New Connection

[Guest]

Well this morning we got connected via Telewest.

I have signed up for a Cable TV and Internet package for 20.00 quid a month which is only two pounds more than the Internet connection I had with Orage that now has not worked for three weeks. I also since discovered that I have spent 8 pounds on phone calls to Orange which were all a waste of time and money.

Anyway I had a visit from a couple of lads two weeks ago who went through the best way to connect and run cables and were good enough to leave me with the two boxes and a length of cable so that I could do it myself and ensure the bits went exactly where I wanted them and were installed to my own satisfaction. I put a box on the outside of the house and ran a cable through an outside wall to a box on the inside in the lounge. Simple and quick.

Today they connected the lines up and I now have a modem and a new box in the lounge. To get the Internet to the computer I have used a new device that plugs into a power point adjacent to the modem and transmits the signal throughout the house via the electrical wiring. I can therefore now pick up the Internet from another of these devices plugged into any power point in the house.

The installation is easy, neat, very fast and I am very happy with it. If you can get Telewest I would recommend them but I am lucky enough to have a cable conduit installed with a relatively new house and I know it mighy be a bit more of a challenge if you need to dig up paths and gardens etc to get a cable to the house.

[Guest]

the advantage of cable over sky is that it dosnt loose quality in bad weather.

unfortunatly ntl/telewests service is not quite as good.

[John]

I'm having problems with my TW connection at the moment, just keep's dropping, but it's the first drop in connection I've had in probably 2 years, also just ditched Sky for cable, TV on demand and TVdrive are great.

Richard where did you get your network plug things from and how much were they? I've seen them before but it wasn't cheap

[Guest]

I'm having problems with my TW connection at the moment, just keep's dropping, but it's the first drop in connection I've had in probably 2 years, also just ditched Sky for cable, TV on demand and TVdrive are great.Richard where did you get your network plug things from and how much were they? I've seen them before but it wasn't cheap

John,

Speaking to Halifax Computers today on Pellon Lane they said that it was known that Telewest are dropping out today as they are in the process of getting ready for a system upgrade in the near future so don't worry too much about that.

I bought the plugs from them, Netgear Wall-Plugged Ethernet Bridge XE102 for £33.24 each. One issue with them is that if you want to use more than one computer such as a desktop and a laptop you may need a router as well as the modem needs to be rebooted when you change computers to reasign the IP address. I'm going to get a router tomorrow!

The plugs need no installation with XP, you simply plug one into the Ethernet port on your modem and into the nearest power socket and then plug another one into any socket in the house and connect the ethernet port to your computer. Mine worked first time and has perfomed perfectly.

[Guest]

I am still cautious about leaving my connection open, does anyone know how I can be sure that I have a Firewall in place?

I know the XP one is off and I THINK the Norton system is protecting me but how can I be sure that I have a Firewall in place and it is doing it's job?

I have Norton Antivirus 2006 installed and everything turned on which I think overrides the XP firewall.

[John]

When you get a router it should have NAT which is a hardware firewall, I wouldn't worry too much about keeping it open, but a good firewall is sygate and it's free

[wonwinglo]

Richard,if you get a Netgear Router I know the little quirks with them having just fitted one here myself,if you do get one then can I suggest that you leave it on the default settings as changing these things to a new password can be a right pain.

John suggested that changing it was not necessary as the range is not very far, but adequate say to your front door and in the garden.

[Guest]

Richard,if you get a Netgear Router I know the little quirks with them having just fitted one here myself,if you do get one then can I suggest that you leave it on the default settings as changing these things to a new password can be a right pain. John suggested that changing it was not necessary as the range is not very far, but adequate say to your front door and in the garden.

Thanks Barry. I am not sure what type they sell at the local shop but I will bear it in mind if it is a Netgear one. I am sincerely hoping to plug it in and everything will work perfectly immediately.

I must try to be more realistic in future!!

[Guest]

I got a router and it is a Netgear one. I plugged it in and it worked perfectly first time.

I thought I would have no end of troubles setting this up but it has been an absolute breeze and I would recommend it to anyone. No cables, no mess and instant flexible connection anywhere in the house. Things have certainly moved on since my first dial up modem!!

[Guest]

John,I bought the plugs from them, Netgear Wall-Plugged Ethernet Bridge XE102 for £33.24 each. One issue with them is that if you want to use more than one computer such as a desktop and a laptop you may need a router as well as the modem needs to be rebooted when you change computers to reasign the IP address. I'm going to get a router tomorrow!

you can turn the auto assigning of ips off in the router and then set the ips manually on the computer so you dont have to reboot as each computer will have its own ip that doesnt change unless you change it

[Guest]

Thanks Ian, but once I plugged the router in everything worked perfectly.

[wonwinglo]

Very pleased to hear that Richard,you must be connected via the 'Admin' default,and 'Password' password connection,the problems start when you try and re-install a new password as many have found out,by re-setting the button on the rear they fail to log in to http:www.routerlogin.com further attempts to reset back again are hopeless as many testimonials show on the internet,so the answer is to install as a factory setting,I have elaborated on this for anyone who finds this thread in the future to assist them.

I got a router and it is a Netgear one. I plugged it in and it worked perfectly first time.I thought I would have no end of troubles setting this up but it has been an absolute breeze and I would recommend it to anyone. No cables, no mess and instant flexible connection anywhere in the house. Things have certainly moved on since my first dial up modem!!

[Guest]

Very pleased to hear that Richard' date='you must be connected via the 'Admin' default,and 'Password' password connection,the problems start when you try and re-install a new password as many have found out,by re-setting the button on the rear they fail to log in to http:www.routerlogin.com further attempts to reset back again are hopeless as many testimonials show on the internet,so the answer is to install as a factory setting,I have elaborated on this for anyone who finds this thread in the future to assist them.

Thanks to your warning I installed it without making any adjustments and it fired up perfectly first time.

I got a phone call from Orange this evening saying they had made some adjustments and my connection MIGHT work now.

I informed them that I have now changed my provider as they have not been able to provide me with a connection for three weeks and I have spent over eight pounds talking to a string of idiots on the other side of the world who could do nothing for me.

[Guest]

I also notice that the router contains two firewalls, an NAT one and aSPI one.

Can anyone enlighten me as to how these work.

I haven't done any setting up so are they always there and can I now safely leave my connection open 24/7?

[John]

Short for Network Address Translation, an Internet standard that enables a local-area network (LAN) to use one set of IP addresses for internal traffic and a second set of addresses for external traffic. A NAT box located where the LAN meets the Internet makes all necessary IP address translations.

NAT serves three main purposes:

# Provides a type of firewall by hiding internal IP addresses

# Enables a company to use more internal IP addresses. Since they're used internally only, there's no possibility of conflict with IP addresses used by other companies and organizations.

# Allows a company to combine multiple ISDN connections into a single Internet connection

Basically that says it all, you should also have an option that say's something like "Block WAN Request" or "Disallow Ping" or something along those lines, what it means is a hacker usually fines his/her victims by pinging a machine to aquire the IP, if you block it you can't ping it and so can't find the machine, so you should be able to leave your connection open 24/7, not only do I leave me connection open 24/7/365 minus 2 to 4 weeks a year for holidays I also never turn my computer off and I've never had any problems.

As for aspi that used to be the drivers for your cd-rom drive don't know what it's for in a router