# BT broadband techies help please ?



## coupe-sport (May 7, 2002)

Getting our line surveyed this week and hopefully will have BT broadband by the weekend.

Question - we need a Wireless router and cards- we want to run 4 PC's off the broadband connection.

Requirements is reliable, but simple to set up - any one any recommendations on hardware please

cheers

james.


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## sam (May 7, 2002)

There's a Vigor 2600 firewall/wireless/4port switch/ADSL router which you may want to consider. I have the non-wireless version as I already had an Apple Airport, but a few people at work have the wireless model and none of us have any complaints. Simple to setup, ie I plugged it in and it worked but haven't tried any of the fancy features.

Sam


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## sam (May 7, 2002)

IIRC the non-wireless version cost about Â£160ish and the wireless one about Â£180.


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## Dotti (Mar 9, 2003)

Coupe-sport you lucky begger


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## KevinST (May 6, 2002)

Recommendation - don't go with BTO if you think you may need their tech support!

For the wireless DSL router, have a look at 
http://www.netgear.co.uk/html/prod_rout ... dg824m.htm
Not used it, but Netgear products are pretty good.

Don't make the mistake that another forum member made recently, and buy a product that's called a "Cable/DSL xxxxxx"... it does not contain a DSL modem.


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## coupe-sport (May 7, 2002)

> Coupe-sport you lucky begger


i'm happy with 56k but it stops me hogging the phone line 

Cheers all - will look into it. Kev - its got to BT - the contract is attractive for what we want

rgds


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## KevinST (May 6, 2002)

> Kev - its got to BT - the contract is attractive for what we want


   BT's contract (and I assume prices) are attractive?? please tell me why!! i can't find any reason at all to go with BTO - I'm only with them because when I had it installed they were the only ISP that my company would pay for. Fortunatly for me they will now pay for anyone, so when I move house I'll also be moving ISP ;D


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## garvin (May 7, 2002)

> .......but Netgear products are pretty good.


I can support Kev's view regarding NetGear products. I recently set up a per-to-peer 'network' between two PCs using NetGear 802.11b wireless USB adapters. They were a reasonable price, are of good quality, were dead easy to set up (especially so being USB) and, so far over the few days they've been up and running, work reliably. To be honest I can't fault them.


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## jgoodman00 (May 6, 2002)

I have a Netgear DG814 router at home. I have one criticism of it, & that is that it doesnt have the ability to be rebooted from a computer. The only way to reboot it is to physically switch it off & then back on.

It seems that every now & then the connection can be dropped. More often than not restarting the unit rectifies the problem. A software restart would give this ability...


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## P3CJO (Apr 1, 2003)

I've also got the Netgear DG814 router and encounter the same problem occasionally with the need to reset from the router.

However despite this it was easy to set up, and both Netgear and Belkin products always provide top quality support, particularly for beginners, so I would stick to either of these manufacturers if you can.


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## fireshipjohn (May 6, 2002)

Hi,

Can I suggest you look at http://www.solwise.co.uk/
Very professional and knowledgeable and cheap!

They have a forum where you can really find out some details
on what you need and the issues you may face.

Also check http://adslguide.org.uk/ again really useful
forums and hardware reviews.

No connections etc., just a satisfied ....

Cheers John


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## newcasTTle (Nov 29, 2002)

doing some research myself and the netgear stuff comes highly recommended


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## snaxo (May 31, 2002)

I have the NetGear DG824M and an extremely slinky piece of kit is too.

I have had a number of issues with it when connecting to the IBM Corporate Network through a VPN client (it connects, and some stuff works - but other stuff doesn't). Initially suspected a problem with the DB824M but now looks like a problem with the way IBM have DNS set-up. Anyway...the point of this comment is that Netgear tech Support (free) have been VERY helpful in assisting with me looking into this. So a thumbs up from them from my experience.

This router CAN be software re-booted from the web-based Admin interface. It's VERY easy to setup indeed.

Go buy ;D

Cheapest place I have found is Ebuyer.co.uk.

Good luck!

Damian

PS If you are having an engineer-assisted BT broadband install - make sure you have the socket where you definitely want the router (trying to get it moved afterwards is an expensive nightmare). If you have a 'DIY' install - you can plug it in anywhere with a microfilter.


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## KevinST (May 6, 2002)

<off topic>
snaxo... slightly off topic, but noticed that my wifes PC could only access the internet via the IBM VPN.
It appears that your IT people hard code the DNS servers into the IP config, but leave the IP address and default gateways as DHCP.
To fix my wifes problem I added another DNS server to the list of specified DNS servers, that of the router on our LAN at home.
So, when she's connected to the IBM VPN it uses the first specified DNS server (IBM's) but whenthe VPN is not up the OS tries the first DNS server, fails and then tries the 2nd DNS server (our router) and it works.

</off topic>


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## coupe-sport (May 7, 2002)

> snaxo... slightly off topic, but noticed that my wifes PC could only access the internet via the IBM VPN.
> It appears that your IT people hard code the DNS servers into the IP config, but leave the IP address and default gateways as DHCP.
> To fix my wifes problem I added another DNS server to the list of specified DNS servers, that of the router on our LAN at home.
> So, when she's connected to the IBM VPN it uses the first specified DNS server (IBM's) but whenthe VPN is not up the OS tries the first DNS server, fails and then tries the 2nd DNS server (our router) and it works.


i thought that too 

Seriously though thanks for all the replies - i'm sure there will be more questions when we get it :


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## snaxo (May 31, 2002)

Cheers Kev...

Yep was discussing with a colleague at work and this is exactly what I'm going to implement 

Damian


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## phil (May 7, 2002)

Weird. I can get into IBM via VPN with no problems whatsoever. If I disconnect I'm connected straight back to the internet (have to disable browser proxy though.)

Maybe I'm just better than you 

There are a couple of internal newsgroups which you might find helpful. Can't remember what they're called though.

How off-topic is this?


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## KevinST (May 6, 2002)

getting access tot he VPN isn't a problem (well it was initially when IBM moved to the latest version of VPN client - had problems with UDP encapsulation and the router / firewall etc), getting access to the internet when not connected to the VPN was the problem.
Configuring an additional DNS server fixes the issue.


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## TwickTT (May 7, 2002)

I use the Dlink DSL504 and it has always been 100% perfect, I have 1 desktop and 2 lap tops all on wireless.

Strongly recommend it and also dsl warehouse for A1 service.

As for Provider I recommend PIPEX Â£70 a qtr.

http://www.dsl-warehouse.co.uk/acatalog/DSL504-SO1.html


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## snaxo (May 31, 2002)

Actually guys my issue is slightly more convuluted.
(sorry to continue the off-topic nature!)

I can access the Internet - no problem, either connected / not connected to the VPN.

Phil - I presume you are using VTS via the AT&T net client for the VPN? Â If you use the 'older' IBM solution (SINE) there is no problem (however, I cancelled my SINE account Â :-/).

My situation is this:

1) I can connect through to the VPN
2) I can open Notes databases no problem.
3) I can create, edit and save documents in Notes, no problem.
4) I CANNOT though send Notes email, or replicate with a local copy (get 'network operation did not complete in a reasonable amount of time')
5) I can connect to Lotus Sametime but I do not see anyone online and they do not see me !!

I had thought that this maybe an MTU problem has sending email is significantly more network expensive than most other Notes operations .... but Sametime confuses this as ST packet sizes are very small..

Thought it could possibly be something going on at the firewall in terms of inbound traffic being blocked (router log shows IP Sec packets dropped on occassion due to inbound firewall rule matches)

However, the thinking is that it's to do with DNS servers. I need to hard code a particular DNS server into my VTS client config.

Cant test this right now though as the Router is buggered. Netgear got me to download a beta firmware upgrade - unfortunately it completely screwed it - so they are sending me a replacement directly Â (i.e not via the place I bought it from).

I await to see if it will work with this DNS config with great anticipation!!

Damian


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## KevinST (May 6, 2002)

Damian - you problem sounds strange...
If the VPN tunnel is being created then your firewall won't even see the traffic - it's just VPN traffic.
If the VPN tunnel (IPSEC) can be created then there shouldn't be a problem.

Hmm - have a look on the options and see if the VPN is being encapsulated in UDP packets - had to turn that off on my wifes VPN config to get it to work.

It could be a DNS issue, but Notes when it tries to connect to a server it can't get an IP address for responds "unable to find path to server". Also I would assume that if ST can't log onto the ST server then it would error (I know my wife's copy of ST errors when it's started and the VPN isn't up).


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## snaxo (May 31, 2002)

Cheers Kev.

I know what you are saying and it is odd.

I spoke with a colleague who is a network guru and he says he had 'exactly' the same problem until he changed the DNS config around - then all was fine.
ST 'does' appear to connect - (log's in and says 'connected') but you can't see anyone online and they can't see you !!!. Â Very odd.

If I switch from the Netgear router to the BT Modem then all works fine, and without issue. Hence my initial thoughts that it was the router.

However, I started getting suspicious after having a conversation with another colleague who gets the same issue with a slightly different config. He uses the BT Modem off his pc and then has 'Internet Connection Sharing' setup. He then uses a wirless access point for his laptop to get access - but has exactly the same problem as me. Again, if he uses the BT Modem directly - no problem whatsover.

I spoke to my other colleague at this point (he's a bit of a mad professor - but really know his stuff). He advised re the DNS config. He says he's not sure why we have to do this and exactly how IBM IS has DNS setup but however it is - it's a bit of a dog's dinner (technical term Â 

He suspects that it is sepcifically Lotus users (employees) who have this issue, as Lotus Mail servers are on a different part of the network to other IBM servers.

Damian


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## KevinST (May 6, 2002)

When the other 'alf gets home tonight I'll have a look at the VPN config changes I made to get her VPN to work with the latest AT&T client. If the DNS thing doesn't work then you could always try that :-/


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## jonah (Aug 17, 2002)

Well i installed the Netgear adsl wireless modem DG82m and a wireless pc card MA401 yesterday, all works well and i'm very impressed with it,i can take my laptop anywhere in the house now and connection is 100% .
it has 4 ports and built in fire wall and is quite stylish as well,
thanx Kev for ur recomendation
jonah


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