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Author Topic: Thoughts on the ZyXEL VMG1312-B10A  (Read 1904 times)

Chrysalis

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Thoughts on the ZyXEL VMG1312-B10A
« on: October 30, 2019, 10:06:45 PM »

Having plugged this in, it made me think a little on design aspect of these routers, and of course that zyxel have way way too many sku's. half a dozen different model's and all with A/D variants as well.

The 3925 has the cable ports a flipped 180 vs different unit, its already annoying that it changes from brand to brand with no universal standard, but I was surprised to see a flip within the same brand, cable's overtime kind of "wear in" to a shape, a bend so to speak, so flipping cables round isnt ideal.

There is also the lack of consistent design across models.

I have a 8924, 3925 and now a 1312, all 3 are different designs.  The 3925 is definitely the best of the lot, a similar design to the 8800nl.  The 1312, is better than the bulky curvy 8924, but has horrible oversized led's.

There is the subject of the dsl filter, is it a device that actually offers a tangible benefit? There is too many respected members of the community who say it does, so I accept that, but it seems on my line routers with a built in filter dont offer any advantage, so it would seem that its a situational thing.  Newt's line also wasnt helped by one.  I think same with skyeci.

Sadly my favourite zyxel device is not popular with developers, no profile for it in dslstats and no firmware from johnson or john.  However the jumbo frames firmware that was made for it is stable on the 3925.  So it does have a jumbo frames firmware.  Which means I will probably go back to it next week.

I will provide feedback on ES rates on the 1312 after a reasonable period of dsl uptime to assess behaviour over time.

Early thoughts are from a value point of view the 3925 is better, better design, similar cost, better spec'd.  However it is petty as end of day most people are buying these for bridge devices, and for that purpose they all are "good enough".  But the better spec would allow the switch over to a router more easily if a situation demanded it.

hourly 3925 ES average at circa 73000 sync was 8.07, will report back later in week with average for 1312 (73200 sync).
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Chrysalis

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Re: Thoughts on the ZyXEL VMG1312-B10A
« Reply #1 on: December 24, 2019, 04:14:09 PM »

little update, I noticed yesterday the 1312 has a quite high demand on the cpu been just in bridge mode.  wifi AP disable, no NAT, no routing.

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burakkucat

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Re: Thoughts on the ZyXEL VMG1312-B10A
« Reply #2 on: December 24, 2019, 04:47:49 PM »

Are you sure that you didn't just take that screen-scrape in a brief moment of higher CPU usage?

My VMG1312-B10A (configured as a modem/router/firewall/WAP/four-port-switch, etc) idles at 1.0% and shows little variation . . . perhaps a moment at 2.6% before dropping back to 1.0%.
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Chrysalis

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Re: Thoughts on the ZyXEL VMG1312-B10A
« Reply #3 on: December 24, 2019, 05:25:43 PM »

no it hovers there. It does spike up every 5 seconds or so to 90 something.
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burakkucat

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Re: Thoughts on the ZyXEL VMG1312-B10A
« Reply #4 on: December 24, 2019, 07:00:48 PM »

In that case, I wonder if there is something odd with the hardware of your device?

The only time I see around 50% CPU usage is in the first few seconds following login via the GUI. Usage then drops to the 5 - 6% mark before falling right back to 1%.
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Chrysalis

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Re: Thoughts on the ZyXEL VMG1312-B10A
« Reply #5 on: December 25, 2019, 10:26:38 AM »

I suspect it might be related to the cpu been stuck in a low power state, but I havent been bothered to look into it.  Its possible even my other zyxel does it and I havent noticed, its the first time I checked that screen in the UI.
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Chrysalis

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Re: Thoughts on the ZyXEL VMG1312-B10A
« Reply #6 on: December 27, 2019, 12:52:52 AM »

I rebooted it and now it idles at 1-3% and spikes to 50-60%.

My 8924 on the same custom firmware idles higher at 5% with no active WAN.
« Last Edit: December 27, 2019, 01:06:14 AM by Chrysalis »
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burakkucat

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Re: Thoughts on the ZyXEL VMG1312-B10A
« Reply #7 on: December 27, 2019, 11:35:19 PM »

I rebooted it and now it idles at 1-3% and spikes to 50-60%.

That's more like it.

Quote
My 8924 on the same custom firmware idles higher at 5% with no active WAN.

I have no experience with that model, so I am unable to comment. Perhaps another member may be able help . . .
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PhilipD

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Re: Thoughts on the ZyXEL VMG1312-B10A
« Reply #8 on: December 29, 2019, 03:48:33 PM »

Hi

I think they vary so much as ZyXEL (same for all other brands) just buy them in batches from whichever Chinese factory is making them cheapest at the time, so depending on what tooling they have and what reference designs they are using, what comes out is different from before.

Consumer kit is just built cheaply to what is a low price point.  If they can save 0.2p because they can source the plastic Ethernet sockets cheaper from another supplier, even if they plug in an opposite way to what they've done before, then they will.

Regards

Phil



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