Westell 6100 Modem + Annex M = Not happening

[karl181]

After spending a few too many minutes searching for whether my AT&T branded Westell 6100 (firmware ver: 01.00.06.12) supported Annex M I decided to give it a go.

I tried enabling Annex M through the automated phone tool (link: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1095 ) and after giving it a couple minutes to sync gave up hope. I plugged directly into the modem after giving it a reset and scoured the menus for some mention of Annex A or Annex M but failed to find anything.

Redialed the phone tool and re-enabled Annex A and connectivity just as fast as I had it disabled. Thought I’d just report in before heading to fry’s and picking up a cheapy TP-Link TD-8817 (linky: http://www.frys.com/product/6074108). Think I may also grab a regular modem to and try and configure some kind of dialing program so I can enable Annex M remotely until it becomes an option on the web portal, they still have regular modems at frys right ?

Hope my report saves someone a couple minutes of frustration since I didn’t see anyone else with a similar modem reporting in yet.

-Karl, a very happy sonic.net fusion customer

[dane]

Not to beat a dead horse, but Annex M is supported in the new Sonic.net Pace 4111N equipment which we rent and support. It'll also support IPv6, which is coming at some point in the future too.

If you'd like to go that direction, you can get one here: http://sonic.net/solutions/home/interne ... /equipment

[karl181]

I might end up getting the Pace 4111N, this fry's cheapie TP-LINK seems to have added 10ms to my ping intermittently. I disabled NAT and all the extra features of the modem although they didn't seem to make a difference. Hopefully I can figure out why the ping has increased but more important for now is why Annex M isn't doing much for me.

After verifying the TP-Link would have similar speeds to the Westell it replaced while utilizing Annex A, I called the automated support tool again and changed over to Annex M. After doing several speed tests with Annex M it appears as though the only effect was a decrease of my downstream bandwidth. As the test in the first post shows I was getting ~18Mbit/sec down and ~.7Mbit/sec up, numbers were identical with the TP-Link modem (other than +10-13ms ping) . After switching to Annex M I'm getting ~13Mbit/sec down and still getting ~.7Mbit/sec up.

I tried the sonic.net speed test (url: http://speedtest.sonic.net/ookla/ ) with identical results. Actually using the line for uploads (e.g. not speed tests) also reflects no change in upload bandwidth.

Is there something I should do at this point to verify the problem isn't on my end ?

Thanks!

[virtualmike]

I wonder if your line is capped for uplink speed. Check with Support.

[karl181]

I wonder if your line is capped for uplink speed. Check with Support.

I sent an email off to support. Will update the thread with bandwidth numbers. Hopefully I can get a half of what annex M offers considering I get some pretty good numbers with Annex A. Going to be spending a couple weeks uploading video, would be nice to shave off a few days ./crosses fingers for 1.5 Megabits/sec

Sonic.net really goes above and beyond, hope I can get more friends and family to make the switch. I know this feature will sell at least one of them on it.

[dane]

I wonder if your line is capped for uplink speed. Check with Support.

I sent an email off to support. Will update the thread with bandwidth numbers. Hopefully I can get a half of what annex M offers considering I get some pretty good numbers with Annex A. Going to be spending a couple weeks uploading video, would be nice to shave off a few days ./crosses fingers for 1.5 Megabits/sec

Sonic.net really goes above and beyond, hope I can get more friends and family to make the switch. I know this feature will sell at least one of them on it.

Congrats, looks like it's working for you, you're at about 2.6Mbps upstream now!

Current
Service Type ADSL2+ Annex M
Sync Mode Interleave
Sync Up Enabled
Download Speed 14913 kbps
SNR 4.1 dB
Attenuation 24.0 dB
Upload Speed 2678 kbps
SNR 5.0 dB
Attenuation 18.1 dB

[karl181]

I failed to do some very basic troubleshooting before my last post: trying to connect directly to the modem from a computer (bypassing my wireless router). Connected directly to the TP-Link modem and I get the following measurement:



Despite what I thought was a decent router right of the box, my Linksys/Cisco E2000 was the culprit for the .7 Mbps cap. Will probably be better off with the sonic.net supported Pace modem/router but I like to suffer & learn a little bit so I'll have to see what the E2000 does with some fancy firmware. This experience has definitely changed my negative opinion of the equipment rental fee for new customers. Supporting the multitudes of hardware setups would be a serious pain in the behind., especially when people don't do the basics first.

Thanks again for the amazing service & support Dane & Sonic.net!
-Karl, super happy sonic.net customer