[Bloat] I wrote a blog entry about devices I know of out there...

[Jim Gettys]

On Fri, Feb 3, 2017 at 3:11 PM, David Lang <david at lang.hm> wrote:

> On Fri, 3 Feb 2017, Rich Brown wrote:
>
> On Feb 3, 2017, at 2:50 PM, David Lang <david at lang.hm> wrote:
>>>
>>> On Fri, 3 Feb 2017, Rich Brown wrote:
>>>
>>> Friends in town say that Fairpoint recommends a Zyxel VMG4380-B10A modem
>>>> for bonded pairs. They seem to have fairly good luck with it.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I've got a VMG4325-B10A and it's horrific, still running a 2.6 kernel. I
>>> routinely have several seconds of buffering on my upload. according to the
>>> Zyxel site, the 4380 has a coax connection.
>>>
>>
>> Yes, that's why it makes sense to stick LEDE in series with the Zyxel, to
>> let LEDE handle the queueing.
>>
>
> the trouble is that to do this, you have to set the outbound speed well
> below the actual speed, and when you only have 2Mb to start with...
>
> I've actually never seen a Zyxel, so can't speak to the connectors.
>> Hmmm... The Zyxel specs at https://www.zyxel.com/me/en/pr
>> omotions/promotion_20130416_076615_me_en.shtml show the 4380 as having
>> both a GbE connector (as if... :-) and a coax HPNA connector.
>>
>
> Yes, this series has a Gig-E as well as the DSL/Coax WAN connector(s)
>
> It's really a horrible, overbuffered, limited firmware from the factory
> (the "firewall" has three settings for example)
>
> I'm looking for a replacement for it, and when you spoke of people
> recommending it, I have to disagree with them.
>
> ​
The Evenroute guys ship a DSL modem with their router in their current
product. It's based on a recent Openwrt.

Installation was pretty sane, though there can be a hiccup in the
installation if your ISP runs PPOE, as you need the account credentials for
the line (a username/password pair). I found them on a label on the old DSL
modem being replaced in one of the two installation experiences. Evenroute
is improving the installation directions as we speak.
Their installation directions were already better than for most devices;
the biggest problem we ran into was for PPOE.  So I can recommend going
with their product; the first time I've been able to make any
recommendation for anyone on DSL short of just neutering the existing
router with a second one able to run SQM.

They are looking into trying to support an integrated modem/router when
they can get a suitable one (probably based on a Lantiq chip, for which
there are open source drivers).
If anyone has experience with one of these Lantiq based integrated routers,
I'm sure we'd all like to hear about it...

The other headache in DSL is that some ISP's don't actually give you the
bandwidth you pay for and the bandwidth varies widely during the day; so
dynamic adjustment of the bandwidth may be necessary on some ISP's. As far
as I'm concerned, that's the killer app for Evenroute's product, with a
close second that they monitor your DSL modem for SNR and signal strength
and errors for you, making arguing with your ISP easier.
                                  - Jim
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