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Sky Broadband with Win98

The system requirements for Sky Broadband say Windows 2000. I've got a hunch that this is because the router they supply doesn't support Windows 98SE.

So, if I bought my own router/modem that supported Windows 98SE would I be able to use the service?
 
You should be able to use Sky broadband with the router they supply with any OS that supports ethernet providing your PC is equipt with a network adaptor. I use the V1 Sky router with XP, 98se and various flavours of Linux.

There's a very good chance that any software they supply with it (eg I think the CD includes an anti-virus or something - I've never looked :) ) won't have been tested with windows 98 and won't be compatible, but is not required anyway.

Sky's routers come pre-configured with password and username, the only way to obtain them for use in another router is to hack the router.

There are publically available hacks to extract the password and username from the old SKY V1 (netgear dg834gt) router, but the new Sky routers are more of a problem. The Sky Sagem router I know nothing about, the new sky netgear router currently has no publically available hacks, although I believe extracting the password from it would not present much of a challenge (well not for me anyway).
 
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Thanks for your speedy reply, Mel!

One more question for you. Although I'm still using 98SE, my machine IS secure (although I'm gonna have to find a new spyware checker after Ad-Aware SE stops providing updates at the end of this month!!). Therefore I'm not going to risk a wireless connection using WEP encryption. I'll use the router provided in its wired capacity (cheap network card from ebuyer methinks!!). I know Sky set up their routers with WPA-TKIP as default wireless security. Even though it's pretty secure, it can still be cracked by a determined person. Is there a way I can switch off wireless capacity altogether since I'll only be using wired mode?

One final question. If I broadband enable one line for a few months, is Sky going to be upset if I switch across to another line part of the way through the contract, therefore having to enable a second line and dumping the first?
 
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You can disable wireless on either of the Sky Netgear routers, and I'd be very surprised if the sagem one doesn't offer this.

Should you wish to use wireless at some point WPA is very secure providing your key is long (there are no additional performance penalties in using the maximum of 63 characters) and made up of a random selection of alphanumeric characters. Cracking WPA requires the victim to have used a weak key such as english words or phrase which would be vulnerable to a dictionary attack, or a massive amount of processing power.


I'm not aware of Sky's policies about changing line, but there would be costs involved for Sky in doing this. I suspect you might have to pay off the contract.
 
Thanks, Mel!

I'm sure a Core 2 quad core could crack the provided sky 8 digit (?) key in a few hours. Most people will never change this encryption key!!

There again, with 60% of wireless nets using no security, why give yourself the hassle?!!
 
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