BeBox (Thomson) router and Be broadband info

It might just be me but Be's router doesn't come with great instructions and the username and password info in the guide is just plain outdated and wrong as of September 2009.

Here are some notes to help you if you're trying to sign in to your Thomson router (BeBox).

Control panel

You access the control panel from 192.168.1.254.

This will prompt you for your sign-in (log-in) details:

Username and password

If you haven't changed it, the username is Administrator and the password is the serial number of your modem.

O2 remotely changed the password of your router to your router's serial number in September of last year in response to a security vulnerability. You can find the serial number under your modem, across from the Thomson name. Enter it in ALL CAPS and do not include the bit at the end in parentheses.

Change the channel to an unused one in your area

If too many WiFi routers are competing on the same channel in your area, you might get reduced performance (or none at all). Finding out the channel of WiFi networks around you, however, is harder than it should be. I found numerous references to two apps, iStumbler and KisMac for doing this and both had UIs created by henchmen of the hounds of hell and I wasn't able to get either to work.

Instead, the easiest option I found that works was to use the command line, as per the instructions in this article. In summary, open up a Terminal window and type the following:

The first line creates a symbolic link that allows you to simply type “airport” in the terminal window to execute the command. The second line should scan for active WiFi networks around you and display their channel numbers.

Now sign in to your router's control panel and then navigate to Home > Home Network > Interfaces > WLAN: BeBox and click the Configure link at the top-right-hand corner (the Thomson router control panel was designed by the cousins of the henchmen of the hounds of hell) and change the channel there to an unused one.

DNS errors

I would randomly have it so I couldn't connect to some sites even though other people could. Apparently it was because the router was set up with a less-than-stellar DNS server. If you're having the same issues, try this:

First go to http://192.168.1.254/cgi/b/is/?be=0&l0=2&l1=2 in the browser and note whether the heading on that page reads Internet, Static_IP, or Dynamic_IP. Note this down for later.

Next, open up terminal and Telnet to 192.168.1.254: 

telnet 192.168.1.254

For the sign in details, use the same ones you used above to sign in to your router's Admin interface.

Once signed in, you should see some snazzy ASCII art.

Finally, enter the following lines, substituting either Internet, Static_UP, or Dynamic_IP for XXX: 

:dns server route flush
:dns server route add dns=87.194.255.154 metric=0 intf=XXX
:dns server route add dns=87.194.255.155 metric=1 intf=XXX
:saveall

So, if your connection type is Static_IP, like mine, for instance, you would type: 

:dns server route flush
:dns server route add dns=87.194.255.154 metric=0 intf=Static_IP
:dns server route add dns=87.194.255.155 metric=1 intf=Static_IP
:saveall

Many thanks go to drsox and fooby on irc.bethere.co.uk for helping me through this. You guys rock!

Learn to love IRC

The Be folks are very active on IRC (Internet Relay Chat), so grab yourself a copy of Colloquy or some other IRC client and get yourself to irc.bethere.co.uk if you need any help. You can follow the Be Broadband folks on Twitter @bebroadband.

Hope this helps and if you have any other hints or tips, please feel free to add them to the comments.

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