Problems with DSL *again*

January 30, 2007 D. H. McKee
1 Comment
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â.¦ and yet another new DSL modem to try to fix the problem. This makes 5 DSL modems in 5 years, and I’ve still got three leftovers sitting around the place. I’m beginning to think these things have succumbed to static shocks, or power surges, or … something. This also makes 5 DSL routers in 5 years as well. Well, technically, I have owned that many, but the D-Link is still chugging away after what I thought was a botched firmware upgrade (heh, my bad — I went from one subnet back to the default setting).
R’s getting a little fed up with the whole on-again off-again DSL relationship, and has been suggesting we do something drastic, though she didn’t give me an example of what “drastic” was. I was thinking a burstable T1 fibre channel, but that’s about a grand a month… I was thinking maybe getting a second phone line (about $20/month), and seeing if they’d let me run the same DSL account on it. Then I could get me one of these … a Hotbrick LB2-VPN SOHO 4-Port Dual WAN VPN Router ($420).
hotbrick_dual_wan.jpg
Redundant DSL. Not too shabby.

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One Response to “Problems with DSL *again*”

  • clvrmnky
    18 years ago

    Consumer brnad ADSL modems are not actually built for always-on use. All those discrete parts dry up and wear out. We all better get used to replacing them every 2-5 years!
    Imagine if you had a telephone that was on all the time. The voltage and heat just kills discrete parts. This is why real PBX systems are so darned expensive.
    Most ISPs can offer duplex connections, but I’m not sure if it is for redundancy or for speed. Or if it matters.