Changed to UPC Today

Georgey Burgess

I posted a thread a week or so ago about changing from Eircom to UPC as I don't need a phone line anymore and so was paying a premium to have the internet with Eircom.

Anyway I changed over today and I'm pretty impressed so far. I had 3MB with Eircom and now have 10MB with UPC. Below are the speednet results I'm getting. The internet is noticable faster.




There was some minor complaints about ordering with slow / no callbacks and also having requested the install after 3.30pm they arrived at 12noon. They did call back though same day, they did a neat job, and they set up my main PC and a laptop. There is another PC in the house and they couldn't get that to work but it wasn't working with Eircom either so I probably need to tinker with that one.


I also have a PS3 and need to set it up wirelessly. It worked with Eircom. Anyway when I scan for networks it finds my UPC Cisco modem. It then asks for Securty choice. The options are;

1. None
2. WEP
3. WPA-PSK (AES)

I select 3 and it then asks for the WPA Code. for this I put in the 8 letter password that UPC gave me on the docket under my SSID.

Anyway, not getting any joy and have been onto UPC support for 25mins and they told me that I was using the correct WPA code. Is this correct?

Any advice appreciated.

PS. The missus is now whinging that her laptop won't work now. I'm getting connect error when I put in the network password. I'll check into this and keep you posted!!!!

Georgey Burgess

UPDATE........................

As the missus was having problems I rebooted my main PC and the Cisco router and sure enough here wireless worked straight away. I went into the PS3 then and it worked aswell!!!

So all good here now. Maybe I clogged the router when setting up the PS3!!

Anyway I'm going to hold on cancelling my Eircom for a week to see how things go with UPC.

Cheers

DECEiFER

I think UPC usually set their routers to use WPA-PSK (TKIP) by default, and not the WPA-PSK (AES) encryption method or WEP (like Eircom set by default in their Netopia routers). You'd have to go into the router's Web UI to change the encryption method and set a new key by yourself.

I'm not sure what the IP address for the Cisco modem/router is, assuming that's what you got. It might be 192.168.1.100, to put that into your browser to get into the router's Web UI configuration. If not, you might try 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1.

If you got a separate Netgear router from UPC, then it's 192.168.1.1.

You may be asked for a username and password, if so try any of the following combinations.

User: admin
Pass: admin

User: admin
Pass: 1234

User: admin
Pass: password

If none of those passwords work, then post back and we can look into it for you.


Hope this helps!

DECEiFER

Ignore this. Damn sluggish Internet caused me to post twice by mistake.

Georgey Burgess

Georgey Burgess wrote: »

UPDATE........................

As the missus was having problems I rebooted my main PC and the Cisco router and sure enough here wireless worked straight away. I went into the PS3 then and it worked aswell!!!

So all good here now. Maybe I clogged the router when setting up the PS3!!

Anyway I'm going to hold on cancelling my Eircom for a week to see how things go with UPC.

Cheers

Nothing beats a good reboot.

DECEiFER

cisk wrote: »

Nothing beats a good reboot.

That too. :P

stepperupper

DECEiFER wrote: »

If you got a separate Netgear router from UPC, then it's 192.168.1.1.

You may be asked for a username and password, if so try any of the following combinations.

User: admin
Pass: admin

User: admin
Pass: 1234

User: admin
Pass: password

If none of those passwords work, then post back and we can look into it for you.


Hope this helps!

I'm trying to get into the router UI so I can reset the modem from my room or wherever instead of having to go down and physically turn it off and back on again. It's so I don't have to wait 54 mins. after watching 72 mins. of video on megavideo.

None of the above user / pass combinations work. Does anyone know how to get in?

DECEiFER

stepperupper wrote: »

I'm trying to get into the router UI so I can reset the modem from my room or wherever instead of having to go down and physically turn it off and back on again. It's so I don't have to wait 54 mins. after watching 72 mins. of video on megavideo.

None of the above user / pass combinations work. Does anyone know how to get in?

Ah, I foresee a problem.

The trouble with cable is that the IP you get is fairly static. While it isn't fully static, and is still considered to be dynamic, turning off the modem and back on usually doesn't reset your IP. It's like that with most people I know who have cable broadband in other countries. I'd only assume UPC is the same, but I could be wrong! Normally there's a lease time on the IP, you'd have to disconnect for x amount of hours before their DHCP server will issue you with a new one.


As for the router, what is the exact model?

stepperupper

OK, so turns out first time you access the modem's configuration settings through 192.168.1.1 you don't need a user / pass, you just leave it blank. Should have tried that.

Some info here: www.upc.ie/pdf/4755_UPC_WiFi_Brochure.pdf

I restarted the modem but that doesn't seem to give me a new IP address because megavideo still knows I've watched over 72 mins. It works with Eircom when you restart the modem. Any ideas? Or should I just download an IP changer?

stepperupper

DECEiFER wrote: »

Ah, I foresee a problem.

The trouble with cable is that the IP you get is fairly static. While it isn't fully static, and is still considered to be dynamic, turning off the modem and back on usually doesn't reset your IP. It's like that with most people I know who have cable broadband in other countries. I'd only assume UPC is the same, but I could be wrong! Normally there's a lease time on the IP, you'd have to disconnect for x amount of hours before their DHCP server will issue you with a new one.


As for the router, what is the exact model?

Ya, that makes sense. I think I'll try the Tor plugin for firefox. The modem is a black CISCO one. I'm too lazy to go downstairs and look at the exact model cz I'm hungover in bed.

DECEiFER

stepperupper wrote: »

OK, so turns out first time you access the modem's configuration settings through 192.168.1.1 you don't need a user / pass, you just leave it blank. Should have tried that.

Some info here: www.upc.ie/pdf/4755_UPC_WiFi_Brochure.pdf

I restarted the modem but that doesn't seem to give me a new IP address because megavideo still knows I've watched over 72 mins. It works with Eircom when you restart the modem. Any ideas? Or should I just download an IP changer?

See, here's the problem. ADSL is terribly dynamic. A simple power cycle or even a simple disconnect/re-connect procedure will get you a new IP. Cable is different.

Normally, you could fool UPC's DHCP server by changing your PC's (the NIC or Wi-Fi) MAC address (or spoofing the MAC, in this case - program called SMAC will do it for you).

Trouble is, it won't matter once you have a router. If you were using a modem to connect to your PC, and it sees a different MAC address, that would enable UPC's DHCP server to re-issue you. But since the router manages the connection, you'd have to change the router's MAC address. You cannot do that with SMAC, as it's not going to be installed onto your router. I'm not sure if it's possible to spoof your router's MAC address, but it might be! Hopefully someone else will know how to.

Since the Cisco UPC issue is a router/modem and they don't issue two separate units any longer, you can't just hook the modem up to your PC (which would change the IP address for you - as your PC's NIC or Wi-Fi would have a different MAC address than the router, and it would revert back again once the modem was connected with the router depending on the x amount of lease time on the IP and how long the router's disconnected from it).

Georgey Burgess

All working well here with the changeover to UPC with the exception that I can't send external e-mails. I use Microsoft Outlook. incoming mails are ok, but I get the following when trying to send e-mails;

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject: Test
Sent: 08/10/2009 22:58

The following recipient(s) cannot be reached:

'Sharon Curley' on 08/10/2009 22:58
553 sorry, that domain isn't in my list of allowed rcpthosts (#5.7.1)

Any ideas whats up here? I assume it's a simple setting to be changed in Outlook now that I've changed from Eircom.

Cheers
Georgey

DECEiFER

Georgey Burgess wrote: »

All working well here with the changeover to UPC with the exception that I can't send external e-mails. I use Microsoft Outlook. incoming mails are ok, but I get the following when trying to send e-mails;



Any ideas whats up here? I assume it's a simple setting to be changed in Outlook now that I've changed from Eircom.

Cheers
Georgey

Yeah, you'd need to change your SMTP server. Leave your POP setting as it is.

mail1.eircom.net or mail2.eircom.net changes to smtp.upcmail.ie.

Georgey Burgess

DECEiFER wrote: »

Yeah, you'd need to change your SMTP server. Leave your POP setting as it is.

mail1.eircom.net or mail2.eircom.net changes to smtp.upcmail.ie.

Cheers Deceifer, I'll check that out when I get home.

Georgey Burgess

DECEiFER wrote: »

Yeah, you'd need to change your SMTP server. Leave your POP setting as it is.

mail1.eircom.net or mail2.eircom.net changes to smtp.upcmail.ie.

done and sorted. thanks

DECEiFER

No problem.

I think that UPC have reduced their DHCP lease period in the last while, it's now at every 12 hours. As a result my IP address has changed twice in the last month whereas before that it never changed in the 10 months I have had it. On both occasions I had the modem off for about a week but I had done that several times before and still got the same IP.