How to set up your ADSL Router

This page gives you the settings that worked for me to use my DABS Conexant AMX-CA61E (1 port) or AMX-CA64E (4 port) ADSL router. These settings have also been reported as useful for the Mentor and eTec ADSL routers, which have the same firmware. New! How to change the Timezone of your router. My ISP is plus.net but these should work with most UK ADSL providers. These settings do work for Pipex, BT Openworld, Nildram, Andrews & Arnold, Freedom2Surf, Freeserve, and Demon I'm told. Please let me know if they work with other ISPs, and I'll add them to the list.

Set up your PCs

The easiest way to set up a small network is to use DHCP to assign IP numbers to each PC on your network on bootup. However, it may be easier to use certain services like incoming connections if you use static IP numbers. Since the router is 10.0.0.2 straight from the box, I manually assigned each PC an IP number starting with 10.0.0.3. Set up the PCs to use the DNS at 10.0.0.2. Connect your router directly to a PC with ethernet cable, apparently crossover cable does not work, there are conflicting reports about this, and I use straight-through cables. If sharing the connection then connect PCs to hub and hub to router. If you are using USB connection to the router, you are on your own but I'm told this works well if you upgrade your firmware.

Set up your router

Plug everything in as per the manual. To make life simple, unplug everything else from the phone line while you are setting up. You should get a steady 'power' light, a flashing 'ready' light, a flashing 'showtime' light and a steady 'link' light. On a PC try to ping 10.0.0.2. If this doen't work, read the setup info in the manual and try again. Now using a web browser on a PC on your LAN go to http://10.0.0.2 and log

in as admin. The following headings tell you what to click on in the left hand frame.

Configuration - WAN
Field Default Gateway Enabled? VPI VCI Static IP Address Setting 0.0.0.0 Yes 0 38 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx Your ISP will tell you this if you have a static IP number. For BT you have no static address, leave this blank. ISP will advise, may be different This setting not available on earlier Firmware versions Comments

Subnet Mask Mac Spoofing Mac Address Service Category Bandwidth Bridge IGMP PPP Service Name Username

255.255.255.255 Disable

00:00:00:00:00:00 This setting not available on earlier Firmware versions UBR 0 Disabled Disabled Whatever you like you@plus.net Your ISP will tell you this. To test your connection use bt_test@startup_domain, with no password. You will then be able to go to www.bt.net/digitaldemo and watch a little video Your ISP will tell you this

Encapsulation PPPoA VC-Mux

Password Disconnect Timeout Automatic

****** 0

Authentication Auto Yes BT say no, apparently.

Reconnect DHCP client enable Hostname Yes / No Only if you haven't been given a static IP address. BT say No. Only if you haven't been given a static IP address. Also blank for BT with dynamic IP addressing.

Virtual Circuit 0 Press submit before you leave the page.

Configuration - LAN
IP address 10.0.0.2 Assuming you are using the same addressing scheme as me. This must be a unique number on your LAN

Subnet Mask DHCP Server Ethernet Mode

255.0.0.0 No Assuming you are using static IP within your own LAN then you can ignore the rest of the LAN page.

AutoSense

Submit page before leaving

Configuration - NAT
Network Address Translation. This allows all the computers on your LAN to get out onto the internet, even though you only have one internet address. The great unwashed Internet only sees your router, not your whole network. This is not really a proper firewall but will keep out casual snoopers, possibly. First add a session name by following the link to 'Session Name Configuration'. Call it what you like, I'll use 'foo'. Use virtual circuit 0. Go back to NAT configuration. Set the first menu to 'NAPT' if you ever intend to use more than one PC on the LAN to access the internet. For 1 PC, NAT may work.

For each of the computers on your network, type 'foo' 'into 'session name' and the computers IP address into 'Users IP', click add. Submit the page before you leave.

Configuration - Virtual Server.

You don't need this for normal web browsing, real player etc. Virtual server is how you allow the outside world to initiate connections into your LAN. For example, if you want to run a web server on your PC 10.0.0.12, make public port 80 and private port 80 (or whatever your server use) and the Host IP Address 10.0.0.12. Do this for each port you want to allow hosts on the Internet to access. Using the new firmware update, you can open a range of ports, without having to specify each one. This may allow the router to work with more applications that didn't work before, like NetMeeting etc. I use Linux, so you're on your own there. Go to the Amigo site and look for the firmware file labelled CA6XR-GN.0826.00T (add port range)

Configuration - Bridge Filtering

Disable this.

Configuration - DNS
Your router can act as the DNS server for your network. It just queries the real DNS server and passes the results back to your network. If your ISP uses DHCP, you may have to select Use Autodiscovered Servers instead.

DNS Proxy Selection Preferred & Alternate DNS

Use 'User Configured DNS Servers Only'. BT use 'Auto Discovered DNS Servers Only' Your ISP will give you these numbers.

Submit the page before you leave.

Admin Privilege - ADSL Configuration

Trellis Handshake Protocol Wiring Selection Bit Swapping Submit before you leave.

Enabled Autosense G.dmt first Tip/Ring Disabled

Admin Privilege - RIP Configuration

Just disable RIP

Admin Privilege - Password Configuration

Change your passwords! Make them something difficult to guess!

Admin Privilege - Misc Configuration

WAN side HTTP server FTP Server Disabled You almost certainly don't want to be able to admin the router from the Internet Disabled You only need the FTP server running when you want to upload new firmare. Possibly not even then. Disable 80 This is what the router admin server listens on. If the WAN side HTTP server is switched on, it shouldn't be the same port as any virtual server.

TFTP server HTTP Server port

DMZ DHCP Relay IGMP Proxy

Disabled Disabled Disabled

PPP reconnect Enabled on WAN access Submit before you leave.

Does it work?
First click on 'Save Settings' in Configuration and then Submit to reboot the router. Finally click on ADSL in theStatus section and wait for the magic SHOWTIME to appear. This took about 60 seconds for me with the original firmware, but now only takes about 20. (Version 2.28b). If not, then Diagnostic Test is a good place to start!

Upgrade Firmware
You can get the latest firmware here. At the time of writing, the latest firmware adds the ability to specify a range of incoming ports for the virtual server. When you upgrade the firmware, your passwords will be reset to 'password'. They also have PDFs of the manual. To upgrade the firmware using OS X on a Mac follow these instructions [Courtesy of Adrian, thanks].

Forgotten Password
What to do if you forget your password

Further Info
I got the info for this page from various sources including www.farina1.com/megaspeed adslguide PlusNet

Contact Details and FAQ

Please let me know of any mistakes / omissions. Cheers. Contact details and FAQ cazart main page