OTE Conn-X 2Mbit --> Conn-X 24Mbit

[Xandrios]

...first of my apologies for writing in English. While I try to learn Greek, I am not yet at the level of being able to have a technical discussion in Greek. So I hope you guys won't mind that I post this in English..

At our house in Greece we used to have OTE ADSL, a very old package at 2Mbit without any additional data or voice services. Nowadays even the fast 24Mbit packages are cheaper, so we decided to 'upgrade'. We were told in the OTE store this would be active in a few hours.

A few hours passed, a few days passed...and I had to leave for work abroad. I had only just left and my girfriend called to say the internet had stopped working. Right now it has been off line for a day.

The tech support says it has to do with the modem, we have the old Thomson 530 ADSL(v1) modem. They have sent an ADSLv2 modem but it will take days to deliver. And I doubt this is the problem: Should an ADSL2+ connection not work at 8Mbit ADSLv1 with an old modem?

From searching on the OTE site I found some installation instructions and noticed that PPPoE should be used. Our modem is configured with PPPoA. Over the phone I explained how to change this setting in the Thomson modem to PPPoE...leaving a few fields blank (access concentrator?)...but nothing. It does not work.

Does anybody here have any experience with moving from 2Mbit OTE to 24MBit Conn-X? Should the Thomson modem be able to work at 8Mbit, or could there be something wrong with the line? Or is the Thomson modem indeed unable to connect when the line is provisioned for 24Mbit, and do we really have to wait for the new modem to arrive?

Thanks guys! And again I apologise for the English. I hope you (And especially the moderators) do not mind.

[Seitman]

Hallo and welcome

Tech support is right. Your current equipment is not compatible with the ADSL2+ standard which the 24Mbps lines comply. If your modem supported the ADSL2 standard, you could use it temporarily at 8Mbps until the new equipment arrives.

But now, you have to wait the new one to have internet access again.

[Xandrios]

Hallo and welcome

Tech support is right. Your current equipment is not compatible with the ADSL2+ standard which the 24Mbps lines comply. If your modem supported the ADSL2 standard, you could use it temporarily at 8Mbps until the new equipment arrives.

But now, you have to wait the new one to have internet access again.

Hi Seitman, thank you very much for the welcome and your help!

I was under the impression that when the DSLAM has been provisioned for ADSL2, it would be backwards compatible with older ADSL1 modems. It would not work on 24Mbit, but at 8Mbit or lower (Because this is the maximum for ADSL1).

Does OTE not allow to use ADSL1 modems with an ADSL2 line? Or could it be another issue, like PPPoA/PPPoE authentication?

[Seitman]

Lets put the things in some order.

When you say "it stopped working" you mean that your modem doesn't synchronize at all with the ADSL or it's synchronized and you don't have internet access?


Now that I am thinking about the compatibility you mentioned, the ADSL2+ DSLAM's are not compatible with ADSL1 modems, but ADSL2+ modems are with the ADSL1 DSLAM's. This is the definition of backwards compatibility. A newer device is compatible with the old technology, but you can't ask an old device to be compatible with new technology.

[Xandrios]

Lets put the things in some order.
When you say "it stopped working" you mean that your modem doesn't synchronize at all with the ADSL or it's synchronized anf you don't have internet access?

The DSL signal was lost. The modem does not connect through PPPoA, does not 'train' at a certain speed (ie 2048 or 8192 Kbit), basically has no connection to the DSLAM. Changing the connection method to PPPoE did not change that.

Now that I am thinking about the compatibility you mentioned, the ADSL2+ DSLAM's are not compatible with ADSL1 modems, but ADSL2+ modems are with the ADSL1 DSLAM's. This is the definition of backwards compatibility. A newer device is compatible with the old technology, but you can't ask an old device to be compatible with new technology.

Are you sure? I know it is a different situation, but in Holland where I used to have ADSL, the ADSL2 DSLAM was able to be "backwards compatible" and run in ADSL1 mode. So even though the modem is old, the DSLAM (which is new) is able to run in the "old ADSL1 mode". Maybe it is different for OTE?

Thanks!

[Seitman]

Besides the change to PPPoE, did you checked the VPI/VCI setting? It should be set to 8.35 in the case of PPPoE.

About the compatibility, I had in mind something like the Wi-Fi modes, b/g/n. The n mode capable equipment is compatible with the b/g modes. But b/g capable, is not with the n mode.