O2 Broadband (merged)

sangupt

Been with them for 3 months now. My experience has been very very positive. Very few disconnections, consistently high download speeds, will give a free (returnable at the end of contract) wireless router but you can use your own if you wish, customer support is very friendly and knowledgeable - all in all highly recommended. (and no, I don't work for them; in fact I switched from madasafish to O2:j)

Regards

[Deleted User]

sangupt wrote: »

Been with them for 3 months now. My experience has been very very positive. Very few disconnections, consistently high download speeds, will give a free (returnable at the end of contract) wireless router but you can use your own if you wish, customer support is very friendly and knowledgeable - all in all highly recommended. (and no, I don't work for them; in fact I switched from madasafish to O2:j)

Regards

Do they tell you what your login username and password is so you can use your own router? As I hear that Sky and Be both lock you into using their routers by inbedding the login details into the router and not telling you what they are.

I'd rather carry on using my D-Link DSL-2640B wifi router than use their cheap unbranded routers.

magyar

Deleted_User wrote: »

Do they tell you what your login username and password is so you can use your own router? As I hear that Sky and Be both lock you into using their routers by inbedding the login details into the router and not telling you what they are.

I'd rather carry on using my D-Link DSL-2640B wifi router than use their cheap unbranded routers.

Lee, you can certainly use your own router provided it will accept a null password.

However I think you'll be surprised at the quality of the router - it's excellent.

sangupt

Lee

as far as I recall, they do not require a username/password. Call their support line and they will help u setup ur router in no time. I am using netgear and the o2 box is still kept packed and intact. Like i said, very knowledgeable and friendly CS.

Regards

mk-donald

Deleted_User wrote: »

Do they tell you what your login username and password is so you can use your own router? As I hear that Sky and Be both lock you into using their routers by inbedding the login details into the router and not telling you what they are.

I'd rather carry on using my D-Link DSL-2640B wifi router than use their cheap unbranded routers.

The o2 router isn't a cheap/unbranded one. The original "o2 wireless box" is a Thomson/Alcatel SpeedTouch ST780WL with tailored firmware - c£70 worth (with good VoIP circuitry). Their website now refers to an "o2 wireless box Mark II" which is probably the similar ST580... model though WITHOUT VoIP (no-one has reported getting one yet).

The o2 broadband website help has details of the key settings for using your own ADSL2+ router. As mentioned there is no ID/password as it relies on the physical/LLU connection to authorise that phoneline for ADSL2+ service.

[Deleted User]

Thanks, I will give the O2 router a go when I order.

wakeupalarm

Do you need to install any software? I never bother installing the ISP supplied software as you never know what settings it's going to mess up.

Can you get up and running without installing the O2 cd and what is supplied with the router?

colin79666

no need to run their setup

[Deleted User]

30111987 wrote: »

no need to run their setup

If you *need* to run their software I won't be moving to O2 broadband. Unless the software is just to setup their router, in that case, I won't even try out their router.

magyar

Deleted_User wrote: »

If you *need* to run their software I won't be moving to O2 broadband. Unless the software is just to setup their router, in that case, I won't even try out their router.

No, you don't need to run anything. The router is all set up and ready to go, and you can either use the WLAN (already set up with key, provided on the sleeve of the CD) or plug an ethernet cable into it and away you go.

The box has a web interface for you to set up any port forwarding or anything if you want to, but you don't even need to go anywhere near it if not.

The setup CD basically contains

- McAfee a/v, firewall and 'net nanny' software. I tried it out on one of my machines and it's OK. Personally quite happy with AVG and comfortable without software firewall myself, but McAfee is a good option for beginners as it's an 'all in one' solution.

- O2 broadband assistant. This appears to be a sort of VNC-type client that the O2 bods can connect to your machine with if you call for technical support. Again, completely optional and I haven't installed it myself.

I have to say, Lee, that I'm normally like you - avoid ISP-linked things like the plague and treat the ADSL as a pipe, nothing else. But O2's set up really is pretty good.