I loved my Netcomm NB1300 ADSL modem. It was highly functional, relatively low cost, and actually seemed to operate faster than the Alcatel Speedtouch Home provided by Telstra (not that that would be very surprising). And it was basically set and forget.

Note I'm talking in past tense here. My Netcomm NB1300 ADSL modem has gone to god, it would seem.

Why?

Turns out the Netcomms have a little flaw. The firmware can reset to a state where you have to resort to a different IP range, username, and password to set it up from scratch.

In my case, this happened during an attempt to flash the firmware as per Netcomm's instructions. The username and password supplied don't work. So suddenly I have a very pretty Christmas ornament, although perhaps a bit big for most Christmas trees.

A quick search on Whirlpool reveals that other people have these problems too. There's a lot of different theories going around, but what it all comes down to is a product which, on the surface, looks good, but ultimately is downright shoddy.

Netcomm Support? Forget it. Haven't heard back from them yet. And that's a common theme on Whirlpool.

Not terribly impressed, but luckily I still have the Alcatel Speedtouch Home. And hey, I can only use it in Sydney anyway...