Massive speed drop with custom firmware

DravidDavid

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Ultimate Geek

Topic # 105531 6-Jul-2012 01:02
Hey guys! Long story short, purchased a Netgear off trademe because I heard you could use it with custom firmware to adjust SNR ratios in order to tweak sync speed, and squeeze the line for all it is worth. I have the router and the DGTeam firmware installed, but the SNR percentage option does not seem to do much at all. In fact it has only made my connection worse...Much worse. The Netgear and my old Dynalink synced at 11 - 12.5Mb/s stock. With the new firmware, it is only getting 5Mb/s to 7.5Mb/s at best, all on default settings. Not sure why I would see such a huge difference with minimal change. Has anyone used this firmware to some degree of success? Should I just give up, be a good boy, configure my modem like everyone else and just deal with what I had before. :P I miss my 19Mb sync at my parents house, maybe I am dreaming I can get it anywhere else. Tomorrow I plan to take the modem over there and see if I can get similar results. Sometimes what you don't get it a blessing in disguise!

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Reply # 651627 6-Jul-2012 03:29
It's rare to find custom firmware's for all in one devices because usually the modem drivers are proprietary. I'd wager DGTeam's firmware has some kind of compatibility issue with the IKANOS line cards Chorus use in most of their cabients/exchanges.

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Reply # 651632 6-Jul-2012 06:59
I've had the opposite experience. Ever other device we had in this house would only give us a sync speed of ~4.0-4.2Mb/s. Tweaking the SNR has given us a 5.2Mb/s connection now. I can get even faster speeds but it becomes unstable, it's fine at 5.2 though. The DGTeam firmware gives you three different Modem's available to flash, which did you use (or have you tried all 3?) Certainly I get better speeds using DGTeam than I do using the stock firmware.

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Reply # 651729 6-Jul-2012 10:26
I have a v4 Netgear DG router, so I used the v4 firmware. I was under the impression that was the only one I could use. I didn't want to try anything else in fear of bricking it. But I have recently learned that you can restore bricked modems with their recovery tool. I have yet to learn how to use it. At first glace, the GUI seems to be glitchy at best! I will try the other firmware. I have also heard people have been able to get Tomato running on this router too, even though its on the un-supported list. I thought this router would be more than compatible as the broadcomm chipset inside is supposed to sync better than any other? Not sure if that is fact or speculation though. Sometimes what you don't get it a blessing in disguise!

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Reply # 651760 6-Jul-2012 11:13
DravidDavid: I will try the other firmware. I have also heard people have been able to get Tomato running on this router too, even though its on the un-supported list. I thought this router would be more than compatible as the broadcomm chipset inside is supposed to sync better than any other? Not sure if that is fact or speculation though. Tomato wouldn't have any support for the modem in the device, it's for routers with a WAN port. Some old non broadcom chipsets had lots of problems with the new line cards, however I'd wager your problem is related to the DGTeam software/firmware not the hardware of your device. What's the exact model and version of the device?

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Reply # 651774 6-Jul-2012 11:29
The modem/router is a Netgear DG834G v4 and I was using the appropriate DGTeam firmware from their website. I've seen threads about installing tomato on this particular router. Apparently the V4 version (the one I have) has the same architecture as the WRT54G, which is a supported router. But I can't find the thread back as a source. Sometimes what you don't get it a blessing in disguise!

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Reply # 652070 6-Jul-2012 20:01
DravidDavid: The modem/router is a Netgear DG834G v4 and I was using the appropriate DGTeam firmware from their website. I've seen threads about installing tomato on this particular router. Apparently the V4 version (the one I have) has the same architecture as the WRT54G, which is a supported router. But I can't find the thread back as a source. Maybe you could turn your modem into a router with Tomato firmware, but I would seriously doubt it'd EVER connect to an ADLS2 service while running Tomato firmware. I have never heard of Tomato firmware supporting any ADSL interface.

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Reply # 659940 22-Jul-2012 16:35
SUCCESS! I managed to squeeze an extra 3.5Mb/s out of my connection. It went from syncing between 11.5 to 12.3 (Maximum ever seen) to a wicked 15.7Mb/s! Now to see if it will stay stable :) EDIT: Real world test with americas army from the Slingshot FTP server. Test from before was 1.1MB/s (at best in ideal conditions) Now its downloading at 1.755MB/s in the rain and stable! :) Sometimes what you don't get it a blessing in disguise!

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Reply # 660107 22-Jul-2012 22:04
DrStrangelove: DravidDavid: The modem/router is a Netgear DG834G v4 and I was using the appropriate DGTeam firmware from their website. I've seen threads about installing tomato on this particular router. Apparently the V4 version (the one I have) has the same architecture as the WRT54G, which is a supported router. But I can't find the thread back as a source. Maybe you could turn your modem into a router with Tomato firmware, but I would seriously doubt it'd EVER connect to an ADLS2 service while running Tomato firmware. I have never heard of Tomato firmware supporting any ADSL interface. D-Link DSL-504T works with OpenWRT and ADSL modem. AR7 chipset modem. Works fine, the modem has 16 megabytes of RAM, and is real stable with Openwrt. It's unstable with default firmware, and not that great a modem. That said those chipsets aren't great on short lines, and used to have a problem with upload speeds on cabinets. It was kind of nifty being able to run dnsmasq and tcpdump. But after installing dnsmasq, tcpdump, and vim I was out of space. The default editor is terrible. I think it's a space that more work could go into... the default editor pretends to be vi but screws up with simple things like joining lines.