So managed to get my hands on a VigorNIC132 which is a draytek VDSL modem/router on a PCI-E card, here’s what I know about it thus far.

  • It’s ethernet chip appears to be a realtek and shows as

Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller

during lspci

I believe it’s a Rev15 but I’m not 100% sure as I have 3 other NIC’s in that machine which happen to have the same chipset which show up as Rev2/Rev15

  • It shows up as a r8169 in dmesg

  • It runs DHCP and a webserver out of the box, the QSG that came with mine says it’s 192.168.1.1 but It was actually on 192.168.2.1 which caused me some “Fun” trying to set it up as I’d set a static ip in the 192.168.1.xxx range orginally.

  • The early firmware’s seem somewhat buggy, for instance I had to upgrade to 3.7.9.2 to enable bridge mode on VDSL2, I suspect this breaks it’s routing support as per the following entry in the changelog

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Release Notes for VigorNIC 132
Firmware Version    : 3.7.9.2 (formal release)
Release Date        : 13th September 2016
Firmware Build      : 9th August 2016
Applicable Models   : VigorNIC 132
ADSL Firmware       : VDSL: 576D17_A ADSL: 572801_A
Locale              : UK & Ireland Only

For more UK product details & specification, please visit www.draytek.co.uk

[New Features] 1. WAN1 now supports PPPoE Pass-Through and Bridge Mode

[Improvements] 1. Resolved an issue with DDNS configuration

[Known Issues] 1. VigorNIC 132 always operates in bridge mode. Support for NAT / routing features in the web interface will be added in next firmware release.

[Notes] - See http://www.draytek.co.uk/support/product-knowledgebase for VigorNIC 132 setup examples.

  • It’s an Infineon DSL chip, seems to sync a couple Mbit/s slower on the Broadcom Dslam my line is connected to compared to the Huawei (Broadcom) modem I was using previsouly.

  • A web/telnet based CLI is available, not really poked around it much other than the commands to get the DSL stats (vdsl status , vdsl vendorid cpe , vdsl vendorid co vdsl showbins)

So it seems like it will be an OK piece of kit, although at the moment unless you want to use it in bridge mode you might want to wait until they sort the firmware out.

 

Update:

3.9.7.3 is available at http://www.draytek.com/en/download/firmware/vigornic-132-series/ and fixes the router/bridge mode problem (I think)