Windows XP Boot Up Hang, USB Router

[Guest]

I'm having a problem with Windows XP I've been working on a couple of days,
this is the situation I'm in now...

My router has been working fine for months on Vista, but then it stopped
working and I decided to change to XP just for simplicity, now when the
drivers for my router (BT Voyager 2091) are installed on a fresh couple of
Windows XP using a USB connection from router to PC, my PC is prevented from
booting, it hangs just after the XP loading screen, just before login sceen
is meant to appear, sits there with a blank screen. Once the drivers are
installed and I plug the cable into ANY of the 6 USB ports, I cant start up
my computer, if I wait till the computer is started before plugging in the
USB cable to the router, the internet will not work anyway, and the computer
will hang when shutting down.

So in summary, with my USB router cable in, the computer cannot start or
shut down and the internet connection cant be detected, but with it taken out
the computer works fine, but of course the internet wont work in either of
these circumstances and this is what I need.

Curiously, I also had the same problem with Vista, I tried moving to XP and
that got me here with the same problem, but XP is the one I want to get
working for now.

P.S. I have my network drivers installed for my mobo and this router is
currently working fine for another computer connected to it by etherent at
the same time. I have also tried formatted my hd and reinstalled windows a
few times tryin different things to no avail.

 

[Paul]

I'm having a problem with Windows XP I've been working on a couple of days,
this is the situation I'm in now...

My router has been working fine for months on Vista, but then it stopped
working and I decided to change to XP just for simplicity, now when the
drivers for my router (BT Voyager 2091) are installed on a fresh couple of
Windows XP using a USB connection from router to PC, my PC is prevented from
booting, it hangs just after the XP loading screen, just before login sceen
is meant to appear, sits there with a blank screen. Once the drivers are
installed and I plug the cable into ANY of the 6 USB ports, I cant start up
my computer, if I wait till the computer is started before plugging in the
USB cable to the router, the internet will not work anyway, and the computer
will hang when shutting down.

So in summary, with my USB router cable in, the computer cannot start or
shut down and the internet connection cant be detected, but with it taken out
the computer works fine, but of course the internet wont work in either of
these circumstances and this is what I need.

Curiously, I also had the same problem with Vista, I tried moving to XP and
that got me here with the same problem, but XP is the one I want to get
working for now.

P.S. I have my network drivers installed for my mobo and this router is
currently working fine for another computer connected to it by etherent at
the same time. I have also tried formatted my hd and reinstalled windows a
few times tryin different things to no avail.

Perhaps you could use an Ethernet switch to work around the USB problem ?
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/homenetworkhardware/f/routervsswitch.htm

Your BT 8091 has DHCP and is a router, so takes the place of "Computer 1" in
this diagram.

http://compnetworking.about.com/od/...twork-Diagrams/Hub-Switch-Network-Diagram.htm

The BT 2091 specs are here.

http://www.voyager.bt.com/wireless_devices/voyager_2091/product_info.htm

Switches are pretty cheap - $10 to $30 should cover it. Check the reviews before buying.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2000400030&Configurator=&Subcategory=30

If you want to look at your USB connection, you can try:

1) Boot computer without device connected.
2) Plug in the USB connection.
3) Use UVCview from Microsoft, to see if the hardware is visible or not.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/stream/vidcap/UVCViewdwn.mspx

This is an example of a USB device, as seen in the Microsoft viewer.

http://image.donanimhaber.com/image.php/upfiles/110425/3FD99DDFA65948369B268428AE86E66A.jpg

The downloadable driver from the BT site, makes reference to "USB8023".

http://static.btopenworld.com/broadband/adhoc_pages/drivers/BT_Voyager_USB_win_v74.zip

At first, the 8023 number ("USB8023") flew over my head. But after a bit of searching,
it occurred to me that the number refers to IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard.
It could well be, that modern versions of Windows actually have an NDIS
driver for a USB to Ethernet adapter, that would have worked. It is
possible that you didn't need a driver to get that connection to work
at all. If the BT device didn't follow the rules, then a custom driver
would be required, but a designer would be stupid to do that.

The INF file in the driver package references USB\VID_069A&PID_0318.
That VID belongs to Askey Computer Corp askey.com.tw . So the ADSL
modem/router claims to be made by Askey. If you got their more expensive unit,
it has more Ethernet connectors on it, and is a better fit for most
home users. USB is really a poor choice for a network interface.
Pumping data over Ethernet is less work for the computer.

So take a look with UVCView, and see if VID_069A PID_0318 shows up or not.
If it doesn't show up, there could be a hardware problem with the BT device.

Note - I'm not a networking expert, so perhaps someone else can make
a suggestion on a home networking config. I use a wired router for my
Ethernet ports, and that is becaus my ADSL modem contains no router. My
wired router terminates the PPPOE protocol. Your BT device does all of
that for itself, which is why I suspect a cheap switch is enough to get
you more Ethernet ports.

Paul

 

[Guest]

ta Paul, thanks a lot for the tiem and effort you spent looking into it,
fortunately I will soon be getting a router that has 2 ethernet ports for me
to use, will using ethernet definately avoid this issue?

 

[Paul]

ta Paul, thanks a lot for the tiem and effort you spent looking into it,
fortunately I will soon be getting a router that has 2 ethernet ports for me
to use, will using ethernet definately avoid this issue?

You should not need any special driver, if connected by Ethernet. (Assuming
the Ethernet port was set up at some point in the past.) At the very least,
you should try to set it up without BT software. I don't have any of my
ISPs software on my computer (and I like it that way). The computer I am
typing on, is unaware what kind of networking setup exists outside the
computer. I plug the computer into the router, and the computer thinks
it is on a "normal" LAN. My computer uses DHCP, to automatically get
an IP address and other stuff, from the gateway in the router. You can
check your networking control panel, to see whether DHCP is selected or
not, as that automates things for you.

You will need to set up the router. Usually the manual will tell you
what address to use to reach the router the first time, and the address
should be one of the private (unroutable ones). Something like 10.x.x.x
or 192.168.x.x . You use a web browser, and point it to "http://192.168.1.1"
to set up the login name and password for BT, and set up other aspects
of networking. For example, for DHCP, you can program the router to use
private addresses starting at a certain point, like 192.168.64.22 and also
tell it how many computers maximum to allow DHCP connections (like 4).
Then, the range of addresses the computers get automatically, would be
192.168.64.22, 192.168.64.23, 192.168.64.24, 192.168.64.25.

There can actually be a lot of stuff to set up on the router, and
one thing I aim for in doing that, is a "stealth" rating. "Stealth"
means, no open ports as seen from the outside world. When the script
kiddies ping your IP address, they should not get a response. It
can take a considerable effort to get everything set up right.

Note that, if you run "services" from your home, like run an FTP
server, or a web server like Apache, you do need to "punch holes"
in the router setup. In that case, the script kiddies will bang on
those ports from now until eternity :-(

Some router products have better "setup wizards" than others. And
some have no wizard at all.

To scan your router from the outside, there is ShieldsUp.
Look for the ShieldsUp link on this page. This tool is useful
if you aren't planning on running services, and want to be
completely stealthy.

http://www.grc.com/default.htm

What that does, is grc.com will send test packets to your public
IP address. If grc.com gets any response packets from your setup,
grc.com keeps a record of that. When the scan is finished, you can
see how many ports at your public IP address, responded to being
probed. One problem with the grc.com test, is that the packets
are delivered with little delay between each one. On my router,
the router detects "SYN flood" and my router stops responding to
the packets. This makes the test results worthless, since then
you cannot tell which packets were ignored because of a good router
setup, and which packets were ignored because the router thought
there was a Denial of Service attack.

If your router supports disabling flood detection, you can turn
it off temporarily and carry out the test.

So, there'll be a few more things to learn along the way. It
took me about a week of playing with my new router, until I figured
out all the "cracks and crevices". Don't be dismayed if you don't
understand the interface of the router on the first day. It is a
learning process and takes time (and reading the docs ).

On the first day, you should change the password on the router,
from the default, to make it harder to get into the thing. There
are actually some router products, that support remote login from
the WAN side, which is just nuts. So as a safety precaution,
change the password, as the instructions in the manual will tell you.

What I do, is keep a piece of note paper stuck to the router with
tape, and on that, I write the user/password for the ISP, the
IP address and password for the router and so on. Then, if I'm
having a "senior moment", all the needed information is at hand.

Some routers even have a feature in the web interface, where you
can save the router settings. That allows restoring the router
settings at a later date, if that is ever necessary. I haven't
bothered with that feature on mine.

Paul

 

[Gerry]

In my opinion Ethernet cable connections are better than USB and
preferable to Wireless.

Did you get the drivers for the BT Voyager from the original disk or
updated drivers from the manufacturers web site. BT have an annoying
habit of providing disks containing out of date drivers and not telling
you where to go for updated drivers. They were promoting hard and
distributing Home Hubs a month after Vista was launched which were not
compatible with Vista

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
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