| Author |
Message |
Anthony R. Gold
Guest
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 Posted:
Sat Jun 18, 2005 4:20 pm Post subject:
Need Aggressive DSL Modem |
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I have one very unreliable DSL service which I need to remain connected
when unattended. My present modem, part of the Netgear DG834G, makes some
attempt to renegotiate after a disconnect but it is often ineffective and
can not establish a connection by renegotiation where it can by rebooting.
I'd appreciate suggestions on DSL modems with more aggressive demon-like
attitudes to regaining connection after detecting a loss and one which is
reliable in that detection. If it's part of a router, fine. If it has
wireless, even better - but the performance of the modem part of any
multi-function unit must be outstanding and price is not a consideration.
The DSL service in question uses PPPoE and also PAP for authentication.
Tony |
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Neil W Rickert
Guest
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| Posted:
Sat Jun 18, 2005 4:20 pm Post subject:
Re: Need Aggressive DSL Modem |
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"Anthony R. Gold" <not-for-mail@ahjg.co.uk> writes:
| Quote: | I have one very unreliable DSL service which I need to remain connected
when unattended. My present modem, part of the Netgear DG834G, makes some
attempt to renegotiate after a disconnect but it is often ineffective and
can not establish a connection by renegotiation where it can by rebooting.
I'd appreciate suggestions on DSL modems with more aggressive demon-like
attitudes to regaining connection after detecting a loss and one which is
reliable in that detection. If it's part of a router, fine. If it has
wireless, even better - but the performance of the modem part of any
multi-function unit must be outstanding and price is not a consideration.
|
My Speedstream 5861 was quite agressive at reconnecting. My westell
2200 is less agressive -- if it doesn't succeed quickly, it sleeps
for a few minutes before retrying. On the otherhand, the 2200 is a
better modem, so it holds the connection under circumstances that the
5861 would lose it.
My advice -- get the modem with the best modem functionality, one
that handles poor signal quality well. Based on reports, the
speedstream 5100b (SBC version firmware), and the Westell 6100 appear
to both be good choices.
If they are not agressive enough about reconnection (I assume you are
talking about PPPoE connection here), then put the modem in bridge
mode, and let your router handle the reconnection. |
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Anthony R. Gold
Guest
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| Posted:
Sat Jun 18, 2005 9:52 pm Post subject:
Re: Need Aggressive DSL Modem |
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On Sat, 18 Jun 2005 16:16:51 +0000 (UTC), Neil W Rickert
<rickert+nn@cs.niu.edu> wrote:
Thanks for the comments, Neil.
| Quote: | My Speedstream 5861 was quite agressive at reconnecting. My westell
2200 is less agressive -- if it doesn't succeed quickly, it sleeps
for a few minutes before retrying.
|
But does it ever oversleep and just stop trying? And can you tell whether
its efforts in retraining are as successful as on a cold start? The
biggest gripe I have with the Netgear is that in situations when it does
not renegotiate it often can still connect after a power cycle, which
suggests to me that its negotiation algorithm used during retraining is
less effective than that used in an initial power-on training.
| Quote: | My advice -- get the modem with the best modem functionality, one
that handles poor signal quality well. Based on reports, the
speedstream 5100b (SBC version firmware), and the Westell 6100 appear
to both be good choices.
If they are not agressive enough about reconnection (I assume you are
talking about PPPoE connection here), then put the modem in bridge
mode, and let your router handle the reconnection.
|
Thanks again.
Tony |
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Reed
Guest
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| Posted:
Sat Jun 18, 2005 11:53 pm Post subject:
Re: Need Aggressive DSL Modem |
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snip
| Quote: | The
biggest gripe I have with the Netgear is that in situations when it does
not renegotiate it often can still connect after a power cycle, which
suggests to me that its negotiation algorithm used during retraining is
less effective than that used in an initial power-on training.
|
snip
I have similar gripe about the Netopia 3341-ELK that Earthlink
provides with its DSL service. It has no problem downshifting in
DSL speed, or disconnecting DSL Sync, as necessary, but will not
upshift, or re-sync DSL. (BTW, PPOE re-connection is usually
quick, given a good DSL sync). What I have found works quickest to
restore Sync or full speed is to disconnect phone line from modem
for a few seconds. I do this routinely while booting up PC. By the
time Windoze boots, modem is sync at full speed.
This tells me the modem is purposely designed to not try
upshifting unless there has been a total loss of signal. Unless
the user notices a loss of response time, the modem (and EL)
doesn't care if it has drifted down to 128/128, even if I'm paying
for 128/1536.
Most modems of the analog dial and leased line variety had the
ability to re-negotiate speed up or down on the fly, why can't DSL
??
--reed |
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Neil W Rickert
Guest
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| Posted:
Sun Jun 19, 2005 5:40 am Post subject:
Re: Need Aggressive DSL Modem |
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"Anthony R. Gold" <not-for-mail@ahjg.co.uk> writes:
| Quote: | On Sat, 18 Jun 2005 16:16:51 +0000 (UTC), Neil W Rickert
rickert+nn@cs.niu.edu> wrote:
Thanks for the comments, Neil.
My Speedstream 5861 was quite agressive at reconnecting. My westell
2200 is less agressive -- if it doesn't succeed quickly, it sleeps
for a few minutes before retrying.
But does it ever oversleep and just stop trying? And can you tell whether
its efforts in retraining are as successful as on a cold start?
|
If it loses connection when I am not around, the logs show it
reconnecting within 5 minutes. When I am around, I'm not patient
enough to wait the 5 minutes, so I do what I can to hurry things
along.
Power cycling does not speed things up with the 2200. If I power
cycle without first disconnecting, then it will be slow to reconnect,
probably because the prior PPPoE session was not cleanly closed.
| Quote: | The
biggest gripe I have with the Netgear is that in situations when it does
not renegotiate it often can still connect after a power cycle, which
suggests to me that its negotiation algorithm used during retraining is
less effective than that used in an initial power-on training.
|
My 5861 would sometime fail to reconnect, even though it was
agressive in trying. That was mainly when I was having line issues.
It would apparently have errors when picking up its peer MAC address
after a resync. If it has the wrong MAC address (usually
0:0:0:0:0:0) it will never succeed in negotiating PPPoE. Eventually
it dropped the DSL connection, resynced, and would usually succeed
then. But that might take a while. Power cycling would speed that
up. I haven't seen that since I fixed the wiring problems that were
causing the intermittent line noise. |
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Tim Keating
Guest
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| Posted:
Fri Jul 01, 2005 12:20 am Post subject:
Re: Need Aggressive DSL Modem |
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On Sat, 18 Jun 2005 14:05:37 +0100, "Anthony R. Gold"
<not-for-mail@ahjg.co.uk> wrote:
| Quote: | I have one very unreliable DSL service which I need to remain connected
when unattended. My present modem, part of the Netgear DG834G, makes some
attempt to renegotiate after a disconnect but it is often ineffective and
can not establish a connection by renegotiation where it can by rebooting.
I'd appreciate suggestions on DSL modems with more aggressive demon-like
attitudes to regaining connection after detecting a loss and one which is
reliable in that detection. If it's part of a router, fine. If it has
wireless, even better - but the performance of the modem part of any
multi-function unit must be outstanding and price is not a consideration.
The DSL service in question uses PPPoE and also PAP for authentication.
|
I'm currently very impressed by my little ActionTec GT-704 DSL
modem/4 port router. Purchased at COMPUSA for 69.99
http://www.actiontec.com/support/broadband/gt704.html
Pluses..
It's a 2.4.17 Linux box using a TI's AR7 CPE system on chip which
includes a 150Mhz MIPS processor & ADSL 2/2+ DSP..
I can telnet into to Actiontec Box and login as root :-)
Note: Enter user id 'admin' and then enter web interface
password.
Very fast, My DSL speed running at least 30% faster than any the
other DSL modems I've tried to date. It's also rock steady (Thanks
to uLinux OS, not a single crash).
Not one DSL retraining cycle yet, which is amazing for my 15Kft
DSL line.
Low ping over dsl loop packet loss.. Way lower than any other DSL
modem I've tried. (Even with lightning strikes in area)..
Low power consumption. ~5 watts..
Handles subnets.
Source code for most components avail..
US tech support..
Minuses..
Web Interface is little primitive.
Some work to get it to loop back server ports..(Iptables)
Could use better logging.. (requires more iptables incantations) |
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