Wireless connection to old PACE telewest box

rcssmb · 09-01-2008, 09:06

Hi
I've been 'helping' my father in law with a new (Vista) laptop which has an integrated wireless card. Set up at my house with ADSL router fine.

At his house he has a PACE telewest set top box connected to a WG602 V3 access point. At the moment he uses this with the supplied WG111 USB dongle on an old windows ME machine. This works fine.

How can I set up a wireless network for him using the integrated wireless card in the new laptop?

Looks like the WG602 access point does not broadcast its SSID so I tried to connect manually entering the SSID. BUT the passphrase on the side of the access point is on 6 digits long and WEP requires 5 or 10 character code.

Can I buy a new cable router and simply connect this to the PACE box using a Ethernet RJ-45 port cable?

For example if I bought the NETGEAR WGR614 Cable/DSL 54 Mbps Wireless Router for him; connected it to the set top box. Will his laptop wireless card 'see' the router and be off an running?

Sorry I have no cable experience so not sure how it works, does the set top box act as a modem?

My other worry is that the NETGEAR WGR614 doesnt mention Vista but I guess it may work - seems to have software on Netgear web site.

Any advice gratefully received. Thanks

southwell · 09-01-2008, 09:10

It might be WPA not WEP. WEP is 12 or 24 characters usually.

rcssmb · 09-01-2008, 09:22

Hi
It could be, it did say it was WEP on the old ME machine which runs with the supplied WG111 USB dongle - I confess to not trying WPA though.
Thanks

weesteev · 09-01-2008, 10:02

The kit will only work with the supplied wireless dongle, I believe there may be recent driver updates for Vista on the Netgear website.

What I would suggest though is to call Customer Care and switch your service to a cable modem instead for a faster more reliable service. If you want to stay wireless you could wait to see what wireless kits are provided by Virgin soon or purchase your own router for 30-Ã‚Â£40 for a basic 54g wireless router as you have an adapter built in already.

Switching to a cable modem may also mean a chaper service as you have options like the "3 for Ã‚Â£30" deal which may save you money as well.

Hope this info was useful

rcssmb · 09-01-2008, 10:52

Thanks weesteev
I am not sure what you mean by a cable modem. Is the PACE set top box acting as a modem at the moment, connecting to the access point which is like a router?

I guess that they would need another cable coming into the house if they switched. At the moment only one cable comes into the house into the back of the PACE box.

With it not being my house and subscription it is difficult talking with customer services who want to speak to the bill payer. I will have to see what deal they are on at the moment and compare with the 3 for Ã‚Â£30 deal like you suggest.
Thanks

weesteev · 09-01-2008, 11:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by rcssmb

Thanks weesteev
I am not sure what you mean by a cable modem. Is the PACE set top box acting as a modem at the moment, connecting to the access point which is like a router?

I guess that they would need another cable coming into the house if they switched. At the moment only one cable comes into the house into the back of the PACE box.

With it not being my house and subscription it is difficult talking with customer services who want to speak to the bill payer. I will have to see what deal they are on at the moment and compare with the 3 for Ã‚Â£30 deal like you suggest.
Thanks

You are spot on, the cable box has a built in modem and the wireless kit acts as an access point.

If you call customer care when the account holder is with you then they can authorise you to speak.

Hope this helps!

rcssmb · 09-01-2008, 11:10

weesteev - great clears things up a bit for me. Your advice it to get a seperate peice of equipment which acts as both router and modem - would definately require another cable coming in to the modem? I will do as you say with them at their house and speak to customer services to see about costs etc.

Do you know if my other option of for example NETGEAR WGR614 Cable/DSL 54 Mbps Wireless Router would work still using the PACE as the modem? This would seem to be a cheap quick solution?

Thanks

Ben B · 09-01-2008, 18:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by rcssmb

weesteev - great clears things up a bit for me. Your advice it to get a seperate peice of equipment which acts as both router and modem - would definately require another cable coming in to the modem? I will do as you say with them at their house and speak to customer services to see about costs etc.

Do you know if my other option of for example NETGEAR WGR614 Cable/DSL 54 Mbps Wireless Router would work still using the PACE as the modem? This would seem to be a cheap quick solution?

Thanks

yes this would work fine. my router was connected to my set top box before they gave me a seperate cable modem after i moved

Matth · 09-01-2008, 21:30

Only the odd router seems to have trouble with the Pace, there was a Benq one (not wireless) that had issues.

I looked up the other device - http://kbserver.netgear.com/products/wg602v3.asp

It has a "hidden mode" option, but it would not be usable with more than one PC, as it is an access point (with no facility for NAT addressing) and not a router.

PS. How cheap do you want.... http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132429 - thoght maybe a known brand name and a nicer colour would be better.

If the laptop has something better then ordinary G, then it may be as well to match it, though 54mbit G is plenty fast enough for broadaband (at the moment). All 802.11g devices should interoperate at G (54) speed, regardless of any nonstandard extensions.

rcssmb · 09-01-2008, 21:50

Thanks ben b and Matth.
Its comforting to know that it should be ok. Ive taken a punt on an ebay sale for a Netgear Cable / DSL Wireless Router - WGT624 (Ã‚Â£24 delivered). Guess when it arrives I will have to go round and contact virgin for login credentials - unless they are stored in the PACE box?

Thanks again you lot!

Ben B · 09-01-2008, 22:00

when i got my router (when i had bb thru stb) all i had to do was plug in, run set up disc and was online wired and wireless within minutes. didn't need any login cresidentials. so may be the case for you. anyway, good look and i hope you find your purchase worthwile. i know i did with my router

Cruachan · 21-01-2008, 17:15

I know that you've gone down the router route but ...

I started off with a Telewest provided WG602 and WG111 and it became surplus to requirements when I added another computer to my setup - the Telewest provided (firmware crippled) WG602 can support only one PC.

I thought, as others did, that the WG602 was tied in to using the supplied WG111 dongle, but I found that it was not by successfully connecting to it with another WG111 dongle.

Anyway, I recently used the WG602 to extend my wireless network (by plugging it in to a switch at the other side of the house to my current wireless router). I used the website http://www.powerdog.com/wepkey.cgi to generate the 128 bit WEP key from the Telewest provided passphrase and got my XP integrated wif-fi laptop to connect to the WG602.

Probably no help to you now, but perhaps of interest to some who have contributed to this post.

And if anyone knows how to access the router's configuration pages, please let me know! Part of the crippling done for Telewest means that 192.168.0.227 does not work.

popper · 21-01-2008, 17:36

"Your advice it to get a seperate peice of equipment which acts as both router and modem "

slight missunderstanding there it seems, and noone bothered to put it right all this time

its NOT a single unit that replaces both the current cable modem and the (wireless) router, its just replacing the old internal docsis STB modem with an external one, and replacing the crippled NTL/tw/VM supplyed router with a generic router than may be better for you.

Cruachan's advice seems sound so you could go with that option....

weather you use the internal STB VM-CM(Virgin Media set top box Docsis modem) or a new seperate VM-CM doesnt really matter, they are just trying to get everyone off the STB version so they can save cashflow running two billing versions.

the STB version gets billed on your current TV package bill, the new external one gets you a seperate bill that doesnt have a bar code, and you need a direct debit setup for that new BB account.

so whatever you use, assuming you never intend going above the 4Mbit/s BB package, then you will always connect your wireless routers WAN port to that CM LAN rj45 cable connector.

they will just fit or have you fit a supplyed cable splitter ( and that may mess up your signal levels if they dont bother to check at the time of fitting) one end going to the current STB and the other to the new stand alone CM.

then if they havent entered and activated the new CMs MAC into the VM system then you may find you loose BB until its sorted and entered properly.

if you replace the current working wireless router , then you will need to get the new routers MAC address registered with the VM server side kit, that can be easy or hard depending on what kit and firmware is inside it and what part of the VM network you happen to be in.

you can take the old routers MAC and clone that into any new wireless kit if you have problems registering the new one, though it sounds like your new to all this networking stuff so it might be a hard learning curve for you!

on a side note if you intend going to the current 20Mbit/s or the future 50Mbit/s
and want wireless use rather than wired use , then you would be wise to look at the new 11N MIMO kit that can give the required full throughput for this increased web speed... dont forget to buy 11n kit for both ends.

that includes all PCs on your LAN side that you want as wireless connections, mixing old 11g/11b and new 11N kit does nothing but slow the LAN connection down to the lowest kits speeds and thats a waste...