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[-] WoefKat@lemmy.ml 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

So that's the perfect excuse to buy a 3D printer right there! Go for it! :)

I envy you, some of us really have to search for such an excuse!

[-] MonkCanatella@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago

As if they don’t already have a borderline hobby 🤣

[-] doc@kbin.social 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It was engineered for passive cooling, even if just barely. I don't think you need something as elaborate as a case fan when the whole thing is perforated like that. A single USB fan blowing on the case from 6 inches away is sufficient to keep my formerly toasty modem barely warm to the touch.

[-] WetBeardHairs@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago

They're also engineered with the assumption that there is nothing within a 6 in radius and it is kept in a 70F room. Those are assumptions that often aren't true and lead to them overheating all the dang time.

[-] Wahots@pawb.social 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Hey! You have the same shitty AIO that Comcast sent me! It overheated and tries to melt itself down all the time. Luckily it gets so hot that the adhesive melted and the screws were easily visible. I just took the chassis off and it mostly doesn't overheat anymore.

Crazy, the thing is basically hollow and was right next to the window and would still overheat. The bottom doesn't allow for any air intake so it sufffocates. Also it's 80% plastic because they couldn't be assed to add aluminum heatsinks.

Oh my goodness, this is the first time I've seen the innards of that AIO (all in one?) on the internet. Thank you! Where were the screws located on it?

[-] Wahots@pawb.social 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

They are all on the bottom, the rubber feet/stripping on mine started coming off, found it by mistake. One has a sticker, but those don't really hold up to void warranties anyways. Plus, I'm just gonna super glue the rubber feet back on after, hahah. I just tucked the screws and the chassis in the back of a closet for now. No tabs or anything to break when uninstalling it, either!

Edit: yeah, all in one! Mine is one of those modem / wifi combos. I set it to bridge mode so I could use my own router, and the thing still overheated even though it was just acting as a modem, smh. Annoying how bad it is. Luckily, shucking it will clear up 9/10 problems. Put some tape over the LED if you sleep in the same room as it, it's very bright when exposed.

[-] CowsLookLikeMaps@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 months ago

So I finally shucked mine and found a 40mm fan in the bottom that wasn't running. In fact, I don't think it ever has run since I never feel any air flow or hear anything. Did your XB8 have a fan?

[-] Wahots@pawb.social 2 points 11 months ago

Yeah, mine has one and it runs, but infrequently and at such a slow RPM it does very little. Shucking it was the only thing that seemed to help!

They should have gone with one of these thicker 30mm (thick) fans. They move a lot more air than even a standard PC fan, but do it quietly.

https://www.phanteks.com/PH-F120T30.html

Though one has to wonder why it needs cooling at all. I've never had an actively cooled network device before, and most of my equipment hasn't even gotten more than marginally warm due to excellent venting.

[-] CowsLookLikeMaps@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 months ago

Oh yeah that would be a great alternative! It's funny, I've been wondering the same. It's in bridge mode, has a MASSIVE heatsink and a fan but is still super hot. Does modems really get that hot? I'd be curious to inspect what kind of traffic is coming out of the modem because my pihole isn't catching anything from my router-onwards.

[-] Wahots@pawb.social 2 points 11 months ago

Not sure! Does seem...oddly inefficient, though.

[-] nehal3m@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago

In the Netherlands, the ability to swap in your own modem is safeguarded by law. I have luckily not had to deal with this.

That said, would look to see if you can remove the whole top, seems to me it would be clipped in. Then place a matching size fan, or just undersized and 3D print a rim.

[-] litchralee@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago

Dare I ask what happens if the gateway doesn't have this auxiliary cooling? Does it drop packets? Something worse?

Gets really hot and speeds/stability decrease.

[-] Ironfacebuster@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago
[-] litchralee@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

To protect the world from devastation

To unite all peoples within our nation

[-] Wahots@pawb.social 4 points 1 year ago

It likes to drop me from the middle of games when my same unit overheats :)

Fuck Comcast and fuck the "Made with ❤️ in Philadelphia" team that designed this complete POS. It has a built in cooling fan (lmao) and still overheats! It's a mostly empty modem that is almost the size of a shoebox, lol. It gets so hot that the adhesive on the bottom starts coming off.

[-] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 year ago

I usually do a very not ISP sanctioned modem swap/delete.

Depending on the type of modem, you may be able to simply replace it with something else and the ISP may not have any way to really differentiate between the modems.

Is this for cable, DSL, or fiber?

A model number can really clarify a lot.

[-] feef@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Can you elaborate? My ISP forces me to use their modem.

[-] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

It's very situationally dependent. In many cases though, the only thing restricting you is the ISP not giving you the information to do it yourself, and sometimes, just sometimes, some kind of code or MAC address that limits what devices can operate on their network; though that's usually set up for billing.

If you use any kind of PPPoE, the MAC address problem usually isn't a thing; this is normally DSL/Fiber..... not all fiber, just some. PPPoE needs authentication which usually means username and password login to do AAA for the client, because of this, there's little to no security on the last mile. All these technologies are based on standards. Fiber is usually GPON, DSL has several standards, but modern DSL is usually vDSL or vDSL2, or some variant thereof, and Cable is generally DOCSIS 3 or 3.1. There are exceptions, but they're not common.

The key is to find which specific technology the ISP is using, and find alternatives. In the case of DSL, it's generally finding a DSL modem that uses the same profiles and annex as the provided modem; beyond that, plug it in and authenticate with PPPoE. Many PPPoE type providers use a circuit number and/or VLAN, so that generally needs to be set along-side the PPPoE credentials.

For DOCSIS, it's a bit sticky, since I know of many cable providers who authenticate endpoints based on the MAC address of the modem; in which case, you not only need to find a modem that can support the protocols in use, and the channel widths (eg. DOCSIS 3.1 16x8), but also one that you can modify the ISP-facing MAC address on the DOCSIS interface to match the one they gave you.

For Fiber, things can be sticky, but often aren't. The ISP can, but often doesn't filter on all of the following: MAC, SN, SLID. All of these values are sent to the OLT (ISP side of the fiber), and it could fail on any one of them. For me, I've had success with the G-010S-A SFP module, and if you look around the internet, you can find a git repo that actually has all the commands to modify any/all of these values to match them to whatever the ISP provided to you. The most difficult is getting the SLID, since it's not published on the outside of the modem. I managed to get my local GPON's SLID from a G-010S-A module that I hijacked from a working modem; in that case it was a string of all zeros.

The information is out there if you look hard enough, and with a little bit of cleverness and ingenuity, you can usually find anything that's missing.

I work in Networking (aka network engineering, aka a bunch of other titles), so this all comes very naturally to me; to give you some examples, one DSL modem delete I did for myself was to pick up an EHWIC-VA-DSL-M for a Cisco ISR router, after some configuration magic, which I won't get into here, I was able to get it to connect to my ISPs DSL line, after a bit more configuration magic, the Cisco was handling all of the traffic from my network to the DSL. It was a very clean setup, only requiring a single phone line from the wall plugged into a module on the router, then on the other side of it (over ethernet) was my network. That's a fairly advanced one, but I'm pretty proud of it. Another case was a friend on the same last-mile provider in my country, on a fiber line, where I removed the garbage modem they gave him and replaced it with a G-010S-A GPON to SFP module, and plugged that more or less directly into the router he owned. In each case, I shaved off a few ms of latency, and bandwidth was largely unaffected. It makes the internet run just that much faster than before, and puts the control in your hands.

Needless to say, the ISPs don't want you doing this, and they don't approve, but in general, you can do so without their involvement and for the most part, they are entirely unaware that it's happened.

Let me know what situation you're in and we can probably devise a solution to the garbage ISP modem issue. Frankly, the fiber modem delete is my favorite.

[-] SpaghettiYeti@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

In the US at least, I haven't heard of a provider not allowing you to bring your own hardware. For example, on Comcast, you can bring your own DOCSIS 3.1 modem that isn't as full of software and doesn't allow neighbors to use an Xfinity public network. Comcast even has a page for compatible devices. Save on stupid rental fees.

https://www.xfinity.com/support/devices/

[-] WetBeardHairs@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

That's true for cable, but I haven't found it to be possible with fiber.

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[-] netburnr@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

How about setting it on top of a laptop cooling pad?

[-] dauerstaender@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago

Fritz Box ftw

without damaging

Means not to open the closure?

I'm not seeing any exposed screws. I could try a plastic spudger but would like to avoid it. Even trying to open my ASUS router was a PITA as it was designed not to be opened.

Ok yes then its probably better to keep it that way.

[-] yote_zip@pawb.social 2 points 1 year ago

Can you get zip-ties in those holes?

I may be able to get the smallest available zip ties in there. Maybe it's possible to bend a wire and hook it through one hole and up another.

[-] damium@programming.dev 5 points 1 year ago

The plastic and wire twist ties that come on cables would work too.

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[-] modesto_hagney@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Bend the end of a zip tie into a U shape roughly the size of hole spacing and try feed it in one hole and out another.

[-] CaptPretentious@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Do you have the option to bring your own equipment?

[-] LordKitsuna@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

This is definitely the better solution if your ISP supports it. ISP provider gateways are always garbage the auxiliary cooling may help but it will always have issues

[-] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

Internet Service Provider Provider

(i cant help myself)

[-] LordKitsuna@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

To be fair depending on who we are talking about it's not inaccurate a lot of providers are just reselling someone else's service

[-] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago

I can’t disagree with that.

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I wish!! Nearly no ISPs in my country allow you to bring your own modem, so I have this bridged to my own router/access point. And yet it still gets very hot to the touch which certainly throttles the CPU.

[-] CaptPretentious@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

What is the make and model of the thing your stuck with?

That's weird that in bridge it gets that hot. Certainly not what is expect.

It's an XB8 which I've heard mixed reviews on. Haven't found any teardowns online so far though.

[-] CaptPretentious@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

So, did some reading as I'm not familiar with what you have. You're supposed to be an internal fan... Guessing the one in yours is possibly broke.

Since it's the ISPs device, you could call and say you hear a loud annoying grinding sound like a fan dying (Even though it's probably already dead) and that you want to replacement unit. And then while you have him on the phone double check their current policy on bringing your own modem and ask for a manager to double check for you 'as you don't want this issue to keep happening'

[-] zetwinkie@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Something like Sugru might work. It has a strong bond but can easy be peeled or sliced off later. Any lingering residue can be cleaned off fairly easily.

[-] Taleya@aussie.zone 2 points 1 year ago

3D printer. Get one, find someone with one, library, etc.

I own so my ntd is running a 120mm fan in a custom secured chassis

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this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2023
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