Replacement for TelMex modem

Has anyone had any luck in replacing their standard TelMex ADSL modem with an after-market modem? What I am asking about, specifically, is how do I get my network user name and password? I spoke with Technical Assistance at TelMex, but the technician said he had no idea what I was talking about. He suggested I contact the modem manufacturer and see if they knew! All he could tell me was to use the default user name and password to access the modem's wifi component, and that's not it. It's the PPPoE thing, that allows the modem to connect to TelMex's servers.

Or, is there a setting that can be enabled that allows a secondary router to be added downstream of the TelMex modem. I'm trying to add another, specialized router that is for a specific purpose, and my TelMex combo modem/router does not appear capable of allowing downstream router connections. There is a button to enable "bridging", but that seems to mess everything up, so maybe I'm doing something wrong.

What's so confusing to me is that if one has the user name and password used by the modem to connect to the TelMex server, it should not matter whether you use a TelMex modem or any other. They all work the same way. Now, it may very well be true that TelMex branded modems may have some firmware burned in that allow this step to be bypassed (because there may be a generic user name and password hard-coded in), but it's hard for me to believe that TelMex has invented some huge new internet protocol that will only allow their modems and no others.

That having been said, I'd be pretty happy if I could figure out if there is a button or setting within the modem control panel that will allow routers to be added downstream. They will show they are connected, but there is no throughput.

Hi

What do really want?
Do you want to replace the TelMex modem
or
Do you want to add a downstream router.

They second is easy and is generally supported
The first - well I wouldn't try to replace the modem


Just google adding downstream router

2nd router cannot have dhcp
2nd router points to first (modem) as the gateway

I have this setup on TelMex modems - many different ones.

good luck

We can in many places up north replace our modem ourselves with aftermarket units. I don't think we can do that here or at least last time I asked they said no a year ago or so. As VT said what do you want to do?

I have a downstream modem hanging off my Telmex modem and there is no problem at all. Actually I have 2 downstream modems daisychained and all 3 work fine. One downstream is for the VPN, so I have a choice, and the other is for the basement and it works fine also.

I also have two modems chained off the telmex modem without any problems. Gives me full coverage.

Great. Thanks. What I was *trying* to do was get a VPN installed at my house. When I wasn't able to get my VPN router to connect correctly to the TelMex modem, I thought, "well, that's easy, just buy another modem. $20 US. Done." Yeah, not so fast. I am coming to the realization that replacing a TelMex modem with an aftermarket modem is not well supported by TelMex (for reasons that escape me.)

But, what I have not yet been able to do is to get the downstream router to receive internet from the upstream combo TelMex modem/router. I see, within the modem control panel, there is a button marked "bridge mode", but when I've clicked that, it seemed to completely mess everything up. I got nothing downstream via the connecting ethernet cable, and my wifi (from the TelMex modem), while still transmitting, was off-line, both functionally, and it was showing as "disabled" within the modem control panel. I was able to figure out how to reverse the situation and get the TelMex modem functional again.

Since then, I have not re-attempted it, because I thought it might be smarter to ask the community.

So, I know it's not quite as simple as connecting an additional router downstream. Mine might be a different modem than your; TelMex swaps them out regularly, it seems.

Any and all help is and has been appreciated. I will start with the suggestions of VT above. They make sense. I will pop back in to let you know how it goes.

Years ago I bought some Value Village used modems and they plugged right in here.  Don't know if Telmex is stricter now ??

Might want to check the following, good read on linking routers.
https://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linking_Routers