My only choices for internet at my hangar are BrightHouse (Spectrum) cable, or CenturyLink DSL. I do not need super-high speed, 10 MB is plenty for my requirements.

Since the airport is not zoned "residential," both ISPs treat my hangar as a business location and charge $$ accordingly.

Brighthouse cable would be pushing $100 / month.

CenturyLink is less than $55 / month, including all taxes and junk fees.

I have had Centurylink for a couple of years. No problems. Until December 15, 2017.

Rather than pay CenturyLink $125 or so / year to rent their DSL modem, I bought a NetGear DM-200. This is modem only, I use a separate Apple router / WiFi Access Point.

The VDSL2 service worked just fine for couple years. It stopped working on December 15, 2017. WAN light on the modem had changed to blinking red. CenturyLink tech support said that the line loop to the central office was just fine, told me to contact NetGear, as CenturyLink did not support that particular modem.

I bought a new replacement, sixty bucks. Same problem. Borrowed a known good working CenturyLink modem from a friend in another hangar at the airport. Same problem.

Got hold of CenturyLink support again, they sent a tech out. He informed me that on December 15, CenturyLink had changed their VDSL2 signaling protocol to "VDSL2 Vectoring," and that modems specifically equipped for this protocol are required.

He plugged in a CenturyLing branded ZyXEL C1100Z modem and it worked. He left it with me and told me that modem rental would be added to my monthly bill. It was configured as a modem / router / WiFi access point combination; I switched it to bridge mode and am using it as modem only, feeding my Apple router.

---

Above is background / history. Now for my question: What is this "Vectoring" technology, or more to the point, is there an affordable modem that I can buy to handle this? Again, I do not need super-high speed, I am provisioned for 25 MB only (that's more than sufficient for my requirements), and I really don't need router / WiFi capability, since I'm getting these from my Apple router.

Found this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDSL

The article even states that CenturyLink was in the process of doing this upgrade. They SHOULD have notified you in advance.

It appears to be a new version of noise cancelling in the signal.

Did a little checking around - found the page on your provider that shows the approved modems.

https://internethelp.centuryli...atibility-table.html

The one they dropped off is available at Amazon for about $115 - saw one advertised on eBay for less.

https://www.amazon.com/C1100Z-...ryLink/dp/B015ELWZ16

They will, of course, want you to rent one of their units. Some companies have cut off any user-provided equipment once it has to be replaced - don't know if your company does that if they are listing compatible units.

VDSl2 is basically a communications protocol for DSL communications that has to have both sides support it to work properly. Apparently Centurylink has changed your line without telling you and rendered your existing modem unuseable. The simplest and cheapest way to get it working again is to hit the local Craigslist and buy a used one for cheap. There are always a LOT of used newer model modems as they are not generally compatible for use with other internet providers so when people change from say Centurylink to Comcast, they throw their old modems on Craigslist (at least around here they do and they tend to be only 40% of new).