Perhaps the new batches, I'm using one from early April myself. I'm just saying there's no way to tell if its a hardware/firmware error unless you hook up a serial cable to its board and look at the boot process. What I do know however is that when it comes to routing/NAT stability, our routers have equal performance due to the firmware they've loaded into it. If you guys have this problem again (perma blue light or all orange) you should try and see if its possible to boot into the Emergency Room as you might be able to reflash it to get it to work again. The DIR-615 is actually pretty hard to brick during a re-flash because of this feature.

Power it off, hold down the RESET button at the back of the router using a pentip and power it on to see if it can boot into emergency room mode (orange light will blink continuously).

If it cant, open up the DIR-615, hook up the TTL pins to my PC and see whats going on at the bootloader level.

So yes, I would

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I would only consider the router 'completely' dead if every single light was off and the power adapter was working 100%.

This post has been edited by rizvanrp: Aug 11 2010, 10:26 PM

VDSL2 = uses copper
FTTH = uses fiber

You probably wont have a choice in this matter but its better to get FTTH over VDSL2.. better performance IMO from what I've experienced

Even now, VDSL2 can't fully support 20mbps. I was at a Unifibiz install last week (same office, second trip) because of this very reason.

When TM first installed the VDSL2 Biz20 for them, they could only receive up to 3mbps down/2mbps up (on an RM899/mth biz package). Why? Their building wiring had been oxidized and worn out over time to the point that the entire cable had to be replaced. After the replacement was done, they had to call in TM staff to check their connection/port/etc. again. TM tried to 'optimize' the thing for them but while the line could hit 20mbps down, uplink was limited to 13-15mbps at best.

And I think I've mentioned this before but TM is setting all their Unifi VDSL2 multiplexers on Interleave mode which basically gives you a nice 30-50ms+ increase in physical latency. VDSL2 is honestly not worth the trouble if you can get fiber pulled directly to your workspace IMO. :/

When they replace your router, you may even get a used one (like in my case). I had some other unifi user's login combination saved in mine when I got it.

It's only a problem with the new batches of DIR-615 G1 routers, no idea what TM is doing >_> A new model you say? I'm pretty sure its going to be locked down and have backdoor access for all call center staff 24/7. TM never learns from their mistakes IMO

I tried the PS3 version but I'm not so good with console FPS gaming

When the WAG120N is acting as the ADSL2 bridge, then the DIR-615 can work with it. When the DIR-615 is the bridge, only other IP based routers with PPPoE support can work with it

Tagged VLAN support is based on a kernel module, so I don't think the hardware (or switch chip) has to support VLANs for it to work :3

You can't use the WAG120N with Unifi because its an ADSL2 router. Its WAN port is an RJ11 jack meant for a phone line. You could install dd-wrt on it (if it supports it) and use one of the LAN ports as a WAN port but you'll get IPTV + random WAN traffic being flooded into your local LAN so I don't recommend that.

That will work but your WAG120N will only be acting as a wireless AP, not a router.. and you'll have to disable its DHCP server

Buying a cheap router which is dd-wrt compatible is a good temporary solution but remember, all dd-wrt routers do not perform the same way. Each firmware, model and hardware revision have their own bugs which you need to sort out yourself so I don't think anyone is ever going to find a permanent solution for dd-wrt with IPTV + Internet support. Even if they do, it will only be for a specific router model and routers get phased out/reach their final sales cycle within a couple of years.

I think the best solution in the end if you want a permanent replacement for the DIR-615 (if its failing) is to get a VLAN capable switch. This will handle IPTV + Internet fine and you'll be able to use any IP router regardless of whether is has dd-wrt installed or VLAN support itself.

Right now, most people are using the VLAN bridging method which basically does this :

BTU <--> DIR-615 <--> Custom router + STB

The DIR-615 is completely unaware of the internet connection and only acts as a switch. If your DIR-615 is not damaged/bugged (like much of the new router stock is), this is the best method for you.

However, should your DIR-615 ever get damaged.. you can buy an actual VLAN switch to replace that DIR-615. Right now, you're basically exploiting the stock firmware to make the DIR-615 bridge a VLAN to a physical port.. but you can also buy a VLAN switch which is meant to do this. Some people have done this with the Cisco RVS4000 (which is actually meant to be a router and is quite expensive) but I'm very sure it can also be done with something cheaper like a Mikrotik RB250GS.

BTU <--> RVS4000 or RB250GS <--> Custom router + STB

Same thing, different hardware

Might be possible, but I don't recommend it. Would be really messy configuration and wiring wise :/

EDIT : Lol, with the DIR-615 you can even bridge VLAN 500 to the wireless interface then have your PC dial the PPPoE connection through a wireless link. It works but its very messy

This post has been edited by rizvanrp: Aug 14 2010, 05:34 PM

Buy a custom router with wifi and keep your desktops on cables

The RVS4000 has to have its switch settings modified in order to do this. You wont be able to use the advanced features of the router such as the PPPoE dialer, security features or NAT. I think it's better to go with one of these :

http://www.roc-noc.com/product.php?productid=381

USD39.95 + USD9 (power adapter).. could probably pick one up from the SG distributor.

Hey radius, long time no post here

Do the settings on the ZTE stay after you've set them (like after a reboot)? And can you wire your STB directly into it or can it only be set for the Internet VLAN? Maybe you should write a guide for the VDSL users

Kk thanks, I'm sure a lot of VDSL users here would like that

There was a bug with some of the previous Brainslayer firmware versions causing TCP connection drops for some reason. You had to run 'iptables -F FORWARD' in order to fix it I suppose its been fixed by them already

This WAN port assignment disappearing only applies to VLAN interfaces on Broadcom chipsets. I did some testing with prodigy last night and apparently, even if you hard code it to vlan1.500 it will refuse to send out any tagged PPPoE traffic. It might have something to do with the nvram variables or maybe broadcom chipsets just dont allow VLAN interfaces as WAN ports, lol

Ralink and Atheros can support PPPoE over VLAN interface fine but Broadcom doesn't. Port mapping (or port based VLANs) depends on whether your router can support it in the first place. It's two different issues and it's very hard to find a single router model that can do both of these things at once with dd-wrt. If you really need IPTV, just go with a VLAN switch.

Last night, pr0di9y and I were testing out possible BTU bridging for the Huawei Echolife 850 but in the end I gave up because it simply will not support it. I managed to extract all the passwords from the unit + get full console access (priv exec mode) but no dice At most, the Huawei can start and handle a PPPoE connection for you but it doesn't seem to be able to bridge the VLAN with a physical port as far as I can tell.

The moment Unifi launched and we realized they 'locked' us in with this router, everyone already knew this was going to happen :/ I personally blame TM for not giving a damn about functionality and focusing on profitability. BTUs are totally unlocked, anyone can just log in and grab your SIP user/pass through the VOIP network. Same case with the DIR-615. Not to mention the build quality of the hardware which seems to be dropping to the point that even they have to acknowledge that it's a problem.

And now they want to get a new router model to fix this? Just give out new BTUs which strip off all the VLAN tagging once the data is out of the VDSL/Fiber. Let us use our own damn hardware with the service we're paying for.

If you've done the bridge configuration on the DIR-615 to be used with your WRT54GL, leave it that way. If you flash the DIR-615 to dd-wrt you will lose IPTV and be unable to use your wrt54gl in the same configuration :3