ASUS DSL-N17U / TP-Link TD-VG5612 as VDSL Modem (Bridge)

[A.D.]

Hello there,

I'm looking for a device to operate as a VDSL modem in bridge mode, in other words, a separate router connected via LAN is supposed to do everything else starting with PPPoE.

The Vigor 130 is still mentioned frequently and some selected Zyxel devices also, but it seems to be hard to find an up-to-date compilation of suitable devices and their features.

I was coming across the following two.

The TD-VG5612 is limited to 100 Mbit/s (LAN, VDSL) but explicitly seems to support PPPoE / Bridge Modem mode. But it's hard to find reports from people using it in this mode and also hard (or impossible) to get where I live.

The DSL-N17U appears to be very capable on the wired side and fairly priced, but it's not clear to me whether it will be able to operate in Modem mode even after reading the manual (although it doesn't look like it). Do you know whether I'm wrong? Maybe it's able to do the job with another firmware? [EDIT: I'm now also asking this question over here.]

Or what's your favourite device for this purpose today?

Thank you!

 

[Riaan Burger]

Hello A.D.,

Glad to see someone reads up before buying - I did not ;-)

I'm sitting with an RT-AC5300 that I installed Merlin on here and just unboxed the DSL-N17U which I hope to use as a modem. I couldn't find anything decent using Google but your post keeps coming up. so I updated the firmware, still no obvious settings to enable it. Will try a few more things based on some old notes I have lying around or just go back to using some older modem for the time being and read up a bit more before buying next time.

...

Okay, well, I think I got it working. Correct me if I'm wrong please!

On the modem asuswrt go to:

Advanced Settings => Wireless => Professional => Enable Radio

Set it to "no" to disable wifi.

Advanced Settings => WAN => Internet Connection => Basic Config => WAN Connection Type

Set it to BRIDGE (seriously, why the caps, what did the developer think BRIDGE stands for).

Anyway, seems to work so far but I'm a novice on networking, so who knows if it is all right. I can use my asuswrt-merlin web GUI for the router to switch between ADSL accounts...

Cheers,
Riaan

 

[A.D.]

Glad to see someone reads up before buying - I did not ;-)

Glad to see someone's just buying and then giving feedback. Thank you!

[...] an RT-AC5300 that I installed Merlin on here and just unboxed the DSL-N17U which I hope to use as a modem [...] On the modem asuswrt go to: Advanced Settings => Wireless => Professional => Enable Radio. Set it to "no" to disable wifi. Advanced Settings => WAN => Internet Connection => Basic Config => WAN Connection Type. Set it to BRIDGE [...]

And what do you get? Do all LAN ports behave identically?

Background: In some scenarios (think Triple Play), different VLANs are established on the WAN side (one for multicast IPTV, one for unicast Internet / VoIP). Maybe one could even have two devices behind the DSL-N17U without having to configure multicast in the router, then.

This might make the DSL-N17U the xDSL modem in terms of price, felxibility, performance and hopefully robustness (most people go with the Vigor 130 which is still more expensive and has only one LAN port).

=> Can you at least confirm that all LAN ports are working in WAN BRIDGE mode, or did you even set up a VLAN-based WAN scenario?

 

[Riaan Burger]

Hello A.D.,

Shell we continue this in the other thread (or do you see a distinction to keep both)?

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/asus-dsl-n17u-as-xdsl-modem-bridge-mode.32174

Cheers,
Riaan

 

[A.D.]

Shell we continue this in the other thread (or do you see a distinction to keep both)? http://www.snbforums.com/threads/asus-dsl-n17u-as-xdsl-modem-bridge-mode.32174

You're right; let's stick to one thread.