Please Help! DNAS error 617?

[Freelancer 2K3]

I'm tearing my hair out here currently with a DNAS error while trying to connect my PS2 online. It's error 617 and i don't know how to correct it.

I have NTL broadband, and i understand i do not need to pay an extra £2 if i just reset my set top box everytime when switching my ethernet cable over from PC to console.

I'm using the PS2 Network disc and when trying to set-up my connection settings for my PS2 i set everything to "auto-detect". It seems to connect to the net somewhat. It seems to ping the servers fine, but always fails at the last moment when it comes to the DNAS stage. It says my connection timed out with error 617.

I just don't know what to do here. The lights at the back of the adapter are flashing yellow, so there's traffic when it pings servers, but it's this damn DNAS which is keeping me out of gaming!?

Please help. Thankyou.

[Freelancer 2K3]

OK, after doing a search i have found this thread and it indicates that a set top box (which i have) is incompatible with a PS2 network adapter.

So, i either need to buy a £30 router, or clone my console MAC address to my PC and re-register it.

This is pretty tough going. I had no idea it'd be such a headache.

As i have asked in that thread i have linked to: How do i step by step go about cloning the MAC address?
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OK, after further digging here, it appears my network card does not support cloning the MAC address, and the alternative method is to mess with registry settings, which i'm not sure i want to do.

So that leaves me the option of buying a router for £30. Ho-hum.