Setting up your PLDT PL-DSL1 DSL modem/router

Being one of the subscribers who are "locked-in" to the crappy service of PLDT (the Philippines' former telco monopoly), I know too well how frustrating to get things done or fixed by PLDT employees. Take for example the decade long wait just to get our landline connected. Another is waiting for a week's time just to get your phone line repaired by their single repairman crew. Even just the mere application for a DSL service took them three months to accomplish.

Those three months entailed talking to their call center agents who are clueless of what to do or to supervisors who either who don't want to talk to you or don't have much authority, sending fax documents that they need which they either lost or can't read (maybe due to the poor quality of their facsimile). In a nutshell, dealing with PLDT employees is the quintessence of poor service; which makes me think that PLDT's only requirement for a job applicant is the ability to make a number of excuses to placate the customers and also having a numb ear for the curses of the customers.

Anyway that has been a long rant and digression. Now on to the topic.

If you have this DSL modem (a Zyxel Prestige model reconfigured by PLDT) which heats up fast (a 8W heater) even at power up:

And you have this version of its firmware that your setup screen looks like this:

Here are the steps to follow to setup you DSL modem as a router and allow's you to forget your dialer:

1. First, access the setup of your dsl modem/router by typing 192.168.1.1 in your browser. Note that you must set your IP at 192.168.1.x : x<>1 , subnet mask at 255.255.255.0 and gateway at 192.168.1.1. Anyway you wouldn't have seen the i

Here are the steps to follow to setup you DSL modem as a router and allow's you to forget your dialer:

1. First, access the setup of your dsl modem/router by typing 192.168.1.1 in your browser. Note that you must set your IP at 192.168.1.x : x<>1 , subnet mask at 255.255.255.0 and gateway at 192.168.1.1. Anyway you wouldn't have seen the image shown above if you had not done this step.

2. Login as u:admin and p:1234
3. Go to Interface Setup -> Internet

• Change ISP to PPPoE/PPPoA
• Enter your username and password
• Set Encapsulation to PPPoA LLC
• Set Connection to Always On
• Set Get IP Address to Dynamic
• Save your Settings

4. Go to Interface Setup -> Lan

• Set IP Address to 192.168.1.1
• Set Subnet Mask to 255.255.255.0
• Enable DHCP
• Set Starting Address to 192.168.x : x<>1
• Save your settings

5. Go to Advanced Setup -> VLAN and deactivate it (don't forget to save)
6. Go to Access Management -> UPnP and activate it (this is for port listening in torrent downloading, you must also activate UPnP mapping in your torrent client; dont forget to save)
7. In your LAN connection properties make sure that you use Dynamic IP.

Now you can use your PL-DSL1 as a modem/router and which will save you at least 2000 PhP ( cost of buying a router). You can now connect 4 PCs to this modem/router. However the PCs will share the same bandwidth.