Router Ip Missing

[gracie]

Hello folks gracie from UK here.

Some friends have a BT Voyager wireless Modem/Router. We set them up a year or so back and it has been fine. They have three computers connected - two Xpsp2 and one Windows 98.

Recently they decided to go for 'Talk-Talk as their new ISP because Talk-Talk are offering free broadband, but they decided they wanted to do it through the Voyager rather than pay for Talk-Talk's Livebox.

They contacted BT to tell them they were planning to change ISP's in a few weeks, but BT cut them off immediately, so they have had no internet contact for three weeks.

Recently the Talk-Talk CD arrived ( though there is some issue about BT not releasing the MAC ( or something)), and they tried to go through the cd procedure to connect. They get to a place where they are told that they will need to reconfigure the Voyager's details and put in the Talk-Talk details instead, but they don't know how to do this, so they call me.

I get there, thinking all I have to do is find out the IP for the Voyager, from one of the property sheets or IPConfig /all and the problem would be solved - but I couldn't get it from anywhere.

IPConfig /all just brought up a block of ascii characters - nothing in plain language that I could use, so something is wrong there, the support tab in network connections gave me the IP for the computer, but just a blank space for where it would have the gateway address, and nothing I tried yielded any results. I took it all off and then put the Voyager CD back in to reinstall, but it seemed to think all was fine and just got to Finish without entering any configuration menus, and if I tried to connect via new connection in Windows, it would tell me the wireless device was disconnected.

I am confused. I tried putting in 192.168.1.1 in the browser, but that didn't work either ( the computer address started with 162 I think), so I had to come away leaving a very disappointed young lad, who was sure I would do the biz for them as I have always been successful before in sorting out his computer problems.

Is there anything else I can do to help them? There must be a way I can access the Voyager - it doesn't have to be on the web to give me its own IP. Otherwise they will have to buy the Livebox from Talk-Talk, which will be several more weeks delay I understand. I feel I have let them down

Edited October 29, 2006 by gracie

[TheTerrorist_75]

I think they messed up contacting BT Voyager and telling them their plans.

You should read this regarding those free broadband ISPs. Sometimes free isn't free.

Crave Talk: Which 'free' broadband ISP is best?

[gracie]

I think they messed up contacting BT Voyager and telling them their plans.

You should read this regarding those free broadband ISPs. Sometimes free isn't free.

Crave Talk: Which 'free' broadband ISP is best?

Terrorist, I agree with you that telling BT was not wise - but that is the situation.

My understanding is that I ought to be able to contact the Voyager even though it is not connecting to the web at present, and I cannot. That is what I am seeking help with.

I have read the link you gave and it is interesting, but people make mistakes, and if these folk have made a mistake, they will learn from it. My concern is to help them however I can, and any suggestions as to how I can do that would be most welcome

[TheTerrorist_75]

From reading the info at the link I think that BT has shut off access using their line. Without the access I think they need to pay someone else for access. I don't know how things work over the other side of the big pond.

[gracie]

From reading the info at the link I think that BT has shut off access using their line. Without the access I think they need to pay someone else for access. I don't know how things work over the other side of the big pond.

thanks Terrorist, perhaps you are right - but I had thought that the private IP which belongs to the router is part of its firmware identity, built into it. If you just want to create a LAN, you would need to have that address available so that other computers could use the router just to talk to each other, isn't that so? If that is correct, then you should be able to access the router and change its configuration without any need to access the internet or get IP's from a server. When you first set a network up, you can go to the router by typing in its IP on the browser. That is all I want to do... thanks for your help anyway, appreciated.