Thomson TG585 on Netgear VMDG280: what is

Hello forum,

Got the above mentioned connection working well after initial unhappiness with the device that one received from VirginMedia.
Now the O2 Wireless Box II is leasing a static IP from the Netgear (with DHCP turned off) and all DHCP addresses are now leased from the Thomson router instead.
However, a few questions remain:

1. Thomson: Home > Home Network > Interfaces > LAN_private DHCP Pool LAN_private > Configure parameters for your DHCP pool the > Pool Configuration one can choose the "interface". One of the options is "local network", another two are O2-specific options and a fourth is "Loop".
What means loop and what is its function?

2. There is another choice in this menu: One can assign the IP of a "server", O2 default 10.0.0.138. Assume this is the O2 server when used with O2. Is it dead when not used with O2 or should one assign it to the VirginMedia server (as set in the Netgear). Setting this in both devices might mess it up, so haven't played with it yet.

3. Gateway as set in the Thomson box is 192.168.0.254 and I can connect to the router via this one. However, the standard gateway given to the devices is 192.168.0.1 the gateway assigned to the Netgear. Confuses me a bit but should I really try to change it or is this the correct/best configuration?

4. On top of that strangely I sometimes get 81.101.1.1 as a default gateway which takes me to the Thomson box as well as 192.168.0.254 does. 81.101.1.1 however cannot be found in any of the setting of both devices. Where does this come from??

Any thought would be appreaciated.

McPoel

81.101.1.1 appears to belong to a range assigned to NTL-UK-INTERNET

Isn't that Virgin Media now? In which case it will be your assigned IP address on the WAN side of things

Edited by dandnsmith (Mon 23-May-11 13:52:13)

Hi Derek,

That's true. However why would it take me into the Thomson box then? When I connect the original VM Netgear only, I get a default gateway that is in the range of a LAN IP. Would have expected this here as well.

And now the Thomson had to be re-set as it kept hanging. Having don that, it's now back to 192.168.1.254 and whenever I try to change it back to 192.168.0.254 it would disconnect me (which is correct) but then I cannot re-connect via 192.168.1.254. It just wouldn't assign any IP to any device...

Possibly you need to put my state of confusion down to advancing years, or yesterday's session with the dentist (from which I am still recovering).

There are lots of terms being used, which you haven't given a context for, so I'm not sure where your confusion comes from.

Does your connection go:

Internet->Thomson TG585->Netgear VMDG280->rest of local appliances?

If so, then the internet IP 81 ... will get to the Thomson (leaving aside the method by which it gets there) quite naturally.

I use 10.0.0.138 as my modem/router local facing address - purely because my original equipment used this by default, and I continue it to avoid my own confusion.

If you change the 'gateway' address (however you define this in your own mind) you need to reboot PCs using DHCP to allow them to use the new address (unless your more experienced than your posts give me to understand).

HTH