Speedtouch 780WL - changing IP address is miserable

Speedtouch 780WL - changing default IP address

The procedure for changing this router's IP address, and the range of IP addresses it gives out in DHCP mode is much more complex than I have encountered on any other router.

I couldn't find anything useful in the User Guide and ended up wasting over an hour, and GBP12 in "Premium Rate" phone calls to Speedtouch Tech Support, to sort it out. So I thought it worth recording the procedure here in case it can help others avoid the grief (either by buying a better-designed unit, or at least saving some of the grief that the 780 imposes).

The challenge is rather like trying to paint the floor that you are standing on. The Speedtouch requires you to:

- add an EXTRA IP address for the unit
- add an EXTRA IP range for DHCP
- change the IP address of your current PC
- reboot
- remove the original IP address and DHCP range
- reboot again

In detail:

1. Add an extra IP address
Open a browser and enter 10.0.0.138 (no "http://";) into the address box to access the router
Navigate to Home Network | Interfaces | LocalNetwork
Choose the Configure option.

DO NOT be tempted to use the "Edit" option against the 192.168.1.254 default address; at worst you will crash the unit and have to revert to Factory Settings (at best it will refuse your new settings as invalid).
Instead, add a NEW address - eg 192.168.0.1/24. The "/24" is needed to make sure that it "allocates a pool" - a bit beyond me, but that's what Tech Support insisted.

2. Add an EXTRA IP range for DHCP
Add a corresponding IP range to the DHCP settings on the same page

3. Change the IP address of your current PC
You now need to assing a MANUAL IP address for the PC that you are using to program the router, and this IP address needs to be WITHIN the new DHCP range that you are asking the router to assign. Write down your existing settings (so you can put them back again in Step 8). Set the primary DNS to the new address of the router, and leave secondary DNS empty (or 0.0.0.0 if that is what it shows).

4. Disconnect anything else on the network which might have a lease on an IP address in the original DHCP range. Until all old-range addresses are dead, you will not be able to remove that range from the DHCP settings, and the router will go on giving out IP addresses in that range for any other units that connect.

5. Reboot - Close or Save or whatever it offers, then turn router off and on again.

6. Get your PC to request a new IP address from the router ("Repair" option on the appropriate LAN icon in Network Connections from Control Panel in XP).

As long as nothing else is connected and still keeping an IP address running in the "old" range (192.168.1.xxx), then you should be able to go back into the Router Settings (Browser should find it at its new IP address) - choose Home Network | Interfaces | LocalNetwork as before and now you should be safe to deletw both the 192.168.1.254 IP address for the router, and the corresponding IP address

7. Reboot router again

8. Reset the IP settings of your PC to those that you wrote down in Step 3.

.... and that's it!

So, whilst the 780WL is probably a fine router for a first-time installation (VOIP quality on my first test call via voip.co.uk was great), I would recommend caution (or allowing a lot longer than you might reasonably expect to spend) if retro-fitting it to a network that does not fit with a "192.168.1..." address range.

John Geddes
Derbyshire
.

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