This Much I Know

My ADSL 2+ connection is provided by Be (also known as Be There), and just recently I’ve been having major problems with Be’s own router, the Be Box, when connecting to the BBC’s iPlayer service. The Be Box turns itself off and on again within a minute or two of connecting to an iPlayer stream. I spoke Be technical support, who said that this is a known issue with the iPlayer and the Thomson routers they use for the Be Box.

My Be Box is a Thomson SpeedTouch 780, but it looks as though Be users are having the same problem with the Thomson 585v6 Be Box router too. (Be users can read about this on the Be Forums).

This problem isn’t just affecting Be – it’s also a problem for BT HomeHub users too, and presumably any other ADSL companies who use the Thomson routers.

Be said that they are unable to offer any other routers at present, and could not tell me if and when this might change.

To Be’s credit, their technical support were very helpful in helping me get my old Netgear DG834G v2 wireless router set up with the correct settings to connect to Be. I updated my DG834G v2 firmware to “Version 3.01.38 (UK)”, and used the following settings from Be:

No ADSL user / password
Multiplex: LLC-based
VPI: 0
VCI: 101
Static IP: [my static IP address from Be]
IP Subnet Mask: 255.255.252.0
Gateway IP Address: 87.194.212.1
Primary DNS: 87.194.0.51
Secondary DNS: 87.194.0.52
(…although I use OpenDNS instead, as I’ve always found Be’s DNS to be slow and flaky at best.)

These settings got the DG834G v2 working as an ADSL 2+ modem for Be’s network. However, I was only been able to get a downstream connection speed of ~7mbps with the DG834G v2, compared to ~16 mbps with the Be Box.

So, I took the plunge and purchased a Netgear RangeMaxâ„¢ Next Wireless N ADSL 2+ Modem Router (or DG834N to you and me). I updated the firmware, and used the settings mentioned above. Within seconds of restarting, I was connected to Be with a downstream speed of ~17mbps and an upload speed of ~2mbps. I’ve been getting download speeds of 1.6MB per second when downloading software updates from Apple.

I’d definitely recommend the DG834N – it’s incredibly easy to administer, and I haven’t had any problems with it on my Be connection.