A Netgear/switching ISP's & settings Question

[LoneGunman]

I've got a netgear DG834GT.

My question: I'm with Axxess, and they did a whole number of setting changes in order for me to access their service. I'm now wanting to do a tryout of another ISP's service, and a simple change of login/password -(which everyone says is all thats usually needed) doesnt work.

There's clearly other settings which need to be changed.

I've made a backup of my current Axxess settings, and stored that as a cfg file, so I assume I can just load that, if I fiddle bigtime and change the wrong things. However, there's too many individual settings that I dont know/understand enough to alter.

I see there's an option to 'restore factory defaults' in the router setup - will this mess up my initial setup and pc's ability to talk with router - requiring a basic setup again (in my case, calling a geek in) - or will it just set the various current router settings to whatever they first were, thus allowing me to do that 'put in new ISP's name/password' and boom connected to new guys..

Basically, looking for a way to put the router settings back to their standard default settings, without messing up the initial router->pc setup that was done.
*throws himself on the mercy of the much cleverer folks on forum*

 

[guest2013-1]

usually dhcp is enabled by default, so if you do restore the factory defaults (and your PC is set to "obtain IP address automatically") you should be able to access the router no problem. Your ADSL would be screwed though.

As for the settings, I've got the Netgear DG843G router/modem and can't say I had any trouble switching between mweb/axxess/uunet. Which settings do you currently have on there? And what "special" settings did you need to access Axxess?

 

[Darth Garth]

There's clearly other settings which need to be changed.

There are only 4 settings used for an ISP

Login Name
Password
Primary DNS
Backup DNS

I only changed these 4 settings when I switched from Telkom to Web Africa.

Also the netgear.cfg file that you have saved on your PC can be used to restore your router to the state it was before you fiddled.

Also don't use ever "restore default factory settings" .... you are just going to wipe the router so badly that you geek friend would need to be called in again to reconfigure it.

 

[mikkelz_za]

Do you even need to specify DNS settings? I've left mine on "Get Automatically From ISP" and have never had any problems. Login and Password should be all surely..

 

[LoneGunman]

re DNS settings, axxess gave me specific IP's to put in here - they werent there initially. After p2p began to go to hell, and I started calling them, they gave me IP's
and told me to change from 'get from ISP' to 'use these specific IP's'. I checked with them a day or so back, and they told me that 'jhb and Bloem were having probs, and I asked re the IP settings, and they said its fine to leave 'em like that..

as to what other settings were altered, I simply don't know - they did a remote admin session with me on the line, listening to them as they muttered away, changing various settings on my router.

thanks tibby.dude & noone for the advice re 'restore factory settings' Now I know to keep clear of that button..

so there's still no way to 'undo' whatever extra settings axxess did, short of sitting online with helpdesk at 'alt' ISP, and manually run through every damn setting to check its where it should be..

 

[mikkelz_za]

Would be interested to know what exactly they needed to change. There's really not much to it. Makes you wonder why some ISP's charge "setup" fees.

 

[bb_matt]

DNS settings are IP addresses of DNS servers and as such, you can use any IP address that is associated with a DNS server - IOW, has a DNS server that accepts queries.

Here's a few you can use :-

196.41.128.254
196.25.1.11
196.25.1.1
196.26.208.2
196.41.0.10
196.41.0.11

If you find that your having problems accessing certain sites, sometimes it's a DNS server issue, so changing your DNS entries can sometimes solve that.



If you really want "power" over your ADSL connection, a PC hardware firewall is the best route. IPCop is a great !

Screenshot of all the menus :-

yes, my web folder structure is 'visible' - I have nothing to hide.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to set it up, but you do need a spare old banger of a PC with two network cards. If you don't have that or access to the hardware for under R200 then it's not worth it.

If you do, it'll take you max. 2 hours to set everything up - you basically put your router into "bridge" mode, hook it up to the one network card on your firewall and take a cable from the other network card to your internal network.

Easy and gives you infinite control, without needing to bugger around with horrible inflexible router settings.

 

[Darth Garth]

If you really want "power" over your ADSL connection, a PC hardware firewall is the best route. IPCop is a great !

This is really an overkill for most people ... his Netgear runs embedded Linux and uses the exact same plumbing as IpCop.

 

[bb_matt]

Which is why I said If you really want "power"

I know LGM is more of a technically inclined person than he lets on and I think his curiosity may get the better of him concerning having more control over what comes in and what goes out of a 24/7 ADSL connection.
Considering LGM has posted info about netlimiter, it indicates an interest in these things in order to get the maximum potential out of an internet connection.

A router can't do this :-

Multiple accounts selected from a dropdown, with different settings per account
Extensive log files
Dyndns auto update on IP change
Traffic graphs
Traffic shaping
Time server
VPN's

Not to mention a ton of homebrew addons and the fact that it's constantly updated to fix security problems. Updating is as simple as downloading a file, logging into IPCop from your browser and browsing for the file.

 

[LoneGunman]

Well, now I've learned, I should have made an initial backup of my 'normal' default router settings - and stashed as a cfg file - which I'll do in future. Might be useful to tell router-n00bs to do this as soon as they're set up.
Going to be taken through the settings by a geek just now, and we'll see what Axxess changed, and put everything back to what it should be. If there was anything interesting, I'll report back.
Thanks for the compliment bb_matt, but although I'm 'sort've' technically minded, in some area's - I've no prior experience with the router stuff, so I'm a brainless n00b who's learning

It was interesting that Axxess didn't seem to regard the throttling of protocols as a major train smash - and it was said to me that only a small number of their clients use p2p. Hmm. Truth - or damage control? Don't know. (Current p2p on DC++ and torrents, between 1 and a max of 3)

 

[bb_matt]

Thanks for the compliment bb_matt, but although I'm 'sort've' technically minded, in some area's - I've no prior experience with the router stuff, so I'm a brainless n00b who's learning

I know very little myself - a lot of what I do is "monkey see, monkey do" and I tend to learn reaaaally slowly these days because I'm an old fart whose brain has been destroyed by self-inflicted invasions of chemical substances

I view a lot of this **** like a big jigsaw puzzle, or even easier, an airfix model - follow the instructions until you get it right.

Sure, you may end up with the wing stuck to your nose and yeah, your cat may end up vaguely resembling a spitfire with it's new array of colourful stickers adhered to it's torso, but by and large you end up with what you intended to create.

To install something like IPCop, you need to know how to push things into slots and press a few buttons at the right time.

Also, the instructions are not in Chinglish, which does help.

 

[Luke7777]

To install something like IPCop, you need to know how to push things into slots and press a few buttons at the right time.

So basically it's a lot like s3x then ?

On the "router can't" points :
dyndns handled just fine by the Linksys WRT54G. Also seen a VPN tab in there, but had no need to play with it (yet)