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[onion]

Can someone tell me if the Vigor 166 Gen 1 will work then properly on a UK g.fast line (Zen Internet) and if it is better than what the Openreach modem (MT992?) would do? Thanks.

Thought i'd try and help you by summarising - There are users on here on g.fast lines where the 166 works well and is stable. There are multiple users on non-g.fast lines where the modem works poorly (on my line - incredibly poorly and had to be returned - 71mb down to 55mb). As the line stats do not currently work, I doubt anyone with any certainty can state whether this modem works better than x. If i were you, i'd use the MT992 and see what happens over the next 6 months in terms of firmware updates on 166, but i believe the MT992 is meant to be relatively decent and stable. I think there is some question over use of the 166 with huawei cabs but we dont have enough data to make any solid comment.

[smallal]

Can someone tell me if the Vigor 166 Gen 1 will work then properly on a UK g.fast line (Zen Internet) and if it is better than what the Openreach modem (MT992?) would do? Thanks.

Do you have a UK model (V166-K) or an EU one (V166-A)?
The UK model has special firmware approved by Openreach/BT & is configured to work just the same as an MT992 without any setting up.
Therefore it should work on any Openreach supplied G.Fast line, regardless of ISP.
I'm not sure if the Vigor would give a better connection, but at least you can check your basic upload & download speeds in the stats page.
However not all stats are currently shown, hopefully a firmware upgrade is on its way to fix the issue.
No one has managed to hack the Openreach (Huawei or ZTLink) MT992 yet so there is no access to such info.
I've also heard that some buyers of the Vigor EU model have tried to load the UK firmware, but so far without success.

[JBrooks]

Thanks very much for both the previous 2 replies.

Essentially am feeling my way into the new world (to me) of g.fast. I have an order placed to upgrade my existing line to g.fast, although it seems that this is in a queue and will take a few weeks for the engineer to come and do it.

Anyway on the back of the order I bought a Vigor 166 - which does look to be the UK version and on firmware 4.0.5 BT (on the box) - it just says Applied Area UK on the bottom of it. Whatever firmware is available or recommended when my line goes live is likely to be what I would put on it. From reading through the thread, would that be beta firmware 423RC1?

Background on me, am naturally curious with tech and currently run with a Vigor 130 and Asus RT-AC86U router on Merlin - not one to stick with the first thing am provided with  . It's a very stable setup. Have used other Asus routers with Tomato and with HG612 routers (which I have unlocked) in the past. Always interested in getting the best out what setup I can.

Edit: my initial research looks to suggest am on a Huawei cab - so we'll see what happens.

Look forward to contributing more as we go.

[j0hn]

Edit: my initial research looks to suggest am on a Huawei cab - so we'll see what happens.

There's 2 VDSL2 Vendors (types of VDSL2 cabinets) in use in the UK. They are ECI and Huawei.
Huawei use Broadcom chipset line cards.
ECI use IFTN/Lantiq line cards (Lantiq is now owned by Intel). Draytek use an Intel chipset in the modem.

The issues so far with the 166 appear to be that the DLM is increasing the target noise margin.
This isn't necessarily an issue with Huawei cabinets but could be how the 166 handles all VDSL2 G.INP.
As there's very little G.INP on the ECI cabinets there's no way to tell if these issues would happen on ECI cabinets also.
The lack of error counters makes it impossible to tell how stable the modem actually performs.

With regards to G.Fast there are again 2 Vendors in the UK. They are Huawei and Nokia.
They both appear to use Broadcom chipsets.
There's no way to tell what Vendor your G.Fast is connected to.
As they both appear to be Broadcom it will make much less difference which Vendor is on your cabinet.

[smallal]

As far as I know all UK stock shipped so far says firmware 4.0.5_BT on the box but actually has 4.1.1_BT installed.
I guess it was a last minute thing & they couldn't be bothered to change the sticker on the boxes.
As firmware 423RC1 is still in BETA testing it won't be installed on any production units yet.

[AStalUK]

Received my Vigor 166 Gen1 (V166-K) yesterday and connected it to my line, replacing my Vigor 130.  With the 130 I was getting a stable connection of around 69Mbps with the 166 that dropped down to 64Mpbs initially but has since raised to 66Mps and remained connected for 16hrs+.  As others have mentioned the box states firmware 4.0.5_BT but actually ships with 4.1.1, I reloaded the firmware for good measure.

The only thing not working for me is the CLI, if I try to enter any command or enter ? for help it just hangs, I've not tried resetting to factory defaults yet I'll give it a few days to see if the speeds increase and try a reset at the weekend.

I'll keep this installed on my line as I want to see how it performs over the 130 which I have deployed at a number of offices I maintain.

[smallal]

Someone was asking how the 166 fared against the MT992 on a G.Fast line so I managed to borrow a ZTLink MT992 to compare.
I tried several different speed-test sites, & on my line the Vigor came out on top on every test.
The overall results were that the MT992 was approx. 12% slower on download speed & 5% slower on the upload speed.
I did the test with each modem in turn & then repeated the process, all the sites gave pretty consistent readings so I think this is a fairly accurate result.

[JBrooks]

Thanks very much. That's really helpful to know. Can I ask if you did any particular config on the Vigor 166 or did you run with defaults?

[smallal]

Thanks very much. That's really helpful to know. Can I ask if you did any particular config on the Vigor 166 or did you run with defaults?

I ran it in it's default (Modem) mode, just as it came out of the box. Firmware was as shipped too (4.1.1_BT) 

[Robbie]

Just to note that I have not managed to update my EU purchased V166 to the latest BT firmware.  Tried both methods but get a compatibility warning.  No response from Draytek Support as yet.

[hushcoden]

Just to note that I have not managed to update my EU purchased V166 to the latest BT firmware.  Tried both methods but get a compatibility warning.  No response from Draytek Support as yet.

When I first got my device (the UK model), I did try to load the international firmware (v4.1.1_STD) and I recall ignoring some kind of warning and I simply pushed the installation of the firmware: the only difference with the UK firmware I remember is the max MTU value = 1500 + different modem codes.

Are you saying you have no way to force the upload of the UK/BT firmware onto your unit ?

[zooburner]

Hi there

I've just purchased this modem, I've found it works great in bridge mode no set up, simple plugs and play on BT/Openreach G.Fast.

I am however having difficulties accessing the management page, I've followed all the advice in the book and the help page at Draytek but as yet have been unable to get a connection.

I did try and follow the fixed IP route, but could not establish what the default gateway was when connected to the modem alone via cable. I did the ipconfig command but it leaves the default gateway blank.

Anyone else have any tips I could follow ? 

[Alex Atkin UK]

I did try and follow the fixed IP route, but could not establish what the default gateway was when connected to the modem alone via cable. I did the ipconfig command but it leaves the default gateway blank.

You don't use a gateway as both devices should have an IP address on the same network.  You need to know the IP address of the device and manually set the IP on your client to be on the same network.  Or more ideal is set the device to a spare IP address on your normal network then you can simply plug it into your network and access it any time.

[smallal]

Hi there

I've just purchased this modem, I've found it works great in bridge mode no set up, simple plugs and play on BT/Openreach G.Fast.

I am however having difficulties accessing the management page, I've followed all the advice in the book and the help page at Draytek but as yet have been unable to get a connection.

I did try and follow the fixed IP route, but could not establish what the default gateway was when connected to the modem alone via cable. I did the ipconfig command but it leaves the default gateway blank.

Anyone else have any tips I could follow ?

Did you follow my instructions on the previous page (p16-reply#237), it should work, the gateway is shown (192.168.2.1)
Leave 'obtain DNS' on auto
Plug your computer's network cable DIRECTLY into the modem as it won't work if you try to access it via the router.

[meritez]

Just to note that I have not managed to update my EU purchased V166 to the latest BT firmware.  Tried both methods but get a compatibility warning.  No response from Draytek Support as yet.

Have you tried the recovery method: https://www.draytek.co.uk/support/guides/kb-firmwarerecovery-drayos