Router help needed

[sofasurfer]

Just bought myself a Netgear DG834G router and am about to set it all up.

I have never had any experience of setting one up before and bfore I start it all off I would like some reassurance that it is easy to do.

I currently connect via a BT voyager 100 ADSL modem and know how to do the physical connections,its just the PC side I am unsure about

Is it easy to set up and if it goes horribly wrong do I just plug my old modem back in and re-connect to the internet so I can get some help and advice.

As you can tell I am a right noob at this

Any help would be gratefully received.

[marcus]

*is that BT modem USB?

Usually they come with an install disk, did your router? I found the setup wizard on my Linksys to be very painless with little intervention needed. Probably best to start that off, then post if you have any problems.

[sofasurfer]

*is that BT modem USB?

Usually they come with an install disk, did your router? I found the setup wizard on my Linksys to be very painless with little intervention needed. Probably best to start that off, then post if you have any problems.

Got a setup disc with the Netgear so will give that a go tomorrow.

[bob123]

netgears are famous for their easy setup so i wouldnt be scared. just follow the instructions on the leaflet you get with it and the setup wizard will take you through it step by step. Once you have it online, update the firmware on the router straight away. this should be available from the netgear website. if all goes wrong u should be able to reconnect ur modem and get it to work no probs.

[sofasurfer]

netgears are famous for their easy setup so i wouldnt be scared. just follow the instructions on the leaflet you get with it and the setup wizard will take you through it step by step. Once you have it online, update the firmware on the router straight away. this should be available from the netgear website. if all goes wrong u should be able to reconnect ur modem and get it to work no probs.

Thanks for that.Tomorrow is the day when I get up early and start setting it up.

Left myself loads of time in case things go pear shaped.

[marcus]

IF you have a USB modem only, you would need to enable internet connection sharing (ICS) on the PC which connects to the modem. This would mean if you have a second PC, you would need to keep the other one running to access the net via it. Better option is to buy a combination ADSL Router which would allow you to connect via the Router, than through a PC.

[Insom]

He should be fine, assuming Netgear don't have lots of routers under the same model number then it is a combined Modem/router. I have the same model and have nothing but praise for it. Besides it was a lot easier than my previous modem/router -> router -> PC's set up. That was a nightmare.

You should have no problems setting it up, it is all very user friendly, even for the feint of heart!

Should you have a number of wireless devices though, I would suggest making sure you lock the network down and allow only certain mac address to use the network, along with encrypting. It means no shady buggers will be stealing your bandwidth .

[sofasurfer]

Thanks for all the help.The router is all set up and I can connect to the internet no problems.

I take it that I should get rid of Zonealarms as my firewall now seeing as the router has an inbuilt firewall.

And I may be paranoid but my internet connection seems slower than normal.Should I be changing anything else?

[marcus]

I wouldnt bother with zonealarm now you are behind the router firewall, just leave Antivirus on there. Speeds shouldnt be slower really, how much slower is it?

[sofasurfer]

I wouldnt bother with zonealarm now you are behind the router firewall, just leave Antivirus on there. Speeds shouldnt be slower really, how much slower is it?

Not too bad but pages take about half a second longer to load up.