Modem for poor lines

Hi all:

I'm on a poor quality line - attn 57dB and SNR 9 (at best). I've just been 'upgraded' to Demon max and am finding that my Draytek 2800 is rebooting at least once and often twice a day. Each time it struggles to get a PPoA connection, so the connection can be down for minutes at a time. Since I often use IPSec to remote access my home machine, this is a PITA. I've tweaked the maxdnrate to try forcing a higher SNR but this doesn't seem to have made much difference unless I force a really low connection rate

Can anyone suggest another modem (one with inbuilt router preferred, but not essential) that is exceptionally good with poor lines? Obviously, if it includes a router/firewall, it needs to act as a VPN host.

cheers

Tacitus

routers based on TI AR7 chipset are supposed to be good on longer lines. Netgear 834(G) for instance.

You didn't say anything about the speed. Plugging it into the test socket behind the master faceplate may give you more speed and reliability. The SNR will be low unless you limit the downstream speed.

Hope you don't mind the intrusion on this post but I'm also looking for a router for a poor line.

My stats are
Statistics Downstream Upstream
Line Rate 1824 896
Noise Margin 4.8 dB 6.0 dB
Line Attenuation 59.5 dB 31.0 dB
Output Power 12.5 dBm 17.4 dBm

Line rate varies though from 1824 (highest I've ever seen) and about 1000. Noise margin varies between 4.8 and approx 8.

My BT Voyager 2100 always shows a steady sync light but disconnects at times - possibly once or twice a day which doesn't really annoy me but does annoy my offspring whilst they're gaming!!

Is it worth while trying another router?

You both have very good quality lines compared to mine. I wish my line was up to your standard! I get no more than 230kbps actual speed, but I used to only get any service at all for half each day.
I have found the Speedtouch 585v6 to be very good indeed, connecting when the Netgears won't.
Look it up at www.speedtouch.co.uk
They are also cheap (I got mine from overclockers).

These are my stats. Phil's suggestion of one with a TI chipset would probably include Zyxels which I believe also use TI. I think the problem is that the Draytek is susceptible to short noise spikes which trigger a reboot. There is a firmware update coming soon, but it is still in Beta.
> adsl status
--------------------------- ATU-R Info (annex A) ----------------------------
Running Mode : G.DMT State : SHOWTIME
DS Actual Rate : 2624000 bps US Actual Rate : 448000 bps
DS maximum Rate : 2624000 bps US maximum Rate : 448000 bps
DS Path Mode : Interleave US Path Mode : Interleave
NE Current Attenuation : 56.5 dB Cur SNR Margin : 8.5 dB
DS actual PSDM(C) : 00000000 US actual PSDM(R) : 00000000
ADSL Firmware Version : E.38.2.23
-------------------------------- ATU-C Info ---------------------------------
Far Current Attenuation : 31.5 dB Far SNR Margin : 17.0 dB
CO ITU Version[0] : 00000000 CO ITU Version[1] : 00000000
DSLAM CHIPSET VENDOR : < Unknown >

Actually it's quite well behaved at the moment :-)

Tacitus

Using a SpeedTouch 546 on a poor line and superb!

Also the Westell 2400 is supposed to be very good on poor lines I hear, for wireless as said could do far worse than the SpeedTouch 585 which is a great bit of kit.

Hey Tacitus, which Draytek do you have? I've heard the 2700 series is supposed to be more reliable than 2800 series.

It's a 2800. Having had good service from a 2600 I had no qualms about buying another Draytek.

Check out the Draytek user forum. From memory several people say they get better results from the 2700.

Some of these reliability problems are I suspect due to the move to max, which from reports on various forums has caught out a lot of suppliers. As I said in another post, the 2800 seems more susceptible to noise spikes which will presumably have a greater effect on a poor line. There is a firmware update in the works (currently in beta), but I have no idea when it will be released.

Don't know if it's true, but the story goes that when BT were developing max they assumed a maximum attn of around 40dB. Pretty heroic assumption if you ask me!

Tacitus

or you could get a cheap Speedtouch 510/516/546v6 ethernet modem/router to overcome your poor line problems and replace your 2800 series router with a Vigor2900VG/2910VG router to remain benefitting from the superior features of the Draytek.

I have actually managed to pick up a Netgear DG834G V3 for