USB-powered ADSL modem

[palloy]

I want to connect my laptop to internet via a USB-powered ADSL2 modem to RJ11.

The only thing I can find like that that is old Russian Zyxel P-630-S. Any NEW suggestions?

Doesn't anyone realise mains power isn't always available?

 

[jsmithepa]

In the West, electricity and water is ALWAYS available, no thinking. 😀

 

[Alabalcho]

Most of the modems around are powered by 12VDC bricks, sucking 1A. The reason there are no USB-powered devices could be that there is not enough power coming off the USB port.

 

[palloy]

Most of the modems around are powered by 12VDC bricks, sucking 1A. The reason there are no USB-powered devices could be that there is not enough power coming off the USB port.

Yes, but why don't they try and design a lower-powered device? Surely it can't be that hard. Most modems have integrated router and switch, and run 4 ethernet ports, 1 or 2 wireless broadcasters, 8 indicator LEDs, 2 reset buttons. All that is unnecessary for this task.

I have found another gadget http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/usb-adsl-modem-a92hg from the XP era, also mention of Dynalink ALE800. I dare say they might have had driver problems 10 years ago, but you would expect things to have improved by now.

 

[nara58]

Bringing back this topic to see if anyone has found one of these that works. Maybe with USB-C it's possible to give it the juice the modem needs?

Like the OP mentioned, we don't even need wifi or ethernet to work, just use the USB connection itself to turn adsl into usb internet?

All modems of this sort I've found are made to work with old USB standards and only support up to 56k downstream dial up. But I haven't found anything that supports even 1mb downstream.

 

[nara58]

Just to explain, the problem is that when there is a blackout, cellphone towers can go down because of the blackout itself, and even if they don't, they can get overloaded because suddenly everyone in your neighborhood is using them instead of wifi. This can lead to an inability to connect to the internet even if you have a laptop that's running on battery. However, the adsl / dsl gets its power from the landline phone company which is far away and always has backup generators and so it almost never goes down. But if you have no power, your modem won't work, so all you can do is make phone calls, but no internet.

So what would be helpful is a modem that can be powered through usb alone, and is able to provide an internet connection to the laptop by connecting to the adsl / dsl phone landline directly. What I imagine is something that looks like a usb stick that you just plug into your laptop, and plug the phone landline on the other end. Or perhaps a larger sized modem that has one usb cable coming out to connect to the laptop, and has a receiver port for the phone landline.

 

[Alabalcho]

However, the adsl / dsl gets its power from the landline phone company which is far away and always has backup generators and so it almost never goes down. But if you have no power, your modem won't work, so all you can do is make phone calls, but no internet.

This is partially (in)correct:

• Only regular, old-style analogue phone gets power from the phone line, and can work standalone. This has nothing to do with DSL operation.
• Copper link over which DSL runs is usually not that long, as the speed depends on the length and quality of that copper link. These copper drops congregate into an close-by utility box where they are connected to fat fiber link, and these utility boxes get their power from same power line as your home.
• and as said before: DSL is dying technoligy, and hardware companies have no incentive to invest development resources in limited-use USB-powered modems.

 

[kanewolf]

This is a five year old thread, that is solved. If you want to ask a question, create your own thread. This one is now closed.