Thomson TG585v8 capabilities and quirks

[#1]

As the v8 is the new(ish) standard PN router, and as I've just installed one, I thought I'd see if anyone wants to discuss its capabilities and quirks.
Firstly, Thomson seems to be shy about providing a proper specification. Neither the introductory leaflet nor the fuller user guide (available at http://www.thomsontelecompartner.com/getfile.php?id=5117 - thanks to Bob for pointing to that link in his comment on the library article on how to upgrade the firmware) tells you exactly what the router should be capable of doing. I found some info via online resellers, e.g. https://adsl24.co.uk/store/ADSL-Modem-Routers/ADSL-Wireless-Routers/Thomson-TG585v8-new-Wireless-N-A... - no recommendation implied.
One of the more interesting parts of the specification is that the router supports a cut-down version of 802.11n wireless protocol, the so-called 1x1 or 'single stream' version. With a compatible client and a fair wind you should be able to get a wireless connection that's a bit faster than standard 802.11g. My router reports the wireless link speed as 65mb/s, and the laptop downstairs claimed that the link was, variously, 75mb/s (highly implausible) or 54mb/s. The real speed will be less than any of these figures, of course.
Obviously, to get these speeds you need to be able to connect in the first place. We don't have any Vista or MacOs machines in the house, and the connection seemed to be fine with XP, Win7 and Ubuntu Linux, but I upgraded the firmware anyway so that visitors won't have problems. The upgrade worked fine, but somewhere in the process my (XP) machine had the TCP/IP properties in its network connection changed so that it wasn't getting its IP address via DHCP and the DNS server was hardwired to the router's address. The result was that I couldn't connect to anywhere except the router. It took a while to figure out what was going on. It might just have been a local problem for me, but I thought I'd mention it in case it happens to anyone else.
Graham

[#2]

There are some marked differences between the stats reported by the v8 and the ZyXEL (P660HW-61, over 5 years old) router I've been using until recently.
The last connection I had with the ZyXEL was as follows:
Down sync: 8211, up sync: 808, down SNR 6 (day) falling to 0 (night), up SNR always 5
The first connection I had from the Thomson was:
Down sync 8855, up sync 736, down SNR 6.5 (day) falling to 4 (night), up SNR 9.5 (varied slightly during 24 hours)
In the meantime, after a couple of resyncs (one when I moved the router to its final position, the other to upgrade the firmware) the down sync has fallen to 8247. This doesn't matter, as both sync rates get the same IP profile.
There are a couple of things about the link stats that I don't understand:
Uptime: 0 days, 21:33:38
DSL Type: G.992.5 annex A
Maximum Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 16,127 / 8,352
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 736 / 8,247
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [GB/MB]: 41.27 / 75.75
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.0 / 20.0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 22.5 / 37.5
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 8.5 / 6.5
Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / TSTC
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): 0
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 6 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 6,529 / 0
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 1,257,346 / 4,599
HEC Errors (Up/Down): NA / 6,254
- Why is the maximum upstream bandwidth so high? (Not that it matters in any practical sense.)
- What does 'sent' and 'received' mean in the 'data transferred' line? From the amount of data it looks like 'Sent' means downstream traffic, which seems the wrong way round.
- There are a lot more upstream errors than downstream ones reported, exactly the opposite to what was reported by my ZyXEL, and not what I'd expect given the high upstream SNR. However, I know that the Thomson's error reporting is a bit peculiar, so it's not a worry.
Graham