Using a Huawei Echolife HG-521 on sky (do you have too spoof MAC's?)

[snadge]

Hi

I just got a Talk Talk branded Huawei EchoLife HG-521 , its tiny (about 3" x 3" x 1") from a neighbour who is being sent them every few months.

I thought I would try it out, after some quick googling I found out that its supposedly a TREND chipset and has had reports of poor connection speeds and iffy Wi-Fi.

it says on the back of it that its only Wireless B&G - yet reports online say its 130Mbps, to my surprise its actually a 300Mbps N class router when used in 20/40mHz mode which is default and 130Mbps in 20mHz mode

again, to my surprise (after reading about poor syncs) it actually syncs at 16.9Mb the same as the sky hub and slightly better than the 2504N and much better than DG834GT and DG834N which both sync around 15.5Mb - it also said my Line Attenuation was now a whopping 29db!! thats highest ive ever had it - normally 26db.

now problem is this: no internet... Iam thinking its because I cant spoof the MAC address on this, funny thing is ive read that some users dont need to 'spoof mac' to get a connection, I have too with my Netgears but I did revert the MAC on my 834GT once and it stayed connected for about 1 week before being cut off.

I changed the settings in the WAN section to match sky's using a generated login from my sky-hub's MAC+WIFI KEY - I wonder if thats why? and its not generated from my 2504N, I may try later - im sure I got my o2 branded Speedtouch 585v6 too work on sky without mac spoofing.

Also the HG-521 had this option which I have not seen in other routers before and I just left it on one that was already in use:

service type:
UBR without PCR <- used this one
UBR with PCR
CBR
Non-Realtime VBR
Realtime VBR

Iam just curious as to how many people have to spoof MAC's and how many dont..and wonder why some can get a connection without spoofing and some cant..

[NewsreadeR]

It will probably work if you use the username and the password from the Sagem?

The Hub's username and password and LAN MAC are all the same values.

[snadge]

Hi NR,

yeah thats what I was thinking - I have loaned the 2504N to a neighbour who's 3 month old 2504N died on them last night, sky are sending them a new one so I loaned them mine until it comes, so will have to wait until I get it back.

I was surprised to see it sync so high (Trend chipset) and have really good wi-fi signal for such a small little box, its about the same size as 2 x 10 packs of cig's put together lol...

the sky rep told my neighbour that the 2504N is notorious for failing...is this true to your knowledge?

cheers

[NewsreadeR]

the sky rep told my neighbour that the 2504N is notorious for failing...is this true to your knowledge?

No not really, there are issues with the PSU failing, but in all fairness, there are multiple reports of all the models' PSUs failing as well.

Obviously we don't know the exact number of failures from any of the Sky routers, but I would guess Sky would be fairly happy with reliability or they wouldn't still be using them.

Mine has been OK with 13 months of continuous use, far better than any of the previous ones imo - Apart from the DG834GT as that was absolutely solid. Still have mine in the garage I think somewhere.

[snadge]

yeah I think its a PSU issue because its dead completely...no power, ive got the dead one actually, when I get mine back i will try my PSU in it and see if it starts, mine has been ok but only had about 2-3 months use in total...if that, its been one of the best routers ive ever had, Im just waiting for someone to hack it, someone on here has offered to send Mrmt32 a 2504N for him to work on for supplying hacked firmware..