Despite the lack of NAT-T, OpenVPN still looks promising for mixed environments.
Re MS VPNs, PPTP (or more accurately MPPE) got a bad name for only supporting 56 bit encryption. Since it went 128-bit, I'm actually quite happy to use it myself. However, it still seems to be politically incorrect to recommend it, so, yes, I end up running IPSec over L2TP. I agree that the IPsec interface could be better, but it's really not that bad once you get used to it! What I tend to do is create the policies one box and then export them to an ipsec file and reimport them to the other servers. Works a treat, is "free", supports NAT-T and for most organisations, is more than enough encryption. (That said, I personally think 128-bit PPTP is OK for most people but I'm prepared to be shot down by some serious hacking dudes at this point!)
Despite the lack of NAT-T, OpenVPN still looks promising for mixed environments.
But OpenVPN doesn't need NAT-T as all of its traffic passes over a single UDP port. NAT-T is only required for VPN protocols that don't support NAT properly. Unpatched IPSec over L2TP being the perfect example.
OpenVPN, if necessary, can be cascaded through numerous port chains without breaking it. This is something I'm forced to do in one location to get through one firewalled ADSL router, then through to the main hardware firewall and finally through to the Linux based OpenVPN server running its own ipchains software firewall. Like I said it's very flexible.
Very nice (but I bet the packet overhead is pretty big!).
The situation that I've come across that needs NAT-T is not so much when NAT isn't working properly. It's more when there's a LAN to LAN VPN working fine and then some user comes along and wants to VPN their client to a completely different (third party) VPN server on the net. It a classic problem scenario for VPNs in general and the easiest way by far is NAT-T but the main VPN server on the client LAN has to support it (or allow it more accurately).
Very nice (but I bet the packet overhead is pretty big!).
There's a bit of an overhead, yes. But that's the way they want it so that's what they get. You know the drill.
The situation that I've come across that needs NAT-T is not so much when NAT isn't working properly. It's more when there's a LAN to LAN VPN working fine and then some user comes along and wants to VPN their client to a completely different (third party) VPN server on the net. It a classic problem scenario for VPNs in general and the easiest way by far is NAT-T but the main VPN server on the client LAN has to support it (or allow it more accurately).
Fair enough. I'm not saying NAT-T doesn't have its use. I just try to avoid using it where I can if OpenVPN is an acceptable option. In most cases it is so definitely have a look at it if you get a chance.
Sky BB installed at last albeit after many hours chasing on the phone :mad: Missed activation date by 8 days, from what I hear I am lucky :eek: Setting up was relatively easy but the supplied Sky branded Netgear router is crap! Lost count on the amount of times its dropped out, used URL injection as posted here and used my trusted Vigor V2600VG. This router locks on and once setup correctly just chugs away...VOIP etc., no drops in 2 days
I have been avidly reading many of the threads here and on SkyUser as I am a relatively recent Sky Broadband customer with many of the problems you are all suffering from.
Having finally got a router that works (first one was DoA) I am having some stability problems. However mine are not in the evening but overnight. I have to reboot my router most mornings. Stats as follows...
Connection Speed 8190 kbps 385 kbps
Line Attenuation 36.5 db 20.5 db
Noise Margin 13.4 db 25.1 db
I'm pleased with the speed with the Mid package...
Download Speed: 6182 kbps
Upload Speed: 311 kbps
Its just the stability (and crap customer service) that I'm unhappy about.
Has anyone got any further suggestions? I have done the usual stuff such as turning off UPnP.
As an previous broadband customer with Virgin.net (no problems for 3+ years) I have a LinkSys router that I thought I would try, having obtained my Sky DSL user name and password using Jose's ingenious technique. However, I couldn't get a DSL connection which may be down to the LinkSys having a lot of settings for which I couldn't determine values from the NetGear router. Anyone got any experience with LinkSys and SkyBB who could help?
Now here we are in 2007 - some time ahead of the original posting. - I am thinking of going Sky Broadband but I am concerned about losing some of my functionality - this thread back up those fears. - Also the Netgear routers are notoriously bad at dropping and locking up.
Hence the question now arises . . . .
Is this now standing up to time? - Basically I want to use my existing kit and just configure it to connect to Sky - I won't use Netgear again, I cannot use MIMO as the Philips Streamium doesn't like it, and I want to retain the use of my Belking wireless extenders.
Therefore chaps - what does thou think? Doe the hack still work - can I ditch the awful Sky router kit?
Yes the hack still works - got mine today and got the username / pwd just now. Intrestingly the username is your router MAC address with @skydsl added on the end. I assume the password is derived from the MAC address to make them all different? I can't see sky being arsed to personalise the password with your phone number or something....
Yes the hack still works - got mine today and got the username / pwd just now. Intrestingly the username is your router MAC address with @skydsl added on the end. I assume the password is derived from the MAC address to make them all different? I can't see sky being arsed to personalise the password with your phone number or something....
Great thread btw
Yep it still works. But a bloke at RouterTech.Org has written a neat utility that takes out all the tedium - it can even open up a Windows telnet session for you! See here: http://www.routertech.org/viewtopic.php?t=1398
I recently moved to SKY from my previous BB provider and I too had the same connection problems as many others, inexplicable dropouts etc.
I've tried all the suggested ways of fixing the problem, but to no avail.
I still have my old ADSL modem from my previous BB and thought "oh well I'll use that" (my phone socket is 2ft from the computer) but was mystified as to why I couldn't find username and password, it had to be somewhere ??
Now, thanks to Jose, I've found them
It does seem ridiculous that you are locked into only using the supplied router, especially when it's clearly not up to the task, and it would appear that a great many people are switching to other routers (either that or 'flashing' the original netgear firmware, which seems more reliable) and I take the previous posters point about T&C But, at the end of the day, why should it matter which make of router you are using? provided SKY get their money, so what!
As it appears that there are lots of people not using the SKY router, yet I've not seen a single post from anyone stating that they have been cut off because if, would suggest that SKY are turning a 'blind eye' to this.
After all, if you've got your connection running by your own mean it means you're not on the phone to them, bugging their Tech support dept. and they can list you as a 'satisfied customer'.
I also read somewhere that SKY are considering supplying the username and password in the future, although I can't remember where i read it.
Anyway, just wanted to thank Jose for his efforts and for the help that he's given us all in solving our connection problems
I just wanted to add that I've now gone back to the SKY router and the problem has now been fixed. Nothing at all to do with the router it was my local exchange that couldn't handle the MAX speed!
But thanks still goes to Jose as at least I now have my old modem as back up if the SKY router dies!
Reading through this thread I found that none of the solutions worked for me and there was quite a few dead links too. I know it's quite an old thread but I needed to swap out my Netgear DG934G router for my new D-Link DSL-2740R I was desperate for retrieving the username and password.
Sky's Netgear DG934G used to be find but these past 8 months has produced flaky DNS errors. Sky and BT tested the line about 3 times and eventually they put it down to the router. They then told me that I had to pay for a new Sky router. Since am missing quite a lot of options with their routers I didn't want to go down that route and if I had to pay then I want my own. The guy on the phone told me that although 3rd party routers were not supported it was allowed but I'd get no help setting up, hence my problem.
The good news for me and hopefully it works out the same for anyone reading this is that I found a resource. I'd love to be able to put this information in here but unfortunately it is a generator so hopefully the site still exists for you. https://www.cm9.net/skypass/
The site needs a MAC address and the router serial number (written on the side/bottom of the router) to generate the result.
Looking at it again the username seems to be the MAC address
But the password has no correlation between what was generated and the serial number. I can't post my username and password for obvious reasons but I can tell you that my password is a mix of (lowercase) letters and numbers and is 10 characters long if that helps.
Here's the mask (not sure if they generate the same for each router)
Comments
Re MS VPNs, PPTP (or more accurately MPPE) got a bad name for only supporting 56 bit encryption. Since it went 128-bit, I'm actually quite happy to use it myself. However, it still seems to be politically incorrect to recommend it, so, yes, I end up running IPSec over L2TP. I agree that the IPsec interface could be better, but it's really not that bad once you get used to it! What I tend to do is create the policies one box and then export them to an ipsec file and reimport them to the other servers. Works a treat, is "free", supports NAT-T and for most organisations, is more than enough encryption. (That said, I personally think 128-bit PPTP is OK for most people but I'm prepared to be shot down by some serious hacking dudes at this point!)
OpenVPN, if necessary, can be cascaded through numerous port chains without breaking it. This is something I'm forced to do in one location to get through one firewalled ADSL router, then through to the main hardware firewall and finally through to the Linux based OpenVPN server running its own ipchains software firewall. Like I said it's very flexible.
The situation that I've come across that needs NAT-T is not so much when NAT isn't working properly. It's more when there's a LAN to LAN VPN working fine and then some user comes along and wants to VPN their client to a completely different (third party) VPN server on the net. It a classic problem scenario for VPNs in general and the easiest way by far is NAT-T but the main VPN server on the client LAN has to support it (or allow it more accurately).
Fair enough. I'm not saying NAT-T doesn't have its use. I just try to avoid using it where I can if OpenVPN is an acceptable option. In most cases it is so definitely have a look at it if you get a chance.
I have been avidly reading many of the threads here and on SkyUser as I am a relatively recent Sky Broadband customer with many of the problems you are all suffering from.
Having finally got a router that works (first one was DoA) I am having some stability problems. However mine are not in the evening but overnight. I have to reboot my router most mornings. Stats as follows...
Connection Speed 8190 kbps 385 kbps
Line Attenuation 36.5 db 20.5 db
Noise Margin 13.4 db 25.1 db
I'm pleased with the speed with the Mid package...
Download Speed: 6182 kbps
Upload Speed: 311 kbps
Its just the stability (and crap customer service) that I'm unhappy about.
Has anyone got any further suggestions? I have done the usual stuff such as turning off UPnP.
As an previous broadband customer with Virgin.net (no problems for 3+ years) I have a LinkSys router that I thought I would try, having obtained my Sky DSL user name and password using Jose's ingenious technique. However, I couldn't get a DSL connection which may be down to the LinkSys having a lot of settings for which I couldn't determine values from the NetGear router. Anyone got any experience with LinkSys and SkyBB who could help?
Regards, Mark
Now do this:
http://192.168.0.1/netgear.cfg
and save the file. If running windows you'll find it easier to view in Wordpad due to carriage return / line feed issues.
Now here we are in 2007 - some time ahead of the original posting. - I am thinking of going Sky Broadband but I am concerned about losing some of my functionality - this thread back up those fears. - Also the Netgear routers are notoriously bad at dropping and locking up.
Hence the question now arises . . . .
Is this now standing up to time? - Basically I want to use my existing kit and just configure it to connect to Sky - I won't use Netgear again, I cannot use MIMO as the Philips Streamium doesn't like it, and I want to retain the use of my Belking wireless extenders.
Therefore chaps - what does thou think? Doe the hack still work - can I ditch the awful Sky router kit?
Yes the hack still works - got mine today and got the username / pwd just now. Intrestingly the username is your router MAC address with @skydsl added on the end. I assume the password is derived from the MAC address to make them all different? I can't see sky being arsed to personalise the password with your phone number or something....
Great thread btw
I recently moved to SKY from my previous BB provider and I too had the same connection problems as many others, inexplicable dropouts etc.
I've tried all the suggested ways of fixing the problem, but to no avail.
I still have my old ADSL modem from my previous BB and thought "oh well I'll use that" (my phone socket is 2ft from the computer) but was mystified as to why I couldn't find username and password, it had to be somewhere ??
Now, thanks to Jose, I've found them
It does seem ridiculous that you are locked into only using the supplied router, especially when it's clearly not up to the task, and it would appear that a great many people are switching to other routers (either that or 'flashing' the original netgear firmware, which seems more reliable) and I take the previous posters point about T&C But, at the end of the day, why should it matter which make of router you are using? provided SKY get their money, so what!
As it appears that there are lots of people not using the SKY router, yet I've not seen a single post from anyone stating that they have been cut off because if, would suggest that SKY are turning a 'blind eye' to this.
After all, if you've got your connection running by your own mean it means you're not on the phone to them, bugging their Tech support dept. and they can list you as a 'satisfied customer'.
I also read somewhere that SKY are considering supplying the username and password in the future, although I can't remember where i read it.
Anyway, just wanted to thank Jose for his efforts and for the help that he's given us all in solving our connection problems
Cheers
Andy
I just wanted to add that I've now gone back to the SKY router and the problem has now been fixed. Nothing at all to do with the router it was my local exchange that couldn't handle the MAX speed!
But thanks still goes to Jose as at least I now have my old modem as back up if the SKY router dies!
Andy
Reading through this thread I found that none of the solutions worked for me and there was quite a few dead links too. I know it's quite an old thread but I needed to swap out my Netgear DG934G router for my new D-Link DSL-2740R I was desperate for retrieving the username and password.
Sky's Netgear DG934G used to be find but these past 8 months has produced flaky DNS errors. Sky and BT tested the line about 3 times and eventually they put it down to the router. They then told me that I had to pay for a new Sky router. Since am missing quite a lot of options with their routers I didn't want to go down that route and if I had to pay then I want my own. The guy on the phone told me that although 3rd party routers were not supported it was allowed but I'd get no help setting up, hence my problem.
The good news for me and hopefully it works out the same for anyone reading this is that I found a resource. I'd love to be able to put this information in here but unfortunately it is a generator so hopefully the site still exists for you.
https://www.cm9.net/skypass/
The site needs a MAC address and the router serial number (written on the side/bottom of the router) to generate the result.
Looking at it again the username seems to be the MAC address
i.e. {MAC}@skydsl
But the password has no correlation between what was generated and the serial number. I can't post my username and password for obvious reasons but I can tell you that my password is a mix of (lowercase) letters and numbers and is 10 characters long if that helps.
Here's the mask (not sure if they generate the same for each router)
#@##@#####
Key
#: number
@: lowercase letter
Hope this helps someone.
Cheers
James