Replacing Cisco EPC2425

MouthFlush

I know there have been several threads that touch on this, but none that can provide me with answers at the most basic of levels. Networking is most definitely not my strong point. I have never tried to replace the standard modem/router provided by my ISP, but the Cisco EPC2425 (provided by UPC) cannot reach certain parts of my house that I would very much like it to reach...

Basically, I want to buy an Apple AirPort Extreme and get it up and running. Apart from range issues, I also want to connect my 1TB external hard drive to the wireless network so that all the laptops around the house can use it. The AirPort seems to fit the bill. If you have other suggestions, please feel free to provide them, but I'd rather this thread didn't turn into another "Apple sux" vs. "I'd love to see Steve Jobs in a bikini" war... :P

The problem is, I have nearly no idea what is involved in this. The distinction between a modem and a router became apparent to me yesterday. Hopefully that provides an accurate representation of my impairment... I'm reasonably technically-minded, I've just never found myself needing to know anything about networks. Port forwarding is about as complex as I get.

This is all a very long-winded, self-indulgent way of asking:

1) Can I connect an AirPort Extreme to my EPC2425 with an Ethernet cable and expect it to work (this is my idealistic, hopelessly naive dream)?

or

2) Do I need to get a new modem to connect firstly to my cable and secondly to the AirPort? If so, have you any recommendations?

Hopefully I'm not way off the mark here, and someone can clear up the confusion... Thanks in advance!

vibe666

you can do either, but you'll need to have the modem supplied by UPC, which can be hard to get as there aren't a huge amount of them around, or you can try and get one from an old customer (a scientific atlanta 2203) or adverts.ie or something like and you can ask UPC to provision on their network, which they *might* do. i.e. they have done for someone on here previously, but there's no guarantees.

the other option is either to bridge the cisco epc2425 that upc already gave you and use the airport for the routing and wireless on your network but its still unclear as to whether this is still possible, but it may depend on if you have a phoneline with UPC too, as for some people the bridging option seems to be either disabled or gone in the router options.

there's an alternative to bridging in which you can put your airport and cisco in different subnets and turn off the wireless on the cisco and pretend that there's just no wired network there and have everything using the apple network, but you'll end up double NAT'd which might be a pain if you plan on using online gaming or P2P etc.

ideally, you want UPC to replace the EPC2425 with the 2003 modem and use your airport to do everything, but it may take some persuasion on your part to get them to give you one. it may not, i personally know two people in the last couple of months who've managed to get them from UPC because they knew (or found out) that the epc2425 is crap. your mileage may very tho, depending on who you end up speaking to and how persuasive you are.

MouthFlush

Thanks for the reply.

If I'm understanding you correctly, the only way to replace the existing modem is with a Scientific Atlanta 2203 (which UPC seem hesitant to provide)? I presume there's a reason that I can't just buy a third-party cable modem?

As far as the second option goes, when I access my router through 192.168.1.1 there is an option entitled "Bridging" under the 'Wireless' header. Does this mean that it's a viable option for me? I have both a phoneline and my television provided by UPC.

Thanks again!

vibe666

bridging will disable our phone so that's not going to work for you, so you're left with putting your airport on a different subnet to the cisco which wouldn't be my favourite option.

another option might be to get a high gain antenna for the cisco to see if it will give you the range you need to reach your whole house, or see if UPC will come back and move your router to somewhere more central to give you better coverage, but i imagine they'd charge for that.

you could also get a usb to ethernet NAS dongle for your drive, or a USB/ethernet NAS enclosure off ebay to make it accessible on your network.

jor el

MouthFlush wrote: »

I presume there's a reason that I can't just buy a third-party cable modem?

Yes, it won't work unless UPC provision it's MAC address. This is how they identify and activate equipment on the network.

MouthFlush wrote: »

As far as the second option goes, when I access my router through 192.168.1.1 there is an option entitled "Bridging" under the 'Wireless' header. Does this mean that it's a viable option for me?

This is what you'd need, yes. However...

MouthFlush wrote: »

I have both a phoneline and my television provided by UPC.

The phone is going to be a problem. If you bridge the modem, the phone won't work any more. Not sure if you could set up your own ATA, and use that on the LAN side of the Airport, but if you could then that would get you over that problem. All depends on whether UPC will provide the SIP settings for you to input in the ATA.

vibe666

jor el wrote: »

The phone is going to be a problem. If you bridge the modem, the phone won't work any more. Not sure if you could set up your own ATA, and use that on the LAN side of the Airport, but if you could then that would get you over that problem. All depends on whether UPC will provide the SIP settings for you to input in the ATA.

i think someone mentioned before that the UPC phone service isn't a regular SIP one like blueface, it's on a separate frequency to the broadband so you have to use the phone via the UPC supplied hardware for it to work afaik.

MouthFlush

Thanks for all the help, guys. I think the best option at this stage is just to get on the phone and gently/forcefully persuade UPC to provide me with the Scientific Atlanta... Thanks again!

jor el

The phone service won't work with the SA modem, so you'll have to be prepared to cancel that.

vibe666

jor el wrote: »

The phone service won't work with the SA modem, so you'll have to be prepared to cancel that.

i think you might be mistooken there.

the UPC phone service works fine with the SA modem, I've been using it with my SA modem (both phone and modem supplied and installed by the UPC engineer) since November 2008.

karl bracken

another alternative use the wiring in your house....

http://billmullins.wordpress.com/2009/03/07/your-electric-wiring-is-a-wi-fi-network-alternative/

heres one of them

http://www.netgear.com.au/au/Product/Powerline/Powerline-Ethernet-A/XET1001

karl bracken

if you switch back to the old scientifc/netgear combination they can only handle about 10 meg speed but they are more reliable i had mine switched out when the cisco 2425 just refused to work but there were hardware issues and it took about 4 call outs and 2 technicians b4 they changed it :eek:

vibe666

karl bracken wrote: »

if you switch back to the old scientifc/netgear combination they can only handle about 10 meg speed but they are more reliable i had mine switched out when the cisco 2425 just refused to work but there were hardware issues and it took about 4 call outs and 2 technicians b4 they changed it :eek:

sorry, but that's complete and utter crap, who told you that?

the scientific atlanta modem is EuroDOCSIS2.0 compliant which means it is rated at up to 55mbps. the free netgear router that UPC were providing with the SA modem may have been crappy over wireless as well as crappy in general (much like the cisco), but that has nothing to do with the speed capabilities of the SA modem.

i have no problem whatsoever getting 30mbps out of my SA modem and my linksys wrt54gs router (wired).

karl bracken

2nd line technician said that.

maybe upc change there settings, as i said netgear scientific combination (wireless)

MouthFlush

vibe666 wrote: »

i think you might be mistooken there.

the UPC phone service works fine with the SA modem, I've been using it with my SA modem (both phone and modem supplied and installed by the UPC engineer) since November 2008.

Thanks for the update. Cancelling the phone service isn't really an option, so it's good to know that all is (hopefully) well...

MouthFlush

karl bracken wrote: »

another alternative use the wiring in your house....

http://billmullins.wordpress.com/2009/03/07/your-electric-wiring-is-a-wi-fi-network-alternative/

heres one of them

http://www.netgear.com.au/au/Product/Powerline/Powerline-Ethernet-A/XET1001

This is an interesting alternative, I might look into it. Thanks.

vibe666

karl bracken wrote: »

2nd line technician said that.

maybe upc change there settings, as i said netgear scientific combination (wireless)

always have a pinch of salt handy when talking to tech support people.

cgarvey

Just to cement vibe666's valid corrections, the Cisco EPC2203 (Scientific Atlanta) works fine with UPC phone service, and gives full speeds (30Mb in my case). I can confirm that bridging on the EPC2425 does disable the Tel1/2 ports (with various firmware versions up to about 2 months ago, at least).

OP, you could just ask nicely to switch because you need phone + bridged mode for work VPN connectivity (or something vague like that). They'd no issue with me swapping from the EPC2425 to the EPC2203, but that might have been because I had both (their error) sitting beside me; posting one out might be a step too far from them. No harm in asking.

MouthFlush

cgarvey wrote: »

Just to cement vibe666's valid corrections, the Cisco EPC2203 (Scientific Atlanta) works fine with UPC phone service, and gives full speeds (30Mb in my case). I can confirm that bridging on the EPC2425 does disable the Tel1/2 ports (with various firmware versions up to about 2 months ago, at least).

OP, you could just ask nicely to switch because you need phone + bridged mode for work VPN connectivity (or something vague like that). They'd no issue with me swapping from the EPC2425 to the EPC2203, but that might have been because I had both (their error) sitting beside me; posting one out might be a step too far from them. No harm in asking.

Thanks for this, much appreciated. I'll get onto them, so.