Sync and new 2V modems

Just going to throw this out there for discussion.

I lent a friend of mine my spare BT 2V modem to see if it increased his sync speed.

He's been on FTTC since last year, about 400 to 500m from the cab with an IP profile of about 33000 or so.

Everything seemed the same after connecting up the new modem but suddenly after almost 2 weeks he ran the BT speedtest, now his IP profile is 38717 / 10000!

I'm not drawing any conclusions but the facts are interesting.

What is the "new 2V" modem? Is that the new version of the Huawei, with the "2B" sticker (and that has less overheating problem) that has been mentioned on here?

Or is this some other beast?

I've not seen a 2B or any pics of one. The 2V is meant to fix the overheating and comes with newer firmware.

http://stuff.futile.net/fttc/modem.jpg

Just checked mine and it's a 2B.

The engineer did say it was "the newer model as older one's suffered from overheating"

Pic of the 2B one please

In reply to a post by Adsl24:

Pic of the 2B one please

Will upload it later ... but it looks like the 2V posted but with a "B" instead

What's so special about it?

G

...and comes with newer firmware

Not if your pic is accurate - yours says "Firmware Version: V100R001C01B028SP10" which is exactly what I have on the "original" HG612 that I've had from April.

Edit: Of course that assumes that the label on the back has some bearing with what's actually on the thing

Edited by mr_bean (Fri 02-Sep-11 20:00:20)

There's an SP08 firmware out there on older models.

There's an SP08 firmware out there on older models.

Ah, OK.

The updated firmware can obviously be had without having a "2B/V" modem - I wonder whether that helped the overheating issue as I've never had problems with mine.

In reply to a post by Adsl24:

Pic of the 2B one please

2B Modem pic

Flickr - 2B Modem

In reply to a post by cmn:

There's an SP08 firmware out there on older models.

Mine's SP06 (installed in May) - I've had no problems at all with it.

Mines a SP06 as well. Installed in April 11 with no problems so far.

SP06 18 Feb. No problem.

SP10 8th April, no problems so far.

To the best of my knowledge, there have been three versions of hardware and two firmware versions for the HG612. See [1].

The hardware revisions, in order of age, are Huawei Part Nos. 53030428, 53031385 (2V) and 53031504 (2B)

And the HG612 firmware is either the earlier V100R001C01B027SP06 or the later V100R001C01B028SP10.

The xDSL PHY driver is identical in both versions of the firmware, and line sync rates should be the same in all (faultless) versions, absent any relevant changes in the hardware.

For those with a spare modem to play with, unlocked SP10 firmware has been built. It can also be flashed into the earlier (SP06) HG612 hardware without a problem. [2]

I would interested to see inside a 2B, if anyone fancies cracking one open and taking a few shots...

There are four Philips screws retaining the top cover. These are concealed under the rubber feet on the base of the modem. To access the screws, the feet can be teased up using a knife. The feet don't actually need to be removed.

There is also a single concealed clip that should be pressed inwards before the top cover will release. The clip is located midway along the top edge that hosts the LEDs and the Openreach logo.

There are some very clear instructions on opening the Huawei at [3].

cheers,
asbokid

[1] http://huaweihg612hacking.wordpress.com/2011/07/18/h...
[2] https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B6wW18mYskvBODI5ZGJ...
[3] http://www.petespcs.co.uk/petespcs/

Edited by deleted (Sun 04-Sep-11 01:21:54)

What's so special about it?

To be honest, nothing to note. wall mounting will always be the best option no matter what revision the unit is.

If I had a 2B I would pop it open, mines been stable since november though so not sure I'll ever get one.

Good info about unlocking the admin interface btw, I've been hopeing to spot an engineer out and about to see if he would give me a spare modem as a "backup". Not got big enough balls to do it on this one.

Interesting, I'm on an old modem and the sync dropped a few months ago (due to network maintenance), it came back eventually, possibly due to OR intervention, but It's not at full IPProfile. I wonder if a new modem would restore the IPProfile to it's formaer glory.

Edited by deleted (Sun 04-Sep-11 01:18:02)

I've just received a spare modem from a friend in Openreach and it happens to be a "2B" revision.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v427/griff_90/5c50...

I'll try and carefully open it and take some photos later this afternoon.

IIRC asbokid has already given interior photos.

It may have been rate capped. See my thread today "FTTC DLM".