Voyager 205 BT engineer visit ...

Just been on the phone with my brother, who is not particularly IT literate. No internet connection for 2 days (he's with BT) so calls the engineer. Usually calls me but I was up to my eyes in work so he didn't want to bother me. Engineer comes over. End result, engineer tinkers with the PC (who knows what) and gives him written instructions to "disable ZoneAlarm if he wants to go on the internet" as "BT Voyager 205 doesn't work with ZoneAlarm". Brother said it's been ok for the last two years. Engineer says it's the latest ZA updates that are incompatible. No idea what the engineer has actually done, but there's got to be more to it .... BT engineer left and brother was uneasy about disabling ZA all the time to get online. Over the phone at least it seemed he couldn't connect to the internet without disabling ZA. Anyway, to get it sorted quickly talked my brother through uninstalling and a fresh install of ZA and all is working smoothly. Can anyone think of what the engineer might have been on about?

Also could someone confirm how to view the line stats of a BT Voyager 205. I again talked my brother through it from the directions on the kitz guide and he says apart from the downstream rate there are no other statistics. I did say he's a bit non-techie! By this time I'd been on the phone to him for 2 hours so I lost the will to live ... Can somebody confirm how to view the line stats for this modem? Then I can go through it with him giving explicit phone instructions. Thanks.

Think I'll have to sort out Remote Assistance or VNC for the future

Cheers

Edited by bikebloke (Sat 23-Aug-08 16:21:37)

In reply to:

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Think I'll have to sort out Remote Assistance or VNC for the future

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Hi, to connect remotely to another computer use �TeamViewer� for Desktop Sharing and Remote Control Support and it�s free for non-commercial use and looks real professional.

http://www.teamviewer.com/index.aspx

recommended on the Microsoft website. here.

I'm not half as knowledgeable as other members on this forum, so I could be wrong... but as far as I'm aware, firewalls are redundant when using a router. Is the Voyager 205 a router, or simply a modem? If the former, having a firewall installed in simply taking up system resources needlessly.

I'm afraid that's all the 'help' I can offer - I don't use ZA or possess a Voyager, so others will have to help on the rest of your query

According to DSL ZoneUK for the BT Voyager 205.

"Click on Start, then Run. Enter the following in the Run box:

telnet 192.168.1.1

then press OK. A black box will appear. It should ask you for the username, which is admin and press enter.

Enter your password when prompted and press enter.

You are now logged in. Type the following in to the box:

get dsl params and press enter."

John, yes that's what I tried to walk him through over the phone, but I think he got a bit lost.

I'm going to try the Teamviewer that was suggested above as I have to help him out fairly often.

Cheers

Mono, thanks for that. Well, although you don't literally need a software firewall with a modem/router, it has its own functions (monitoring outbound traffic etc) and I've always used one as an extra precaution. Think it's one of those topics with those in favour and those against and probably some in between. I choose to be cautious I suppose and I've never had any problems with ZoneAlarm though it's not everyones favourite.

I was just a bit flabberghasted why an BT engineer would in effect disable someones firewall without any proper explanation, particularly when disabling it was unnecessary.

Cheers

Edited by bikebloke (Sat 23-Aug-08 18:44:25)

There was a problem with Windows Update recently causing ZoneAlarm to have DNS resolving issues.

I reckon the update happened and your brother was one of the unsuspecting victims of it.

See here for what I mean with the ZoneAlarm/Windows Update thing:

http://www2.nohold.net/noHoldCust542/Prod_1/KnowledgePortal/KPScripts/frameskp.asp?sid=3870353&ds=nh21.nohold.net

Ahh, I understand. I guess in the case of the OP's brother, having it in place might be best. I'll butt out now and let you lot help

That's a dodgy link I think. Thanks for the info. I did have a google but thought that problem seemed a bit 'old' to be the culprit, but then my brother cannot remember when any updates happened So you are probably right.

Still a bit peeved at BT going on about router incompatibility but still it's good to know what the issue probably was and it's sorted now.

Cheers

The fact they are supposed to know about the wiring, and even some of them how to sort out an ADSL connection, doesn't mean they understand a thing about anything like viruses, trojans and the rest, and the dangers of not having firewalls.

At the very least when turning off a sw firewall I turn on the Windows one. Installations that may not succeed with a sw one may work with Windows firewall. Last resort is router only.