USB ADSL on a slow Linux box?

March 28, 2006 10:54 AM

Linuxfilter: Is it worth replacing my hardware ADSL solution for a USB based ADSL Modem on a slow Linux (IPCop) box?

I've recently setup a old Dell Optiplex GS+ with a P1 166mhz, 80mb RAM with IPCop as my hardware ADSL router couldn't offer the features i needed (QoS). At the moment the hardware router (a Solwise 705) is running in ZipB mode, which makes it basiclly a ADSL modem with ethernet connection.

I've been looking through my old hardware and found a Speedtouch 330 USB ADSL modem and a USB card, I've got the idea now of rigging this up to my IPCop system instead of the overkill router, as the router could really go to a better home.

My question is: Am i going to see a massive preformance drop if i use USB instead of a hardware solution, would the 166mhz processor be up to the job? I've tried googling for some real world figures on USB throughput on CPU limited machines, but i've found nothing. My broadband is 8192/500, will i be still able to exploit the full bandwidth?

posted by Nik_Doof to computers & internet (6 comments total)

I had a P200MMX, and it could copy stuff to my MP3 Player via USB at about 800KBytes/second. That's the same throughput I obtain with my A64 2800 (my player is a cheapo generic USB1.1). CPU usage was surely not high on the P200mmx (I could use the machine while copying).

So, there should be no relevant performance differences between ethernet and USB.
posted by qvantamon at 11:08 AM on March 28, 2006

So, there should be no relevant performance differences between ethernet and USB.

That really depends on the DSL equipment. I think that Qwest (actually US WEST) once sold USB DSL equipment that was basically the broadband equivalent of a soft modem. That is, much of the signal processing was done by the CPU, rather than the DSL equipment. They had specific hardware requirements for the gear, and I think a P1 166 MHz was below said requirements.

But I don't know about the SpeedTouch, but it seems to have horrible reviews online.
posted by teece at 11:25 AM on March 28, 2006

Oh, and I forgot about the Linux bit. Will it even work on Linux? I never once got a USB DSL kit to work with Linux. If it is a "soft modem", there is almost no chance it will work. If it does work, it would seem to indicate that it is more likely a full-fledged DSL box that happens to speak DSL.
posted by teece at 11:28 AM on March 28, 2006

Damn. "happens to speak USB" I meant.

3 comments in a row, yay!
posted by teece at 11:29 AM on March 28, 2006

I have a 330. It is indeed a softmodem but it will work with Ipcop without any effort on your part, as long as you have the alcatel firmware.

That said I think you should keep the hardware router, the 330 is kind of unstable and works badly with many boards and usb cards. I'm not sure if your system is fast enough to drive it, I used a 266mhz system which was more than fast enough.

I'd recommend that you use the hardware router for ADSL and install a 2nd network card in the Ipcop box so that you can pass the net through it for QoS...
posted by Olli at 11:55 AM on March 28, 2006

Thanks for your input, i can gather now its just not worth it :)
posted by Nik_Doof at 11:27 PM on March 28, 2006