DrayTek VigorNIC 132 Update

Posted on by

As previously mentioned I built a PFsense router using the DrayTek VigorNIC 132 PCI-E card which has been running reasonably well for nearly 1 year but not without issues.

  • The Line speed never improved and remained at 60Mbps / 20Mbps. (76Mbps / 20Mbps)
  • Due to how the PCI-E card is configured in PFSense there are duplicate firewall entries, loopback and multicast being blocked continuously.
  • The firmware on the DrayTek VigorNIC isn’t perfect and the card has the ability to freeze when WAN settings are changed in PFSense. This requires the VigorNIC to be reset <issue also present when using with a Windows based PC.

And the card is now showing as EOL (End of life) on DrayTek’s website which means there will be no further firmware updates / fixes. Another point with the card / PFSense is when changing settings that require a reboot, this causes the modem to disconnect / DLM resync. I have been looking for a way to overcome this issue and so far the only option seems to be using an external modem running into the PFSense box, like the Open Reach Modem supplied with the Home Hub 4. No newer BT VDSL modem exists but after spending a bit of time searching there appears to be newer hardware available from BT, their Business Hub 5 / Business Smart Hub (Business Hub 6). These versions allow the user to run the hub in bridge mode so it will essential be a VDSL modem.

I have one on the way (BT Business Hub 6 Type A) and will post an update. In the mean time I went back to my Smart Hub 6 to check the line sync speeds, 66Mbps / 20Mbps so the DrayTek card is causing a slight loss but gaming wise it still doesn’t come close to the PFSense box.