Pigiste

To anyone who has a Sagem Livebox, This is just a cautionary tale that might help other people who come across the same situation. Wanadoo is updating the Sagem Liveboxes remotely through the end of July (they sent an email to say it was happening, but not exactly when). Suddenly your box goes down, and when you call them, they say it's the upgrade and it could take up to 36 hours (it said it would take about an hour in the email). I wait 36 hours, during which time I dare not restart the Livebox in case it disturbs the upgrade and it has to start all over again. After the set period, it still doesn't work. I call Wanadoo, they get me to reset the Livebox, still no joy and I can't get the configuration page up. After a ridiculous conversation, during which the Wanadoo woman tells me that this has nothing to do with the upgrade, and I fail to follow her step by step instructions as I have an English system (I can speak French but I don't know all the corresponding terms for Windows), I ask her if she could tell me what problems could arise after an upgrade so I can think around it... No, I am told to go away and get someone who can 'translate' her every instruction about what to click on. I repeat my request for an educated diagnostic guess, but no, only step by step will do. I tell her I will do it myself and hang up. As soon as I got off the phone I realised what it was. I had to get rid of the fixed IPs I had attributed to the computers, and allow them to get IPs automatically. When I then get through to the configuration page, I see that my connection is disactivated, and I have to activate it using my user 'identifiant' and password for the connection. All fixed. Coincidence, I think not.... Anyhow, I haven't redone the network yet, but looking at the config page, I think they have changed the range of IP addresses you can use for a fixed IP network. The old ones, which were different ranges for different types of connection, don't seem to be there anymore. There now seems to be only one range for all (if this isn't the case, I would be grateful for advice). I will attempt to set up the network again soon and am sure it will be fun. Anyway, I thought I would post this in the hope that the money I spent calling Wanadoo might not be utterly wasted! Bon courage...    

Hi, I just wanted to say thanks for the help I received on this forum. Eventually I managed to manually set up an ethernet connection to the Livebox on my second computer. I could 'ping' and be 'pinged', but no internet. Having narrowed the problem down, I searched on internet forums, and realised that I probably had a corrupted registry (WinSock2). As I have two identical computers, I was able to fix this by importing a clean key. So...now I have two comps working with Livebox (not using wireless yet, but will attempt). I enabled file sharing using Wanadoo's instructions. Printer was a bit more tricky, but as a previous contributor to the forum said, it works when you input the fixed IP address (with all the necessary slashes) before the name of the shared printer. Again, thanks - after all the stress of trying to get it sorted, I feel older but definitely a bit wiser when it comes to these matters! Pigiste  

hi, thanks for the previous advice, mazan. i haven't solved the problem yet - i have been trying my hardest (and wasting lots of time!), but i think i have a problem with my client computer. it doesn't seem able to function using automatic IP addressing. basically, i can't run windows ICS on it, and even when i tried to install the livebox software on it as a main computer, using a direct ethernet cable, it still came up as a configuration failure (on the liveobx software screen). this suggests to me that the problem is with the PC, as the livebox software and the livebox itself runs ok with the other PC (all three options - wifi, usb and ethernet). that is one issue... second, i have also tried to patch the livebox into our hub, which normally runs the LAN, but then i got nothing on both computers (uplink was switched on and all that, but would I need to do something on the livebox admin page to make that work?). i seem to be burning in some kind of DHCP hell! as you rightly pointed out, it is better to find someone who knows what they are doing. i have tried reading the manual and surfing to find solutions. i called france telecom and they can't help me (and it will cost 150 euros to get someone to come here - with no guarantee they can sort it out). do you think i should take the wayward PC down to my local computer shop? or does it need to be looked at onsite in my house? one other question: do you think my probelms will be solved if i take the livebox back and get an ethernet DSL modem? or if i get a new hub? sorry to be asking for advice AGAIN.... thanks!  

Thanks for the advice. When you say set the Livebox in router mode, how should I do that? Also, how can I give it a fixed IP address if I want to use it as a router in the other way you mentioned? Sorry about my poor knowledge...

Hi all, I have got a Livebox connection up and running on my main computer, using a USB cable, but have two questions. First, I cannot seem to get a connection established with a second computer (not a laptop). I have tried with the Wifi dongle and also with an ethernet cable, but each time I get 'echec de configuration'. With the dongle, I also get: CFG_IPADRESSERR. This implies that there is an IP address problem. I have tried disenabling the ethernet LAN that connects the computers normally, but to no avail. Can anyone suggest what I am doing wrong here? Second question, I did get the Wifi dongle working with the main computer, but the speed was very low - can I do anything about this (it was right next to the Livebox)? Any help much appreciated. Thanks!