b0rked unit?

[kludgedean]

Hi, just a few days ago I received a 7700n unit from Amazon.co.uk to replace a not-fit-for-purpose SAGEMCOM f@st 2304 that sky lovingly bundle their customers with!
I have put in the details of username & password in the unit and it refuses to authenticate with the ISP.

However... Using another router (Netgear DG834PN) I have successfully entered extracted details and connected.

I have asked someone to check my configuration file, and he can see nothing wrong with the config, all details being what they should for a PPPoA connection to SKY.

Any advice/assistance greatly appreciated

[billion_fan]

The only thing I can think of is that your netgear router might be using MER authentication.

If you netgear router is using MER authentication then the 7700N will not work, as only SKy routers work with MER authentication.

[kludgedean]

The netgear is way too old to even know about it (it's approx 5 years old, and all settings are PPPoA, 0,38 etc etc)
Other things i've found out through my saga, is that the password when saved and looked at APPEARS to be garbled, but it is in fact BASE64 encoded.
I have done a comparison of the original password, to a BASE64 encode, and a BASE64 encode back to normal, and there are discrepancies somehow, or maybe the 7700n is 'padding' the password?

Original password: AEumtJox7r+m2dA
BASE64 encoded: QUV1bXRKb3g3cittMmRB

but when the configuration file is opened, the field for password reads as follows; QUV1bXRKb3g3cittMmRBAA==

when the above QUV1bXRKb3g3cittMmRBAA== is BASE64 decoded, the return is AEumtJox7r+m2dA�

I have no idea what that character at the end is, but all attempts to get the router to AUTH so far, with AA=='s, just =='s have been failed attempts.

I feel such an idiot for paying £9 extra to have it delivered next day, when i've spent almost a week trying to get it to play nice !

[billion_fan]

I think another thing to try is to test your 7700N on another ADSL line that support PPPOA.

Just make sure it authenticates, and this will prove if the router is working or not.

[kludgedean]

That's the only thing i've been unable to do, will have to see if i can borrow a friends connection for 20 minutes or so. I know it really shouldn't be this difficult, even though the 7700n has infinitely more options than the stock DG834PN does (I'm currently running a DGTeam firmware on it so i can SNR tweak)
-- The reason i'm not using the netgear full time is because the wireless completely drops all the time, and the sky router's wireless, although better, just isn't hitting it, I can 'see' the wireless of the billion 7700n easily, and with much more authority.