average life span of DSL modem?

[Bird]

I acquired DSL service from Centurytel phone company on 9/21/05 and they provided a Netopia modem. Less than 7 months later, 4/6/06, I lost my Internet connection and after trying a lot of things with their tech support on the telephone, the guy decided the modem was bad and he'd send me a new one. And just before he hung up, the old one started working again. He went ahead and sent me a new one that came the next day, so no problems now with this one in over 2 years. I do have it plugged into my APC Back-UPS ES 500 but haven't used my old router since I got DSL.

 

[pennwalk]

I used to work for a defense contractor. If I remember the training class something like 60% of military electronics failures were traced back to improper handling during manufacturing. We had special clothes, wrist straps. water misting, air ionizers, special work stations, special plastic bags for the parts which went in special black totes, parts of the plant had special floor tiles. We had company inspectors and government inspectors and if anything wasn't right everything stopped. What are the chances that the people overseas work like that on consumer electronics? If you get 2 years out of a consumer piece you are doing good. Also dirty electricity is really hard on some pieces. It depends on how it was designed. Some surge protectors only last for a limited time. They can only take so many hits but the unit can still seem to be working. I don't know what the rule it but some places replace surge protectors regularly.

Chris

 

[Volfandt]

I'm on my 2nd Actiontec DSL modem/4 port switch/wireless router in 6 yrs. Lightning got my 1st one.
My DSL service has been less troublesome than my old dialup service.

Most DSL modems should have a web interface for access for programming/maintenance, i.e 192.168.1.1 or a similar addy. Most use a user name of: "admin" and a password of: "password". You can can then verify and/or reenter your personal internet user name and password.
You can also go to the status page to see if it's connected or not.

There should be some sort of status LED's to indicate if the DSL modem has "sync'ed" up to the Dslam/CO.

Make sure that the filter provided to remove the data hum from the audio isn't also on the DSL modem's input.

Most DSL modems will learn the required network settings, needing only your user name and password to be manually entered so you should be fine setting up the new one.

Good luck with your new modem.

 

[8nownerinky]

Also with your new modem, make sure you have good air circulation. Most of the "built by the lowest bidder" devices you get nowdays aren't very well made anyway, so anything you can do to keep it running cooler will prolong it's life. It also doesn't hurt to take a can of dust-off to it every now and then. I have DSL service in my barn (over 100 years old) which has a major dust problem. By taking simple precautions, I have kept the cheap, no-name modem I found dumpster diving going strong for 5 years now, knock on wood. I had one come in a few years ago when I owned a computer shop that someone apparently used as an ashtray. Around all the solder pads was black as coal tar from the heat buildup. And they wondered what was wrong with it....

 

[Soundguy]

Air circ is no problem.. it sets on a top of a desk upright.

My DSL modem did have the lamps, and it indicated a dsl signal problem with a fast blinking dsl lamp, and no internet lamp.

It worked for a year.. so the modem was not plugge dinto the wrong side of the filter.. though i did check that.

soundguy

 

[dmccarty]

In three years we are on our third or fourth DSL modem. At least the last none the went belly up was on a UPS.

The last time this happened we ended up with two new modems. One is online now. The other is waiting for the working one to not work.

Our failures don't seem to be weather related. They just quick working. We also have frequent network outages, maybe once every couple of months that requires a phone call. They do this and they do that and eventually the connection returns. We even had a squirral nest in a service box somewhere nearby.

We are literally at the end of the line so I can't complain too much we are just real happy we have connectivity.

The new DSL modems are easier to configure than the old ones. The first one we had took months for me to get to work correctly with wireless.

Later,
Dan

 

[ragkar]

Other than DOA the highest failure rates occur during the first few hours of operation - called infantile failure. Marginal components over heat or just fail. For this reason, I like to buy the TV demonstrator that has been operating a while.

 

[Soundguy]

Yeah.. I've been in electronics for a couple decades.. I'm familiar with high early failure... This one just up and died after a year of spotless service.. and no storm was happening.. and no other phone or power equipment died... Guess it must have had a 1yr warranty or something

soundguy

 

[LMTC]

Chris---I checked, and ours are ActionTech. As I said, sometimes I am convinced the failure is the service, as the symptom is reduced connectivity or bandwidth, and changing the modem doesn't improve it. If it is just "belly up", and two of mine have been, it would seem it is the router/modem.
We too are "the end of the line", app. 19,000 feet from the dslam. The tech for this area and I are on a first name basis (seriously...he has given me his personal cell #, as he knows we get the short end of the stick), and I have learned that they oversell the existing service, THEN start working on increasing capacity. So I have given up complaining, as usually somewhere around 1-3 months after I notice a consistently reduced bandwidth, it will go back up to what I am subscribed for.

 

[Soundguy]

The area I am in just got DSL from embarq literally 1 yr ago. I pre-ordered it in january of 2007, and got the notification it was becoming active in june/july in my area. Embarq shipped my my fitlers and modem, and gave me a day and time for when the bandwidth for our area would be opend up.. Me and my neighbor were the first 2 people in our community to have DSL by embarq.. At least they didn't oversell the area.. and actually waited till service was in place to sell. i check my DSL speed now and then.. it's always been good up untill it died. I actually had a few slow downloads and web page loads for 5 minutes before it died.. then poof.. nothing.

soundguy