Ok... being that i have ADSL at home which is nice and easy to get a proper wifi router for.. thats fine

one thing that im not sure about is cable broadband ala NTL..

Ive got to sort out a wireless router for a house full of students, but looking around, i see that very few specifically are "cable" routers?

how does this work? does the NTL cable modem stay separate, or will the router replace the modem too? :confused:

also can anyone reccomend one with a decent wi-fi range?

Ta:)

I've just have telewest broadband installed and have a Belkin wireless thingy and mine works ok for my pc and the H.C.'s laptop.

As mentioned before on MSN I have my NTL cable modem linked to a Netgear WGR614 v5 router.

Works just fine. The cable modem has the coax connection for the NTL signal (same as the NTL set top box) so cant really be binned,

When you're looking for a wireless router for a cable connection you want to avoid anything that has ADSL on the boxor anything described as router and modem.

You should find there is a rough network diagram on the box which will show the cable modem as a separate item.

I know PC World have had a policy of splitting up the BT line and cable line wireless equipment to make things easier as it is easy to get the kit confisued.

Colin, it's cheaper to get what you need because you don't need to pay for an adsl modem.

I have a Linksys WRT54G and it's great. You effectively have coax that goes to the NTL supplied CM, then an ethernet comes out of the CM into the WAN port of your wireless router. And that's it. Works a charm and is always on.

I now have a small blue-coloured NTL modem. If you go for the 10Mb unmetered tariff, then you should get the blue one. Older modems can have problems at 10Mb - I had another model and needed it changed over because after x hours, it would "crash" and needed rebooting.

Now, I haven't rebooted my blue CM since I had it installed about a year ago.

Most cable modems support either a USB or an Ethernet (RJ45) connection. You just need a wireless router and you hang it off the Ethernet connection of the cable modem. I have never seen the two in a combined device.

The router is then set up to be a DHCP client of the cable modem, and a server to the rest of the LAN. If you don't have enough ports on your router you can chain a hub(s) off one or more of the switched ports - I did exactly this for a house of 6 students 3 years ago or so.

HTH

Col, as Nick said, just use the ethernet connection and it's all plug and pray

I'm on MSN for the rest of the afternoon if you have any Q's

Cool.. im tempted by the linksys WRT54G one coz i can flash "proper" fw onto it

So basically the NTL modem WILL have a rj45 connection on it? - so i can go get the router this weekend. to be ready for ntl to install the modem in the house..

If i do this right, theres a house full of 6 23ish yr old laydees who will be very greatful

If it's a new installation it's 99.9% certain it will have RJ45.

With the linksys ones be careful to make sure you get a revision after 1.2 of that box.

Reason i say that is becuase some muppet put the Wireless chip above or too close to the PSU circuit and so it thends to get a little warm and so power down/power off to stop it damaging iteself.

That means dropped wireless. (I can't remember if that was a WRT54G, but the number rings a bell)

If by propper flash you mean embedded linux, then

Be VERY careful flashing wireless routers - I had to buy a new one recently due to a failed re-flash operation :( :thumbdwn:

If by propper flash you mean embedded linux, then

Thats wot im talking about...

ive got 3 Linksys NSLU-2s that are running various apps round the house.. media servers, bittorent clients, apache development box etc great fun for gettin linux experience and generally messing about..

Be VERY careful flashing wireless routers - I had to buy a new one recently due to a failed re-flash operation :( :thumbdwn:

Hi Nick,

Have you got the old one, as I have some tools to reflash the things from a failed or empty state. Could even wire in a serial console if there isn't one already

HTH

Has anyone ever had problems with the NTL modem?

Ive setup the NTL broadband connection at my missus's student house, and connected the modem (after battling for several hours to get the modem registered with NTL) and finally got it working.. problem is the modem seems to be a bit flakey.. eg whatevers connected to it (pc via ethernet, or the WRT54g router) sometimes struggles to get a dhcp address from the modem, or sometimes the connection between the two drops and takes a couple of re-starts of the modem to get it to come back.. the modem's lights are on as expected.. and the router or pc trys to get dhcp but fails... i had the same problem when trying to set the modem up originally.. it worked after 5 attempts..

Has anyone else had this problem/heard of similar NTL issues or dodgy modems?

Ta

The DHCP for the remote pc's is not from the modem, as per your adsl router, the router provides the IP address. The only thing that DHCP's from the modem is the router itself, and that gets the IP address thats normally associated with your PC. The router then uses NAT to get from the PC's onto NTL's network.

We have NTL broadband here using a really old modem, and it seems stable.

The DHCP for the remote pc's is not from the modem, as per your adsl router, the router provides the IP address. The only thing that DHCP's from the modem is the router itself, and that gets the IP address thats normally associated with your PC. The router then uses NAT to get from the PC's onto NTL's network.

We have NTL broadband here using a really old modem, and it seems stable.

Hmm.. i know the pc--> router part is ok

but its router ---> modem and pc ---> modem the devices struggle on getting a IP address from the modem/ntl

Which modem has the house got, you may need to get the signal levels checked. You could have one of 2 situations.

1) Weak signal which will need sorting and that needs an engineer to sort, although it could be something as simple as a dodgy connection. If you have an attenuator between the modem and the ntl cable you could try removing it.

2) To much signal, which needs an attenuator.

If its an old modem you can check the signals yourself. Enter http://192.168.100.1/ into a web browser and see what happens.

Another useful website for info on NTL/Telewest

Cable Modem Troubleshooting Tips

Ta... its a brand new installation (got a NTL 250 modem)

Ive just been informed (fecking BIG omission) that one of the lass's unplugs both the WRT54g and the cable modem every night...

Get them left on, mine has been on 24/7 everyday since it was installed many years ago. We have an antique Sufeboard 3100 modem that has been faultless.

Ive told the silly mare to leave them switched on..

Ive also found the config page for the modem itself so i can check for error messages... the upstream power is right on the upper limit.. ive read that there can be connection problems with it being so close.

Hi Nick,

Have you got the old one, as I have some tools to reflash the things from a failed or empty state. Could even wire in a serial console if there isn't one already

HTH

Thanks Mark.

I discovered an important fact about D-Link and some other routers, when I was prompted to have another go at fixing this, recently. A lot of them support tftp for uploading the firmware, in the case when the web UI has been broken. The IP address is unchanged, so the firmware can be uploaded, and after a reboot, up comes the router good as new!

You need to use a wired connection, to one of the local switch ports (not the broadband port).

Nick, you do realise this thread is over 2 years old?!?

I do, but for various reasons I thought it was worth posting, if only for Briskoda's fantastic Google rating, which may help someone else find the answer one day, and to thank Mark, since I never noticed his reply, two years ago.