Where does one buy a DSL modem?

[TechnoPro]

Linksys, Motorola, and others make aftermarket cable modems. Not that I need a repalcement, but I'm wondering why I can't readily find DSL modems for sale. I was under the assumption that they were standardized so that they would work independant of ISP. Am I wrong?

 

[cmetz]

TechnoPro, your assumption is wrong. There are A LOT of standards in the DSL world and lot of different ways of using things, and the result is that a modem (or router) from one DSL provider might or might not work on another. This is especially a problem on SDSL -- in the ADSL world G.DMT seems to have won and it appears to be more standard. It's a real mess, so the simple answer is to just get whatever modem your provider gives out.

Frankly, the best way to get a replacement DSL modem is to check EBay and find a used one for the same provider.

In contrast, the early folks doing cable modem stuff put a lot of effort into ensuring that there was one real standard - DOCSIS. This in turn came about because the cable industry has Cable Labs, which is their R&D/standards group. In the telco space, there was Bell Labs and Bellcore, but with all the breakups they lost their importance, and the CLECs hardly card about standards anyway. The politics of the telco space as compared to the cable space is part of why DSL is a standardization mess while cable modems are pretty standardized.

 

[Matt84]

I don't know if it is the same in the states, but in Oz different ADSL providers have only a handful of supported DSL/routers etc. Even then if you buy one that is supported by your ISP but you didn't acquire it from them you can run into trouble like I did.

My ADSL provider gave me a DLink DSL-200 that was set up for my ISP. The usb device wasn't what I wanted and wouldn't work under Linux so I emailed TPG support and they told me they could sell me a DLink DSL-504 router that was supported but their price was way to expensive. I bought the same product from my local Harvey Norman for a fraction of the price and what do you know it wouldn't work. After half a day on the phone and a firmware upgrade I was able to get it working but its still not reliable.

I agree with cmetz - take what your provider gives you

 

[JackMDS]

Link to: Model 5515 ETHERNET ADSL Bridge Modem. ($69).:sun:

 

[Almighty1]

If your ADSL is provided by SBC (Pacific Bell, Ameritech, SNET, Southwestern Bell) or as long as it uses ANSI T1.413/DMT, you can just head to BestBuy where you can pick up the SBC Yahoo! modems for $74.95 after $15 mail in rebate. It's a Efficient Networks SpeedStream 5100.