UPC / Cable Modem woes

Hi All,

I recently got UPC TV and broadband set up in a new apartment. They used to supply a cable modem and a separate netgear router. I was surprised that they are now supplying an all-in-one cable modem / ata / wireless router branded by cisco.

I had purchased my own router in advance and I wanted to use that but because the cisco device routes I have had to put my own router into access-point only mode (I have disabled the wireless on the cisco).

My girlfriend has been on the phone to them three or four times this morning asking what I thought would be a straightforward question: Can we send back the all-in-one device and get a bog-standard cable modem in its place.

The first person couldn't help as they weren't trained in broadband support so they arranged a callback. The person who called back said that they didn't have ordinary cable modems any more and couldn't supply them. The third person hung up and the fourth person said that they didn't service the modems themselves and couldn't supply them. The last person suggested that I buy one in PC world. They went on to say that then UPC could set up that device on their network but wouldn't support it.

I thought that the cable modems had to be supplied by the company because they provisioned them somehow to work on their network. If that is the case then how will me purchasing a modem help?

I hope someone can shed a bit of light on this because I really want to use my own router in its full capacity because it rocks (Nat performance / vpn etc). Is there anybody from NTL who could give me a definitive answer because the phone calls have been just a source of more confusion.

Thanks in advance for any help.

bk

You can only use UPC supplied modems.

UPC now give a combined modem/wireless router free to people who sign up for their 10 or 20 mb service.

If you wanted just a modem, then the time to ask was the installer, he might have had one, but I'm not sure if they have them at all anymore.

There is little point in not taking the integrated modem/router, you can disable the wireless and routing features of the Cisco, just use it as a modem and plug your own router into it so that you can use it's features.

Hi Bk, thanks for the reply. I didn't see anywhere in the web interface where I could disable the routing feature on the cisco modem and I have already disabled the wireless.

bk

baz8080 wrote: »

Hi Bk, thanks for the reply. I didn't see anywhere in the web interface where I could disable the routing feature on the cisco modem and I have already disabled the wireless.

I don't have UPC anymore, so someone else should be able to supply you with details, however it is normally doable.

Worst case scenario, connect the WAN in port on your new router to any of the lan ports on the cisco, disable the cisco firewall, have the cisco route all traffic on all ports to the attached new router. Connect everything else to the new router.

bk

bk wrote: »

I don't have UPC anymore, so someone else should be able to supply you with details, however it is normally doable.

Worst case scenario, connect the WAN in port on your new router to any of the lan ports on the cisco, disable the cisco firewall, have the cisco route all traffic on all ports to the attached new router. Connect everything else to the new router.

Thanks - I tried something like that before but I will try again. So I'll have 2 networks in essence: The cisco router on 192.168.1.0/24 and then my router on 192.168.2.0/24 and the cisco will be routing all traffic to the 192.168.2.0/24 network.

bk

baz8080 wrote: »

Thanks - I tried something like that before but I will try again. So I'll have 2 networks in essence: The cisco router on 192.168.1.0/24 and then my router on 192.168.2.0/24 and the cisco will be routing all traffic to the 192.168.2.0/24 network.

Yes, that is right, I do much the same myself. I've a Smart Telecom modem/wireless router, but I've disabled the wireless on it and use my own nicer 802.11N dual radio wireless router attached to the Smart router, works well.

That sounds promising. I hope that I'll be able to use my good router for NAT so I'll do a few tests when I get the chance.