Hullo there,
Has anyone on list had a successful experience with adsl usb modem and linux?
One of my clients is very keen to get a usb adsl modem, for tidiness more than anything. He bought a ZyXEL P-630-S1 and I had a look at it today. lsusb shows: "Bus 001 Device 014: ID 0586:330e ZyXEL Communications Corp" however cxacru module will support 330a and 330b but 330e is not listed.
This is on a debian box kernel 2.6.18-5-k7
I'm tempted to advise sending it back and getting either a known supported one, or a traditional adsl modem router, but I'm happy to have a fight with this one if there is chance of a successful outcome.
Otherwise can anyone advise a asb adsl modem they do know to work, other than the now unavailable 'speedtouch'?
Thanks to all and Noodles for help on irc this morning, and thanks in advance,
Polite Jenny
On 19/12/2007, Rob Page page.rob@gmail.com wrote:
Jenny,
Otherwise can anyone advise a asb adsl modem they do know to work, other than the now unavailable 'speedtouch'?
I have a speedtouch you can have if you want.
Thanks, Rob! I also got offered one on irc. This made me wonder why people are getting rid of them - are they unreliable? (Not that I dismiss your most generous offer :-)) Your irc reply was " if the modem is connected via usb people on the USB tend to be able to use that IP to connect directly to your machine".
Our current set-up is that the adsl modem router has the external IP talking to the outside world, it then passes everything to the DMZ where we have the internal LAN interface IP, which talks to an ethernet card on that address in the server. It then knows to pass things to an address given to a second ethernet card on that server which is our LAN.
Not sure how PPP over a usb adsl modem works with regards to the above, but it's obviously not preferred over the traditional modem-router method.
Thanks,
Jenny
"Jenny Hopkins" hopkins.jenny@gmail.com wrote:
[...] This made me wonder why people are getting rid of [speedtouches] - are they unreliable?
ISTR that mine crashed very easily if the USB power fluctuated. If you're going to use it off of a laptop or certain desktop systems, it probably best to connect it through a powered USB hub.
There are also more fun things than trying to get pppoa working and firmware uploads are irritatingly slow when you just lost network ;-)
Best wishes,
On 20/12/2007, MJ Ray mjr@phonecoop.coop wrote:
"Jenny Hopkins" hopkins.jenny@gmail.com wrote:
[...] This made me wonder why people are getting rid of [speedtouches] - are they unreliable?
ISTR that mine crashed very easily if the USB power fluctuated. If you're going to use it off of a laptop or certain desktop systems, it probably best to connect it through a powered USB hub.
There are also more fun things than trying to get pppoa working and firmware uploads are irritatingly slow when you just lost network ;-)
Heh! Thanks, Mark. I'll check how reliable the usb is on the server it is intended for.
Jenny
On Thu, Dec 20, 2007 at 01:22:00PM +0000, MJ Ray wrote:
ISTR that mine crashed very easily if the USB power fluctuated. If you're going to use it off of a laptop or certain desktop systems, it probably best to connect it through a powered USB hub.
The speedtouch requires 500ma to function properly, and 500ma is the maximum amount that an on board usb hub provides (iirc) and usually 2 on board usb ports share a hub, so using the other port can cause problems. Also in relation to that, some motherboards steal 50ma of power from the usb bus to do other things, so you end up with a hub that will only provide 450ma of power.... Quite often your usb modem will work but just not very well.
In this situation i'd consider getting a single ethernet port adsl modem that can function as a pppoa to pppoe bridge, then plugging that into an ethernet card and terminating the pppoe on the server rather than fiddle with the usb.
Adam
Re: the usb adsl modem question.
Thanks to all for comments, hardware offers and advice.
I forwarded the info to my client, who has decided to return the hapless usb adsl modem and purchase a Draytek Vigor 100, so I'll be battling with that after Christmas.
Thanks,
Jenny
On 21/12/2007, Jenny Hopkins hopkins.jenny@gmail.com wrote:
Re: the usb adsl modem question.
Thanks to all for comments, hardware offers and advice.
I forwarded the info to my client, who has decided to return the hapless usb adsl modem and purchase a Draytek Vigor 100, so I'll be battling with that after Christmas.
Thanks,
Jenny
If you were looking for a device to act only as a PPPoA to PPPoE bridge, without any routing or firewall functionality, you shouldn't have any problems. I have a linux-based wi-fi router behind it and it acts great at the max 8,218 kbps from my provider ... in fact, you shouldn't even need to go into the web interface - it should come configured to work with UK ISPs out of the box, so just cable it up and any PPPoE capable device should have no trouble with it.
Peter.
On 21/12/2007, samwise samwise@bagshot-row.org wrote:
If you were looking for a device to act only as a PPPoA to PPPoE bridge, without any routing or firewall functionality, you shouldn't have any problems. I have a linux-based wi-fi router behind it and it acts great at the max 8,218 kbps from my provider ... in fact, you shouldn't even need to go into the web interface - it should come configured to work with UK ISPs out of the box, so just cable it up and any PPPoE capable device should have no trouble with it.
Peter.
__
Peter,
The firewalling and NAT is done on the linux server. I haven't done PPP since the distant days of dial-up, though, so good to hear it is easy to configure.
Thanks,
Jenny
Peter,
The firewalling and NAT is done on the linux server. I haven't done PPP since the distant days of dial-up, though, so good to hear it is easy to configure.
Thanks,
Jenny
Sounds like just the job. One caveat I came across - my ISP (BT) doesn't require a password, as authentication is based on the incoming line. However, I did need to use a dummy password in the wifi router's config otherwise it wouldn't connect properly. I think that was probably just a limitation of the router, though it could have been the modem. Worth noting anyway.
Peter.
On 20/12/2007, Jenny Hopkins hopkins.jenny@gmail.com wrote:
Thanks, Rob! I also got offered one on irc. This made me wonder why people are getting rid of them - are they unreliable?
People are getting rid of them because a proper router is just so much better. No mucking about with drivers, no PPP login scripts, just always on internet access like it is supposed to be.
OK, so you need an extra power lead, but that's well worth it in most peoples books.
Greg
On 19/12/2007, Jenny Hopkins hopkins.jenny@gmail.com wrote:
One of my clients is very keen to get a usb adsl modem, for tidiness more than anything.
How is a USB modem any tidier than one that uses ethernet? Surely it still requires a cable between them!
Anyway, just thought I'd chip in with a recommendation and say that I got a Draytek Vigor 100 ADSL modem recently which has performed admirably so far. It provides no firewall/routing capabilities and simply acts as a bridge - the connecting device uses PPPoE to set up a connection and obtain a WAN IP address directly through it.
Definitely happy with it's performance at the moment.
Peter.
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Adam Bower -
Greg Thomas -
Jenny Hopkins -
MJ Ray -
Rob Page -
samwise