Homechoice?
 

Hi,

I'm hoping someone can help me. I'm thinking of buying Homechoice but am wanting to find out a bit about them first. i've read good and bad reviews online - no worse than anyone else, though, really - and am very keen on the idea of getting everything from one provider, plus their rates are excellent.

One thing I need to enquire about - and this is what I need help with - is whether I can set it all up wirelessly through them? Or would it have to be wired? Does anyone know how I could get it wireless if I wanted to? Can I buy a router from them? could I set my own up (somehow) with their set top box?

I'd appreciate some guidance and information, thank you very much

Re: Homechoice?
 

What are you looking to go wireless with? If it's the broadband then you probably can just hook a wireless router to the box and use that to send the BB feed wirelessly to your PC.
Or you could get them to do it for you
http://www.homechoice.co.uk/broadband/wireless.html

Re: Homechoice?
 

Bear in mind though, that you can buy a wireless router for about £40 (plus the cost of a wireless card for the pc). It might be worth installing the gear yourself, saving a few quid, and learning something in the process. There are plenty of people here that will be willing to help out in setting up the wireless network should that be necessary.

Re: Homechoice?
 

coffeebean, :welcome: to the site

Re: Homechoice?
 

Like I said, get a wireless router yourself or they could do it lol ;) Obviously the cheaper of the two options is the DIY approach :erm:

Re: Homechoice?
 

It is the broadband intenet I want to get wireless, yes. I'm not 100% sure but I think that the internet may come via cable and not via the phoneline? Either way though, it's that which I would like to be able to do.

I didn't find that page on the Homechoice site before - only an FAQ which was a bit vague - thanks!

I'm not sure what type of router etc I would need, and how to set it up? I already have a wireless card in my computer - can anyone who actually has homechoice tell me what the wireless router which is needed is? Then - hopefully - if I could figure out how to install a router to the set top box (which is.....how?!) then it would have a wireless network that my computer could hop onto?

I would want to set up the wireless network securely so that my neighbours can't steal my broadband. Is this something I would do from the router (I presume not) or from my computer? I dont know anything about this stuff - presumably one computer sort of 'hosts' the network, and from this one I could decide on the password etc for any other computers I might want to add on?

I'm presuming a wireless router plugs into the set top box - but it just occured to me it might plug into the computer?!

Could someone direct me to a step by step instruction website which would work for Homechoice in particular? I dont know whether there's any difference between the wireless network I'd need for this, and any other....?

thanks very much for all of the assistance.

Re: Homechoice?
 

It's an ADSL service, you recieve both Digital TV and broadband via your BT phoneline.

Going by the pictures I can find, it looks like the box has a standard Ethernet port. Any non-ADSL (the box includes an ADSL modem, so you don't want one to be in the router as well) router will do.

The way it's connected is that the Router will connect to the STB. Any devices you want to connect to the internet (computer, console etc) will connect to the router). Most wireless routers will offer wired connections as well.

The router is actually a small computer, and this hosts the network.

BTW, a good article on securing a wireless network is at http://www.cableforum.co.uk/forum/article.php?a=12

Re: Homechoice?
 

It comes as ADSL, not as cable. It seems from other posters that the Home choice box has an ethernet socket on the back.A ethernet based router, one that you would use on the cable networks. The Linksys WRT54G is popular here. http://www.cableforum.co.uk/forum/article.php?a=74 thread will also give some guidance.
You log onto the router and edit the settings via internet pages from your computer, so while you do it from the router, you need a computer to do it.
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/forum/article.php?a=12
Into the Set top Box and into a power outlet.
The above two links should help. If you call homechoice ask how you connct your pc to the box to get internet the answer should be by ethernet, usb, or both.

Re: Homechoice?
 

You log onto the router and edit the settings via internet pages from your computer, so while you do it from the router, you need a computer to do it.
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/forum/article.php?a=12
Into the Set top Box and into a power outlet.




- Ok, so I understand that I'll have to log onto the router, but my (probably very stupid) question is - do I have to be online to be able to do this? I know I'll have to type in some kind of ISP address - right? - but how will typing this in connect me to the router settings? Is it a physical connection through the wire, or is it somehow done online?

Re: Homechoice?
 

Your router creates an internal network, a network within the internet network.
When you connect your computer to the internet it is assigned an IP address, the telephone number of your computer. nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn NTL ones often start with 81.

When you connect your router, this connects to the internet and adopts that number (like a telephone switchboard).

It then allocates your computer an IP address from its DHCP server this will usually start with 196.168.nnn.nnn this is like a phone extension on a switchboard.

Just like on a switchboard you dial 0 to connect to it, on a router you dial its equivilant of 0 to connect to it, for example for linksys it is 169.168.100.1

So if your computer is connected to your router you type this number into the address box on IE and it connects, in the same way as if a office phone system has no external lines on it you can still dial between desks in the office.

Re: Homechoice?
 

Hi,

I have a very similar problem.

I have just had Homechoice installed and have had some problems setting up a home network.

I have bought a Linksys Wireless - G Broadband Router (model - WRT54G)

I have plugged in the internet cable from the homechoice box into the my router and then plugged in a normal internet cable from the router into my machine. This works fine and I have a internet connection however, when connecting another network cable into another machine - it does not work.

Whats strange is when I run ipconfig on the working machine - the default gateway address starts off with 81.xx.xxx.xx which is the IP address of my Homechioce box which is fine.

When running the same command on the 2nd machine, I get the default IP address as 192.168.1.1 which is a local IP address. This is wrong and should be the IP address of the router.

Any ideas why??

Do I need to configure the router in anyway, if so what are the settings?

Any help or advice would be great.

Thanks