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The iMac Has Landed

Crosstrainer2
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Posted July 24, 2011 at 8:26AM

Well, my new all singing iMac is now installed and is up and running. A superb machine, and I am delighted with it. Installed Lion yesterday, so all up to date. I also persuaded VM to provide me a 20mb connection without TV or phone, and that is being installed this Wednesday. BUT!

Went shopping yesterday for a decent cable router / wireless modem combo and discovered that VM lock the unit they provide (a rather basic Netgear unit) to the line.

This means you can not use a decent wireless router with their BB. The day's when they gave you a little black modem are gone. This annoys me no end, as I want a router with far better spec. than the one they provide.

Anyone else got one of the tower like units they provide, and how does it perform? I can put a range booster on it I suppose, but really wanted something better!

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interzone55

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Posted July 24, 2011 at 8:46AM

Can you turn off the routing functions in the Netgear, so it essentially becomes a modem?

You could then plug it into whichever router you lie...

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Crosstrainer2

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Posted July 24, 2011 at 9:08AM

alan14:

I will have to have a closer look when mine is delivered, but I could not find that option when I had a quick look at my neighbours unit.

That is my one hope really, then I can buy a nice Draytek wireless cable router and have the network I want!

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Taff™

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Posted July 24, 2011 at 9:11AM

Set one of the black Netgears up for a Virgin Media customer of mine about 4 months ago when VM decided that her old white "cheeseblock" router should have been recalled 2 years ago. We had already bought a new Belkin wireless router for it and the VM engineer suggested we continued to use it because the most regular complaints about the combined Netgear router modem are the wireless signal dropping out and blind spots.

Simply, as alan14 says, disable the wireless on the Netgear. There`s a button if I remember correctly but I also disabled it in the router management when I reset the passwords and SSID - they still send these out with default admin passwords to access the management function.

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Crosstrainer2

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Posted July 24, 2011 at 9:15AM

Taff

Thanks for that, I didn't get a chance to look at the options closely so if that's possible I can buy my Draytek online today!

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Taff™

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Posted July 24, 2011 at 9:34AM

The one I saw was a Netgear VMDG290 and I`m looking at one right now. Wifi LED and it's on / off button is at the top underneath the padlock button. It comes with a random SSID, passphrase and WPS PIN but the router management (192.168.0.1) is set to admin and "changeme" which from a security point of view is pretty naff!

Better check that it's the same model still in use but I can`t see a problem.

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Taff™

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Posted July 24, 2011 at 9:36AM

Sorry. Immediately noticed it`s the VMDG280 not 290

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Forum Editor

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Posted July 24, 2011 at 9:37AM

Transferred to Consumerwatch

From Speakers Corner.

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Crosstrainer2

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Posted July 25, 2011 at 10:19AM

Taff

Will check exact model when it arrives, looks as if the engineer will be bringing it with him on Wednesday.

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