Zyxel VMG1312-B10A VDSL Modem / Router Problems !

Jola

Jola

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I have been using 20mbps VDSL for about two months now, since my exchange was upgraded, and it has been working very well. I was using a Pace VDSL router.

However, last Thursday I had a lightning strike on the line, and everything came to a halt.

I don't really like the Pace modem / routers, so I ordered a Zyxel VMG1312 VDSL modem / router from Axxess.

I use a couple of ISP's, including Telkom, Axxess, and MWeb.

Telkom have supposedly fixed the line, but it still seems to be problematic, and the Zyxel will not work on the line at all, it just gives an orange light, indicating a line problem. It does synch, but you cannot connect and login.

The Pace, which seems ok in all respects, does not show a WAN connection. This could mean that the modem is gone, but could also be as a result of the same issue picked up by the Zyxel, so I am not really sure whether the Pace is dead or not.

In the meantime I tried my old Netgear DGND4000, and this actually connects and works, even though the line is supposed to be VDSL, and this modem only supports ADSL2+.

Does anyone have any experience with this Zyxel modem, and have any idea if there are any unusual settings that one has to use with this modem in order to make it connect to VDSL ? The defaults do not work. I have contacted Axxess Technical support on this, but they were not much help. So I don't even know whether the new Zyxel modem may be defective.

So in the meantime I am using ADSL on the Netgear modem, but at about half the performance that I used to get on VDSL with the Pace modem.

I still suspect that there is a line issue, ie that Telkom's equipment also got zapped, but I cannot prove it, and the Telkom Support staff don't seem to have any expertise regarding VDSL, and certainly don't have the equipment to test a VDSL line - the technician only had a old and slow USB ADSL modem to test the line, but this obviously does not work on VDSL.

Note : I actually use an Asus RT-N66U as a wifi router, so just need a VDSL modem. So the Pace was only used as a modem, and the idea was to do the same with the Zyxel.
 
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Sounds like someone at Telkom screwed the pooch. The line should not be able to sync on ADSL2+. Send TelkomZA a pm and ask him to look into it.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
Sounds like someone at Telkom screwed the pooch. The line should not be able to sync on ADSL2+. Send TelkomZA a pm and ask him to look into it.
Click to expand...

I hear what you say, but I have this nagging suspicion that the Netgear has some VDSL technology built into it, as it is a fairly new modem / router.

Unfortunately the Netgear does not report exactly what it is connected as.

But I think that you are right, this is some Telkom problem. And I don't think that they know how to fix it, at least not the guys that have been here.
 
The Zyxel VMG1312-B10A also supports ADSL2+ so if the line was converted to ADSL2+ by mistake, that router would still connect.

I recently started testing Zyxel VMG1312-B10A at home, and the default settings doesn't work. On ADSL, when I configured it, I had to manually enter the VPI/VCI settings, which most other routers had in by default. That said, I don't know what the settings for it should be on a VDSL line, but you probably need to do a bit more advanced settings to get it to work.
That said, the Zyxel VMG1312-B10A is a great router for me thus far, even though I am only using it on a ADSL line.
 
I couldn't get the Zyxel to work on ADSL or VDSL, but let me experiment a bit more.

But this line is shot, my throughput is about 25% of what it was on 20mbps VDSL.

(It show as 20mbps ADSL at the moment (1mbps up) but it is not working well).
 
Jola said:
I couldn't get the Zyxel to work on ADSL or VDSL, but let me experiment a bit more.

But this line is shot, my throughput is about 25% of what it was on 20mbps VDSL.

(It show as 20mbps ADSL at the moment (1mbps up) but it is not working well).
Click to expand...

Ye, that's the thing. If the line is set to a VDSL profile it will not sync on ADSL2+ and your sync up should be 2Mbps. Just get TelkomZA to make sure your line is on a VDSL profile and go from there.
 
OK, I tried an old (known working) ADSL router (Belkin), and it does not work on this line.

So I guess that the line is set to VDSL, but that the Netgear has some VDSL functionality.

The Zyxel will not work in any mode, either the device is non-functional, or the Telkom port is too damaged for the Zyxel to work.

BTW, the Zyxel, even though it will not work, does report the line to be VDSL with 20mbps DL and 1mbps UL.

For some reason the Netgear works, I guess it must just be a really good modem/router.

But the performance is not great, so there is something wrong with the port, either physically or from a software setup point of view.
 
Good day Jola,

I hope you are well!

Please can you send us a mail with a bit more info in regards to the firmware version and your configuration? Our local support mail is [email protected] ? It seems likely that the issue might be more a MSAN problem that needs to be rectified by Telkom, but we can still assist if the problem is on the configuration side.

Kind regards

ZyXEL support team
 
Thanks, I will send you some info.

But I strongly suspect that the problem is on the MSAN - the problem is that the local Telkom technicians don't have any training or equipment to handle VDSL.
 
OK, after a whole day of scampering around nothing has been achieved.

The VDSL line only works with an ADSL Netgear router, and rather poor at that, too slow for Netflix, and downloads take ages, even small ones like a zyxel firmware update (which didn't help).

Telkom don't seem to know what they are doing, and muttered something about no spare ports and that I may have to wait for a long time.

Looks as if I am going to be using Vodacom again ! I had better raid the piggy bank !!!

Edit : The peculiar thing here is that the Netgear DGND4000, which is an ADSL modem/router works on VDSL, while the brand new Zyxel VDSL modem/router does not work at all. Crazy !!!
 
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Anything in here that indicates why this does not work ?

============================================================================
VDSL Training Status: Showtime
Mode: VDSL2 Annex B
VDSL Profile: Profile 17a
Traffic Type: PTM Mode
Link Uptime: 0 day: 0 hour: 1 minute
============================================================================
VDSL Port Details Upstream Downstream
Line Rate: 1.084 Mbps 20.546 Mbps
Actual Net Data Rate: 1.024 Mbps 20.476 Mbps
Trellis Coding: ON ON
SNR Margin: 35.9 dB 17.3 dB
Actual Delay: 0 ms 1 ms
Transmit Power: - 9.7 dBm 0.7 dBm
Receive Power: -31.2 dBm -11.2 dBm
Actual INP: 0.0 symbols 0.0 symbols
Total Attenuation: 21.4 dB 12.0 dB
Attainable Net Data Rate: 32.530 Mbps 41.739 Mbps
============================================================================
VDSL Band Status U0 U1 U2 U3 D1 D2 D3
Line Attenuation(dB): 4.4 21.9 40.7 N/A 11.6 30.8 43.9
Signal Attenuation(dB): N/A 21.4 N/A N/A 11.4 30.4 43.9
SNR Margin(dB): 37.6 35.9 N/A N/A 17.3 17.3 0.0
Transmit Power(dBm):-30.6 - 9.8 -128.0 N/A 0.1 - 7.9 -128.0
============================================================================
 
Can you show how you configured it to actually connect?

As far as I can tell, your ZyXEL modem is working because it syncs just fine, you just need to configure it properly to dial up a pppoe connection.

In fact, your ZyXEL sync with the same stats as the Netgear.
 
Tinuva said:
As far as I can tell, your ZyXEL modem is working because it syncs just fine, you just need to configure it properly to dial up a pppoe connection.
Click to expand...

I have tried absolutely everything, and I get an orange warning light for the DSL connection, and no light for the Internet connection, which tells me that the problem is before it gets to the login stage. Otherwise the DSL light would have been green and the Internet light red (if the login parameters were incorrect).

BTW, I tried the defaults as well as everything else, IMHO the ZyXEL is defective (out of the box).

I'm just lucky that the Netgear works, it is not supposed to be a VDSL router, and does not even have a VDSL option and setup spec, but it works when you set that to Auto.
 
Jola said:
I have tried absolutely everything, and I get an orange warning light for the DSL connection, and no light for the Internet connection, which tells me that the problem is before it gets to the login stage. Otherwise the DSL light would have been green and the Internet light red (if the login parameters were incorrect).

BTW, I tried the defaults as well as everything else, IMHO the ZyXEL is defective (out of the box).

I'm just lucky that the Netgear works, it is not supposed to be a VDSL router, and does not even have a VDSL option and setup spec, but it works when you set that to Auto.
Click to expand...
Uhu.

Edit: NVM I see my ZyXEL VMG1312-B10A actually had ADSL and VDSL connections set up beforehand for me. I changed both to bridge mode, and it just magically worked from there.
 
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You don't have any of those parameters for VDSL, in fact on the Pace router there is nothing to set once you have changed it to VDSL. Even on the Zyxel there is little to set once you make the VDSL profile active. Maybe there is some weird parameter that is wrong in the defaults, but I somehow doubt that, I phoned Technical Support at Axxess , and they seemed to think that it should work with the default settings.

Maybe I must just get another Pace, even though I don't like it because the WiFi is poor. At least the VDSL works.

The only VDSL modem/routers that have decent WiFi are the Netgear ones, but the only Netgear that officially supports VDSL2 is the DGND3800B, and I have not seen that in SA.

But the DGND4000 seems to work unofficially, and it does have reasonable WiFi (N750).

But to get really great WiFi you need an ac WiFi router like the Asus RT-AC68U. Those don't have built-in modems, however.
 
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OK, well the knight on a white horse arrived (via phone), being TelkomZA.

It seems that the profile here was set to 20Mbps ADSL by the local techies, which was why the Netgear router still worked, but that also explains why the Zyxel router would not connect (peculiar that the Zyxel described the connection as VDSL, though ?).

Anyway, TelkomZA changed the port profile to VDSL 20Mbps/2Mbps, and we then reset the Zyxel router to factory settings and reconfigured it - just using defaults, nothing else.

At that stage the correct lights started flashing and the internet connection started working.

In hindsight not sure how to avoid this, but :

1) Have as many lightning protectors installed as possible.

2) Try to make sure that the local techies use the right profiles and settings, but I don't know how you control that.

3) The Zyxel will work on VDSL with the factory defaults, but only if the port profile is 100% correct.

4) Reset the Zyxel to factory defaults if you need to make significant changes.

BTW, I am using the Zyxel with the international firmware at the moment, seems to work fine.

And thanks again, TelkomZA !!!

3110833493.png
 
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Looks like it was a modulation problem. You can also configure the router to match the port profile.

Glad you sorted.
 
I have the following in my network configuration

  • Zyxel-SBG3300
  • Asus wifi router (DHCP disabled)
  • 3x Switches (all gigabit) - not configurable.
  • 1x Ethernet over power point to a pc user
  • 8x LAN devices
  • 6x Wireless LAN devices

The wifi routers are on channels 1 and 9 respectively (they're also 20 meters apart, to cover 2 stories)
The wifi routers have difference IP's on the same subnet
The wifi routers have the same SSID
The wifi routers have the same security protocal
The wifi routers have the same password

All of this should allow users to move seemlessly between the two devices without needing to touch their devices, mind you there could be a brief disconnect when moving from one area in the house to another. This I am aware of.

The wireless from both wireless routers use to be perfect but recently the Zyxel has been randomly but frequently dropping all devices at which point the wireless on it needs to be reset to enable device re-connection. When it drops all the connected devices, the devices can still see the Zyxel but none of them can authenticate past the past the login details to access the wireless.

The Asus on the other side of the house still allows authentication and has full internet access.
All other cabled devices have full internet access and no intervention is needed on these. Thankfully.

Any ideas? I'm stumped.
 
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