upgrading to 120MB UPC - should I bother

bibibobo

I have been offered an upgrade from 30MB to 120MB. My 30MB has been very reliable and is probably fast enough for my needs. My setup at the moment is a UPC supplied Scientific Atlantic EPC2203 modem to which I have bridged to my new router (Tp Link WDR3600) which I am happy with. I have a lot of devices setup on the network, nas, various raspberry pi cameras etc accessible from outside the home via port forwarding. So I'm not your average user but I'm not an expert either...I am reasonably comfortable configuring my own lan and figuring stuff out.

To cut a long story short UPC are due to upgrade the modem but are unable to confirm the make and model and I won't know until the technician arrives to fit it. Now to me this is a problem as I read of alot of problems on boards with some of the hardware being supplied being troublesome particularly in relation to dropouts, problems setting up bridging, lack of port forwarding due something to do with IPV6 that I'm not exactly sure about. At this point I feel like cancelling the upgrade and sticking with what I have as I could do without all the hassle of a more restricted service.

Any thoughts??

bk

So it depends, here is the story:

Most of the dropouts are on the Cisco Docsis 3.0 modem due to it overheating, but this can be fixed by putting a simple USB powered fan under it. However they don't seem to issue this modem anymore, so it won't effect you.

Most people get either the Thomson or Technicolor router. Their wifi is relatively poor, but as a pure modem they seem to work well with no dropouts.

These routers don't have bridge mode in the web interface, but there is a way to turn on bridge mode via SNMP. However it doesn't seem to always work, that seems to be if you use an IPv4 address or IPv6 address. If you get an iPv6 address it seems to be possible to ask support to switch you back to IPv4.

A new model of router seems to have emerged last week. I don't think anyone has tried bridging it yet.

Even if you can't get your router bridged, I've found no problem simply connecting my wifi router to the UPC router and using it in non bridged mode. Some people say this might cause issues with double NAT, but in 9 months of using it like this, I've never seen any issues. So I wouldn't be too worried about it even if you can't get bridge working.

In the end you have to make up your own mind, but I think you will be fine.

bibibobo

I have given this some thought and read the thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=93968734&utm_source=notification&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=notification#post93968734 and decided to leave well enough alone. Not one person in upc could confirm make and model of modem, let me know if modem/router could definitely be bridged to allow use of my own router or indicate if port forwarding would continue to work. To add to my issues with them they said they would courier out a modem to me only to find out in subsequent calls that an install tech would be visiting. This I found out on further calls was chargeable even though it was never mentioned during sales calls. From my multiple calls with them many of their staff seem clueless about basic things. I blame the management and their poor structure. I think I'll stay on my 30mb package and leave my perfectly working scientific atlanta epc2203 modem alone.