Connecting DSL to the home

Liver said:
Thanks.

Do you have a recommendation on a vdsl modem? I'll need two. All I go is amazon reviews, and that's not a great plan.
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I've been out of the DSL game for too long.
Back in the day when I was a DSL field tech for a local telco, I always preferred the Paradyne (apparently now known as Zhone) modems.
But we had limited selection.
And these were all ADSL2+, plus some much older DSL technologies.

Apparently you might need to find out what VDSL2 profile is in use/available.
From 2 of the VDSL Zhone's on Amazon:
  • VDSL2 with profiles 8a/b/c/d, 12 a/b, 17a or ADSL2+
So you may need/want to log in to your current Zytel and see if it provides the sync rate and other DSL info.
 
Sounds like you may have a bonded line which depending on distance could provide decent speeds.
 
The tech did a speed test, I did not. He said it was 9/1.5. That's great. We are paying for the max which is 8/1.
 
Liver said:
The tech did a speed test, I did not. He said it was 9/1.5. That's great. We are paying for the max which is 8/1.
Click to expand...
Ahh that means no bonded lines. while not terrible, its not great. But Congrats on your new home and as long its stable you should be fine.
 
Thanks. I got 2 lines to load balance. It is what it is. The pros greatly outweigh the cons.

I'm gonna get some new Netgear modems from the local BestBuy. If they break or aren't compatible I'll just take the back. They should do me right.
 
Updates.

After a week on the phone with CL, they finally got it right. So you know I want 2 DSL lines for load balancing. The best statement was, “you know you’ll have to pay for two lines.” Duh.

So yesterday I hooked it all up. Two modems, a load balancing PepLink router and a Ubiquiti AP Pro AP.

So, I’m not an IT guy at all. At all. I’m an enthusiast at best.

It all works.
 
thebufenator said:
So the important question:
Does Netflix stream HD just fine now?
Click to expand...

I don’t know. Short answer.

Long answer is I don’t have any streaming services hooked up to the main TV (yet). Still moving in and I still have to return to arizona for my work. So I’m only here in spurts. I had hooked up one line and was using the WiFi capabilies of the combo modem WiFi router (single line). That single line would choke with 3 iPads streaming (two kids and wife). Now with four streams, it’s fine.

Next step is to set up the entire network. Synology server, Apple TV, etc. however I have no idea where my Cisco switch is, and there is so much more to do.

One a side note, I put up a killer peg board.
 
The other good news is that HD streaming on Netflix only requires 5mbps...
 
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Yeah ADSL/VDSL is fine. I think ADSL2+ is up to around 20Mbps and VDSL is up to around 80-100Mbps. Here in the UK I would imagine 85% of folks use DSL. I live in a city and only a few have cable connections.

I had a customer that had Infinity VDSL the same as me. The 75Mbps wasnt fast enough for him (lord knows why as I knew what he was doing with it) and went to 400Mbps Virgin cable.

The thing he forgot to look into was contention and actual speed delivered as cable it seems varies wildly. It also often goes down completely. Meanwhile my 75Mbps connection is rock solid 24/7/365.

The grass is always greener.

A lot of people use Draytek VDSL routers for small business/semi-serious stuff. Masses of features.

As for me I just use a plain VDSL modem that then plugs into my TP-Link router (has good 5Ghz wifi but no VDSL feature so the modem sorted that out).
 
Is there any way to “optimize” a DSL connection? I’m using

1. 2 C1100Z modems
2. A PepLink load balancing router
3. Ubiquiti AP Pro

First time I’ve had DSL. Max speed is 8/1 but realistically is 3-5/0.8-1. I’ve speed tested each line and they are identical. I have two of those lines.

Remember I’m deep in the country and this is my only option. Only option, meaning nothing else. Nothing.

Of course I’ll revisit the issue, and maybe in the future a better option will come available. Doubtful in the near future.
 
I'm in the same boat. I'm in the country and all I can get is 1mbps dsl, or satellite with 20gb data cap. Never again!
 
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Have you verified if you are getting packet fragmentation? With DSL, the default MTU of 1500 for Ethernet can cause packet fragmentation since DSL most often uses PPPoE, which has an additional 8-byte header beyond Ethernet - so your packets may be larger than 1500, which is the highest MTU for Ethernet. If this is occurring, it will cause packet fragmentation and loss of performance that you are seeing.

https://kb.netgear.com/19863/Ping-Test-to-determine-Optimal-MTU-Size-on-Router
 
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Run the ping fragmentation tests within command prompt and paste your results here so I can check.
 
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Will do.

I’m still in Phoenix, came back for work. I’ll be back there for Christmas.

How do I do this with a Mac? I sold everything else off.

It’s not PPPoE.
 
does the load balancer give statistics? can you verify when accessing a site it is actually splitting the requests between the devices? keep in mind a single connection will be limited to a single device.
 
Find out how far your modem is from the last cabinet(forget the proper term). Used to be DSL had about a 3 mile as the wire ran limit. The closer you are to the 3 mile length, the slower max speed you get. When I worked for a state agency, we had remote offices in small towns. In a couple of cases, we were lucky to get 384k down, yes a small k. Also, don't trust the speed tests the provider does. You might get 8M from their test, ran from your house to their local office. They sometimes oversubscribe the local DSL office to Internet line. 50 customers with a 8M down service are not going to see 8M down if the main line is a 50M fiber link.

If you are near the 3 mile limit, might be better off buying a slower service as you won't see that 8M speed anyway.

Have them condition the phone line as well. Amazing how much of a speed hit a few squirrel bites and corroded connections can cause.

Going to have to go through this myself in a couple of months. Already have the rural place. Just finishing up a remodel on current house before selling and moving. In the wonderful nature of ISPs, AT&T just upgraded the old neighborhood to fiber. 50mb + phone for less then the old 6mb DSL. The previous owners of the rural place did have DSL but the slowest speed. Not sure what the max will wind up being. But game cams show the deer and turkeys are wondering by the front door.
 
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Liver said:
Will do.

I’m still in Phoenix, came back for work. I’ll be back there for Christmas.

How do I do this with a Mac? I sold everything else off.

It’s not PPPoE.
Click to expand...

Safe travels, friend!

The valid syntax for a Mac is

ping -D (do not fragment) -s (packetsize integer) ip/hostname
Click to expand...
 
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Will do!

I have no idea what the distance is. However this is the only service available to me. Can’t go up or down.

The numbers I gave (3-5 down) per line was off of Speedtest.
 
Liver said:
Will do!

I have no idea what the distance is. However this is the only service available to me. Can’t go up or down.

The numbers I gave (3-5 down) per line was off of Speedtest.
Click to expand...

Sounds like your tests were right - you are paying for 8/1 and are getting anywhere from 3-5/1 or so... this is pretty close to what you can expect with how DSL operates. As the above poster said, your load balancer won't split TCP streams across links - you can only use one link at a time.
 
Cmustang87 said:
Sounds like your tests were right - you are paying for 8/1 and are getting anywhere from 3-5/1 or so... this is pretty close to what you can expect with how DSL operates. As the above poster said, your load balancer won't split TCP streams across links - you can only use one link at a time.
Click to expand...

ehhhh, all depends on SNR and attenuation, which is impacted by looplength and can be impacted by other things.
I have 10/1 DSL.
Speedtest results (speedtest.net and fast.com) show 10/1.

Modem syncs at around 11mbit, and reports an attainable rate ranging from 12mbit to 14mbit.
 
So it’s odd, only in the way I understand it.

I tested each line with Speedtest. 3-5/0.8-1 each line. When I tested it with the load balancing router I got 10/1.8, it was tapping both lines.
 
How are you testing each line individually? Also, I've only found dslreports' speed test to be accurate on all isps (domestic), speedtest never shows the right number and of course all the individual isps' tests are correct on their line, but dslreports is pretty much dead on across the board.

I used to have 3 cable lines back in the early 2000s when multi-wan was hard to do. You have the best of the best in terms of the multi-wan router with the peplink, so if your connections are fine and you still don't have enough bandwidth, get a third dsl line or mix it up with some cellular or satellite. Luckily in this day and age, with a peplink and enough wan connections, anyone anywhere can have great speeds of Internet--it just may cost a chunk!
 
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I tested each line individually. I used ethernet to laptop direct to modem. I did use Speedtest and I did use the same Speedtest server each time.

I’m paying $45 a month per line, it’s the CL guaranteed for life plan. That is until they change it.

I have capability to add more lines if necessary. They ran a 6 line cable to the house and then two lines from their box to inside. Physically it’ll be simple to add more cat6 from their box to where the modems are. I’d have to upgrade the PepLink.

My expenses basically dropped to zero, so I don’t (necessarily) mind paying more for internet access. Pros and cons.
 
Do the same test using dslreport.com/speedtest. It should match up to the peplink results when added together.
 
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