iMac Broadband Problems

[bowjest]

Hello,

A friend who has an iMac (10.4 - about 2 years old) called me recently after he moved house wanting some help with setting up a wireless router.

He has Virgin TV and broadband (which I'm not acquainted with) rather than just a standard telephone and broadband package.

He showed me his setup which consists of a small cable modem of some description supplied by his ISP (which the TV and computer plug into directly) and he had also purchased a "D-Lind DKT-710 Wireless G ADSL2+ Starter Kit" which contains a setup CD and a D-Link DSL-2640B wireless router.

Here's where the problem: if we put in the disk that comes with the D-Link router and run through the steps outlined in the guide (mount dmg, go to the 10.4 directory and run the setup installer) it states the iMac needs to reboot (it then does) and we can get web pages.

If, however, the computer is then rebooted again, instead of a working IP we just get a standard 192.168.0.*** range of address that lets us communicate with the D-Link, but we get no throughput to the internet (interestingly, when we do get web pages shortly after the initial setup, we can't access the router).

Run the setup software again and the same happens again: reboot and get web pages. Reboot again and get nothing.

I have a standard sort of broadband setup at home whereby I get telephone an internet rather than TV and internet. When I set up my broadband I contacted my ISP, got primary and secondary DNS settings, confirmed my username and password, etc., and configured my Netgear router manually. I've never had a problem with this setup since (over 2 years now).

I can't help but feel that if we can get Virgin to answer the phone and then get the DNS settings etc. that we should be able to set everything up manually and hopefully get things up and running. It's the getting through to tech support that seems to be the problem.

Has anyone else ever had the same or similar and can offer further advice?

I have to stress that this whole TV/Broadband/Cable modem supplied by Virgin thing is nothing I've ever used, so maybe I'm missing something very simple here.

Thanks,

Bowjest

[ora]

I fear this is because your friend bout an ADSL router/modem to use with a cable modem, and the two are different systems.

The box from virgin outputs as an ethernet right? And the DLink you bought most likely takes its input as a phone line straight out of the wall. I am not sure you can use the ethernet from the virgin box to provide net service to the adsl modem/router combo he bought.

You probably instead need a wireless router (without adsl functionality). Since you sound like you ar ein the UK, look here http://netgear.co.uk/home_wireless_broadband.php

They have different lists for those with ADSL and those with cable, your friend needs one of the cable products. This looks OK - it is just a switch and wireless access point. That said carefully check what you have from virgin before buying any new kit.

Finally, a friend who recently moved onto Virgin internet was given such a box for free, so might be worth calling up the company and asking.

[bowjest]

Thanks, Ora,

I knew there had to be a logical explanation for this.

I'll get my friend to call Virgin and ask their advice. I'm sure this isn't the first time someone has approached them about this.

All the best,

Bowjest