Review on 💡 Enhanced Routing Capabilities with Actiontec GT701D Ethernet DSL Modem: Efficient Internet Connectivity Solution by Eric Pavelko

Considering the ratings were so high and the design is new I'm definitely disappointed in this product although it works pretty well so I felt it deserved a three star rating. My previous modem lasted many years and was very popular for many years but I think it's finally reached the end of its life so I bought it. Setting up this modem wasn't very easy, but I would say it was a bit easier than my old modem. When it went live I was mostly disappointed with the features it offered. I haven't seen anywhere to change the MTU, although I never needed to with my old modem. There was no simple connection test like my old modem. There are several "ping" tests with the Actiontec modem, but they only say "Internet up/down". My last modem had a series of multi-step connection tests that told me at what point my connection really failed. It also had a very detailed diagnostic output which is useless for most users but very useful for technicians. I know many console gamers complain about their NAT type and how it affects quality [if not ability] when playing online. Disabling NAT/DHCP on my old device was fairly easy, and disabling DHCP didn't affect my ability to manage its settings in a web browser. Actiontec has 3 or 4 different options that may or may not affect the NAT type of the console. Unfortunately, the parameters and their effects are poorly documented. In the end I think the correct way to disable DHCP is to set up IP passthrough and login to your router using PPPoE. The bad news is that you can no longer see the modem's settings and activities (ie you can no longer check its settings in a web browser). The only way to turn browser control back on is to factory reset the modem, which means you'll have to change all your settings to get the internet working again. This is by far the most annoying and frustrating part of this modem. I can't confirm that part so I won't let it affect my rating, but I'm pretty sure this modem has a small NAT table or some bad cleanup work. it's happening I don't use BitTorrent often, but when I do I have to be very careful with the number of open simultaneous connections. I used to be able to download about 10 torrents at a time without harming other users on the network (although it hurt their bandwidth). With this modem, I can only do about three downloads at a time, otherwise my network becomes unusable for other users, no matter how much bandwidth my torrent machine uses. This tells me that my computer isn't using all of the bandwidth, but the modem is having trouble handling all the different connections coming through it. On the plus side, since I set it up the way I like it, I haven't had any disconnects like my old and dying modem. I also didn't notice it getting very hot a couple of times when I checked, which always bothered me with my old modem. There doesn't seem to be many good options for DSL modems, so this is probably one of the best, but I still can't say it's any good.