[Salsa]

OK, I already used the search engine and couldn't find anything on my question, so it doesn't look like I'm asking something you hear everyday.

My DSL connection went down last weekend. BellSouth tech support concluded that my ancient Alcatel 1000 DSL modem finally bit the dust, so they sent me a brand new DSL modem, a Westell C90-610030-06. A few hours later, my DSL connection came back, so it looks like my eight year old DSL modem is working for now. So, should I stick with my ancient Alcatel and just keep the Westell waiting in the wings, or install my new Westell and dump the old Alcatel for good? Does anybody here have experience with both? Thanks.

[ghporter]

If they "gave" you the new Westell modem, go with it. I have spent almost five years with my Westell 516 modem giving me robust service, and I've never heard of anyone complaining that they die on them, or go weird or anything else. Alcatel is good equipment, but your modem has died once... Unless BellSouth will admit that the drop was their problem rather than yours, go with the new modem (with a new warranty).

[Salsa]

Thanks for the reply. Do you happen to know if the Westell has all the features of the Alcatel? BellSouth tried to get me to "upgrade" to a new modem several years ago that lacked Ethernet. Before that, they tried to get me to switch to PPPoE at a time when the Mac O/S didn't support it and I would have had to rely on a shareware program called MacPoet. Fortunately, I did some research first on the Mac sites and heard reports of people having a lot of problems with it. The point is, I'm trying to benefit from any knowledge you guys might have about the relative merits of these two modems, especially on a Mac.

By the way, I'm connecting to the DSL modem via a Linksys router, model BEFSR41 v2, in case that matters. I'm running 10.3.8 on my Quicksilver G4 and on my iceBook.

By the way, I searched Google.com/mac for reports on this model of the Westell modem and got zero hits. Strange, eh?

[ghporter]

Originally posted by Salsa:
Thanks for the reply. Do you happen to know if the Westell has all the features of the Alcatel?

Here's a link to Westell's page with the modem in question. The basic model is 6100;the rest of the model number indicates special options BellSouth requested (or that they accepted).

Originally posted by Salsa:
By the way, I'm connecting to the DSL modem via a Linksys router, model BEFSR41 v2, in case that matters.

With the Linksys router, you won't have to mess with accessing the built in router in the Westell modem if you don't want to. (I believe Westell uses the same default IP scheme that Linksys does: 192.168.1.X.) The Linksys router will handle connecting with BellSouth using fixed IPs, DHCP IPs, and PPPoE, so it covers all of your bases. And since the modem has only one ethernet port, the router will allow you to share your DSL with three other computers (or any other ethernet-connected devices).