India Broadband Forum

qwarentine

Hi all,
I have applied for BSNL broadband and must be getting the connection in two days. But now i am in a dilemma of whether to go for wireless or normal. I have applied for a normal speed of 256kbps - 2mbps (500Rs Home package). My doubt is:

1. Would taking a wireless modem for this package reduce my speed further?

2. Is it possible for me to take wireless modem on a rental basis for few months and then change (or buy) a normal modem if i am unsatisfied?

3. And my final question is a security issue. As we know its easy for our neighbours to encroach our bandwidth in case of wireless. So i want to know does BSNL wireless modem provide us a provision to accept data only from my system by setting the MAC address on the router?

Please clarify.

Thanks

whitestar_999

speed does not depends upon type of modem.it depends on how many PC's are you trying to connect simultaneoulsy to modem.

i think you can change the modem taken on rent but be very careful that you get modem on rent because in some areas bsnl don't have enough modems to give on rent so the only option is purchase or wait for months.if you have to buy modem buy wifi Type IV modem which costs Rs.1800(just 600 more than normal one)& are quite good for their price.

well i am not sure about MAC address filtering but every wifi modem has WEP/WPA inbuilt & you can use that to restrict who connects to your wifi network by requiring anyone who wants to connects to enter a password without which no one can connect to wifi.

just4kix

To reiterate what whitestar_999 said and add to it:

1. Wireless modem will not reduce speed. Wireless modems/routers work at 54 mbps which is way ahead of 2 mbps (max speed). But every machine simultaneously connected to the internet will cause bandwidth division - like too many people trying to go thru the same door.

2. Rental is not advised - go for outright purchase. BSNL wired modems are Rs. 1200 and wireless only Rs. 1800. They are real value for money. Buying outright means a big bill for the first month - that is why they offer a rental option.

3. All BSNL wireless modems offer three security options - MAC address filtering, WEP security and WPA security. WPA is the best. Please read the following:

http://www.indiabroadband.net/broadb...ty-primer.html (Wireless Security Primer)
http://www.indiabroadband.net/broadb...primer-ii.html (Wireless Security Primer - II)

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qwarentine

Thanks for the valuable info. It would be helpful if you can point me to some article or guide which tell how to setup my wireless router and my laptop to connect to this router, as i dont trust the BSNL guys who wuld do it

BradEuk

Hello,

I would suggest one more thing try and setup the connection with BSNL router itself as if anything goes wrong the technicians that they send are not comfortable with third party routers.

qwarentine

I am taking BSNL router itself as i dont want to take any chance Any inputs to my earlier post?

whitestar_999

go here to configure bsnl modems----
BSNL BROADBAND MAIN MENU

smoothvibes

as whitestar said speed hardly matters in india and you can pick anything modem or router it just depends upon your usage.. if you want to use 2 or more computers then its better pick a router and all the router provided by BSNL are 54Mbps router and it will take a years for BSNL to reach that limit.. in UK and US people are using 108 Mbps routers too.. dont know why they are using ultra routers but still they are using..

qwarentine

Whitestar,
Thanks for the link. As i was gng through the diagrams, i saw that most of the modems connect to USB port. Now we know that many usb devices dont need external power supply like ipod etc, because they derive from computer as energy source. So does this mean when i connect to internet through USB and if external power goes off, my modem and internet would be still on? Just curious to know

whitestar_999

no!USB port is to transfer data from modem to your PC not power.modem power requirement is too large to be supplied by a USB port.also always use LAN port to connect modem to PC because using USB port will require you to install modem USB driver & these drivers don't work on VISTA in most cases & even on XP creates problems to many users.using LAN port is much simpler as you just have to connect modem to PC using it & you are ready to configure/use modem without installing anything.

qwarentine

Few more doubts cropping in my mind:

1. From the setting up of connection, i see that during setting up PPPoE, we need to give uid and pwd(provided by BSNL), does this details get stored in the wireless router or do they get stored in my laptop? If they get stored in the wireless router, does it mean i will be connected to internet the moment i switch it on?

2. In this case how do i prevent others from accessing my router?

3. Is there any way i can prevent my uid/pwd from getting stored in the router?

4. I would like to have uid/pwd details only in my laptop and ensure WPE encryption, how do implement this?

5. From what i understand router will have a default IP address and uid/pwd. Now if my laptop connects to this router will my lappy also have the same IP or will it be given some different IP address

whitestar_999

your bsnl username/password is stored in modem & that's why in pppoe mode(always on)you get connected as soon as you turn on modem.

your bsnl username/password is stored in modem & that's why you should change the default password from admin to something strong or else anybody in your network can access your modem & see your bsnl account info.

you can configure your modem in bridge mode & then bsnl username/password info will be saved in your laptop & you need to manually connect using windows after turning on the modem.also you can not use net on more than 1 computer simultaneously in bridge mode.

if you setup modem in bridge mode then only it's possible but usually for wifi modem pppoe mode is recommended.

router has it's own IP address which by default is usually 192.168.1.1 & modem gives similar IP's to connected devices like 192.168.1.x.these IP's are internal IP's which are only meant for internal network & won't be of any use to outside network like internet.your ISP gives the real IP to your modem in pppoe mode which is visible to outside networks like internet & will be something like 59.x.x.x or 117.x.x.x.this is your actual IP which matters over net like downloading from rapidshare.

just4kix

@qwarentine,

Please go thru "Broadband How To" section. Many of your queries are already answered. If you still have queries, we all shall help.

qwarentine

BSNL guys say they are having dearth in modems. They indirectly suggested to me to buy a modem of my own. So now i am having these doubts:

Since i am looking for wireless connectivity, i dont want to buy ADSL modem and Router seperately. Please suggest me a modem (ADSL modem + Wireless Router) which BSNL suppports in case any issues come later.

One more question, if i ask the BSNL guys for Wireless connectivity do they provide me ADSL modem and Wireless router seperately? Does that charge me extra!!!

Please suggest

whitestar_999

BSNL will only provide support for modems purchased from them.as for a good wifi modem try netgear or dlink models.also for wireless connectivity bsnl provides modem with wifi & it costs 1800 which is good value for money at this price.any market purchased wifi modem will cost ~3500-4000 at least i think.

just4kix

In my opinion, you should opt for BSNL Type IV wireless modem/router - it's features are:

- ADSL 2+ modem
- Wireless router
- Built in 4-port ethernet switch
- Cost = Rs. 1800/-

This modem is real value for money. If anything goes wrong within one year you will get full replacement. As far as other support is considered (configuration, etc.) BSNL will not help with a market purchased device (but then we have this forum for that purpose). But even then it is better to go with BSNL provided device.

The downside is that BSNL alters the firmware of the modem and disables may good options such as port forwarding and port triggering.

whitestar_999

@just4kix,i think this is not correct.DE(broadband) of my district himself told me that bsnl don't provide any warranty on modems purchased from them.only on rented modems this applies.

just4kix

Are you sure? I was told a 1 year warranty. Maybe your information is more accurate.

Some days ago, a survey was carried out on how the brain processes signals - and the results were eye opening.

- our brain has an amazing capacity to filter out stuff that it thinks is 'not required'
- one of the major problems with hearing aids is that it makes your ear hear every damn sound in the neighbourhood, e.g., a friend of mine in IT who suffered hearing loss in an accident and wears an aid told me that even the hum of CPU fan of the laptop gets on his nerves.
- when the brain receives a lot of information from the eyes and ears, it carefully determines the important and the non-important
- thus a geneal person tends to miss a lot of info whereas a sharp person such as a slueth harnesses this info better

It is sometimes funny - we often do not read the fine print or do not listen to what we do not wish to listen.

whitestar_999

well i asked the same thing about manufacturer's warranty & here is what DE of my district told me(2nd most senior bsnl official in a district in his own words)-->"why do you expect BSNL to provide warranty on purchased modems?bsnl orders these modems from outside companies & is merely a supplier.how can anyone expect BSNL to provide warranty to such devices which bsnl don't even made & as for manufacturers they are situated outside India anyway?did you read anywhere that bsnl will provide warranty on purchased modems."

to my surprise his last statement about having read anywhere bsnl will provide warranty is true.i have read all the documents,Terms & Conditions on bsnl site & nowhere it is mentioned that bsnl will provide warranty on modems purchased from them.at best this decision is left on authorities concerned & is not binding on them because of lack of any written documentation about this.so in some areas bsnl offcials will replace modems but in some areas they don't.