A Voyage into the Unknown (BT)

Member Name: lamorna

Product:	BT
Date:	02/12/03 (3123 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Sharing, Very fast connection, Always on

Disadvantages: Setting up, Installation, Lack of support

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If you want to read an expert critique and very technical description of the BT Voyager 2000, complete with images and diagrams, then I suggest you visit http://www.adslguide.org.uk/hardware/reviews/2003/ q3/bt-2000.asp first and then return here to read a complete layperson's experience of installing, configuring and running this wireless ADSL modem, the aim being to home network two computers in order to share broadband access, printers, files and folders. Considering the problems I encountered installing and setting up BT Broadband on my new computer using Windows XP I should in hindsight have left well alone, but my partner was so impressed with the speedy broadband connection and my new computer that he immediately bought himself a new computer as he wanted to join in the fun. We balanced the cost of a second phone line and the monthly fee for an ISP for his sole use against the monthly fee of £29.00 for a shared broadband connection using the one phone line and sharing was the obvious economic answer.

My first move was to ask a local computer expert if he could home network the two computers to include the broadband connection. His first comment was how much he loathed the Windows XP operating system and the second was that he had never networked a broadband connection before but that he'd ask around. This hardly filled me with confidence-did I really want to let him near two brand new computers? I decided to go it alone. The BT brochure that came with my original broadband package had a paragraph describing the BT Voyager 2000 Home Network as the simple solution to home networking, particularly the wireless version. Wireless appealed to me as I fancy the idea of a laptop and wireless means that computers don't have to be in the same room as each other, as well as the fact that a few wires less trailing out of computers is always an attractive thought. I telephoned the supplied BT Freephone number and the very pleasa
nt sales person assured
me the installation was easy. I asked if I needed to uninstall my existing broadband and after she had asked a colleague I was told I didn't have to uninstall the previous connection, just disconnect the BT Voyager 100 USB ASDL modem from the computer and continue to install the BT Voyager 2000 software as instructed. The sales person gave me a specific helpline number to 'phone if I got into trouble. We'll see eh?

The pack arrived with three CD-ROMS, one for each computer and I still don't know what the other one was for as it told me I didn't need to use it. There is a wireless base station and two external modems, the BT Voyager 1020, one for each computer. I would hardly call the base station wireless as it had to be connected by power plugs and a USB into my computer although the other computer didn't need to connect physically to this. I followed the instructions to the letter using the very detailed Voyager User Guide that came with the CD and appeared on the monitor. I'm afraid the next few hours were spent in a haze of confusion as no matter what I did I couldn't connect to the Internet as I had seemingly completely lost my broadband connection. I phoned the Helpline given to me by the BT Voyager sales person and was told this number was unobtainable and not in use. After uninstalling and installing several times I found my browser was working and I was in my BT Voyager homepage, although I couldn't go anywhere else on the WWW, which I had to configure! Look, I know what WEP means but what was I to choose? 128-bit or a 64-bit? I didn't know. There were sections on primary IP addresses and protocols and activating the firewall to low/medium/high. I admit to becoming click happy as I was panicking.

I phoned the BT Voyager phone number that worked and they told me they couldn't help me with the installation as they only sold the stuff and gave me the defunct Helpline n
umber again. I hung up. I lo
cated another Helpline number at 50p a minute in the BT Voyager User guide and rang that. Was this success at last? A charming Scotsman took me back to the Voyager settings in my computer and talked me through a maze of ticked and unticked boxes and I gathered I was reconfiguring everything. However, at one stage he asked me if I had a paperclip handy! I affirmed and he told me to straighten it out and poke it into this little hole in the base station! I could hardly believe my ears! All this expensive equipment and he wanted me to poke about in a little hole. I told him I had no intention of doing this. We moved on. Whatever he told me to do I reckon a science degree would have been useful. He then took me to my BT Voyager Homepage and we configured all the WEP and firewall stuff together. He left me happily web enabled and gave me a reference number to quote if I needed future assistance.

Oh no! Outlook Express won't work! I had written down all my account server and connection settings and they were entered correctly so why couldn't I connect? I phoned BT Openworld Help, my ISP, and was told in no uncertain terms that it wasn't their problem and what was Voyager anyway and to contact BT Broadband as they supplied my broadband and not them. I phoned BT Broadband Help. They were more accommodating but admitted they knew nothing about BT Voyager and I should go back to either the BT Voyager Helpline or BT Broadband Connection. I went back to BT Voyager Help at 50p a minute, quoted my reference number and got another charming Scotsman. I told him all was well with my web access but my Outlook Express wouldn't connect. He told me this was a case for my ISP! By this time I had been four hours trying to set this up. He could hear the upset and frustration in my voice. I gave him a cyberkiss when he told me to open Outlook Express and although he was only there to help with the Voyager he would talk me through my
OE mail settings. I had to compl
etely change most of the settings making them completely different from the original connection settings. While he was still on the phone my mailbox was receiving emails again and I was able to send and receive. I thanked him profusely and wasted no time in phoning my ISP back, BT Openworld, and informing them that it had in fact been their job surely to reconfigure my settings? They still didn't think so.

I have had more problems since this BT Voyager 2000 Wireless installation. These have been to do with the Voyager Firewall blocking my access to some of my special online forums. A third phone call to the 50p a minute Helpline using my quoted reference number couldn't resolve this problem-not because the third charming Scotsman didn't know how to help me but I needed to know certain information about the forums I wanted unblocked in order to reconfigure the security and I wouldn't know a protocol from a bowl of popcorn. I am now physically and mentally scared of my Voyager Homepage and the horrendous configurations a layperson like me is supposed to know how to do to configure their Internet security. The User Guide supplied on the CD-ROMs is too jargon filled for me and frankly frightens the life out of me. Apart from the three charming Scotsmen who were so helpful in trying to get my BT Voyager 2000 functioning correctly, once again BT passed me from one phone number to another telling me in the process that my problem wasn't theirs. I am convinced that an expert would have no problems with the installation but I am not an expert and I clearly had problems.

However, let's look on the positive side now dear reader. Are the two computers networked successfully? Yes they are. We now share an excellent wireless broadband connection (For the techies at 11.0 Mbps) and we can both use the connection at the same time via the Voyager 1020. In fact, the slave computer is better off than the ho
st as they have the one USB neatly plu
gged in whereas the host is connected to the base station meaning yet more wires. The connection is automatically made when either computer is switched on. We now share a printer and scanner and various files and folders. This ADSL line can be shared by up to ten computers within a range of 50m indoors and 250m outdoors which makes the possibility of me sitting on the patio with a laptop not such a distant dream. It certainly makes sense to share a broadband wireless connection in this way as splitting the cost of £29.00 between two users is economical.

On a lighter note; by the time I gained my first access to my BT Voyager homepage I was going through the furious stage. I had to enter a password. I chose a string of expletives and symbols that made me go red in the face. Whilst on the phone to Scotsman number three he told me to enter my password. For a few dreadful moments I wondered if he could see it! At least I had the decency to blush!

Summary: