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Thread ID: 126204 2012-08-13 20:53:00 NB6Plus4Wn - Chill CliveM (6007) Press F1
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1294520 2012-08-13 20:53:00 This unit it seems is no longer available. Ascent does not have it. PBTech lists it as an end of life product. What do you recommend in view of the above Chill? CliveM (6007)
1294521 2012-08-13 21:14:00 (new stock due 20 Aug)

Ascent
sk69ersnz (13476)
1294522 2012-08-13 23:18:00 Yeah I was dreading this coming up. Unfortunately I'm semi-broke right now and can't afford to go through half a dozen new routers to test them.

The NB6Plus4Wn is end-of-life. I've spoken with NetComm Aus/NZ and they're not making any more. Officially the NB604N is the replacement (The one that TelstraClear give to their customers) but from what I can gather it's more based upon the NB6Plus4W which is based on the RTA1025W... None of which are as reliable as the NB6Plus4Wn, and the NB604N is not reliable. I've done testing and it falls over pretty quickly when playing TeamFortress2 / DotA2, as well as running SIP devices behind it. NetComm wouldn't commend on the matter to me.

So, *don't* buy the NB604N!

I've done some minimal testing of the Asus DSL-N12U though (A friend picked one up and I was intrigued) and from my initial experiences it's quite decent! Don't go for the "E" model, that's the enviro-friendly / economy / cut-down model, however the N12U so far has performed pretty damn well and taken quite a beating.
I'm still waiting for him to let me into the WebUI so I can check a few things out, but needless to say it's worked quite well "out-of-the-box" thus far and I'm (initially) impressed by it.

If you're looking to play guinea pig, I'm keen for some feedback on it ;) Specifically I'm looking to do more with SIP from behind it, as well as investigating the WebUI and how easy it is to do a few things...
Chilling_Silence (9)
1294523 2012-08-13 23:44:00 www.pbtech.co.nz

I've been very impressed with those, using at home now, work, and in quite a few locations around, have had a very good run. 3 year warranty.
wratterus (105)
1294524 2012-08-13 23:58:00 www.pbtech.co.nz

I've been very impressed with those, using at home now, work, and in quite a few locations around, have had a very good run. 3 year warranty.
That's a modem and a router? Might try to convince my dad to replace our dying netgear with one of those; he wouldn't go with the 2 that Chill suggested.
Nick G (16709)
1294525 2012-08-14 00:07:00 Yeah the TP-Links have improved *very* significantly in the last 18-odd months, however their WebUI is still not terribly friendly, there's just something about it that I can't qquite put my hand on... That and TP-Link are renowned for making hardware / software / firmware changes without changing the Revision number they use.

For example the TP-Link WR1043ND Rev 1.8, some have a new bootloader which pwns 3rd party firmware by mucking around with the WAN port, bringing it up and down and up and down during boot, which was their way of fixing a DHCP overflow (Passthrough?) issue from WAN -> LAN. That's cool and all, but call those devices Rev 1.9 instead.
But no, so some of the Rev 1.8 devices have this new bootloader, some don't... Makes it a PITA when you're sussing out 3rd party firmware, amongst other things.

The last TP-Link stuff didn't seem to hold a DSL connection as reliably, it seemed to try and sync faster than everything else I'd use on the same line, and be not *quite* as reliable as some of the others in terms of keeping sync, however if you changed your DSL profile to something more robust that could alleviate the issue (Which I ended up doing for two users). That I believe has been fixed in newer firmware versions though, and again that was 18 -> 24 months ago.

Otherwise, aside from those few 'shortcomings', yeah I'll agree they've improved a lot and are pretty decent :)
Chilling_Silence (9)
1294526 2012-08-14 00:14:00 Might try to convince my dad to replace our dying netgear with one of those; he wouldn't go with the 2 that Chill suggested.

Aww why not? :(

Wait two that I suggested?!
Chilling_Silence (9)
1294527 2012-08-14 00:51:00 Thanks for the comments Chill. CliveM (6007)
1294528 2012-08-14 00:58:00 Aww why not? :(

Wait two that I suggested?!
Yup, two. There was a Draytek and then a TP-link running Gargoyle.
And as to why not, he seems to think that a netgear (model released in 2004) that is only g standard, and is so close to dying it needs to be unplugged and then replugged 5+ times a day is fine and works ok.
Needless to say, we have a difference of opinion on this matter :p
Nick G (16709)
1294529 2012-08-14 01:01:00 Yeah. That or the NB6Plus4Wn which is now end-of-life, so it could be a good chance to give the N16U a whirl :D Chilling_Silence (9)
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