Grandstream HT-502 V1.1B options and PPPoE

This message is for Tim and the rest of the staff but others may find it of interest as well. My goal is only to help you improve your product which overall I am very happy with. ;)

Quote from the documentation provided " Since the device is designed to be connected directly to your modem, VOIPo does not provide troubleshooting if you choose to" (choose to connect it behind your router).

First, I will just go ahead and say I have AT&T DSL.
Up to 6.0 Mbps Down / Up to 768 Kbps Up (with PPPoE overhead its more like 5.5/650 ).

A lot of people who use DSL and have a router installed have to let their router handle the PPPoE connection. I used to have a problem with my internet disconnecting all the time and I figured out on my own after having several of their techs come to home and my DSL modem replaced several times that if I put the PPPoE connection on my router that all the problems went away.

I went to dslreports.com and explained the issue in a post in the At&t direct forums (hoping they would figure out what is wrong with their DSL modems).

This was their answer. This is a exact quote from someone at AT&T direct.
"I would let the router do the PPPoE. I have heard some reports that the 2210's and several other dsl modems seem to be having problems with a wide variety of routers and PPPoE. So far most like this have been cleared with moving the PPPoE to the routing device instead of the modem."

Now because of that and the fact that VOIPo's documentation makes it clear that you want the DSL modem attached directly to the ATA I have tested this. What I found was that yes the ATA itself can hold a PPPoE connection but the internet service itself suffered even when not on a call.

With the ATA behind my router I can average speeds of 5MB + down and about 630+ up. Reverse the setup and I get closer to 1MB/down and the upload was not pretty either. I tested using several different servers and used the same servers in all my tests. Even setting the ip of my router to DMZ on the ATA did not change the results.

I would be interested in hearing from others on what they have found as far as changes in download/upload speed changes when connected modem -> ATA -> Router -> computer vs modem -> router -> ATA.

The other things I experimented with and found that I wanted you to be aware of are:

1. Telnet server can not be disabled
2. DNS server settings can not be changed.
3. WAN side HTTP/Telnet access can not be disabled.

I have no idea why you would not want customers to be able to disable telnet on the WAN side because that is just a security risk. As for DNS servers I prefer OPENDNS instead of my isp's lame DNS servers. I have DD-WRT installed on my Linksys WRT54GS V6 so I will just use iptables to force DNS to go where I want it to go.

In closing this post I will say that Tim has already advised me in a support ticket that I should go ahead and keep the ATA behind my router and I am happy with it that way but what about new customers who try to connect it as instructed? It takes a lot of time to reconfigure your entire network and then its frustrating to say the least when you figure out you have to undo all your work.

Thanks,