Fibre broadband

I love my Fritzbox 7170 and don't wish to lose the use of it. However,
fibre broadband is available to me and the high speeds available are
very tempting

I don't think the 7170 can be used as the router on a fibre network?
Has anyone here connected one to a fibre network (mine would be Virgin)?

Advice will be much appreciated.

Malcolm

 

Malcolm

I use my virgin router (superhub) in modem only mode and then have a
TP-Link router connected to it (as its easier to configure with gargoyle
firmware installed). I then have my fritzbox 7170 off the tp-link for
the phone services and I can use the LAN ports of the 7170 for extra
wired connections (ascting as a hub) but I dont think it will work as a
router in this config.

Is there any reason you want to use the 7170 as the router rather than
the virgin supplied one?

Roger

 

I'm not very techy so perhaps I used the wrong terminology :-(

I want the 7170 for the voip capability with it's easy routing of calls
via conventional landline, or different voip providers, based on pre-set
criteria. I don't really care whether my PC's lan cable plugs into a
Virgin box or the 7170, nor which of them provides the wireless signal
for the other machines in the house.

Am I right in thinking that you are saying that the 7170 can be
connected to the Virgin router and will carry on doing the voip stuff as
before?

Malcolm

 

Hi Malcom
yes - I bought my 7170 for exactly this purpose as I was fed up wioth
Sipura "echo" and have never used the adsl part of the 7170. The eaisest
thing to do is to leave the Virgin Superhub as it is and use this for
your wireless and wired LAN connections.

On the Fritzbox do the following -

Go to Settings - Advanced Settings - Account Information

For "Select whether your Internet connection should be established via
DSL or LAN." Select "Internet connection via LAN 1 "

In Operating Mode select "Share existing Internet connection in the
network (IP Client)"

For connection settings chose "Configure the IP address manually" and
pick an ip address in the range of your superhub and use this - for
example if your superhub lan address is 192.168.0.1 (the default) chose
192.168.0.200 or another suitable address. Chose subnet mask
255.255.255.0, default gateway is the address of your Superhub
(192.168.0.1 as default). For primary and secondary dns servers you can
use the virginmedia ones (194.168.4.100 and 194.168.8.100). Finally put
in your upstream and downstream rates (dependent on your virgin package).

When you click apply the ip address of your fritzbox will change so plug
a network cable from the LAN1 port of the 7170 into one of the ports on
your superhub, connect your pc/ipad etc to your superhub and you should
then be able to connect to your fritzbox using the ip address you gave
it (for exmaple 192.168.0.200).

Once you can connect, you can then turn off wireless on your Fritzbox
and use the SuperHubs WIFI conenction. At this point the phone services
should be working on your Fritzbox.

Hope that helps
Roger.

 

Indeed it does! Thank you.

Before I make the final commitment to an 18 month contract with Virgin
(30mb service) are you happy with them?

Thanks

Malcolm

 

I am now - for about 6 months (12-18 months ago) I wasnt as there was a
problem in my area and I got very frustrated dealing with Indian Call
Centres asking me what wireless channel I was on because they were
reading the standard script - to be fair though I think the call centres
is probably a common issue across the board these days. I eventually got
put in touch with a local network manager who couldnt have been more
helpful - he even gave me his mobile phone number incase any further
problems came up!

After some work was carried out in our area I now have a blisteringly
fast connection with no lag and dont have any problems with voip calls.
If you want to check it out go to community.virginmedia.com and put in a
search for your town and see what comes up. Just remember that 99% of
the posts will be complaints and that for everyone that complains a huge
number will be happy and not post anything.

If you decide to change over and have any problems with the set up drop
me a line and if I can help I'll be happy to.

Roger.

 

Not it is not. I would not touch an off-shore call centre. If I want
to speck to somebody from BT in the UK, I phone the Welsh number .
--

Cheers

DrT
______________________________
We may not be able to prevent the stormy times in
our lives; but we can always choose whether or not
to dance in the puddles (Jewish proverb).

 

The landline of an elderly friend went dead on Friday. Her
neighbour got through to Bangalore and was told it would be fixed
on the 5th or 6th - hardly what I would call an acceptable
response.

I rang and also got through to Bangalore where I insisted on
speaking to a supervisor. After five minutes of hagling I was ask
to wait - and I waited, and waited ...........and eventually gave
up.

Then I tried 0800 800150 and got a very helpful well spoken UK
lady who could not have been more helpful. Within ten minutes she
had rung our friend on her mobile and put call divert in place.

Why can't they do this for everyone?

 

As has been mentioned you are better off putting the superhub in modem
mode, for a number reasons.

1) the superhub software is ugraded from time to time and some users
have reported upgrades breaking voip.

2) if the fritz is used as primary router your voip connection can be
infront of NAT making it more reliable.

3) Superhub wifi can be flakey and cause freeze.

As with roger my virgin connection used to be congested but for the last
year has been great. (ever since virgin had competition from FTTC in my
neighbourhood)

 

agreed that modem mode would be preferable but if you're not comfortable
setting up this configuration (and the original poster mentioned he
wasn't 100% tech savvy) then leaving it in router mode as described will
work (thats how I had to do it until Virgin introduced modem mode) and
I'm not sure that the Fritzbox will operate as a router in this config
as it isnt a cable router its an adsl router.

 

I think it does work as a cable router, with dhcp which virgin uses
(called ip mode in the manual). If this is used he won't have to worry
about configuring ip addresses.

 

Would you believe it - Virgin NNTP servers are now not letting me send a reply and I've had to use google !

Nick
you're right - I didn't follow it to completion as I didn't want to reset my fritzbox settings but if you use the settings wizard (rather than the advanced settings) it gives you the option to set the 7170 up as a router using a cable modem - it uses LAN port 1 as the WAN port and it definitely says mode "router".

Malcolm - in this case you can leave your fritzbox as your wifi and wired router, use the settings wizard to configure it as a cable router and then connect an ethernet cable from LAN port 1 of the fritzbox to LAN port 1 of the superhub.

Set the superhub to modem mode and reboot both and you should then have thefritzbox working as before but on a fast cable connection. Hopefully Viring will have fixed their newsgroup problems by the time you get connected ;-)
Roger

 

If this is the netgear one just put it into modem mode set a DHCP input
on your router and away you go;!..

FWIW there has been a product recall for the power units with some of
them which you should have had by now if you haven't seems that there
was an overheating issue;!...

 

Those power units are 10V linear PSUs (transformer-inna-box) type that I
think are left over from a modem issued in the NTL/Telewest era. When
modems were replaced, sometimes the original PSU was reused. I don't know
if the Superhub also uses 10V, or a different PSU. It's unlikely to be a
problem for people who are recently new-to-VM customers.

Ah yes, for people who joined pre 2007:
https://my.virginmedia.com/customer-news/articles/powersupply

(The specific problem is units with a 115degC thermal fuse, which might have
been a bit too high)

Theo

 

I wonder if they go faulty or they are simply not up to the job.
The replacement is only rated at 1 amp while the suspect ones are
1.2amp which is slightly odd.

The upside-down label is quite common on wall-warts. Far Eastern
manufacturers seem to have the idea that a British socket has the
earth pin at the bottom.

 

The Superhub is 10V @ 1.5A - and its a rebadged Netgear.