Draytek routers

[tamalero]

Not likely. Draytek has stopped responding to email...again.

what a shame.. anyway I got some information from their emails, they were pretty nice to tell me that information.

Thank you for your interest on Draytek products.
> > Below are the information you required for your reference.
> > 1. NAT RX performance
> > Vigor2820 WAN1: 19.5Mbps; WAN2: 53Mbps
> > Vigor2920 WAN1: 93Mbps; WAN2: 182Mbps
> >
> > 2. Supported NAT sessions
> > Vigor2820: 15000
> > Vigor2920: 50000

WAN1 = ADSL port
WAN2 = LAN

I suppose I should wait for the 2830 Series to buy.
I wonder how long that would take.. since the lowend (1130n) are the ones out right now..and they still require a external modem...

and since can't find any online store that has the VIGOR120 modems...

The 2820 does not support IP6 at this time. Only the 2130 series handles IP6.

Note I'm biased since we're a Draytek reseller but we have the 2820n running with an ADSL line and a Cable line balanced in our small office and it's rock solid.

We're able to dynamically allocate bandwidth/QOS to our voip calls and force them to go out the DSL line since our cable line has frequent changes in latency that mess up voip calls.

We also had the 2930vn at our office for a few months before I sold it to a customer and it gave us zero problems.

The Commtouch web filter integration also works great for protecting one's household from inappropriate web sites.

Blair Collins
draytek.interlockit.com
blog.interlockit.com

The problem is the "at this time".
I asked if the 2920 and 2820 series will get a firmware upgrade in the future.. I got a rotund NO.

For the IPv6 support, Vigor2130 is the only Vigor model which supports IPv6 at the moment.
> > Other Vigor routers like Vigor2820/2920 are not able to support IPv6 due to OS limitation.
> > If you have any queries or advice, please share with us.

wich gives me mixed signals (theres one website that claims Draytek Spain confirmed that the 20 series (2820n..etc...) will get a firmware upgrade to ipV6. http://blog.wl0.org/2010/07/checking-ipv6-support-in-my-existing-hardware/ thats the link, the IPAWARE model would indeed be the 1130 series).

 

[ronsnb]

2830

Following a typo when googling about 2820, I found this page about 2830:
http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/Shop/ShopDetail.asp?ProductID=10018

There are some specs.

I asked Draytek about that and the answer is:
"Vigor 2830 is a upcoming product, but we are not sure when it will be available. Release time is not decided yet."
It couldn't have more from a company launching new products. This is as all people do.

 

[medusakeith]

I'd spotted DrayTek latest Gb WAN router's review here, Vigor 2130n, which is with over hundreds Mbps speed. They said, Vigor 2130n earn around 800Mbps in their lab testing.

 

[medusakeith]

Dennis, you may try this web site: http://us.draytek.com. There are several product info. update about DrayTek routers. It's seemingly, they are releasing new migration model after Vigor 2910, 4G WiMAX/or LTE router (VigorFly 200), Vigor 2130 to the States. I'd also heard from my pal that DrayTek is about to offer a Multi-WAN router with OoS/Bandwidth Management facility which would help to get multi subscription lines. You may drop them a line there to get what you'd want to learn from them directly, I think..

 

[epsully]

OK - they say people only speak up when a product is defective, but in my case I'm so impressed that I feel the need for a 'shout out'. It's been almost 12 months now and my Draytek 2820Vn has not dropped once, not once, the entire time. Initially on a cable modem, now on an AT&T ADSL connection (cheap right now), there have been occasions when I've had up to to 15 devices connected at once both wired and wirelessly, some with heavier volume loads like VPN on work laptop, Netflix, Lingo, eMule, and Skype video (at the same time) and the thing doesn't blink. And maybe this home office usage looks like peanuts compared to others, but previous linksys and two netgears couldn't handle it.

I've gotten to the point where it is the absolute last thing I expect to have an issue with. I couldn't connect to my home server over the holidays while in Miami, and figured the causes were 1) my laptop configuration 2) the power went out; 3) we were robbed and all equipment stolen; 4) the Draytek was down... seriously in that order. As it turns out, the Synology server had failed to reboot after a power outage, and I didn't get an admin e-mail notification.

Have to add that as a neophyte, I've enjoyed almost as much the entertainment value of researching, learning and playing around with the advanced security, VPN and Voip options.

As a US based user, Draytek has been absolutely rock solid after one year.

 

[NSNE]

Spotted this thread during a Google trawl and registered just to chime in.

I've been a DrayTek user since 2008 when I purchased the 2910VG. I upgraded to the 2110Vn (the promise of faster wireless was too good to pass up) in 2009, and I'm currently in the process of bugging DrayTek to sell me a 2310Vn directly because no US resellers carry it at present. My reason for moving to the 2310Vn is on account of Gigabit Ethernet and its USB apps.

I should note that my first two DrayTeks were bought in Germany, where they're much more readily available.

My experience with DrayTeks hasn't always been smooth sailing, but when they get it right they get it really right. I'm a big fan of their exhaustive feature set and price.

I've blogged privately about these models; some of you might find them interesting:

Some early gripes with the 2910VG: http://bit.ly/evm3hz
Two weeks with the 2110Vn: http://bit.ly/5uhb0W
One year with the 2110Vn: http://bit.ly/hY17xn

I do agree with what a few folks have said about DrayTek's apparent aversion to marketability. It's as if they're trying to make it as hard as possible to sell a strong product. Some of the resellers I've spoken with have said that the company reps go AWOL for long stretches at a time, and that they get insulted if it's suggested that their English needs improvement.

But I'm glad to hear others singing their praises. DrayTek routers have been the magic ingredient in my home networking adventures.

 

[Osamede]

I suspect that they (Dreytek) are simply operating on a different strategy than the others. Many of these companies (Netgear, D-Link etc) are obviously operating on a model of high visibility, available in bix box stores and online at low margins - and they make a dinky product that they expect you to keep for 6 months before it konks out and you go back and buy their new flavour of the month replacement model. In contrast Draytek seems to focus more on small business market vis a hand full of resellers with close ties to the customers. Any consumer sales seem to be incremental for them, not the main market.

So thats what you see here. I think they just arent playing ball with the whole game of buying their way into consumer review websites and magazines via adverstisement quid pro quo, etc - which frankly is the way it goes in most places. I've seen it in far too many segments of the electronic and consumer goods industries to imagine believe that it doesnt happen here too.

But fair play to them for sticking to their guns - i suspect that it keep their business more stable and that they do pick up a lot of word of mouth recommendations. Typically if use their products the experience is quite addictive, so hey why not just let the product speak for itself.

 

[NSNE]

But fair play to them for sticking to their guns

I wonder how much of it comes down to ideology and how much of it comes down to incompetence.

Seriously, I've dealt with DrayTek support and sales on a number of occasions, and I get the sense that they'd like to up their game a bit but haven't much of a clue how to do it.

To give a loosely related example, right now they're holding a poorly worded prize contest for existing customers who complete a survey on the MyVigor portal. Only, the MyVigor portal doesn't work very well (they were supposed to have migrated to it last fall) and for a while you'd get caught in a login loop if you tried to register your product or take the survey, which was contingent upon registering your product.

DrayTek support has been logging in to their own website from my router using a VPN connection I set up for them — and after a week, they still haven't come close to fixing the problem.

So, like I said in my earlier post, when they get it right, they really get it right. But sometimes it's an exercise in frustration to get to that point.

 

[NSNE]

I wanted to address my previous post with some minor qualifications and retractions.

As I noted, I've been dealing with DrayTek for several years now and have always been impressed by their dedication to customer service. But there was an amateurish quality to the business side of the company that was disappointing.

Over the past two weeks, though, I've been kind of amazed at their receptiveness to suggestions and feedback. I have no idea what's responsible for the change, or if it's a sincere change at all, but in this short timespan they've really reached out to address some of my longstanding criticisms (mostly in terms of product availability and quality of communication). As a result, I'm left feeling very positive toward the company and its efforts to get things right.

At any rate, it certainly stands in stark contrast to my consumer-level dealings with other tech companies.

Just thought I'd note all that for anyone contemplating a DrayTek router.

 

[PHyLIX]

Very happy with Draytek!

I've posted on these forums before but I just ordered my 2nd Draytek 2950g for a different location. After having numerous problems with my netgear mid-range router (can't remember model right now...) I switched and was VERY happy with the Draytek. I too assume the draytek is the last piece of equipment to fail the few times that there are problems with my setup.

Strongly recommend to anyone and don't let the small distribution model and they way they handle support/marketing dissuade you. Their product sells itself. For the price/features/relaibility... I do not look at other hardware from other manufacturers given the price point.

Can't recommend enough.

 

[ugo1]

hi

in Vigor 2130 I can isolate computers using vlans?

I want that the computer on vlan1 is not able to talk with computer on vlan 2 is ythat possible?

regards

go

 

[thiggins]

Yes. The 2130 supports VLANs.

 

[NSNE]

I've just posted an extensive, if idiosyncratic, review of the DrayTek 2130Vn on my blog: http://bit.ly/gR371Q

Feedback on your experiences or issues that I overlooked would be appreciated. It doesn't approach the strict testing of SNB's review of the 2130n, but it does give a full account of my real-world use over a period of about a month.

 

[GlynH]

I have had my DrayTek Vigor 2820Vn working well here in the UK for many years now connected to O2 on their up to 24MB service although my router reports connection @7.1MB real world testing indicates 5-6MB Download & 750KB Upload speeds due to my distance from the exchange.

Great router with a fantastic feature set...everyone who sees it and plays with it wants one but I have a question that I wondered if some kind soul could help me with please?

Yesterday I had BT Infinity FTTC installed and according to the Engineers equipment I have 40MB/10MB although earlier line tests indicated 32MB/8MB which I am still pleased about.

I have setup WAN2 to listen for a PPoE signal and plugged a Cat6 cable from the BT vDSL modem to 2820 WAN2 port.

Router showing WAN2 connected and reporting IP address & Gateway correctly. So far so good. But...and there's always a but...most traffic still seems to go through WAN1 so it looks like some Load-Balancing is called for.

Now here is where it gets interesting (confusing) and I would like some advice on a few scenarios here please if possible;

1. If I wanted to set WAN2 as the default connection ie. the connection used by EVERYTHING on the network and just use WAN1 as failover where & what settings would I change to achieve this please?

2. If I wanted to set one or more specific DEVICES to use WAN2 ie. Workstation, TV etc where/what/how would I achieve this please?

3. if I wanted certain PROGRAMS or specific APPLICATIONS to access WAN2 in preference to WAN1 (or vice-versa of course) what would I need to setup to achieve this please?

Hopefully if I can get my head round the above I will be well on my way to understanding how it all works and will save struggling & asking lots more questions!

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

 

[NSNE]

I have no experience with a second WAN, and a quick glance at the WebUI on my 2130Vn doesn't give me any indication of how to answer your questions for my or any DrayTek router.

But it might be wise to forward your questions on to DrayTek support. They seem to be as geeky as the rest of us, so they'd enjoy coming up with a solution (if one exists) to this sort of problem.

I've had good luck asking them questions on how to achieve a certain setup — they'll tell you how to do it, tell you that it can't be done, or even add new features in future FW releases to make it possible. The only caveat is that you might have to put questions in very clear English to make sure you're fully understood.

 

[GregN]

I think our resident Draytek expert is Dennis Wood, and he tends to be very helpful, and seems to have experience around dual WAN configs. Take a look at the pfSense for newbies thread....

 

[GlynH]

Thanks for the replies guys!

I was going to email DrayTek but the last reply I got on a different issue wasn't shall we say...inspirational or helpful

Anyway it was the weekend and I am impatient if nothing else so after drawing a blank in a few forums I dug a little deeper.

It appears I may have answered my own question though...I was reading through the DrayTek Telnet Commands Reference Guide and came across the 'ip route' command.

If issued 'ip route default ?' the status of the static path would be displayed as either wan1, wan2 or off. Mine revealed off.

If I then issued 'ip route default wan2' the 2820 seemed to make WAN2 the default route...according to my speedtesting where before most of the time WAN1 was being used by default as my speeds were 5-6MB down & 750KB up with the odd test being 35MB/7MB

Since issuing the above command all of the numerous speedtests I have done have indicated 35MB/7MB.

The US DrayTek website has an entry in the FAQ that seemed to back this up although there was a preliminary step in Load-Balancing that I ignored but as I said it seems to work.

Link here FYI and that of others who might want to tread the same path;

http://www.draytek.com/user/SupportFAQDetail.php?ID=2034

I would welcome any other comments on whether this 'solution' seems to be the way to go or not?

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

 

[Dennis Wood]

WAN - LOAD BALANCE POLICY is what you need. Set one rule to send "any" to WAN2 and you're done...all traffic goes to wan2 (the rule lets you set Wan1 as failover or vice versa) You may also want to direct traffic likely for several ports depending on the speed of your links. For example, if one has faster upload speeds, you may want to direct port 21 there etc. Just keep in mind that the rules are read in sequence. By default, in load balance mode all traffic will go to WAN1 until the pipe is full, then onward to WAN2 unless you define rules otherwise.

http://www.draytek.com/user/SupportAppnotesDetail.php?ID=979

Also, make sure you set up Load Balance Mode under WAN - General setup for each connection. I found using the setting "According to line speed" and specifying each WAN's link connection (upload and download) works well.

http://www.draytek.com/user/SupportAppnotesDetail.php?ID=977
and
http://www.draytek.com/user/SupportAppnotesDetail.php?ID=975

Btw, this all based on the 2950 firmware/GUI...your setup may differ.

Cheers,
Dennis.

 

[GlynH]

Hi Dennis,

Thanks for the reply...I hear what you say and have read the DrayTek .pdf's you referred although I still don't propose to understand it fully...

I still feel however that the simplest way to achieve what I need might be via the CLI method I detailed above?

This way there seems to be no messing with rules, settings etc. and it just works.

To my ignorance there seems to be one 'gotcha' with DrayTeks implementation of Dual WAN. From what I have read it would appear WAN1 is assumed to be the priority or default connection using cable/fibre/LAN etc with WAN2 being the default failover using ADSL.

The 2820 follows this convention but WAN1 is always the built-in ADSL modem which can never achieve the higher speed of WAN2 when attached to cable, fibre etc.

Using the CLI command to effectively switch the default ports to make WAN2 the default still seems the most efficient way of achieving this to me.

Reading the first DrayTek .pdf you referred to it states;

Check for;
1. Routing table
2. Load-Balance Policy
3. Load-Balance Cache

If MATCH then go specified WAN1/WAN2

If NOT MATCH then use default route

By using the CLI command 'ip route default wan2' then WAN2 becomes the default route in the routing table (step 1. above) which seems to negate the need for rules of any type where the chance for introducing error becomes all the more probable.

Obviously my knowledge is limited and I stand to be proved wrong so please don't think I am in any way dismissing your advice out of hand.

I am merely trying to understand where/why/how it all hangs together in an attempt to find the best solution for me and will spend time reading & re-reading those .pdf's until it all sinks in!

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

 

[Dennis Wood]

The Drayteks do load balance, and will swap between WAN ports based on load...but you're correct in that WAN1 is always where you start. So if WAN1 is never saturated (either upstream or downstream) then WAN2 may see little traffic. So I just make sure our fastest connection is connected to WAN1, or that port 80 traffic is directed to WAN2 (if it is faster) by default. I'd say if CLI commands, work for you...use them. You'll just need to make sure failover works etc as advertised in that scenario.

Pfsense's default behaviour is round-robin which will drive web users nuts...see below.

What you will find in load balancing is that web users will not be happy if their WAN connection changes frequently, particulary if they are logged in on any type of web interface. Better to make that predictable, and direct traffic via a few rules. An example..direct FTP and perhaps IMAP traffic to the WAN2 if WAN1 is used for port 80. This ensures that your web traffic isn't a dog when the upstream pipe is saturated with FTP traffic. Yes you can establish QOS but my experience with it (often asynchronous) still dictates traffic direction via rules for best performance.