New connection, what should i know?

[vedantlath]

Thanks. My plan is to load balance between BSNL and Airtel using mwan3(How to use multiple WAN connections using the mwan3 package [OpenWrt Wiki]) for the time being. I am using a TP-Link TD-8616 (ADSL2+ Modem TD-8616 - Welcome to TP-LINK) modem at present but will need to get an additional modem for Airtel. Any particular modem you would recommend?

mwan3 is awesome. I have used it at some places and it works very nicely. The only drawback is that you have to make changes to the routing table only through mwan3 or understand all its iptables rules to figure out how traffic is being routed. For example, if you add an IP to an interface with 'ip addr add $IP dev $DEV' the local route for that network doesn't automatically work because of the iptables mangling rules.

Modems with a Broadcom chipset are usually better than the TrendChip/Ralink/MediaTek ones. TP-Link and D-Link both have modems with Broadcom chipsets.

 

[rajil.s]

Modems with a Broadcom chipset are usually better than the TrendChip/Ralink/MediaTek ones. TP-Link and D-Link both have modems with Broadcom chipsets.

Do you have any specific model numbers which have a Broadcom chipset?

 

[vedantlath]

DSL-2520U and Tenda TE-D303 are some of the most basic modems with Broadcom chipsets. TP-Link TD-W8960N, DSL-2730U and DSL-2750U are a bit more expensive and their Wi-Fi would become useless if you use it bridge mode. Surprisingly, except for TD-W8960N all TP-Link models currently on sale have TrendChip chipsets.

You can see a comparison of Broadcom ADSL chipsets here: Broadcom BCM63xx [OpenWrt Wiki]