Fujitsu FDX310 ADSL Modem

...up it becomes apparent that Fujitsu have put together a good package. The modem itself is very small, being approximately 10cm square and 4cm deep. It has the appearance of a dialer box, (eg where national rate calls are diverted to a cheaper operator) and even has hooks to hang it on the wall with screws. It may not sound like a lot, but as you ideally don't want your phone cable to be too long in case of quality loss, its a good idea. The telephone ...
...can't lay any blame on Fujitsu for this. Fujitsu have unfortunately been saying for about 9 months that Linux support would be provided, before relying on an outside driver not specifically designed for it. The modem is based on a Westell chipset, and can be controlled in the same way as a popular Frech modem, so drivers are available, but not for the Linux newbie. BSD suffers from a similar problem, but I guess BSD isn't an OS for newbies anyway, ... more

OK so I'll start out by pointing out the obvious: its only free if you sign up for Pipex ADSL. I was tempted to sell it straight on and buy a 'serious' modem when it arrived in its little plain cardboard box, as it looked far too light and plasticky to be much good, but decided to give it a quick trial. About 9 months down the line I'm not only still using it, but recommending it to those looking to replace their sub-standard freebies.

First impressions then weren't great, but once out of the box and hooked up it becomes apparent that Fujitsu have put together a good package. The modem itself is very small, being approximately 10cm square and 4cm deep. It has the appearance of a dialer box, (eg where national rate calls are diverted to a cheaper operator) and even has hooks to hang it on the wall with screws. It may not sound like a lot, but as you ideally don't want your phone cable to be too long in case of quality loss, its a good idea. The telephone cable supplied is excellent, I've been able to test it at transfer speeds of 8mbps and the loss is comparable with a cable costing £20 or more, which is massively better than the usual standard. The USB cable is also perfectly adequate, although a longer cable would have been handy as overall the computer has to be within about 2.5m of the phone socket. My only grumble here is with the microfilters supplied, as they both failed within 2 months. Microfilters split the signal from the phone socket so that the internet and the phone can be accessed at the same time, so their failure does remove a large advantage of ADSL, but they are easily replaced. It is important to note that the microfilters were not supplied by Fujitsu, so are only an issue if you get the modem from Pipex.

Speed is rarely much of an issue with a modem of this type, but I have found the FDX310 to be at least as fast as some £200-plus models under high-stress testing. Importantly almost no heat is emitted even after several days constant use, which again puts it above some of its rivals. It also very rarely disconnects itself, which can be a problem with some cheap alternatives.

My one problem with the FDX310 has been in trying to use it under Linux and BeOS. The BeOS problem stems from the fact that there are no official drivers, and that BeOS doesn't really support USB, so I can't lay any blame on Fujitsu for this. Fujitsu have unfortunately been saying for about 9 months that Linux support would be provided, before relying on an outside driver not specifically designed for it. The modem is based on a Westell chipset, and can be controlled in the same way as a popular Frech modem, so drivers are available, but not for the Linux newbie. BSD suffers from a similar problem, but I guess BSD isn't an OS for newbies anyway, so the difficulty is to be expected. The supplied windows drivers are very stable and easy to install.

So overall this is an excellent modem, and can be found retailing at around the £100 mark. I really cant recommend it highly enough for anyone after a simple modem. 

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