BT ADSL / D-Link Modem / Time Capsule

Hi all,

I'm attempting to help a friend who previously had a BT Home Hub powering her home network, with a Time Capsule attached via ethernet for backup. The original issue was that the connection to the Time Capsule was constantly dropping, or we'd see the error "Unable to find backup disk", rendering it fairly useless.

My suggestion was to swap the Home Hub for a DSL modem, have that go into the Time Capsule and let that setup the wireless network, as in my experience the reliability and range of a Time Capsule/Airport Extreme signal beats most other options.

However, having followed all instructions I've been able to find online re: setup (such as this), I've been unable to get an internet connection through the modem. I've tried setting it up whilst plugged into the Time Capsule, and just straight into a laptop via ethernet, and each time the progress of a page load would just hang (as opposed to giving an error or something).

I'm aware that BT requires PPPoA as opposed to PPPoE (please correct me if I have this wrong), is there anything else that's crucial that I should be aware of? Any advice would be very much appreciated! Even if it seems simple, I'm up for trying anything as I feel I've exhausted all ideas at present!

The Time Capsule is around 6 months old (new design), and the modem is a D-Link DSL 321B.

Pppoe should work on bt wholesale the issue is usually getting the modem into the right bridge mode

Oh really? What should I be looking for in terms of "the right bridge mode"? Am I correct in thinking that if the modem is in bridge mode it means that the Time Capsule, acting as the router, is then responsible for assigning IP addresses etc, and would need to be configured to do so?

Apologies if this is basic stuff, I'm largely having to figure it out as I go though!

That's an Annex-B modem. It won't work in the UK unfortunately.

In reply to a post by bloodrainbow:

Oh really? What should I be looking for in terms of "the right bridge mode"? Am I correct in thinking that if the modem is in bridge mode it means that the Time Capsule, acting as the router, is then responsible for assigning IP addresses etc, and would need to be configured to do so?

You need a modem that is configured with the PPPoA username and password, and then just passes the Apple router the public IP address. OR one that takes a PPPoE connection attempt from the Apple router and makes the connection across a modem.

Draytek's Vigor 120 should do the job.
http://www.draytek.co.uk/products/business/vigor-120

Thanks very much indeed guys, I'm going to return the D-Link and go for the Draytek instead I think!