NTL, Telewest, BlueYonder (UK) and Airport Extreme

It sounds like the BlueYonder device is providing the wireless network? Is this device configured to act as a router?

Have you tried enabling the option to share IP addresses on the AirPort Extreme base station (AEBS)?

Have you checked to see if the AEBS's WAN port is connected to the modem?

Whilst this probably won't solve your problem, I can confirm that I used Telewest's Blueyonder broadband with an Airport Extreme base station (providing internet access through the household for use by a G5 and an iBook) for the last 2.5 years and never had any problems. However, the cable modem that they supplied me with was an ethernet model and I connected that way, not USB. Now that I think back, actually, I think that it might have had both USB and ethernet ports on the back, so of course I chose the latter option.

There is nothing, therefore, that is intrinsically incompatible between blueyonder and airport. The incompatibilities tend to come from the human element -- tech support people who aren't familiar with Airport, hear the word 'Apple', assume incompatibility, and find it easier to tell you to change your router to one they know rather than actually solve the real problem.

Sound familiar?

I don't have the setup any more as I've moved house, but as I recall it was DHCP from airport, yeah. The Airport had a specific IP address and the macs on the network were xxxx01 and xxxx02 or something like that (sorry it's vague but memory faileth).

One thing to check, and it's so obvious as to sound insulting (especially as you've used your Airport before) but best to clear up the obvious things first:
Is your ethernet lead from the cable modem plugged into the correct port of the Airport? Because I remember that there are two ports, one with a dotted circle icon (Ethernet WAN connection) and one with a normal ethernet icon (Ethernet connection). My first instinct was to plug the cable modem's ethernet cable in to the regular Ethernet port, but that's wrong -- it should go into the Ethernet WAN connection (the one with the dotted circular icon).

If yours is already plugged into that socket, rather than the one with the regular Ethernet icon (which is for wired connections I believe) then I'm out of helpful ideas, and need to pass the torch to somebody else better at this than I.

G5/2GHz x2 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Ian,

Are you losing the airport signal or the internet connection? If the Airport Signal-O-Meter in the menu bar (you know what I mean) is still showing a usable signal strength then maybe the problem is more to do with Blueyonder. If the signal is zero, however, then the problem might be more Airport related.

I generally found Blueyonder support to be pretty good, provided that I stated up front that I was using a Mac. The exception was in November last year when my internet connection kept disappearing at the same time every night. The woman I spoke to refused to countenance the idea that the problem might be at their end and insisted that the problem was with my router. (Email was working perfectly, as was my local wifi network, so this seemed unlikely and I was certain that the problem lay with their internet servers). Never did get her to admit even the possibility of it being BY's fault and the problem continued for several weeks -- internet dropouts between about 8pm and midnight.

I don't know whether the lady was based in the UK or in a remote call centre (she had an Indian accent) but my experience is that operators working in overseas call centres are more robotic and stick-to-the-script than UK support teams. For that reason I always try and call a UK number for support nowadays. of course, the companies list 0845 numbers (or worse, 0870) which could be located anywhere, but you can use the website www.saynoto0870.com to find geographical equivalents for those numbers.

Eg. enteering the Blueyonder broadband support number (0845 142 4422) gives the geographical numbers:

01392 200653 -- Direct to Eurobell Plymouth contact centre
and
0151 4777594 -- Faults & Support (Blueyonder)

Maybe this will help you track down the root of the problem.
Best of luck...

Hi Ian

I've been on Blueyonder with Airport for years now without problem.

Lately my Airport has sometimes vanished - as evidenced by the Airport signal in the menu bar becoming very weak or non-existent.

I am almost certain that this is caused by interference from a) my microwave oven b) wireless phone c) next door's wireless phone and d) next door's BT wireless router.

You might try different channels on your base station to see if that helps, or interference robustness, although that would reduce your range.

I admit I rarely call Blueyonder tech support, and their default is Windows, but they have always been fairly helpful, but naturally don't provide Airport support. Their help stops at the router.

If the signal is disappearing then it would seem to suggest that the problem is interference rather than a fault at the router end.

Adam

Ian

I have also used Blueyonder for years with my Mac with no problems. However, recently I have had problems with my wireless (AirPort Express) network and new Intel iMac - the iMac would just not connect. I posted a thread and from looking at other threads decided to play around with some settings, which has worked:

- manual change to the channel number
- increasing the multicast rate
- enabling interference robustness

I suspect that the combination of a slight issue with Intel iMacs (the AirPort card's sensitivity?) and an increase in the other wireless routers around me produced the problem of not being able to connect to the network (which my Powerbook and IBM laptop had no problems connecting to).

Hope you fix your problem.