poorish line to an ECI cabinet.....about 650m away.

About 4 years ago (before I discovered Kitz) I had a protracted and painful experiment with an ASUS DSL AC68U. I won't go into details here as the joys of owning one is well documented elsewhere. Suffice to say after 9 moths of 'experimentation' my DSL speed had dropped from 40/5 to a DLM limited 19/5 that was still horrifically unstable. The line recovered after being reconnected to the OR ECI modem although I am still banded with a download limit set to 30Mbits.  I'm not sure why I didn't get my full speed back, but I do get better upload speeds and much lower latency so I guess less interleaving.

Anyway I'm finally moving to a new ISP so I was hoping to get some advice on whether to keep my OR ECI modem, use the supplied Fritz!box in bridge mode (assuming that's possible) or invest in a completely new modem?

Also does anyone know if the old OR ECI modems can do G.INP or if the ECI cabinets were ever enabled.

[Ixel]

I'm not sure if the ECI /r modem with the default firmware can support G.INP, however one flashed with OpenWRT should definitely be able to.

In my experience a modem with a Lantiq/Infineon chipset works best when connected to a DSLAM with the same chipset vendor. It has resulted in less errors and a slightly lower latency compared to when I've tried Broadcom. I use a DrayTek Vigor 2860Vac and a DrayTek Vigor 2862 on my two lines. You can also SNRM tweak the downstream with those, with an offset between -5.0 dB to +5.0 dB (assuming your connection hasn't been banded/capped by DLM).

I've used Fr!tzbox in the past and they usually work fine, I can't comment on the 3490 as I didn't use that specific model however.

[kitz]

if the ECI cabinets were ever enabled.

No.  Still no sign

[Weaver]

Welcome, IronRod!

[parkdale]

Hi and welcome , I use the FB 3490, yes you can use it in bridge mode. Also the SNR can be tweaked up and down.
As it uses a Lantiq/Intel VRX... chipset this is considered a plus in some circles to use with the ECI cabs.
My line is in the 'ball park' area in length to yours at 639 metres and i'm currently getting 51.4Mb down and 17.3 up.
Bearing in mind that it costs £130 new , your getting a bargin.
It's not a popular modem because stats are not dished out the same as Broadcom based modems, but it can be like this https://grafana.com/dashboards/713

Robin

[tubaman]

If you're lucky switching ISP will come with a full DLM reset to remove that pesky banding.
Fingers crossed

[j0hn]

My experience is the opposite of above, but mirrors many others on these forums.
I found modems with the Broadcom BCM63168 xDSL chipset preformed better on my ECI cabinet than any other modem I tried, including a number of Lantiq chipsets.

My SNR bounced up and down like a yoyo with Lantiq chipsets and it left my line stuck interleaved for months.

There are a few who swear by matching chipsets of the modem/DSLAM but the majority here seem to prefer this particular BCM chipset on their ECI cabinets.

If you haven't already tried 1 I recommend either the zyxel vmg1312-b10A or the zyxel vmg8x24-b10A.
They both contain additional noise filters not seen on any other modem on the market, as well as having the BCM63168 chipset.

[Ixel]

I think a majority here use Broadcom however regardless, especially as the stats are more detailed from Broadcom. I don't think a majority have also tried a DrayTek with mature firmware or a FritzBox to compare (not counting ECI /r as it's a fairly cheaply designed modem). However, mileage varies with all lines, not one line is going to necessarily perform the same as the other. Plus there's another discrepancy with ECI DSLAM's in that their line cards can have different firmware versions (0xb206 and 0xd086, the latter which for me seems better).

[IronRod]

Thanks for all the inputs. I think I'll give the Fritz!Box a try, at least I'll be able to see some basic line stats and it is considerably newer than my OR ECI.

Thanks for the link to grafana, I've not come across that site before, it looks useful. I should probably put some effort into getting some proper line stats since I really have no idea at the moment if there is something weird on my line. I am on the lower end of my line speed estimates according to BT.....Clean is estimated at 32 to 45Mbits/s and impacted is estimated at 22 to 37Mbits/s.

I have got my fingers crossed for a DLM reset, but I guess I can always ask Zen for one if it doesn't happen. I've not really worried about the lower speeds since ASUSgate as long as it's stable. However I've got recently upgraded my TV and could do with a bit of extra speed for 4k streaming.

I have looked at the Draytek and Netgear VDSL modems, but I think these both use Lantiq chipsets. I might give the Draytek a go if I don't get on with the Fritz!Box. Are there any stand-alone VDSL modems that have Broadcom chips?

I've currently got my router setup to use baby jumbo frames (RFC4638), which works fine with the old ECI modem. Does anyone know if the Fritz!Box, Draytek or the Zyxel's support baby jumbo frames? Not really a problem, just a nice to have.

[parkdale]

I have 1508 mtu on the fritzbox. i'm also at the bottom (ish) of my high/low range as well 50-69Mb 

[Weaver]

> Are there any stand-alone VDSL modems that have Broadcom chips?

This is not what you asked, but I turned a ZyXEL VMG 1312-B10A wireless modem-router into a straight modem by reconfiguring it into modem-only mode and turning off the wirelessness. That speaks VDSL and has a Broadcom chipset and is very highly regarded as a modem.

Another bonus: It also now can handle full-length 1500 byte long IP packets over PPPoE thanks to our very own johnson’s firmware mod. (Provided that your accompanying router that talks to the modem can handle such full length PPPoEoE frames of length 1500+8=1508 according to RFC4638.)