On 14 September 2016 at 21:40, Michael Dorrington michael.dorrington@member.fsf.org wrote:
On 14/09/16 21:17, J. R. Haigh wrote:
if there's an OSH VDSL2/ADSL2+ modem that can show diagnostics then I'd gladly get 3 of them! . Otherwise, please advise me on recommendations of the freeëst such modem(s) available.
I would like to have that too.
Sadly, as far as I know, the most free solution is to have a non-free router/modem in bridged mode for the DSL and then do PPPoE and upwards on your free software and free hardware router.
That is what I would suspect also. ISTR that the modem bit tends to be done using SoCs from Broadcom and the like — vendors not known for the openness... — with DSP capabilities added to handle the (de)modulation, which with modern data rates would probably require a fairly hefty device to achieve the same with a general purpose processor.
I should also imagine that the DSP firmware is highly proprietary and probably has to be certified by the Broadband Forum or similar, such that if you use a non-type approved (expensive process!) hardware/firmware combination and as a result end up causing nuisance, the penalty may be high. This is all just a guess and I'd love to be proved wrong :o)
Cheers,
Andrew