Netgear DG834G vs Billion 7402W vs Zyxel 660HW
Category General Techo Stuff
Here is it… My 3 way comparison against the Netgear DG834G, Billion 7402W and the Zyxel 660HW.
If your expecting me to get into “this modem downloads BitTorrents 5Kb/s faster than the other” your going to be disappointed.. My reviews tend to be about the qualitative aspects rather than the quantitative.
So you’re thinking why on earth does a normal person have 3 ADSL modems.. Well, guess I’m not your normal kinda home user : - ) Which leads to a brief background..
Here is it… My 3 way comparison against the Netgear DG834G, Billion 7402W and the Zyxel 660HW.
If your expecting me to get into “this modem downloads BitTorrents 5Kb/s faster than the other” your going to be disappointed.. My reviews tend to be about the qualitative aspects rather than the quantitative.
So you’re thinking why on earth does a normal person have 3 ADSL modems.. Well, guess I’m not your normal kinda home user : - ) Which leads to a brief background..
When I originally purchased my first ADSL modem it was a simple “check the features and functions” kind of purchase. What I never expected was to have compatibility issues with my ISP’s dslam infrastructure.
My decision was based on the following;
- Combined Modem/Router/Wireless both b&g standards
- A reputable company with good backup and support.
Out of the box it was great, easy to setup and there were no issues on the Telstra DSLAMS, typically I had uptimes of over 200 hours.
As soon as I moved to the iinet dslam (Ericsson) I immediately started having lots of problems with the modem losing sync and dropping off the net. The guys at iinet spent lots of time creating alternative profiles which helped to some extent, I went from hourly drop outs to 20 hour connections.
Recently iinet released new plans which caused my profile to be reset and all the issues immediately came back.
We went back through all the normal trouble shooting things ie replacing line filters, running in isolation, replacing ALL the phone cable in my house, changing to every available release of firmware and line checks. This time though the fix was far more complicated and after 2 weeks I’d had enough, so decided to order a new modem to find out if the Netgear really was the problem. As soon as I replaced the modem with the Billion all the issues immediately went away….
What it seems like is that the DG834G doesn’t like to play with the Erriscon dslams particularly if you have poor quality connection ie Attenuation of 50Db + …
Now, the reason for this review… What modems did I find that provided all the features I was after.
This time around my requirements had grown;
- QoS – Allows you to set traffic priorities so that if you’re downloading a file it doesn’t impact your general browsing or Voice Over IP etc.
- SPI Firewall – This offers significantly more security over the basic NAT firewall.
- ADSL2/2+ compatibility as iinet will be enabling it as soon as the standard is ratified which is due any day now.
- More regular releases of firmware
- Company with a decent reputation for support.
I really wanted to purchase the new Billion 7402G but it wasn’t available at the time.. So my research lead me to the ZyXEL 660HW, but that had sold out in Australia and wasn’t available for a month…! So I ordered the older model Billion the 7402W which is the same as the 7402G except the W model was only 802.11b.
Anyway ordered the Billion and the next day one of the suppliers calls me back and says he can give me the ZyXel. Well, gotta love Karma, the same day one of my friends calls to find out where to buy the DG834G so I sold her my old unit and ordered the 660HW as well… its always nice to have a backup right : - )
Netgear DG834G
Some hints for you if you do go this way. Firmware 1.04.04 and 2.10.09 Beta are both pretty darn good, dont do the V2 if you are connected to iinet though as it does really bad things...
When the logs fill up it causes the router to crash, so either turn them off or use the inbuilt email feature to clear then regularly.
Pro’s
Works great on Telstra DSlams
Easiest configuration of all three
International support forum, but the tech’s don’t seem to contribute however the community is active and helpful.
Con’s
Appalling phone support which has been outsourced to India. Whilst I didn’t have any trouble with the accents, some people have reported significant frustration. My issue was with the long wait times and the lack of technical skill of the people who did answer.
Does not behave well on iinet Dslams particularly if you have poor phone lines
Doesn’t support true firewall
Doesn’t have QoS
No ability to access deep configuration for override if needed.
Very slow releases of firmware and often not tested adequately ie the 1.05 firmware was extremely unstable.
Billion 7402W
First impressions where excellent, I expected cheap and nasty and was very pleasantly surprised. Not only does the unit look good, the web interfaced is full featured and one of the Billion guys has written a utility that provides realtime stats back to your PC, its brilliant!
Pro’s
QoS
SPI Firewall
Great utility for monitoring the router
Good local support forum that actually seem to listen and comment back.
Link is solid as a rock, even with 50+db line and the iinet dslam no issues.
Con’s
Takes a long time to get sync and login ie couple of minutes compared with the others at under a minute. My assumption is because of the amount of line testing it performs before settling on a stable line speed.
Zyxel 660HW
After all the hype of this being one of the largest selling DSL modems in Europe the fact that they make there own dlsams etc. I started with high expectations…
The user manual for the 660HW was 450 pages and by far the most comprehensive manuals I have ever seen.
I was disappointed that the web interface didn’t give you access to the same depth of control as the Billion.
Pro’s
Able to access CLI which gives a tremendous amount of control.
Amazing documentation at 450 pages its easily the most comprehensive manual I’ve ever seen. Its almost like you pay for an awesome education in DSL technology and they give you a free modem : - )
Con’s
Web interface does not allow you to access all the config in the same way the Billion does.
Daylight savingsdoesn’t allow you to setup last Sunday in the month which means its no good for Australia.
Support forum hasn’t been online since I received the modem.. worries me.
Only has support for 12 virtual server mappings (although each one can be a range of ports)
Conclusion
Well this is one of those “kinda” conclusions.. its not a simple this one is best type deal. Its really going to depend on your needs and the ISP etc.
If you’re an “end user” and have no idea about IT and don’t want to learn and are on a Telstra dslam then the Netgear is ahead of the pack. Its dead easy to configure and the context help throughout the interface is enough for most people to be able to get by.
If you are with an ISP who is implementing dslams other than Alcatel or have poor quality phone lines then go with either the Billion or the Zyxel. Both of these router/modems allow you to get in and setup all the advanced configuration that is sometimes required.
My vote goes to the Billion, frankly I was expecting to find something cheap and nasty, but was very pleasantly surprised. Its solid well designed and whilst the documentation doesn’t compete with the encyclopaedia provided with the Zyxel I’m really happy with my purchase. It was originally intended to the ‘backup’ unit, but I’m finding its now the primary… just wish I’d been able to get the 7402G.. oh well, I can feel an upgrade coming on.. : - )
Comments
The ADSL2 trial is pretty awesome, with rock solid stability ~40 hour connections easily. And attaining 11000 kbps downstream is nice too.
I used to have numerous problems with the DG834G and ADSL1 on iinet - was tempted to switch, but ADSL2 has changed that for me.
Posted by Dave Miller At 02:55:43 PM On 17/05/2006 | - Website - |
Posted by rob At 02:55:43 PM On 17/05/2006 | - Website - |
Posted by Jez At 02:10:08 PM On 16/09/2008 | - Website - |
Matt
Posted by Matthew Smith At 02:55:43 PM On 17/05/2006 | - Website - |
http://www.cormain.com.au/kb/index.php
They now have an idiot's guide to the modem as well as increase wizards making setup easier.
Not to mention that its now syncing faster than the Billion..!
Posted by Matthew Smith At 02:55:44 PM On 17/05/2006 | - Website - |