Re: [Sheflug] broadband routers

[David Bottrill <nospam [at] xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 2002-12-16 at 22:14, Paul Sims wrote:
> Has anyone got anything positive (or indeed, more importantly, negative)
> to say about the cheap broadband routers available now?
> 
> I've just signed up to NTL Cable broadband - it's the cheapie 128 k,
> shared with the kids pc, so I'd like a router rather than leave my box
> on...obviously we are talking of "only" punting IP packets over a WAN
> and OS friendliness shouldn't be an issue, , but are there any devices
> to steer clear of?
> 
> Cheers, 
> 
> Paul.
> 
I've been using a LinkSys on NTL for over 2 years without any great
problems. The early firmware had a few problems but I've no problems
since the very early days. When I bought my box it was £150 they are
down to about £70 now.

Depending on the cable modem NTL supply you could have issues with MAC
addresses. It is a good idea to note the MAC address of the first NIC
you connect to the cable modem. If you have any problems later with the
LinkSys there is an option to change (Clone) it's MAC address, simply
use the address of the first card you connected.

I configured a cable modem for my father last week, NTL supplied him
with the "120" modem, this will remember the first 2 MAC addresses it
sees, if you want to switch between them you first need to power-cycle
the modem. 

I have an old 3COM modem that has resisted any method of changing the
originally discovered MAC address, simply using the clone function has
got me around this.


-- 
David Bottrill <david.bottrill [at] ntlworld.com>

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