Vodafone Home Broadband / Vodafone Connect

[dynamick]

Hi there. Firstly the speeds and setup on my broadband have been great, so has most of the customer support I have had with initial gremlins on setup

I do have two big headaches though. I have a zyxcel nsa325 network drive which I store music, photos, movies etc on and On my old plusnet modem I just plugged it in the ethernet port and my Hitachi tv saw it. Now although the drive is visible through my PC and is visible wordlessly on the home network, the drive is not seen by my TV *unless the drive is plugged directly into the the ethernet port on the TV. So what setting am missing, there is no help or suggestions on the net, with it being a new modem there is no firmware 6 for it either.

Secondly, when I signed up for vodafone home broadband I was told that I would get 10 email addresses too, I have no idea where they are or indeed the pop/imap.plus.net settings for the addresses or the settings so I can send emails on my current email address.

Hope someone can help and thanks in advance

Mick

[Pabs]

Hi All,

I've tried reading through this entire thread so apologies if I've missed a solution....

I have my vodafone connect router (black one) with latest firmware.

I also have either a sky wireless booster, or a TP link wireless extender, both of which were used as a bridge to an ethernet printer. In essence, I'm making the printer wireless. (It's an old HP laserjet but does the job)

So I cannot connect to the web UI management page of either wireless extenders or the printer UI whilst on the main WIFI from the vodafone router. If I connect to the wireless SSID from the extender itself (thus disconnecting the direct connection to the vodafone router) I can print, ping and access all UI pages, as well as the internet.

Why can I not ping or access the extender or printer when on my main wifi signal from the router? Is this something that is being looked at?

I'm very disappointed with my vodafone experience so far and am still in my 30 day cooling off period so may well be cancelling. (A lot of installation issues and billing issues that have been extremely frustrating)

Cheers

[crysec]

@Pabs

Sorry to hear you are having issues and yes it is frustrating, been there. There is no solution as of yet on the VodaFone side, though there is a fix I believe coming in the next firmware update.

The problem (and verified by many) is that the VF router does not allow access to your extended network via WiFi. The only solution is to add *another* router to your VF router via its LAN ports and switch off the WiFi on the VF router so you can "roam" painlessly. Sound ridiculous? Sure. Currently that's the only solution.

[crysec]

Just to add to the mess, VodaFone cheaped out on the router. It is a Huawei router, the Kia of the routing world. Huawei are new to routing, and despite fanfare I heard from their tech demo with VF, it just does not work right.

So, just buy your own router for the service right? You got an ok deal for the service so get a proper router? That would be fine, but you can't. VF have made absolutely sure of that because you have no access to the authentication (or much of anything really). You can ask them, but you won't get it. Why? Business reasons, troubleshooting reasons or as I'm coming round to; because they think that you as a simple peasant can't possibly have any idea about how networks function, or have a use case that is outside of the Huawei router functionality.

I wish I had know this going in, but here we are. The most embarrasing part of my network? That Huawei router. Cheap plastic and they couldn't even glue the VF badge in aligned.

Didn't intend for this post to be a rant, I'm hopeful for a resolution soon but it's wearing thin now and we are not allowed to fix it ourselves by removing the stupid router. Good job VodaFone?

[drey_p]

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@crysec wrote:

Huawei are new to routing,

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I don't believe that is correct - Huawei have been supplying networking and telecommunications equipment for many years now.

[Makelo]

I'd have to agree, Huawei are far from new to networking. The problem is the same as all custom build firmwares in that they don't work very well. The main intention of custom build firmware is to lock down the router to a state the network is happy with rather than actually being an improvement. 

Adding this on to a Vodafone specification router, I.E. underpowered and cheaply built like all network supplied routers, and it's not a great recipie for success.  

[crysec]

I stand corrected on Huawei being new to routing. Perhaps this is my misconception, equating the arrival of their phones some years back to the few domestic routers I have seen in recent years.

[WillVXR]

Personally, I don't care who makes the Vodafone Router/Modem. If it can't provide me with connectivity between my wireless computer and two wired printers its USELESS.

Fortunately I was able to obtain my usename and password to enable using my own equipment and I now can use both of my wired networked printers from my wireless computer.

[crysec]

How did you get your username and password? I would absolutely consider using my own hardware in place of the vanilla VodaFone router. Does that not "void" any terms / service agreements?

[MrWhite]

Some have had luck using the webchat and explaining it's a known issue.  It's by no means certain that you'll be given the details though.

[ChrisOX33]

Yes, how did you manage to get your username and password?  Would dearly love to chuck out the stock router and just use my own!