Telewest business service

I recently organised a telewest business broadband package for a client. I was unable to use Virgin, they insist on it being Telewest for business premises. I purchased the 20 meg service for £50 / month. With this service you cannot remotely access your internal networks. Port forwarding is impossible. You have to have a static IP and this is only available on the 10 meg service which is £40 per month. Had I been aware of this I would have been able to choose between Telewest and 24m adsl which is less than 20/month. I chose Telewest because it claimed the fastest upload speed and accessing data on the local network was the only thing I needed. We are stuck into a 2 year contract with Telewest for a service that is twice the price and half the srervice available in the area. Take note. 20 meg broadband from Telewest is not a full service...you can can get out but not in.

why is port forwarding impossible ?

Well I spoke to the tech support and they told me that I cannot get past the cable modem unless I have a static IP. Static IP is only available on the 10 Meg service with an inferiror upload speed and twice the cost/half the speed of 24 meg ADSL. I feel utterly shafted since it does not tell you on their web site that their service is poor and I am hooked in for 2 years now.

if you have a router behind the cable modem then all IP traffic to your (current) IP will be presented at the router, you can then port forward from that.

Apparently not. According to Telewest incoming traffic stops at the cable modem. I know it sounds bizarre but I spent hours trying to figure out why nothing was getting through. My server sits there, the lights flash on the modem when I initiate an http request for instance but nothing arrives at the server. I haven't tried tcp dump yet but I was told that not having a static ip is the reason with their networks.

doesn't make sense, if it's a modem then the thing behind it gets the external IP address and that's where the traffic goes.

Yes indeed. However the router actually gets a local IP address (192.168.0.2 which cannot be changed in the silly modem, it has its own DHCP server). The modem keeps the wan IP address for itself. I have just had a look at my girlfriends Virgin Media system and that router gets the Wan ip and works as you would expect. I wonder if Telewest prevent one from using a different modem. I might see if the virgin modem works. It is so stupid. If I was a domestic customer I could have 20 meg from the same cables for far less cost and a useable service. I think it is catastrophic that Telewest claim to be for business use and yet I can't access my business network. I am simply not allowed to purchase from Virgin Media and I am wondering where to go next.

that's a router with a modem combined then, ask them for a straight modem instead ?

Well I asked them if they could provide some alternative hardware and they said there was nothing they could do bu downgrade our service and give us a fixed IP but I am going to try with my girlfriends Virgin modem and see if it works. It is a very poor service though. Shame one is forced to use Telewest.

Sorry to resurrect an old post but it is always good to provide all information and finish posts off incase it helps others.
Telewest/ntl/virgin media business say that you cannot port forward/gain access to your internal network without the lower 10 meg service and fixed IP. Wrong. You just need the admin password to the modem/router. You were right Phil. It does have a router built in. All the port forwarding is available with the admin pasword. It is basically an Ambit 2050 modem. It also has an SSH server which let me enable remote access and the like. I don't understand why Telewest wouldn't give this information out. Perhaps they don't know. Again I question how they justify significantly higher monthly charges for business customers when their Tech support knows less than the customer.
Me= happier now.