Hello and Welcome!
I'm going to try my best to get you started. Please let me know if I'm giving you too much or too little. I hope we can help get you setup and going.
How can Virgin charge to help?
Can you please let us know the NetGear's model #? What is your operating system (Win XP/Vista/7)?
For most routers, its best to use the web configuration interface of the box for making changes.
You should do the initial configuration of the router via a wired connection. Some of the newer routers have setup software that tries to perform a wireless configuration but I'm not familiar with it, and the web interface is usually a lot easier to configure through and get help with.
We start by taking a computer and
plugging it into the router and getting a IP assignment from it. We need to determine what your router's IP assignments are.
This is very general as I have little to go on - This will most likely differ.
Determine IP InfoDetermine your IP assignment by
start > (All) programs > Accessories > Command Prompt or
Start -> (Run) -> cmd.exeIn the black window, type the command
ipconfig /allTry to locate your current IP address from the router (ex: 192.168.1.2, 192.168.0.100)
Under that your will see a
gateway IP address (ex: 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1
Access Router's Web InterfaceKnowing your IP info, go to the web browser and type in the address
http://192.168.1.1 where
192.168.1.1 is the Gateway IP found during the procedure above
You should be prompted for a user account. This should be provided in your documentation. An old thread found on google showed these username/password combos: root/root admin/password virgin/password
Setup Wireless Radio ConfigSomewhere in your router's configuration panels, there should be a basic wireless page. You need to find what your
SSID is. You will want to change this to your name for the network (ex: MyHome).
The
channel should be set to auto. Depending on your neighborhood, you may want to try different setting to find a radio band that is clean. This is the radio frequency that will be used for your network.
There should be a
SSID Broadcast that you'll want to enable right now. This will basically announce your radio on the radio. Security being extremely strict, you'd shut this off and have manual SSID setups (lets not do this right now).
Test WirelessNow you'll want to test your connection. Your laptop should now see your custom SSID. Now you can tell what network to connect to. Make sure the Internet works.
Let us know if you have issues connecting to the unsecured network.
Wireless SecurityWe've left this network Unsecure because we want to ensure that everything works. Now that we've ensured that the network is functional, we'll want to secure it down. In the router's configuration there should be a Basic Wireless Security page.
I need to know your OS to get this correct. Until then you can use WEP (128bit) to provide some security and get your neighbors off your connection. This will use a long HEX string that can be entered into the computers to gain network access. WEP will need to be changed if possible as it can be compromised by talented hackers.
WPA2 is where you'll want to get. Lets get you connected before we go that far.
Please let me know.
