Actiontec USB & Ethernet DSL Modem
See it at Amazon.com for $49.72Average Customer Rating
(4.5 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
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(3 out of 5)Not For The Faint of Heart
Replaced my 9-year-old Alcatel 1000 modem sitting in front of a Linksys Wireless router. Works fine now, but here was my experience for the rest of you trying to avoid paying your service provider for the installation and an overpriced modem...
1. The Alcatel was so old that the physical wires in the RJ45 jack were different than was expected w/the new Actiontec (and apparently any modem more modern than the Alcatel). Thank goodness, an AT&T phone tech pulled that one out of some obscure corner of his head based purely on the flashing DSL light on the Actiontec, a modem he had never heard of. Took some wiggling around, but I managed to switch the wiring from the two outer contacts to the two inner, and got the DSL to sync.
2. The virtual circuit and virtual path settings were 0 and 35 by default on the Actiontec (not that I knew what that was before this exercise). The Alcatel wanted 8 and 35. Unfortunately, this is something set at the central office at AT&T, in my case specifically for the Alcatel. But it turns out you can change the setting on the Actiontec itself using their web interface, which I did. Reset it, and like magic, all four little lights glowed bright green, including the one saying I was connected to the Internet.
3. Sadly, the story was not over at that point. I could not figure out any way to get to the Internet. No gateway ping, no nothing. I finally figured maybe something was screwed up on the AT&T side. Sure enough, the next AT&T tech I talked to found that someone there had reset my account from a static IP address (something they used to hand out years ago) to PPPoE. They reset that back, and I could connect.
4. Next adventure: getting it to work in front of my Linksys router. Long story short, although this device is also a router, the only way I could get it to work was to use the Actiontec as a dumb modem. In the end that's fine. Took a bit of Googling to sort it out, though, which might be tough if you don't have an Internet connection. The Actiontec docs and web site are non-existent on the topic.
In hindsight, I could have saved some hassle by asking AT&T what modems they supported, because this wasn't one of them. Consult your ISP! Still, AT&T technical people were -- to my surprise -- fantastic and worked with me to sort out the issues regardless. A brief interlude with Actiontec support was the usual useless rote recommendations and "try this" scripted stuff without any noticeable knowledge before I gave up there. Maybe the out-of-box install and configuration will work for you, but it was obviously a lot more complicated than that for me, and I entered into it expecting no problems. To be fair, though, the problems were not Actiontec's, which is why I'm rating it three stars. Good luck!
(5 out of 5)Great product
I use this modem with bellsouth internet service and it has been working great. If you are looking for a reliable, easy to configure and use, top quality DSL modem at an affordable price this is the one.
(5 out of 5)Great deal, great modem
I recently purchased an Actiontec modem here to replace my Cisco 678 that served for 8 years before dying. I really liked the Cisco 678 for it's features, but this Actiontec modem is just as good if not better. The Actiontec is very easy to configure with most web browsers. The unit is very affordable. Its nice to see you can finally purchase a decent DSL modem from someone besides the DSL provider.
(5 out of 5)Excellent low cost modem, works great with Speakeasy DSL
I replaced the DSL modem I received from Speakeasy with this model. My original modem died every time I tried to use bittorrent, and eventually failed completely. This modem has been working continuously for the last month. One of my friends who was in a similar situation bought this same model, which has been working for him for about a year. I am running this modem bridged in front of a Linksys WRT54GL.
The product description does not go into depth about the modem itself, but I received the Actiontec model GT701, and the plastic casing was grey. I'm not sure if there is also a black one, but I don't spend too much time looking at my DSL modem anyway. One notable feature is the power switch on the back. If you do end up having to power cycle the modem, you don't have to unplug the power and then try to reach around trying to plug it back in behind your desk.
(5 out of 5)Extra standby DSL modem
Actiontec is the provided modem from our ISP and sense we are in a remote location with nowhere to purchase another modem, I try to keep a spare just in case. We run a B&B and provide wireless communucations to our guests anywhere on the 12 acres.