So that long story about the router was a prelude to letting you know I finished my wiring closet (sans the working DSL modem). I annotated the photos I took for the Patch Panel and Wiring Closet for documentation purposes. So the photos should be self explanatory. And yes, those pipes carrying the wires from the rooms are stuffed to near capacity. Fun stuff otherwise!
The sroty ends today, Tuesday 18 Jun 2002. Yet another call to Earthlink finds out they overnight shipped the new DSL modem last Wednesday. UPS has "been trying" to deliver it but unable nor reporting back to Earthlink that they have not been able to deliver. You see, they started work on putting sewer lines in the street last Monday also. By Thursday, they were rounding the corner of Miranda on Miranda Way. While we go in and out 2-5 times a day, the UPS driver claims they would not let him by until he complained today that I was complaining. In any case, the longest overnight deliver came and in 5 minutes I was back up and running fully. Wow, what an experience. And all because I plugged the wrong power supply cord into the wrong unit!
You may have all heard I fried (literally) my old SMC Barricade Router by plugging my 18V DSL power supply into the router when it was expecting 5V. The Barricade started sizzling and smoking a lot. After trying for 24 hours to get a new DSL power supply (which died also), I called Earthlink who volunteered to simply send me a new DSL modem. That was 10 days ago and I am still waiting with no confirmation that it has shipped yet. (DSL Modem's are generally not available from stores or retail; only from DSL providers.)
So I went out to replace the SMC Barricade 7004BR I had. The model has been slightly updated (although not really noticeably on the physical outside) since I bought it 1 3/4 years ago. It has two nice features that I generally cannot find elsewhere: 1) of having a serial port for a backup modem in case the DSL goes out and 2) of having a "keep alive" function to keep the connection active. The keep-alive would keep my dynamic DSL modem active and online for a month or more at a time. I had never used the serial modem backup so bought a 56Kbaud external modem also (56K ModemBlaster from Creative for $29.) to handle this interim period while I wait for the new DSL modem power supply. The Barricade has dropped in price from $200 when I bought it to just $60 now. I was all set to go. But not so fast.
In September 2001 when I got DSL, I plugged the Barricade in, entered the parameters for PPPoE that Earthlink gave me, and it immediately connected to Earthlink and made all my computers on the switch / router be on the network. This year, I could not get the new one to work worth a darn. It kept dropping even simple "pings" from my computers to the switch; let alone would not allow me to talk HTTP protocol to it to allow configuration and monitoring. Also, the new GUI is a big step back (in looks and ease of use) from the old one, I feel. The behavior seemed to be somewhat better when I turned it on and went to completely dead after a few hours. I suspect their is a temperature issue with either the design or the particular unit I got.
I had never used the modem option before. It did not work (well). Assuming the SMC Barricade could be reached at all, it would dial out and try to connect -- sometimes spending 2 hours or more before getting a solid enough connection to verify the username, password and get an IP address. Then the modem would not stay connected for very long; starting the whole process over again. Also, the Barricade / modem option was a real dog in throughput performance -- I got 20K Baud at best (even though the modem connected at 50K baud or better). I spent countless hours / days on the phone with their tech support. Nothing seemed to fix the modem connectivity problem. They did not seem to have an answer for the accessibility (dropped network connectivity) except asking me to upgrade the firmware (which I did).
I finally got fed up and started a search for a replacement. There are lots of competing products in the market now. I had already tried a Netgear FR318 before replacing the SMC as it was listed as the best on the market by one review. It is nice in that it has Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI; a better firewall and detection capability). But it does not have the keep alive feature nor backup modem port. Almost all the routers in this class seem to have the printer port for allowing direct network connected printers but this does not help me as the unit is in the wiring closet.
Interestingly enough, the DSL modem manufacturer Efficient Networks Inc., which I have been very pleased with the reliability of, has a combination DSL modem and 4-port firewall/router box (Model 5861). Not fully competitive in price (especially since I get the modem from Earthlink for free normally) but it is an all-in-one unit and likely reliable. Unfortunately, Earthlink stated it would likely work but they would not support the configuration. Not knowing if they do anything funny to the modems settings, and not necessarily liking the modem and router intertwined, I decided against it.
I checked PC Magazines reviews. They had the SMC Barricade as the editors choice for the home user; mostly because of the wireless version though. I would have agreed with this based on last years model. The Netgear listed as best for small business. Although not an editors choice, the D-Link looked similar to my SMC in features -- full firewall, 4 ports, serial backup-modem port, etc. I looked more into it and found out the D-Link is selling for $49 as their newer model is about to be introduced.
So after returning the second SMC Barricade (needed to make sure it was not just one bad unit) and the Netgear, I picked a D-Link 704P up and within 10 minutes I was up and running using the backup dial-up modem. I am having the experience with this D-Link that I did last year with the SMC. Even before I could get from the modem setup page to the D-Link status page, the D-Link had already connected to the internet at 50K baud. I have purposely dropped the modem connection and asked it to reconnect over ten times in 15 minutes. Every time it reaches and connects on the first dial. A nice feature of the D-Link is its log shows all the modem communication (AT commands sent and responses) -- a nice feeling of knowing what is happening. Bizzarly, the D-Link has a near identical GUI to that of the old SMC Barricade -- thus familiar and easy-to-use. I do not have actual speed benchmarks for the DSL connection yet but I hope they are the same as the SMC.
This is really anecdotal but the Earthlink DSL tech told me that they always see problems with SMC. He personally has a D-Link. I again suspect it is the newer SMC model that is having problems.
This is such a relief having some connectivity again. I cannot believe it took a week to resolve also. Glad to have the backup 56KBaud modem solution for the complete home network also. Will be much happier once the DSL is back up and running though. Now I sit and wait and wait for the new DSL modem from Earthlink.
