Third party VDSL router recommendations?

jbrownetweets

Hi all,
I work for an SME and we use VDSL for our primary gateway. I have been with a number of ISP's (Eircom and Magnet) at different times over the last 24 months when VDSL became available in our area. Our company's firewall handles our web traffic but also publishs a number of websites for us. Therefore we generally bridge our routers as aposed to setting up NAT. I have had very different issues and experiences with the OOTB kit provided by our ISPs. Many of these issues have been due to poor quality routers that have been rushed into the market, for home use primarilly and which fail to give the level of reliablility or functionality that businesses need. Some of these ISPs offer more expensive managed solution, and these are discribed as having better (undefined) SLAs. Interestly the first thing they do when inplementing these services is replace your router with a better, more functional device.

So my research tells me I should take control of the situation by purchasing my own VDSL router, but which one is the question? Maybe you have gone down this route and could tell me about your experiences? I am both open to general advice on manafacurures but it would be great to hear about specific devices you have been successful with in brdiged scenarios.

Thanks

Jonathan

ED E

Draytek Vigor 28xx(pick your submodel) is exactly what you need. Pro piece of kit.

Some_Person

ED E wrote: »

Draytek Vigor 28xx(pick your submodel) is exactly what you need. Pro piece of kit.

I don't think they support Vectoring though.

ED E

ITU-T G.993.5 = G.Vectoring, dont spot it in the specs list actually but I know they're in use here and have anecdotally that they are compliant.


https://twitter.com/DrayTek_NL/status/481776355676520448
https://twitter.com/DrayTek_NL/status/469012148757491712

They never updated their stats page. The 2960(N) is the powerhouse unit, the one you want if you really want an upgrade. Also you can failover to ADSL if uptime is important.

jbrownetweets

Thanks Ed E.

All my research into this type aligns with your recommendation. I have a couple of questions before we make the jump, maybe you can help.

We have an existing firewall running TMG 2010. We control VPN access, port control and web site publishing through this. I am wondering if the Vigour could replace this firewall completely? Especially I wondered could it carry out web publishing also?

If not, then I wondered if the Vigor 2860 could be placed in bridge mode instead, allowing pass through straight to our existing firewall without the need to NAT every port back to the firewall.

Thanks

ED E

Would depend on what you need/currently run. Its a well rounded unit but its wont compete with a fully fledged server unit in terms of flexibility.

Do you have a VPN endpoint separately or an instance on current gear?
If you needed the draytek to host that role then its pretty compatible:

Vigor routers with VPN capability provide a wide array of standard protocol support, providing flxible configuration options to suit your own prererences and good cross-compatiblity with other vendors products.

No 'per user' licencing for VPN users
Compatible with standard O/S VPN software clients
Supports multiple tunnels simultaneously
Multiple VPN Protocol support:
Dial-in or dial-out, LAN-to-LAN or Teleworker-to-LAN
Protocol support for PPTP, L2TP, IPSec
Authentication : MD-5 & SHA-1, PAP and CHAP
Encryption : MPPE, DES/3DES & AES
PFS (Perfect Forward Secrecy) - Adds additional key protection
Dead-Peer-Detection (Detects dead links for peerless connections)
Pre-shared/IKE keying & and PKI (X.509) certificate support
IKE Phase 1 Agressive/Main Modes & Phase 2 Selectable lifetimes
Radius Support for dial-in teleworker profiles
Tunnels selectable as dial-on-demand or always-on and direction selectable
Compatible with other leading 3rd party vendor VPN devices
IP Filtering within VPN Tunnels - allow/block specific LAN IP Addresses
Facilities/Support depends on Vigor model; please check model specification
3rd Party Vendor Compatibility
The Vigor routers have also been tested with VPN devices from other manufacturers. This includes Cisco™, Nokia™, Sonicwall™, Checkpoint™, ZyWall™ and Watchguard™ products.

The point really of buying the vigor is in my mind a) its a one appliance does all and b) it can failover between DSL and any other WAN interface. Im sure you CAN bridge it, but dont really see why you'd buy it for that. If bridging just get a basic VDSL2+ Modem and hook it up to a dual or quad gigE server that can handle your firewall, VPN instance, IIS/publishing etc etc.

Bog Standard User

Some_Person wrote: »

I don't think they support Vectoring though.

they do but you need the "delight" firmware versions

they are optimised for eircom lines

http://www.draytek.co.uk/support/downloads

Delight firmware release notes

Vigor 2760 - DrayOS / Delight Version

---

IMPORTANT NOTE: This firmware version is only suitable for
Vigor 2760 Series units which are already running DrayOS
('Delight') firmware, which is firmware 3.5.7 or later.
For more information see UK Knowledgebase article.

If you have a unit with firmware 1.x.x, please
download firmware for that O/S instead.
Firmwares are not compatible with each other.

File Types

---

.ALL File - Will upgrade firmware, keeping existing config/settings
.RST File - Will wipe all existing settings back to factory default

RELEASE NOTES

---

******************************************************************************
Release Notes for Vigor2760 DrayOS / Delight Version

Firmware Version : 3.7.5.2 (Formal Release)
Build Date : 18th June 2014
Release Date : 26th June 2014
Applicable Models : Vigor2760, 2760n, 2760Vn
Locale : UK Only
******************************************************************************

[New Features]
- None.

[Improvement]

1. Updated OpenSSL for CVE-2014-0224 CCS
2. Improved: Support all telnet commands in WEB console GUI.
3. Support Huawei E3131, Huawei E3276 and ZTE MF823 USB dongles.
4. Support ping diagnostic TR069 parameter


******************************************************************************
Firmware Version : 3.7.5.1 (Formal Release)
Build Date : Apr 24 2014 14:35:30
Release Date : 25th May 2014
Applicable Models : Vigor 2760, 2760n, 2760Vn
*** Must already have f/w 3.7.5 or later installed ***
Locale : UK / Ireland
******************************************************************************

Changes / Improvements

---

None - This is the first issue of DrayOS firmware


IF the draytek modem does not have delight/dray os firmware do not buy it.. it does not have vectoring support for eircom lines- ONLY BUY THE DELIGHT/DRAY OS VERSIONS

domeld

Cisco 897 VA will do a job