Talking

Today I grabbed another modem router for testing in my ADSL line.TP-Link is No.1 market share holder in China and has been a global player in the market.The product is quite cheap compared to D-Link or Linksys,however,the comments are quite positive.

TP-Link TD-8816 is said to have TrendChip inside.Through the past testing period,I found the heat from this stuff is less than D-Link DSL2542B.However,it shows higher line attenuation and lower SNR margin compared to the D-Link modem.Perhaps it approves some hearsay that Broadcom chipset could get better result on a bad quality line whereas TrendChip chipset could sync faster and stable at a good quality line.

Connecting with my D-Link modem thereafter under the same modulation,it could easily get the downstream line attenuation at 43.5db and SNR margin at 27-28db.I think you had seen the difference although that won’t be a lot and definitely the winner is D-Link DSL 2542B.

However,if you ask me which one I will choose,TP-Link will be my choice.Well,at least it allows me to manually connect/disconnect on the web-based control panel(ie. get a new IP address and minimizes the possibility of overheat issue.

Let me sum it up:TP-Link sells goods with a cheaper price,but the quality is not cheap at all.

D-link DSL2542B equips with Broadcom 96338 chipset which is quite powerful and stable working at a fluctuating environment.However,it can be perfect without a nice firmware which instructs the rules properly.Flash a new firmware will never be a tough job.

Before we visit the modem,we have to download the latest firmware first.The firmware provided here is released on December 2008 and only for D-link DSL 2542B.You can download it here and unzip it later.Now I’m going to teach you how to complete it quickly and correctly.

(1) Type 192.168.1.1 into Internet Explorer to login into the modem control panel(default login ID and password is ‘admin‘).Please be noted to use IE here as I found Firefox and Opera will lead to some unknown issue during the upgrade.By the way,if you changed modem IP/login ID/password before,please type in the right one to get access to the modem.

(2) Go to the following directory into the left sidebar:Management ->Update Software.

Please Press ‘Browse…’ under Tools–Update Software-Step 3(which is in Chinese in the above picture) and choose the file named ‘DSL-2542B-SE_1.10_12162008_cfe_fs_kernel’ in ‘Image’ folder which is in your unzipped file,then press ‘Update Software’ button.

Since now you should wait for around 1-2 mins to let the modem complete the rest procedures.After an automatic reboot,your modem will be ready to use.

That is the whole thing for flashing firmware in D-link DSL2542B.The only thing you should remember is to follow the steps carefully.All right,you could try it yourself now.

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I just bought a new ADSL2+ modem today-D-link DSL2542B.

My ADSL line(Streamyx) quality is not good because of the bad copper connecting between the cabinet and DSLAM.Thus,the free modem given by TM-Billion 5112S can’t get a stable connection always.I googled a lot to dig out how to get a low line attenuation and high SNR margin to achieve a much steady online experience and I found that the modems which are built with Broadcom chipset normally could gain a good result on a bad condition.That’s the reason why I choose this modem.

I have to say that it does work well at current condition.Here’s the ADSL information from the modem:

The downstream SNR margin shows consistently at 28-29db whereas the downstream line attenuation becomes at 43.5db,slightly lower than before.

The TM technician who I’m familiar with is still looking for a way to let me have a better line attenuation in order to fulfill the requirements applying to upgrade to 4Mbps.I wish that will be a way indeed.

Through doing the settings and testing,I met some questions and didn’t solve yet.

• I can’t get it work once I set this modem at bridge mode connecting with Linksys WRT54GL router.
• It seems like only auto connection could be done in the modem.I can’t manually connect or disconnect one session.

Anybody has solutions?