VDSL modem recommendation

[Geoff Shang]

Hi everyone,

I'm in the market for a VDSL modem, and after looking at various options, 
I'm unsure which I should buy.  So I thought I'd ask here for 
help/recommendations.

Last year, I posted to the list about ISP recommendations.  As part of 
that discussion, I was sent a link to a site listing modems compatible 
with Israeli service.  Until then, I didn't know that buying your own 
device was even an option here.

As previously mentioned, ISP-supplied modems/routers are an issue for me 
as a blind person, as many seem to have visual CAPTCHAs which make it 
difficult/impossible to log into the interface.  And I don't think my 
choice of ISP should be determined by whether or not I can log into their 
equipment, I'd prefer to choose based on service (like everyone else).

So I'm now looking to buy a modem.  I have a Ubiquiti Edge Router which I 
intend to use as the router, so routing/wi-fi component is not important.

I started looking at options.  The things I thought were important were:

* Good/best modem performance

* Support for all/most relevant modem connectivity standards

* Support for open firmware

When I started looking, I was looking for modem-only devices.  The closest 
I could find were modem/routers with only one ethernet port.

The device that seemed to fit the bill was the Netgear DM200.  It has 1 
port (albeit 100 MBPS but VDSL connections aren't exceeding that at the 
moment anyway), and it appears to be supported by OpenWRT.

But then I started seeing some bad reviews.  In particular, with the 
help of Google Translate, I saw some unhappy people on hometheatre.co.il, 
which I considered important as I will be using it here.

The othere 1-port device I found was the Draytech Vigor 130.  This is more 
expensive, but I don't mind about that if the device is good.  It seemed 
to generally get better performance reviews than the Netgear.  However, 
it's not supported by OpenWRT as far as I can see.

There were a couple of other things that I also saw time and again.  Some 
people say that Broadcom chips are better than others , though I've also 
seem comment that compatibility with the upstream chipset is the most 
important.  Also, I saw references to things like vectoring and g.imp, 
things I know nothing about but which sound important, and g.fast which 
seems like it's going to be the next big thing but which nothing much 
seems to support yet.

People also pointed out that there's really no difference between using 
a 1-port router in bridged mode and using a 4-port router in bridged 
mode.  As neither of the above had the Broadcom chips, and since I had 
seen quite a few recommendations for the TP Link 9970/9977, I looked into 
these.

The TP Link 9970 and 9977 (9977 is apparently newer) both seem to have the 
Broadcom chips and support g.imp.  But neither seem to support open 
firmware from what I can see.  Otheres like the 9980 do support it, but 
they don't have Broadcom chips.

Some people make the argument that if you're using a device in bridged 
mode, open firmware is less important, but I'm not sure if I buy that 
argument.

So now I'm a bit confused.   I'm starting to lose track of which devices 
support what, and I don't really know which of these factors are 
specifically important here in Israel and which are more or less 
important generally.

Since I believe that most problems have been solved by others before me, I 
thought I'd ask here.

To repeat, I'm after a good modem.  I'm not so concerned about price and I 
really don't care about the routing and wi-fi specs as I don't plan on 
using them.

Any advice anyone can provide would be most helpful.


Thanks,
Geoff.