A question to O2 braodband users

Arclite · 30 Jun 2010 at 10:22

Any of you guys using a different wireless router other than the wireless box they sent you? Im having some problems with my one and was wondering if another router could be used with this isp.

Could you please link one from OCuk? Not too expensive but does the job well say between £30-£50. Need wireless and at least 2 ethernet ports.

Thanks in advance

DJMK4 · 30 Jun 2010 at 10:35

Not with O2 personally but there shouldnt be any issues with that. Aslong as you have the ADSL authentication details from O2 so you can put them in your new wireless router you should be good to go

I will let someone else spec you a router as im still on the brilliantly awsome custom firmwared Netgear DG834GT.

kerrgreg · 30 Jun 2010 at 11:11

I was under the impression (off the top of my head) that o2 do some stuff with mac address's and if you change the router they wont allow you to use a different mac address so you need to clone it. The same as sky i believe

DJMK4 · 30 Jun 2010 at 11:25

Cant see anyone suggesting the MAC address cloning on a few threads iv read? only gripe with this is that O2 will only support their own routers, so if you have an issue with a new router, plug in the old O2 box, if you are still having the issue, give them a call, if you are not having the issue, then it could possibly be the new router you bought where you will then have to diagnose and resolve yourself.

Caged · 30 Jun 2010 at 11:31

I've had no issues with O2 supporting a non-O2 router as long as the issue is clearly a connection fault (sync, auth etc). With regards to using a third party router it does sometimes take a while (15 mins or so) to allow a different MAC to connect, but there's no need to clone it.

Arclite · 30 Jun 2010 at 13:06

Thank you for the replies but im still unsure on some of the terms you guys used like MAC and ADSL authentication. Im not sure what i need to do. Shall i call them and ask them that if i want to use a third party router what do i need?

Or getting a new router and then getting those details sorted?

Please advise as necessary.

DJMK4 · 30 Jun 2010 at 13:29

MAC is a physical address that is stamped on all networking devices to identify them. What he means is that some ISP's use MAC filtering so that it means ISP's can get away with resticting users to using their own branded routers (for example O2 could TRY and stop people using other routers apart from their own, but there are ways around it)

ADSL authentication details is just usually a usename/password combination that ISP's use and are entered at the ADSL Modem/Router to allow a customers line/connection to authenticate with the RADIUS server just to say "yes this is so and so's connection, this is the password, now let me on so the user can start using the internet"

This will be something that O2 will provide you with.

With respect to your question, there wont be any problems with you using a different brand router, just make sure its suited to what you need, make sure you get an ADSL2+ compatible router (although most are sold as standard these days), grab the ADSL auth details from O2 and set-up the router, they are really not that hard to do

if you decide on a type of router there is no probs with asking for help if you need it.

frankmcg · 30 Jun 2010 at 13:32

Could also be worth just asking O2 to swap it out for you. Since it's technically a leased router they won't have any issues with you wanting to swap it if you claim it's faulty. They'll insist on having you check lots of other things first though - happened to me a few months back.

Ben Cole · 30 Jun 2010 at 13:58

kerrgreg said:
I was under the impression (off the top of my head) that o2 do some stuff with mac address's and if you change the router they wont allow you to use a different mac address so you need to clone it. The same as sky i believe

Sky don't do this. I have been using a non-Sky router since day one and for the past 2 years. All I required was the username and password. They were a bit of a faff to get though.

DJMK4 · 30 Jun 2010 at 14:11

Ben Cole said:
Sky don't do this. I have been using a non-Sky router since day one and for the past 2 years. All I required was the username and password. They were a bit of a faff to get though.

lol, good luck getting these off a 1st line engineer, when I had to configure a router for someone I know with a sky connection, I had to go through to 2nd/3rd line before they would even think about my request

Orcvader · 30 Jun 2010 at 14:14

I'm with o2 and I'm using the router they sent. Out of curiousity, what sort of problems are you getting?

Arclite · 30 Jun 2010 at 14:20

Thank you very much for the info guys, really appreciate the help.

Orcvader said:
I'm with o2 and I'm using the router they sent. Out of curiousity, what sort of problems are you getting?

Basically my router resets itself after few minutes and i have to manually reset it to get it back on again. Sometimes it works and other times im w/o internet for a long duration and then suddenly it comes back online. I have contacted O2 about this and it was a standard "do this and that" response and that there is nothing wrong with the router.

Arclite · 30 Jun 2010 at 23:23

Well O2 has decided that they will send me a new filter. Not sure how is that going to do anything since i have already changed the filter and it didn't work. Why can't they simply send me a new router instead.

Ben Cole · 1 Jul 2010 at 12:12

DJMK4 said:
lol, good luck getting these off a 1st line engineer, when I had to configure a router for someone I know with a sky connection, I had to go through to 2nd/3rd line before they would even think about my request

Thanks for your wishes of good luck but I didn't need to speak to anyone. All the info how to get it is out there on the web.

Google is your friend. IIRC it was mainly to do with loading an unlocked firmware onto the device.