DrayTek Vigor 2800 ADSL Router

Since purchasing my good old Speedtouch Pro ADSL router in 2000 and working great, I started to look around for a new router as my mum wanted to go on the broadband and I thought I'd give my old router to my mum.

That's where I came across this product - DrayTek Vigor 2800 ADSL Router as it offers all of the features I wanted. Below are the full specs:

Vigor 2800 - Product Highlights

• Combination ADSL modem, router, VPN Device, Firewall with printer port
• ADSL Interface compliant with :
  • ADSL, RADSL, ADSL2, ADSL2+
  • ATM Protocols : G.DMT, AAL5, ATM UNI3.1/4.0 PVC, up to 8PVCs, MPoA (RFC1483/2684), OAM F4/F5 Loopback (ITU-T I.610), ILMI.
  • Auto-Rate Negotiation (512Kb/s-8Mb/s Downstream). RADSL compatible.
• Comprehensive Routing Facilities including :
  • Internet Protocols : PPP (RFC 1661), PPPoE (RFC 2516), PPPoA (RFC2364), IPoA (RFC1577/RFC2225)
  • LAN Protocols : ARP, Proxy ARP, IP, ICMP, IGMP, UDP, TCP
  • Authentication Protocols : PAP, CHAP, MS-CHAP
  • Dynamic Routing with support for RIP-1, RIP-2 and RRP (RFC2338)
  • Static Routing (manually configurable)
  • DNS Proxy & Cache
• Four-Port Ethernet switch:
  • Expandable by adding additional switches/hubs
  • 10/100BaseT Autosensing, auto-crossover, auto-duplex
  • Virtual LAN (VLAN) - Segment the Ethernet ports to provide common or exclusive access to each other.
• Selectable QoS Assurance - Reserve bandwidth for specific services.
• Printer Port built-in USB port. Compatible with most standard printers with a USB port and any Windows 98SE, ME, 2000 or XP client PC.
• Internet Firewall facilities featuring :
  • Full Stateful Packet Inspection for NAT and Fully routed connections
  • Automatic Keep-state facility for tracking packets and denying unsolicitied incoming data
  • Selectable DoS/DDoS protection
  • IP Address anti-spoofing
  • User-configurable packet-filtering
  • NAT/PAT with Port Forwarding/Redirection & DMZ
  • Multi-NAT facility - enables a one-to-one mapping of public to private IP addresses, with individual DMZ and port-forwarding.
• Internet Content Filtering features selectable :
  • Integration with the Surfcontrol server for parental control
  • URL (web-site) blocking by user-defined keyword. e.g. enter 'fredbloggs' into the blocking list and users will be unable to access www.fredbloggs.com etc. (blacklist)
  • Allow only specific web URLs, block all others (whitelist)
  • Prevent accessing of web sites by using their direct IP address (thus URLs only)
  • Blocking automatic download of Java applets and ActiveX controls
  • Blocking of web site cookies
  • Block http downloads of file types :
    • Binary Executable : .EXE / .COM / .BAT / .SCR / .PIF
    • Compressed : .ZIP / .SIT / .ARC / .CAB/. ARJ / .RAR
    • Multimedia : .MOV / .MP3 / .MPEG / .MPG / .WMV / .WAV / .RAM / .RA / .RM / .AVI / .AU
    • Time Schedules for enabling/disabling the restrictions and regular Internet access
  • Block P2P (Peer-to-Peer) file sharing programs (e.g. Kazza, WinMX, BitTorrent etc. )
  • Block Instant Messaging programs (e.g. ICQ, MSN/Yahoo Messenger)
• VPN facilities :
  • High performance VPN supports up to 16 simulteneous VPN tunnels.
  • Dial-in or dial-out, LAN-to-LAN or Teleworker-to-LAN
  • Protocol support for PPTP, L2TP, IPSec
  • MD-5 & SHA-1 Authentication
  • Encryption : MPPE, DES/3DES & AES
  • PFS (Perfect Forward Secrecy) - Adds additional key protection
  • Pre-shared/IKE keying and PKI (X.509) certificate support
  • IKE Phase 1 Agressive/Standard Modes & Phase 2 Selectable lifetimes
  • Radius Support for dial-in teleworker profiles
  • Compatible with other leading 3rd party vendor VPN devices
  • For further details about Vigor VPN click here
• Microsoft uPnP Compliant - The uPnP protocol enables router control and enhanced access for uPnP enabled multimedia applications, such as MSN Messenger etc.
• SNMP & Syslog control/logging/monitoring
• Dynamic DNS Posting, compatible with popular services
• Support for non-NAT public subnets (multiple public IP addresses)
• LAN Side IP address range and built-in DHCP server/relay is fully configurable with pre-settable DHCP allocations if required
• RIP & Static Routing configurable
• VPN Passthrough for VPN client/server running behind the router
• Easy configuration and monitoring from web-interface and comprehensive diagnostic tools

Important Warning - Vigor2800 PSU Failure

Looking good, eh? It was very easy to set it up - just plug it up, go to http://192.168.1.1 logon using the default password and click on the "Quick Start Wizard". Follow the steps, enter your ADSL logon/password details and it's up & running! That's how easy it is. It even can check your line and set up the correct protocol/encapsulation and VCI for you! Pretty good...

**PLEASE NOTE: This firmware is for UK version of Draytek 2800!**

As of this writing, the latest firmware is 2.7 (4.86MB) with the build date/time of Tue Jun 6 15:40 2006. And the Router Tools is v2.5.3 (968KB) - it comes with Firmware Upgrade Utility v4.4.3, SysLog v2.4.4 and DrayTek LPR Printing System.

If you have line sync. problems, the alternative v2.7 Y1 or v2.7 D57 firmware may help. If you do use the alternative firmwares, please be sure to report your experience/findings to support in order that compatibility can monitored/improved.

The previous firmware versions are:

* v2.6.1.1 (4.42MB)
* v2.6.3 RC1 Beta (4.46MB)
* 2.6.3.1 (4.61MB)

The DrayTek's FTP server is super slow for downloading the manuals, so I have mirrored a copy of the manual to my server, so you can download it quickly. Quick_Start_Guide.zip (1.9MB) and User_Guide.zip (16MB) - a big download!

Overall, I am very impressed with this router. The only let down is the SNMP support. Even that the official website states it offers SNMP, it only works on Port 1 (LAN) and Port 4 (ADSL). I wanted to monitor traffic on all 4 ports but this can not be possible. After talking to Tech Support, here's the full setup of how each ports are:

1. Interface 1 : LAN
2. Interface 2 : ISDN channel 1
3. Interface 3 : ISDN channel 2
4. Interface 4 : ADSL

So, as you can see, you can only get SNMP data from Interface 1 and get useful reports from it (i.e. MRTG). It can also be done with Interface 4 too, but it's for ADSL interface. Really shame. Nevermind...

I hope this short and maybe not-too-useful page will help you with researching for a good ADSL router.