Using a Netgear DG824G on Tesco Broadband

Not sure this is the right place, but in the absence of somewhere more obviously suitable I'll post my question here.

Background: my in-laws have Tesco Broadband, it's cheap 'n cheerful since all they want is email and some occasional web browsing. They currently use the Tesco-supplied Speedtouch 330 USB modem; however their PC went pop last week so they've now bought a new laptop running Vista.

I've managed to get them going over the phone (there appears to be lots of issues with the ST330 and Vista) but I'd like to set them up with a wireless router so they can (a) ditch the ST330 and (b) connect wirelessly.

The question: I'm thinking about getting them a DG824G (probably a v4 as these appear to be pretty reliable). However, I know very little about Tesco Broadband and so I want to check first if anyone can forsee any issues with using a DG824G with Tesco? I'm assuming that the VPI/VCI should be the same as standard (BT line) ADSL and that it should be PPPoA? Anything else I need to be aware of?

I also recall some reports of Vista being a bit problematic in the networking sense, that some had reported problems with using Vista on ADSL connections. Is this still the case? If so, what's the fix/workaround (I confess I still use W2K and XP)?

As always any help much appreciated.

the 834G (any version) will work fine on Tesco which is usually a Datastream connection supplied by NTL so the usual 0,38 PPPoA etc but some of the test logins won't work.

The v4 firmware is a bit beta the earlier versions are sound too.

Vista will DHCP by default on its wired LAN and the wireless is OK if you have vista drivers for the wireless gadget.

Not come across problems with vista, remember when using a router like the DG834G the computer does not see anything to do with the ADSL, that is all hidden away by the router.

Settings for Tesco are fairly standard. The ST330 would have had issues as its such an old device and USB for networking is not brilliant full stop. Shows how old school the Tesco service is if they are still supplying a USB modem.

Andrew

DG834 version depends, to some extent, on the line length, I think.

I swapped from a v3 to a v4 with a line attenuation of 53dB and the v4 was MUCH better.

But people with more experience of different lines tend to recommend the v3 for very long lines (say 59dB and over).

Networking a Vista machine to an XP machine can be a bit of a pain, I've found. Vista is very secure in whats directories it want to share. But Vista -> router has never caused a problem. Don't forget that Telnet imay be disabled by default in Vista (should you want to play with the router's telnet interface).

[In Vista's Control Panel double-click 'Programs and Features', select 'Turn Windows features on or off' in the left panel then scroll down to the Telnet Client and set the checkbox.]

John.

Thanks John.

I've not been following any debates about hardware (happy enough with my Zyxel) but I was aware that the V4 has the Broadcom chipset so avoids some of the long-line issues that the TI based routers appear to suffer. That said, I've no idea what length of line the in-laws have, but looking at Samknows it looks like they're at the edge of their exchange coverage.

Similarly I'd only picked up on hearsay about Vista. I'm sure I saw something somewhere (but sadly can't find it now) to say that some parameter was different in Vista, something like the MTU or suchlike, and that it had caused performance issues on ADSL lines. I doubt if the in-laws would be too bothered though. Networking to XP won't be an issue as they only have the one machine.

Thanks again for the help, much appreciated.

Cheers Andrew.

Yes the ST330 is an old beastie, and does seem to be a little flakey at times. Googling about reveals a lot of driver-related issues on Vista that providers such as Tesco seem to be slow to respond to (either by including updated Vista-compatible drivers on their CDs or by finding an alternative to the ST330).

In reply to:

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remember when using a router like the DG834G the computer does not see anything to do with the ADSL, that is all hidden away by the router.

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Yes, that's the main reason for wanting to give them a router - the router would be completely agnostic to whatever is connecting via it and so they shouldn't have the kind of problems they have had (such as the ST330 failing to initialise). Also the router should offer them a bit more security, and flexibility with the wireless.

Thanks again.

Cheers Phil, that confirms what I suspected. I guess all I need to do now is buy one!

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so avoids some of the long-line issues that the TI based routers appear to suffer

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medium length, please. The TI's excel at very long lines esp with their brothers in the DSLAM.

Re: ....I'm sure I saw something somewhere (but sadly can't find it now) to say that some parameter was different in Vista, something like the MTU or suchlike.....

Was it this? from broadbandreports site regarding 'tweaks'

WINDOWS VISTA USERS: Vista TCP tuning (tweaking) is NOT advisable. The Vista TCP stack does a reasonable job of tuning the receive window dynamically, there are no known registry tweaks that would optimize Vista better than its default configuration.

Nah, it wasn't that....it was more something along the lines that some had noticed Vista didn't appear to be performing (network-wise) as well as XP....further investigation revealed that a parameter within the IP stack had a different default value to that in XP.

May well be that MS have changed it. I'm not too bothered; if peeps here can't recall it any better than I can then it's obviously not a big issue.