Do UPC provide Wireless Cable Modems?

heebusjeebus

I'm looking to get UPC Broadband (and tv) and was hoping I wouldnt be having a huge tangle of wires behind my tv.
I've had UPC Broadband in a rental apt before and we were given a cable modem and a white Netgear router.
Does anyone know if they have moved on with offering both in the one device?

Thanks

HJ

watty

They do.

But personally I prefer a separate router/Wifi sited elsewhere. More flexible choice such as Turbo G (108Mbps if the laptop is also Turbo G) rather than 54Mbps. Also MIMO (54g, turbo G or n), 802.11-abg and n options. etc.

Router/WiFi for ethernet (no modem built in ) is from 50 Euro to 200 Euro to buy yourself. You can go for OPenWRT and have specialist applications. I have Download/Upload monitor and option to add "backup" 3G connection on my router, or to add Music player, USB HDD for network, more flexible firewall/NAT etc. I can setup VLAN for LAN partitioning etc.

I don't know if or how much UPC charge for built in WiFi version. If you only need basic NAT/Firewall features and 802.11b/g WiFi, thhen it may be fine for you.

heebusjeebus

Cheers for that watty. I'll take a look at the options.

GerardKeating

watty wrote: »

I don't know if or how much UPC charge for built in WiFi version. If you only need basic NAT/Firewall features and 802.11b/g WiFi, thhen it may be fine for you.

Unless things have change, their wireless option was the modem with a seperate wireless router...

DingDong

If you order 10Mb or higher it comes free, the lower package you have the option of paying €49.99. Its a Cisco EPC2425modem/router

heebusjeebus

DingDong wrote: »

If you order 10Mb or higher it comes free, the lower package you have the option of paying €49.99. Its a Cisco EPC2425modem/router

Thanks DingDong. I'm swayed by it. I really just want clutter reduced and having a cable modem and a router is overkill for what I'm up to!

mehmeh12

DingDong wrote: »

If you order 10Mb or higher it comes free, the lower package you have the option of paying €49.99. Its a Cisco EPC2425modem/router

For people who have used this modem/router with upc-is it good for downloading and blocking out hackers? Should i buy my own seperate modem or is this a waste of money?

vibe666

mehmeh12 wrote: »

For people who have used this modem/router with upc-is it good for downloading and blocking out hackers? Should i buy my own separate modem or is this a waste of money?

you can't use your own modem with UPC, it will only work with the cable modem they supply to you.

if you go for the cisco wireless modem/router combo, you can turn off the onboard wireless and connect your own wireless router to it instead and use that for wireless access.

mehmeh12

vibe666 wrote: »

you can't use your own modem with UPC, it will only work with the cable modem they supply to you.

if you go for the cisco wireless modem/router combo, you can turn off the onboard wireless and connect your own wireless router to it instead and use that for wireless access.

In your experience is the default cisco wireless modem/router good for wireless? to be honest the idea of buying a separate router only to add to an existing router seems a bit odd..

who is this

mehmeh12 wrote: »

For people who have used this modem/router with upc-is it good for downloading and blocking out hackers? Should i buy my own seperate modem or is this a waste of money?

Unless you're running some sort of top secret enterprise, then you've really nothing to worry about with hackers... ever.

Anyone who actually understands the real risk of hackers to residential customers, and is still worried, is completely paranoid. It's practically nill (like what are they going to do?).

And yes it's a good modem. It's fairly nice to look at, and easy to set up (with things like UPnP etc.). It has a built in Firewall, though I turn it off for an easy life. It also has automatic software updates, and the ability to run up to 4 Access points from the one router (though the current firmware has that disabled)

vibe666

mehmeh12 wrote: »

In your experience is the default cisco wireless modem/router good for wireless? to be honest the idea of buying a separate router only to add to an existing router seems a bit odd..

i don't have one, i use the old modem UPC used to supply (which they might still be supplying on the lower end packages without wifi) and have my own router connected to that.

who is this wrote: »

Anyone who actually understands the real risk of hackers to residential customers, and is still worried, is completely paranoid. It's practically nill (like what are they going to do?).

anyone with even a passing knowledge of what 'hacking' could involve would know better than to make a poorly informed statement like that. :rolleyes:

there are plenty of reasons for breaking into a residential network and chances are most people will never even know if someone was there until it's too late, if ever.

as for "what are they going to do?", how about all or any of the following:

* use you for "breaking and entering" practice, safe in the knowledge that in the unlikely event that you did detect them trying to break in, there is nothing you can do about it and that they are totally safe in their attempts.

* install keylogging software to allow them to gather your online banking and credit card info any time you use them online, as well as passwords for IM and email accounts, forums, application and OS serial numbers, etc. etc. to use however they see fit.

* make your pc part of a botnet to send out spam, virus's, trojans, worms, DDoS attacks and more.

A PC based firewall is not enough on it's own. there is a long history of firewalls and anti-virus software being disabled by the very things they are designed to defend against.

a modem/router with an SPI firewall will adequately defend against the vast majority of intrusion attempts, but are not 100% safe. likewise, for the most part, a 3rd party firewall application and decent anti-virus app will protect you from *most* threats.

the best form of defence is a multi-layered defence using all of the above which should keep out all but the most determined intrusion attempts. if you think I'm joking, look up the name "Gary McKinnon" and then ask yourself if you think that those networks owned by NASA, the US Army, US Navy, Department of Defense, and the US Air Force were likely to be more secure than your own? not to mention all the banks etc. that have been hacked and robbed electronically ove rthe last few years.

there probably aren't that many people out there who are able to hack into systems at those levels, but how secure do you think your network is compared to theirs? you are still connecting to the same internet as all of those networks, so you are just as accessible to hackers as they are.

my house isn't "burglar proof" but it is secure enough (extra pick resistant locks, an alarm etc.) that any opportunistic thief will take a look at it and see that it's more secure than most of the other houses on my street and pick another address to rob that would be less of a challenge to him.

nothing is 100% hack proof, but using common sense and a decent amount of protection, you can make it hard enough that all but the most determined will look elsewhere.

I don't put my seatbelt on every time i get into a car because it's very likely I'm going to be in an accident. I do it because although it's highly unlikely to happen, it's still possible and it doesn't hurt to have it there just in case. after all, someone somewhere is killed in a car crash every day.

watty

Excellent post vibe666

Basically unless you are (running Linux AND a security Expert), or (Running Windows and a VERY good security expert), use a separate dedicated Firewall.

An unpatched Windows box lasts about 1minute on dialup.

I have intrusion attempt detection software and there are about 300 unsolicited packets a second arriving at my firewall. That's not probabily 300 attacks.

watty

who is this wrote: »

Unless you're running some sort of top secret enterprise, then you've really nothing to worry about with hackers... ever.

Anyone who actually understands the real risk of hackers to residential customers, and is still worried, is completely paranoid. It's practically nill (like what are they going to do?).

Nonsense

Bot Nets (mostly used to send Spam),
credit card number theft
pay pal / banking/ebay log in thefts

Most Spam comes from such PCs.

There was an analysis a few years ago that showed that apart from Browser issues and idiots running bad email setups/ opening attachments that over 90% of security issues (i.e. DCOM, SMB, etc) don't apply behind a separate firewall.

Unlike the old days most malware is invisible. The only feature noticeable is your Internet traffic is higher.

If you have sharing on by default and stunningly bad ftp/http settings, Google may even index all your ripped CDs and people could be downloading them!

uPNP is on by default and lets people remotely install SW on your PC.

mehmeh12

watty wrote: »

If you have sharing on by default and stunningly bad ftp/http settings, Google may even index all your ripped CDs and people could be downloading them!

uPNP is on by default and lets people remotely install SW on your PC.

Could you elaborate on the sharing aspect of this post?

I had windows firewall first on my computer and when this was turned on i set file sharing under the 'Network and Sharing Center' in vista as off. Then i installed Comodo firewall, turned off windows firewall. Now under the 'Network and Sharing Center' in vista, it says that file sharing is on...Am i wide open to people reading my documents and files?

lucernarian

Hehe, some of you guys are too much about opportunity and not enough about motive.

Likelihoods have to be looked at. It's easy for script kiddies to muck around with windows. Viruses and annoyances are everywhere on the web. But information theft?? That requires motivation and knowledge of who you're targeting as well as the technical aspects on how to get the particular piece of info. Credit cards are a target but tbh they are rarely going to be stored, expiry dates and all, in some Word document. A few things have to go wrong, specifically using a possibly dodgy website, for them to end up in temp internet files and by then the website itself would have it anyway for illicit uses.

Specifically on the point of WiFi, a pretty accurate generalisation is that an unsecured network is illegally used by other people who are cheapskates and won't buy their own or else need internet access quickly. Strangers carrying out illegal activity on the net in your name is plausible but unlikely, given that I can see no convictions or investigations into such events taking place. I still use WPA2 security as I know how easy other people could access my network otherwise, and e.g. carry out pranks as a joke from friends etc.

watty

The blackhats install fake DNS for Men-in-the-Middle attacks even on HTTPS, to steal specific bank/paypal/ebay user accounts.
They install keyloggers to get credit card details. Not scan documents for them.
They install Zombie bots to do this all automatically to other PCs, do attacks or send SPAM
They harvest all email addresses (in received and send emails as well as address books) to use as destinations for Spam.

You must change the default Web Page password of Router on your LAN or a script on a Web page you visit can access the router and change the DNS entry.

Captain Chaos

who is this wrote: »

It also has automatic software updates, and the ability to run up to 4 Access points from the one router (though the current firmware has that disabled)

So you can't connect say a few laptops, a PC and a 360, PS3 wirelessly all at the same time. If so thats useless. I was thinking of going to UPC as my Magnet connection is next to useless for that past month or so and can't be sorted out as there is too much wireless traffic on my street.

I used to use my Magnet supplies wireless route to connect, 2 laptops, a PC and a console or 2 all at the same time and they all worked fine. Lately though only one device will work at a time. After have having perfect trouble free service for 8 months.

If the UPC router cannot provide more than one wireless connect at any one time I may aswell forget about them.

watty

If you get just the UPC modem you can add whatever ethernet Router+WiFi box you like, from €50 up depending on speed and features.

vibe666

Captain Chaos wrote: »

So you can't connect say a few laptops, a PC and a 360, PS3 wirelessly all at the same time. If so thats useless. I was thinking of going to UPC as my Magnet connection is next to useless for that past month or so and can't be sorted out as there is too much wireless traffic on my street.

the cisco router that upc provide on the 10-20mbps packages has 4 ethernet ports on it and you can connect as many wireless devices to that as you want.

i assume that by access points the poster in your quote means wireless access points, in which case it isn't going to make any difference to 99% of people as you only need one AP to connect multiple devices to the cisco router.

as watty says, if you get one of the lower end packages you'll only get a single port modem and will need to buy a router to connect to it so you can connect multiple devices.

Squad 701

Hi all,
I was just wondering could anybody give me some advice,
I just got connected with NTL/UPC with the all in one Cisco router,
the signal unfortunetly only reaches the attic sporadically,
where my main PC is based, is there any way of boosting the signal,
either with a replacement router or some kind of plug-in relay.
Any help appreciated.
Cheers.

watty

Move the Router. Extend with satellite cable on the Coax.

And /or use Cat5e ethernet cable from router to PC.

We only use WiFi for laptops/netbooks/pmp/phones. All the PCs have ethernet. Much superior.

Squad 701

watty wrote: »

Move the Router. Extend with satellite cable on the Coax.

And /or use Cat5e ethernet cable from router to PC.

We only use WiFi for laptops/netbooks/pmp/phones. All the PCs have ethernet. Much superior.

I might be limited in how far I can move the router from it's current location,
maybe 5-10 feet Max.
Is it possible to get an ethernet connection to my attic without moving the router there ???

stanley1

as watty said, cat 5e (4 pair) from router to attic.

vibe666

have you tried changing the wireless channel on the router? could give you a clearer signal if there is interference from other devices. maybe.

if ethernet cable isn't practical for you, you could try powerline adapters, but it'll be running across two circuits (assuming your house is wired correctly, with plug sockets on different floors on seperate fuses) so you may lose some speed.

go for the 200mbps ones, particuarly as it's going a long way, you'll find that the more wiring the signal has to go through (and the poorer that wiring is) you'll lose speed.

i bought the 80mbps ones but they were no good for my situation and ended up just biting the bullet and running ethernet cable outside the house and bringing it in close to where i needed it.

you could also use a wireless repeater as another option, somewhere at a halfway point between the PC and router, or maybe see if either (or both) the cisco router or your pc has removable antenna that could be replaced with bigger ones.

another option would be to get a better router with top end wireless N which should give you decent range (you'll need a wireless N adapter for your PC too) but again, it's more expense.

whatever you decide, you're probably going to need to spend more money. i know running ethernet cable sounds like a PITA, but in the long run it'll probably be a lot less hassle. have you considered running it outside down a gutter or something like that?

if it's going to your attic you should be able to get a good straight run down to the wall outside where your modem is and poke a hole in the wall right next to the tv cable. (maybe)?

Squad 701

Watty, Vibe666 & Stanley 1, a big thanks for all your advice, its really helped clear things up for me.
It may be as simple as getting the router moved at least 6ft from its current position, and changing channel (10).
The attic which is the black-spot (strangely working perfect at the moment)
contains a vast amount of wires as there's a full home cinema setup, PS3, Xbox360 and some very expensive Westflex cable coming into an AirNav radarbox connected to the PC.
So the ethernet seems to be the route to take to guarantee quality signal,
but if I knew I could get away with a new wireless N router / adapter,
I might take this route !
But if that has to be connected to the current router I might give it a miss,
I didn't see any routers that take UPCs standard connection (type ?)
Is there any available ? or is another adapter needed ?
(final question, honestly )
Cheers.

Squad 701

watty

1)
coax === [UPC Modem]---ethernet----[3rdparty Router without DSL Modem]---4x ethernet + WiFi


2)
coax ===[UPC Modem +router]

---

4x ethernet + wiFi

You can't install a 3rd party Router with built-in Modem. Those are only for ADSL. You get a router with a 5th ethernet port marked WAN. These are called variously cable routers, cable/dsl routers and ethernet WAN routers (all same thing). The important aspect is that there is NO built in Modem.

ADSL modem/routers usually can't be used with a Cable Modem as there is usually no dedicated WAN ethernet port for the modem. That is instead an internal connection to the DSL phone line modem built in.


The UPC modem version with 4 port ethernet & WiFi can be re-configured to be a dumb modem (Bridge mode on ethernet and turn off WiFi) if at a later stage you want a 3rd party router/WiFi. But if that is the case the dedicated Modem Only is better from the start.

vibe666

you could buy an 'N' router (you should be able to get one with a wireless N usb dongle in the one package, usually labelled as a 'starter kit' or similar) to test it and as long as you are careful with the packaging and make sure all the bits and pieces are kept in order and it's in the same condition you bought it, you should be able to return it within a certain number of days if it doesn't work for you and get a refund.

i'd go for a shop so you can get some face to face time with someone and just explain that your G router doesn't get a good signal and you'd heard that some of the better N routers will improve range and speed, etc. etc. and just get them to confirm that if it doesn't work you can return it for a refund.

it sounds like your G router is right on the borderline of stable/unstable so it could be all that's needed to push it that bit further into the 'stable' category.

with regards to the UPC modem/router, I seem to remember someone in he know (on here a while back) mentioning that the MAC address of your modem is tied to your line and there is some sort of registration process for that specific modem when it is first set up so you can't just change it like you could with a DSL modem, so you're pretty much stuck with whatever cable modem you have until UPC send out an engineer to replace it with something else, which would be at their discretion.

watty

Only the cable company can swap a cable Modem. The physical Modem is registered to your account, without any logon like DSL modem.

N routers don't improve range and only do higher speed at expense of using more of the band (thus harder to find a free channel if there is a video sender or other WiFis) and need strong signal for top speed.

vibe666

watty wrote: »

Only the cable company can swap a cable Modem. The physical Modem is registered to your account, without any logon like DSL modem.

that's what I said.

watty wrote: »

N routers don't improve range and only do higher speed at expense of using more of the band (thus harder to find a free channel if there is a video sender or other WiFis) and need strong signal for top speed.

not disagreeing with you, i'm guessing you know for sure that this is the case, but pretty much every bit of advertising i've seen for wireless N touts increased range as one of the benefits of using it. is that all just marketing bumph then? you even see it on the boxart for wireless N gear. surely if it wasn't the case they wouldn't be able to plaster it all over the adverts for them?

bit of a pisser if it is. advertising standards anyone?

mehmeh12

watty wrote: »

Only the cable company can swap a cable Modem. The physical Modem is registered to your account, without any logon like DSL modem.

N routers don't improve range and only do higher speed at expense of using more of the band (thus harder to find a free channel if there is a video sender or other WiFis) and need strong signal for top speed.

Does that mean if there are other people with N modems with wifi, then my own wifi with N won't work? would i be better off with a G type modem them?

hightower1

I think its that N serise routers contain multipal omnidirectional antenna thats increases the range.