Orange Livebox

Just had the disagreeable experience of setting up an Orange “Livebox” wireless modem/firewall/router.

The box does work, but the experience is much more trying than it might be if some extra information was provided.

Prompts for firewall to be turned off: Turn off firewall, and also uninstall Adobe Flash 9, Flash 10, and anything else you think might be causing it.

Network Settings for computer connected with wired cable: in case of setup troubles, set them to the final setting of “Obtain IP address automatically” & “Obtain DNS server address automatically”

You should be able to get to the setup via a new Orange icon on the desktop. In case of bother, note that the Livebox setup address is 192.168.1.1

In case you are wondering, the setup username and password are admin/admin. You could I presume change them to something less obvious.

If you have a network switch, you could plug it into the Yellow network port (or the Red, if you have removed the setup cable) on the Livebox. Any computers connected to the switch can then use the Livebox broadband connection.  They can also browse shared files on the computer used for the set-up. Whether all the other computers can see each other seems to be another story.  🙁

Addendum: I’ve been using the Livebox as a wired router/firewall for several days and find it works well. It seems that one is expected to leave it on all the time & connected to the Internet while the computers are in use. As soon as the computers are turned on and allowed to boot up, they have a live Internet connection. (just like the computers at work). It works with Linux clients too.