OS X, NTL Freedom and wi-fi/Airport

Craig McGill · 13-11-2004, 13:37

One and all, sorry to trouble you, Friend of mine has gone and signed up for NTL's Freedom Bundle, which includes with it an average broadband service.

Now, given his location, the only way he can get the service is through his phoneline and NTL are saying that the only type of cable modem they can provide that way for his Mac OS X G3 iBook is a USB one.

Now that's a bummer as his previous NTL service had a proper cable modem with ethernet that linked into the back of his AIrport wireless internet box. There's no USB slot though.

Asked NTL for advice and they had none to offer, so the question is, has anyone here had any success in getting a USB set-up to hook up to a wirless set-up, mac or PC. Is there another piece of kit needing bought or something? All advice welcome...

Chris W · 13-11-2004, 14:42

I am not 100% sure (i have nothing to do with Freedom support) but i can't see why your friend can't but an ethernet modem, or indeed a router with built in modem. I would suggest that he finds a suitable model, then rings ntl:freedom and says, "i have this modem/ router is it compatible with your service". Then if they say no, he can try again with a different model

Craig McGill · 13-11-2004, 15:35

Thanks for the welcome.

As for buying gear and then hoping it works, I think that would drive him over the edge, so what I'll do is wait until he gets his kit, get it working wired first, then call their tech support and see if they suggest anything (that's if no-one here has any suggestions of course :-) )

punky · 13-11-2004, 16:03

What exactly is this NTL freedom stuff?

I have a powerbook and it works through my STB fine. Other people have got it working through their cable modem fine too. You must get either of those two items to provide you with broadband. Or do you get some special USB only modem?

SMHarman · 13-11-2004, 16:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by punky

What exactly is this NTL freedom stuff?

I have a powerbook and it works through my STB fine. Other people have got it working through their cable modem fine too. You must get either of those two items to provide you with broadband. Or do you get some special USB only modem?

Offnet, the NTL ADSL package

**Chris** · 13-11-2004, 18:23

NTL Freedom is ADSL just the same as any other ADSL you might subscribe to in the UK, isn't it? (Or am I missing something? There isn't a peculiar NTL version of ADSL that only works with the modem they supply, surely?) We're talking about an off-net product here, it's not like you're connecting to NTL's own cables and they can dictate what you use.

Any ADSL modem you buy (make sure it has ethernet) should work fine. ISPs just love giving out USB modems, on the assumption that everyone has USB but not everyone has ethernet. This may be true in the shoddy world of the PC, but every Mac sold in the last five years (probably considerably longer than that) has an ethernet port too. It's a damn shame that most ISPs don't seem to offer an ethernet modem option.

To be honest, as a Mac owner myself, if I were looking for ADSL, I would be looking for an ISP that offered a stripped-down product that doesn't come bundled with any modem, as there's no point paying for a USB modem I can't use via an inflated monthly subscription. I wouldn't look at NTL as an option, purely for that reason (NTL cable BB, on the other hand, I have found excellent).

Your friend might, just possibly, have been mis-sold his Freedom package if he was not made aware of the technical limitations (i.e. if you have a Mac, you can't use the modem we supply you). If he has, then he has the right to cancel his service. Note that even if he weren't trying to use an Airport with it, Mac OSX and USB Broadband doesn't mix at all well. Good device driver software is basically impossible to come by. This is hardly surprising, as the Mac using community prefers to use Ethernet, which is designed for networking, rather than compromise with USB, which is not.

Craig McGill · 13-11-2004, 22:05

Thanks everyone for the replies. To take up on one point that was mentioned, Chris, due to where he lives he can only get ADSL through the phoneline and due to the packages on offer - he's on a tight budget - he has to go with the NTL option and the USB modem - through the phoneline - that they provide. They don't offer an ethernet modem option with Freedom.

Buuuuuuut....he is willing to fork out for an extra box if there is such a chappie on the basis that he can sell that if he moves into a decent area and get proper broadband (unlikely, but it was the only way he could sell buying a computer, etc to his wife).

Hence the plea for kit...

Stuart · 14-11-2004, 23:04

These days when all Macs (and in my experience, nearly all PCs) come with on board ethernet, and Macs & PCs are good at configuring Ethernet automatically, I find it absolutely amazing that any ISP would even consider supplying USB kit without Ethernet as an option. It's just one more area where users can have problems, and that adds to tech support waiting times.

I'll admit, they do have to cater for older PCs without Ethernet ports. I specified PCs as I have been supporting Macs for nearly ten years now, and have never seen one without onboard Ethernet.

One thing to be aware of. Despite the rumour that is often passed around by PC world, the Airport network cards ARE compatible with standard wireless routers (such as those by D-Link and Netgear, which are cheaper than airport base stations, and some models do come with built in ADSL modems). I know, I use an iBook G3 with and Airport card, and it's reliable on a D-Link router. More so than D-Link's own laptop network cards.

Chris W · 14-11-2004, 23:18

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=48448

cheap ethernet adsl modem (has a router built in, but IIRC this can be disabled and then your friend can connect his Airport to it

)

Craig McGill · 17-11-2004, 02:42

Monkeybreath, thanks for that - looks tempting. Was going to get the ? from ADSL Nation, but this could beat it.

One caveat for anyone who buys Linksys for wi-fi on a mac (well, two things actually) - there is no mac set-up guide so you need to fiddle about manually with stuff to get it to work. It's only set-up for the PC and there's no mac software with it.

Also, to get BitTorrent working properly you need to fiddle about with the port settings - not a problem if you know what you're doing, but could daunt a newbie.

Craig McGill · 17-11-2004, 02:53

http://www.adslnation.co.uk/products/xmodem-ce.php

X Modem

That was what I'm looking at from ADSL Nation.

Now to choose between the two for my mate (I hate it when people leave this stuff to you because you know who'll get the blame when it goes pear-shaped).

Stuart · 17-11-2004, 09:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Craig McGill

Monkeybreath, thanks for that - looks tempting. Was going to get the ? from ADSL Nation, but this could beat it.

One caveat for anyone who buys Linksys for wi-fi on a mac (well, two things actually) - there is no mac set-up guide so you need to fiddle about manually with stuff to get it to work. It's only set-up for the PC and there's no mac software with it.

You sure? The only setting I had to change to get WiFi working on the iBook I use was to disable WEP.

Quote:

Also, to get BitTorrent working properly you need to fiddle about with the port settings - not a problem if you know what you're doing, but could daunt a newbie.

I think that is fairly standard on a router with Firewall. A good firewall will ship with all ports closed, leaving the user to open those which they need.

SMHarman · 17-11-2004, 10:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Craig McGill

<snip>One caveat for anyone who buys Linksys for wi-fi on a mac (well, two things actually) - there is no mac set-up guide so you need to fiddle about manually with stuff to get it to work. It's only set-up for the PC and there's no mac software with it.

Not something I've ever found a problem with Linksys hardware talks quite happily to AirPorts