New 8900 R2

[DaveMac]

Hi. A proud owner of a new 8900ax R2 with a couple of questions for the ‘sage’ members of the forum.

I’ve recently installed the 8900 R2 as a replacement for a Draytek 2710n which has served me well for over 6 years. I live ‘out in the sticks’ and have a relatively poor ADSL connection but with the Draytek I was able to achieve a download rate of 3.7-4.0 Mbps without any line drops with a fixed SNR margin of 6dB and 59dB Attenuation.

With the number of devices in the household now able to connect via the3 ‘ac’ band I thought it an opportune time to find a router that offered both ‘n’ & ‘ac’ WiFi with the added bonus of a router that would allow me to tweak the SNR margin as well.

New router is up and running, all relevant ports forwarded, SNR dropped to 4 and holding well, IP’s fixed where they need to be and all connected devices are working well through the router.

Now for the questions:

a. I configured my Draytek (as advised by my ISP-Zen Internet), to connect via G.Dmt as I was so far away from the cabinet. When I configure the 8900 R2 to connect via G.Dmt, I get a lower attainable rate than I do if I select ADSL2, is this the norm? Or is there another setting hidden somewhere (to me anyway) that will assist with the G.Dmt modulation?

b. Can you recommend a good ‘ac’ repeater/range extender (happy with one that plus into a power socket) that will work well with the 8900 R2.

c. Whilst I use a VPN (Private Internet Access) on both my PC and NAS, can this be configured to work directly on the 8900 R2 so that all traffic is routed via the VPN?

Many thank in anticipation of advice and or direction.

I’ve attached a couple of snapshots of my current status.

Dave

[billion_fan]

Hi. A proud owner of a new 8900ax R2 with a couple of questions for the ‘sage’ members of the forum.

I’ve recently installed the 8900 R2 as a replacement for a Draytek 2710n which has served me well for over 6 years. I live ‘out in the sticks’ and have a relatively poor ADSL connection but with the Draytek I was able to achieve a download rate of 3.7-4.0 Mbps without any line drops with a fixed SNR margin of 6dB and 59dB Attenuation.

With the number of devices in the household now able to connect via the3 ‘ac’ band I thought it an opportune time to find a router that offered both ‘n’ & ‘ac’ WiFi with the added bonus of a router that would allow me to tweak the SNR margin as well.

New router is up and running, all relevant ports forwarded, SNR dropped to 4 and holding well, IP’s fixed where they need to be and all connected devices are working well through the router.

Now for the questions:

a. I configured my Draytek (as advised by my ISP-Zen Internet), to connect via G.Dmt as I was so far away from the cabinet. When I configure the 8900 R2 to connect via G.Dmt, I get a lower attainable rate than I do if I select ADSL2, is this the norm? Or is there another setting hidden somewhere (to me anyway) that will assist with the G.Dmt modulation?

b. Can you recommend a good ‘ac’ repeater/range extender (happy with one that plus into a power socket) that will work well with the 8900 R2.

c. Whilst I use a VPN (Private Internet Access) on both my PC and NAS, can this be configured to work directly on the 8900 R2 so that all traffic is routed via the VPN?

Many thank in anticipation of advice and or direction.

I’ve attached a couple of snapshots of my current status.

Dave

a. I would leave the settings on ADSL2 if you are getting a better sync rate

b. I will let someone else advise on wireless extenders, but I would go for the homeplug/powerline devices

c. You can setup your device as VPN Client, I would advise using the PPTP client, its pretty straight forward setup, eg enter your server address, username and password set the 'Auth. Type' to MS Chap etc