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Re: Fwd: Billion 7800N



Hi,

Heddle Weaver wrote:
So it looks more and more like hardware.
Regards,

I don't agree.

The 7800N is one of Billion's best modems, it may be faulty, but I don't think so reading through all this horrible thread. The thread and your experience completely mis-represents Billion's product as it seems you are clueless on how to use it properly and as designed -- ala, as others have said, it should not require anything special and almost ANY reasonable browser will work fine for configuration with standard browser settings on Linux or Windows or any other operating system that understands and works properly with standard TCP networks.

What I find happens with many Mac users is that they try to setup PPP login on their computer, when the modem is meant to be doing the job for their network. This kind of problem is not something that is normally seen with Linux users as they tend to have more of a clue than a Mac user and usually more of a clue than most Windows users.


I suggest the following:

First off, connect the modem directly to the setup machine via the Ethernet cable using a LAN port, do not connect to any other devices, ie no switches or other network -- just the modem with the computer.

Oh, connect the phone line of the DSL connection too, make sure it isn't filtered coming in to the modem.

- Fully reset the 7800N to factory defaults, any way you can, even using the Windows machine.

- Use a LIVE CD and eliminate your Linux installation from the equation. The Live CD needs to work, it needs to have drivers for your network card -- if it works fine, then proceed using the setup, otherwise continue with the Windows machine..

- Check that you have an IP address in the range of the modem's standard LAN (probably 192.168.1.254 or 192.168.2.254), netmask is 255.255.255.0.

- You should be able to telnet to the modem with username admin and password admin -- logout with "user logout" on the command line interface, don't do anything else here, you seem to be out of your depth in this area. This will prove connectivity with the modem on it's network and that everything should be fine.


Take a breath.....

If all the above works fine, then you should use the web config of the modem.

- Login to the web config using http://192.168.1.254 -- the username and password will both be "admin". Once logged in.

- Run the quick start wizard. Change only two things, the ISP username and the ISP password. [You may want to scan connection types first, or not). ISPs may give you DNS servers and other setting, but you normally only want to change two things, the PPP username login and the PPP password.

- Once you have gone through setting up the ISP login (which the modem takes care of), then do a "save configuration" to flash, click on the save link, then click on the apply button -- wait for it to say it has been done successfully.

You should now have a modem that offers default wireless (fix that ASAP), it should give out IP settings via DHCP (it's own built-in server) and it will be connected to the Internet via the ISP login that you entered.

Any machine needing access to the Internet through this modem will simply plug in to the built-in LAN switch or use wireless. The device will get IP settings via DHCP. You do not need to do any kind of PPP login on anything other than the modem itself.

Further configuration is for someone whom understands the above things properly first, for starters. Any further configuration is more advanced. I strongly urge you to work out, properly, how to secure the wireless effectively -- change the network name from default, don't use WEP, do use WPA2-PSK with a long and strong password, forget about trying to hide the network or limiting via MAC addresses as both of these options are pointless.

If you are unable to manage the above, effectively, I am sure that there are many local people (some maybe even IT consultants), whom should be able to handle this very, very easily -- you'll probably need to have a friend help you or pay a consultant to fix it for you. There was advice I heard a few times about a Word Perfect help desk support call -- it was gold, it might apply to you [1]. Perhaps, only perhaps, that is being a bit harsh.


[1] http://www.free-funny-jokes.com/from-the-wordperfect-help-desk.html

Good luck, it seems you really need it or a good pay for consultant to help you out -- I don't envy being that consultant in this situation. ;-)

--
Kind Regards
AndrewM

Andrew McGlashan
Broadband Solutions now including VoIP


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