Top 3 worst modems provided by NZ ISP's

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nickb800

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#533305 14-Oct-2011 12:26

RTA1320 = pants
RTA1320 + fan operating 24/7 = awesome

NZCrusader

646 posts

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#533865 15-Oct-2011 23:23

Dlink 504g

Terrible router.
-Doesnt sync as good as other modems I have had.
-Didnt want to work with bnet.
-Didnt want to port forward nicely (even with manufacturers firmware instead of telecom provided)
-Bad interface.

Only good thing I can say was that it never crashed.

I still give that router a neg rating because the cons outweigh the pros.
I still have it, but only use when I need it as a backup.

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webwat

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#534001 16-Oct-2011 17:20

nakedmolerat: i have DSL 504 from telecom xtra (2006) / with original xtra firmware on it - still rock solid 6 years later. i have decomissioned this unit this in july after our cabinet has been upgraded to ADSL2+. it still works fine when tested last week...

I think it depended whether Telecom had installed an incompatible ADSL1 card into the ASAM back in the day, if you were unlucky it would just never connect again.

I think a good contender for the title of worst ever ADSL modem is the Nokia Ni500. The overheating problems were so bad that Nokia offered to replace the original model on demand, and eventually they were incompatible with Alcatel DSLAMs when the old Nokia gear started getting phased out. Takes u back a bit aye!

Time to find a new industry!

tdgeek

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#534015 16-Oct-2011 17:39

God yeah. Ni500 = overheating. 5+ years ago?

webwat

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#534486 17-Oct-2011 21:36

tdgeek: God yeah. Ni500 = overheating. 5+ years ago?

At Least. If you were still on a Nokia DSLAM at the time, you Ni500 might have still been working but I think most of them were already retired by then. Heard about people picking them up on trademe for a couple of dollars only to find they were obsolete. Not just overheating either -- all configuration done by telnet...

I have to say some Alcatel modems were pretty bad too, rock solid performance but no ADSL sync stats at all so you couldn't confirm line issues without lengthy troubleshooting calls to Telecom.

Time to find a new industry!

nitrotech

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#534505 17-Oct-2011 22:35

tdgeek: God yeah. Ni500 = overheating. 5+ years ago?

+1 for teh Ni500 being the worst - I had 2 of them one in a metal case and one in a plastic case - the plastic was meant to stop the overheating but it did nothing - these things rebooted about 50 times a day because they overheated - crap modem!

Ragnor

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#534722 18-Oct-2011 14:31

Totally forgot about the Ni500, so bad... especially since the Nokia M122 they used before that was solid as a rock.

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insane

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#535006 19-Oct-2011 00:11

No modem list of shame is complete without the Actiontec USB modem. Truly horrible thing.

While I've had two RTA1320's die on me now, the third is going strong and combined they've cost me less than $100 thanks to TradeMe.

spronkey

117 posts

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#535047 19-Oct-2011 09:17

Wow... lots of Thompson haters here!

I'll absolutely vouch for the D-Link's being horrid bags of crud.

However, with adequate cooling the RTA-1320 was a capable little guy. But without, as someone mentioned, discoloured plastic and eventual thermal death was the norm.

The Thompsons - their Wifi is average, yes, and their setup panels are average, but:

They hold lines extremely well. On par with the RTA-1025w (brilliance in a box minus dodgy capacitors). This is super important if you're nearing outer edges or have dodgy wiring.
They have excellent command line UIs

The old Thompson 585v6 was superior to the newer two. Remember that the entire Thompson range is basically Alcatel gear, which previously people rated extremely highly.

Personally I'd rank them as one of the best ISP-supplied modems out.

richms

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#535223 19-Oct-2011 16:41

The grey thompson with USB and a single ethernet - terrible because it appears to totally lack any DMZ option, and portfowards on it will only work for a while before stopping and needing to be removed and re-added.

Richard rich.ms

dukezoid

49 posts

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#535620 20-Oct-2011 14:35

I can't believe the DSL 200 has not been mentioned; truly atrocious. USB powered modems as a rule seem pretty crap.

DLink are surely going to be over represented here as they are so ubiquitous.

allan

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#535649 20-Oct-2011 15:44

Linksys WAG160N

Released well before it should have been. Crap firmware.
- PAP2T connected for VOIP. Outgoing calls dropped after 32 seconds. Finally fixed with much later firmware
- Dropping ADSL connecttion intermittently. Never fixed to my knowledge. TP-Link device on same connection solid as a rock.
- Name resolution "forgotten" for wireless connections after some random time period (30+ hours). Required a reboot. Still not fixed to my knowledge.

You would think with the Cisco name behind it and with people's solid experience with WRT devices, that these problems would be solved, but after numerous support jobs logged, to which the only answer was upgrade to the latest firmware - I just gave up. I note the current firmware release is up to .15, which is a pretty good indication that it had lots of issues, but I'm well over it.

Bung

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#535652 20-Oct-2011 15:53

Ragnor: Totally forgot about the Ni500, so bad... especially since the Nokia M122 they used before that was solid as a rock.

IIRC the Ni500 was a rebadge, I've forgotten the other brand I've seen it as.

EDIT "This modem was manufactured by Infinilink for Nokia NZ Ltd."

Nokia2012

108 posts

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#535658 20-Oct-2011 16:05

Na Thomson is way worse I hate them.

bfginger

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#537484 25-Oct-2011 22:42

tdgeek:
Do you mean the v8? That has wifi issues with Apple devices, easily resolved by changing the wireless type from b/g/n to b/g. I used a v7 for quite a while, it did the job fine for a base modem

Didn't the firmware update available for the v8 fix that?

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