ADSL Modem choice

darthfoolish

Hi,

I will be moving house soon, and there I will be setting up my first pfSense solution.

It will be a Firebox x550e with a standalone ethernet/ADSL modem hanging off it.

I already have the Firebox, but haven't purchased the modem.

What do people here recommend?

Unfortunately, I will be on an exchange only line, around 600m from a rural exchange with no ADSL2+, so 8Mb max.

I looked at broadband buyer, and they only have 4 options available for standalone modems, 2 Draytek ones, which I think are too expensive for me to justify to the mrs (£54-76), the TP-Link TD-8817 and the D-Link DSL 320B

There are reviews of the DSL 320B on broadband buyer saying it doesn't work very well when connected to a router!

There are no reviews of the TP-Link.

I'm leaning towards the TP-Link, but does anyone here have any other suggestions, or general advice?

doktornotor

Whatever can be easily bridged will do the job really…

darthfoolish

I think that's what the problem with the DSL 320B was, that it couldn't be easily bridged.

And since there were no reviews of the TP-Link, noone is saying that it can/cannot be easily bridged.

What are people here using?

Derelict

~~ZyXEL P660R-F1.~~

Withdrawn. I see OP's not in the USA. No clue what works well over there.

AndrewZ

@darthfoolish:

I think that's what the problem with the DSL 320B was, that it couldn't be easily bridged.

http://www.dlink.com/uk/en/support/faq/modems/dsl-modems/dsl_320b/how-to-setup-dsl-320b-revision-z1-in-bridge-mode

Bridge mode is a simple one. The question should be "what should be bridged?" IPoE ? PPPoE?
If ISP uses PPPoA - bridge will not help, the session should be established from the modem itself.

Wolf666

Draytek Vigor 120
It has a PPPoA<->PPPoE passthrough feature that allows to easily bridge also in case of PPPoA connections (like me).
In detail, the connection will be initialized by pfSense as PPPoE then passed through Vigor that convert PPPoE session to PPPoA and back.

feadin

I have a TP-Link very similar to that one and it can be bridged very easily. One important thing tough: Wait 5-10min after configuring it as a bridge. It takes some time for the bridge to start working.
I'm using pfSense connecting with PPPoE just after the modem.

jahonix

I use a D-Link DSL-321B ADSL2+ Ethernet Modem which is the Annex B & J version the DSL-320B (Annex A).
No problems with bridging at all.

There was a security flaw with these devices about half a year ago. Be sure to use the latest firmware!