Sonic.net

If you're supplying your own equipment for Fusion X2 (single phone line, double speed internet) service, please list the model number here. Thanks!

subbed.

In *THEORY*, a Zhone 6228-i3-200 should work.

http://www.zhone.com/products/6228-I3/6228-I3.pdf
http://www.aztekcomputers.com/6228I3200 ... 22809.html

I have not tried one, though.

A Motorola/Arris NVG589 or NVG599 also may work, but finding one with non-AT&T firmware is probably going to be *very* difficult.

I wouldn't recommend that Zhone unit, it doesn't support PTM, nor VDSL2 nor does it offer WiFi that's fast enough for a what a bonded connection can deliver. A minimum of 802.11N 2x2 400mw is suggested.

Thanks for the warning. What about the Zyxel P-663HN-51s that you used to use? I've seen a few of those available used for $50-$75.

I personally don't care about WiFi support. I'm going to be using it in bridge mode anyway, and I already have a nice dual band 802.11n 2x2 MIMO AP.

I also already have a VDSL2 modem I was using successfully on U-Verse (an actual modem, not AT&T's hardware - there were some shenanigans involved in making it work), but I have no idea if it's compatible with your equipment (my loop is close to 5000 ft so it doesn't much matter anyway).

I'm not familiar with PTM - from some googling it seems to give overhead of only 5 bytes per packet rather than ATM cells with 5 bytes per 48 bytes of payload, is that correct?

No, the ZyXel P-663HN also does not support PTM, nor VDSL2. It'd work if you happened to land on one of our ATM/G.bond interfaces, but we're now provisioning the newer "universal" (UDSL) interface which supports both VDSL2 and ADSL2+ and ADSL2, using PTM instead of ATM.

The UDSL interfaces are assigned in every case where customers are close enough to obtain VDSL2 sync speeds, and in a growing number of cases for longer-loop customers who are more likely to get ADSL2+ due to distance. All new port growth is built using the new interface, so it's more and more common. So, older ADSL2+ CPE which support only ATM and G.bond won't work.

I strongly encourage Sonic members to remain in our end-to-end equipment rental and wire plan service. It's a nominal monthly cost, and allows us to provide fully integrated support. Support's dashboard shows things like wireless interference, missing filters, and we can push security and feature updates when needed. The wire plan means you'll never pay for a technician visit, even if the issue is related to inside wiring or the CPE itself. By taking full responsibility end-to-end from the DSLAM through the DSL modem/router and WiFi, Sonic can own and resolve every issue, without arguing about who pays for what, whether it's your equipment or ours, etc.

ryanca wrote:I also already have a VDSL2 modem I was using successfully on U-Verse (an actual modem, not AT&T's hardware - there were some shenanigans involved in making it work), but I have no idea if it's compatible with your equipment (my loop is close to 5000 ft so it doesn't much matter anyway).

C'mon, don't keep us hanging. Let us know what magical modem this is and what is required to make it work. Or were you on AT&T's IPDSLAM U-verse (ADSL2+)?

dane wrote:No, the ZyXel P-663HN also does not support PTM, nor VDSL2. It'd work if you happened to land on one of our ATM/G.bond interfaces, but we're now provisioning the newer "universal" (UDSL) interface which supports both VDSL2 and ADSL2+ and ADSL2, using PTM instead of ATM.

The UDSL interfaces are assigned in every case where customers are close enough to obtain VDSL2 sync speeds, and in a growing number of cases for longer-loop customers who are more likely to get ADSL2+ due to distance. All new port growth is built using the new interface, so it's more and more common. So, older ADSL2+ CPE which support only ATM and G.bond won't work.

I guess this explains why my ADSL2+ modem stopped working (would sync, wasn't receiving any frames) when my X2 upgrade was provisioned last night (I have a tech scheduled to come out in the morning to bring the second line up).

dane wrote: I strongly encourage Sonic members to remain in our end-to-end equipment rental and wire plan service. It's a nominal monthly cost, and allows us to provide fully integrated support. Support's dashboard shows things like wireless interference, missing filters, and we can push security and feature updates when needed. The wire plan means you'll never pay for a technician visit, even if the issue is related to inside wiring or the CPE itself. By taking full responsibility end-to-end from the DSLAM through the DSL modem/router and WiFi, Sonic can own and resolve every issue, without arguing about who pays for what, whether it's your equipment or ours, etc.

I totally understand. The Pace 5168N seems to be pretty nice hardware, and $9.50/mo is a reasonable cost to rent it considering that it probably costs $200-$250. I (being the sort of person to have a home network with VLANs and a router running Debian) just don't want/need most of what it does - all I want is good (no caps, no filtering, no traffic shaping, reliable, low latency, sufficient bandwidth) IP connectivity to my router.

I bought an ADSL2+ modem for about $25 for my fusion service after having it for about a year. I tried it for about a month - it was stable but about 5% slower - before I opted out of the equipment rental, and was saving money within a few months. The math seems to be different for the X2 service. I'd be willing to spend up to about $120 for a CPE to avoid the $9.50/mo fee, but it appears that no such CPE exists.

Anyway. Hope that doesn't sound to much like a rant - it really isn't. I know I'm in the minority here, so I happy that there's at least the "unsupported" option to put the CPE in bridge mode.

Guest wrote:

ryanca wrote:I also already have a VDSL2 modem I was using successfully on U-Verse (an actual modem, not AT&T's hardware - there were some shenanigans involved in making it work), but I have no idea if it's compatible with your equipment (my loop is close to 5000 ft so it doesn't much matter anyway).

C'mon, don't keep us hanging. Let us know what magical modem this is and what is required to make it work. Or were you on AT&T's IPDSLAM U-verse (ADSL2+)?

I had to use my modem (which was very difficult to find) for physical connectivity as well as the AT&T 2wire CPE so that the AT&T hardware could do 802.1x auth. It's highly impractical to set up, but it does avoid going through their lousy NAT.

ryanca wrote:

dane wrote:No, the ZyXel P-663HN also does not support PTM, nor VDSL2. It'd work if you happened to land on one of our ATM/G.bond interfaces, but we're now provisioning the newer "universal" (UDSL) interface which supports both VDSL2 and ADSL2+ and ADSL2, using PTM instead of ATM.

The UDSL interfaces are assigned in every case where customers are close enough to obtain VDSL2 sync speeds, and in a growing number of cases for longer-loop customers who are more likely to get ADSL2+ due to distance. All new port growth is built using the new interface, so it's more and more common. So, older ADSL2+ CPE which support only ATM and G.bond won't work.

I guess this explains why my ADSL2+ modem stopped working (would sync, wasn't receiving any frames) when my X2 upgrade was provisioned last night (I have a tech scheduled to come out in the morning to bring the second line up).

No, that's not the reason. The issue is that your loop was made part of an ATM G.bond group, so you need to use the Pace 5168 that we sent.

We did send it and you did receive it? It's supposed to arrive before the X2 config kicks in, and it supports not bonded and single line, so as long as you swap that in as soon as you get it, there will be not interruption.