BT Home Network 1200

I'm about to go broadband (prob with PlusNet) but I allso want to set
up a network between my own computer and my gf's comp which is in the
room above. I dont want some long wire running thru the house so I
have been thinking about the BT Home Network 1200 (£169) which
connects the comps thru the phone sockets.

Has anyone actually bought and installed one if these?

If you have - does it work ok. Any drawbacks? Is it possible (fairly
easy) for a non-techie like me to install it?

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 12:59:10 GMT, (E-Mail Removed) (Peter
Montgomery) wrote:

>If you have - does it work ok. Any drawbacks? Is it possible (fairly
>easy) for a non-techie like me to install it?

Hi Peter,I think
--
Regards
Andy Jenkins

http://www.uk-bug.net : The UK Broadband Usergroup.

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 12:59:10 GMT, (E-Mail Removed) (Peter
Montgomery) wrote:

>If you have - does it work ok. Any drawbacks? Is it possible (fairly
>easy) for a non-techie like me to install it?

Lets try that again shall we? (first time I've learned that <alt-s>
is 'send' in Agent ! ) )

Hi Peter,

I think that probably any router for a 'non-techie' as you describe
yourself, will face the user with the same amount of complexity,
should you want or need to go into that amount of depth with it.

Unfortunatley, to get things working, one cannot help but have to
understand concept such as NAT, Firewall rulebases etc. Whilst these
titles might scare some people off - they are not *that* complicated
to understand - and often, the implementation is easier than the
theory !

One point to remember about the BTN1200 is that this is a business
class router (a familiar title from the EN5861 - BTs previous router
aimed at businesses). As such "user friendliness" might not be high
up on the list of requirements when 2Wire produced the firmware.
Because of this BT have written their own firmware - which does
detract from the 'technical' view of the hardware - in an attempt to
make it more friendly and understandable.

ADSLGuide has a few words to say about the router :
http://snurl.com/2g57

That is not to say its not a bad router though - far from it seems.
I've spoken to a few owners of this router (some American who have
bought the router as OEM (2Wire) and not rebranded (ala the BT
offering). I have yet to talk to a seriously unhappy punter.

Whilst others here might offer you a cheaper solution - I doubt that
anyone could really offer a *better* solution, save the fact that the
1200 is 802.11b.

--
Regards
Andy Jenkins

http://www.uk-bug.net : The UK Broadband Usergroup.

"Peter Montgomery" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message

> If you have - does it work ok. Any drawbacks? Is it possible (fairly
> easy) for a non-techie like me to install it?

Looking at the tech info it uses HomePNA. Never used it myself.

Here is some info though. (do check for yourself it used homePNA).

http://www.homepna.org/support/networkplanning.asp#net4

Jc.

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 14:59:21 +0100, "Josey" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>
>"Peter Montgomery" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>
>> If you have - does it work ok. Any drawbacks? Is it possible (fairly
>> easy) for a non-techie like me to install it?
>
>Looking at the tech info it uses HomePNA. Never used it myself.
>
>Here is some info though. (do check for yourself it used homePNA).
>
>http://www.homepna.org/support/networkplanning.asp#net4

Certainly does ... sometime back I wrote a brief outline of HPNA - if
your interested (or if you would like to find all the faults in the
text - you can find it @ http://snurl.com/2g64 )

It might not be fully applicable (given technology updates etc - but
it serves some purpose I suppose.


--
Regards
Andy Jenkins

http://www.uk-bug.net : The UK Broadband Usergroup.

In message <(E-Mail Removed)>, Peter Montgomery
<(E-Mail Removed)> writes

[snip]
>room above. I dont want some long wire running thru the house so I
>have been thinking about the BT Home Network 1200 (£169) which
>connects the comps thru the phone sockets.
>
>Has anyone actually bought and installed one if these?

Yes - with an ethernet connection to my machine, a Home PNA connection
to my wife's machine downstairs, and a wireless connection to my PDA
(the wireless connection is an optional extra).


>If you have - does it work ok. Any drawbacks? Is it possible (fairly
>easy) for a non-techie like me to install it?

Works superbly and is an absolute doddle to install. The only
information you have to input yourself is your Username and Password.

If you wish you can later fiddle with the numerous settings to suit your
particular circumstances. For example, for each networked machine
adjusting the firewall settings to allow/disallow certain application
types, setting times when access is allowed (i.e. Parental control) and
what sort of access is allowed e.g. web browsing, instant messaging, and
when.

The only very slight minuses are that there is only one ethernet port
(which isn't 10/100) and the wifi is only 802.11b. These certainly don't
bother me.

A big plus is that everything you need comes in the box, two ADSL
filters, one Home PNA 'dongle', USB cable, ethernet cable etc. Have at
look at the review under http://www.adslguide.org.uk.

All-in-all a great bit of kit. It won't suit everybody of course, but
there again some people are never satisfied.

--
Marc Cornelius

Many thanks Marcus.

Can I just ask - are you using BT Openworld or BT Broadband? I am
intending using something like PlusNet. Would this pose a problem.

All I want to do is connect the 2 computers (both are running Windows
98SE) so that we can (simultaneously I hope) acess the Internet and
also exchange files etc between the 2 comouters.

PM

On Thu, 25 Sep 2003 00:19:24 +0100, Marc Cornelius
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>In message <(E-Mail Removed)>, Peter Montgomery
><(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>
>[snip]
>>room above. I dont want some long wire running thru the house so I
>>have been thinking about the BT Home Network 1200 (£169) which
>>connects the comps thru the phone sockets.
>>
>>Has anyone actually bought and installed one if these?
>
>Yes - with an ethernet connection to my machine, a Home PNA connection
>to my wife's machine downstairs, and a wireless connection to my PDA
>(the wireless connection is an optional extra).
>
>
>>If you have - does it work ok. Any drawbacks? Is it possible (fairly
>>easy) for a non-techie like me to install it?
>
>Works superbly and is an absolute doddle to install. The only
>information you have to input yourself is your Username and Password.
>
>If you wish you can later fiddle with the numerous settings to suit your
>particular circumstances. For example, for each networked machine
>adjusting the firewall settings to allow/disallow certain application
>types, setting times when access is allowed (i.e. Parental control) and
>what sort of access is allowed e.g. web browsing, instant messaging, and
>when.
>
>The only very slight minuses are that there is only one ethernet port
>(which isn't 10/100) and the wifi is only 802.11b. These certainly don't
>bother me.
>
>A big plus is that everything you need comes in the box, two ADSL
>filters, one Home PNA 'dongle', USB cable, ethernet cable etc. Have at
>look at the review under http://www.adslguide.org.uk.
>
>All-in-all a great bit of kit. It won't suit everybody of course, but
>there again some people are never satisfied.
>
>--
>Marc Cornelius

Peter Montgomery wrote:
> I'm about to go broadband (prob with PlusNet) but I allso want to set
> up a network between my own computer and my gf's comp which is in the
> room above. I dont want some long wire running thru the house so I
> have been thinking about the BT Home Network 1200 (£169) which
> connects the comps thru the phone sockets.
>
> Has anyone actually bought and installed one if these?

I did a training coarse a while ago for it, where we setup 5 PC's, 1
ethernet, 1 usb (both off of the main unit) + 1 laptop wireless, 1 desktop
wireless via usb port & 1 via the normal phone extension.
When we started, I thought that it was stupid/strange to use the existing
house phone wiring (instead of cat5) but by the time we finished, I was
impressed with it. OK, it ain't 100meg, but it doesn't hang about.

> If you have - does it work ok. Any drawbacks? Is it possible (fairly
> easy) for a non-techie like me to install it?

Seems to work well. Very easy to setup.

In message <(E-Mail Removed)>, Peter Montgomery
<(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>Many thanks Marcus.
>
>Can I just ask - are you using BT Openworld or BT Broadband? I am
>intending using something like PlusNet. Would this pose a problem.
>

I currently use BT Openworld but the use of any other ISP should not
cause any problems whatsoever. There is, I believe, one exception (isn't
there always) and that's AOL. AIUI this is because AOL use a
non-standard log-in.

>All I want to do is connect the 2 computers (both are running Windows
>98SE) so that we can (simultaneously I hope) acess the Internet and
>also exchange files etc between the 2 comouters.
>
>PM

Should be perfectly fine.

--
Marc Cornelius

In message <(E-Mail Removed)>, Nick <postmaster@127.0.0.1>
writes

[snip]
>we started, I thought that it was stupid/strange to use the existing
>house phone wiring (instead of cat5) but by the time we finished, I was
>impressed with it. OK, it ain't 100meg, but it doesn't hang about.
[snip]

If you think about it, it's actually quite incredible that you can
network several machines, hold a voice conversation and have an ADSL
connection all at the same time over the same standard pair.

--
Marc Cornelius