Belgacom ADSL sucks (on a Mac)
2006-01-30 - Notes - Trackback - Reply
Just a quick word for anyone else in Belgium trying to install the Belgacom ADSL starter kit on a Mac. The kit includes a Speedtouch 330 USB ADSL modem. Here’s what’s wrong with it:
- The drivers that are included will not work on any recent Mac. They’re 4 years old and they’re written for Mac OS X 10.1. On top of this, the documentation is totally outdated. Download new drivers here.
- You may need to install the BSD subsystem if you haven’t already. It’s on one of Apple’s install disks. The reason for this is unclear. It looks like some part of the modem’s initialisation script uses
grep.
On top of this, the account management system
- uses a certificate issued by CertiPost. CertiPost (a division of the Belgian Postal Services) may deliver some worthwile services, but issuing certificates without being a trusted certificate authority isn’t one of them. This means that you will have to put up with a warning about a potentially insecure site every time you enter the management page. It also means that will be a lot easier for someone to build a spoof site to collect your account information.
- doesn’t seem to work in either Safari or Internet Explorer 5.2 for Mac. At least, it didn’t on 2006-01-27.
The problems with the modem can be solved by buying or renting a model with Ethernet instead of USB. ADSL modems with an Ethernet connection are by default compatible with Mac OS X. You won’t have to install any software. You will be able to connect the modem to an Airport base station or any other broadband router.
The problems with the account management page are insurmountable.
FYI, Telenet works without problems and is quite a bit faster.
charlie says on 2008-09-11 11:07:
I recently moved to brussels from seattle and have not been able to get my US bought macbook to work with belgacom’s b-box. I’ve gone through the instructions about a million times and it still won’t allow me to connect. When I go sys. pref. and then networks it provides the ip addresses and everything else for the ethernet connection except for actually connecting me. Any thoughts? thanks!
charlie
Ben De Rydt says on 2008-09-11 12:09:
Since this a modem and wireless router in one, you have two things to worry about:
a) the connection between your computer and the box. By the sound of your comment, this is already working fine.
b) the connection between the box and the ISP. This doesn’t seem to work, and it’s most likely a configuration problem.
I don’t know the b-box nor do I know how it is configured but I’m guessing there should be some kind of web page on the router where you can configure stuff (like http://192.168.1.1). Consult the manual of the box for more information, and don’t worry about you having a Mac: once the connection between your computer and the box works, there’s nothing different between Macs of PCs. You will not need system preferences, that’s for the connection between your Mac and the box.