Summary: A guide to setting up a Cisco 837 ADSL router to work with a ADSL Broadband service over a BT line. Examples of broadband services where this works are BT Broadband , Eclipse Broadband or NewNet Broadband and most ADSL over BT lines. Be careful when choosing your router that you ensure you get an ADSL router (PPPoA) if you have a BT phoneline style broadband or you get a  DSL router (PPPoE) if you have the NTL ethernet type. The guide should also work for the Cisco SOHO 97 router.

Target Audience:  Anyone who wishes to use a more robust and functional router for their ADSL / broadband connection.

Scenarios:  If you have an ADSL service account that gives more than one public or static IP address. Using a Cisco 837 (and most Cisco ADSL) routers you can use each of the IP addresses that your ISP broadband provider has given you. This is great for people who want to host their own mail or web servers. This is especially useful if you are using SSL   because SSL generally requires that each website has its own dedicated IP address . Another good use is if you have a remote device such as a web camera or reboot PDU that might require it's own public IP address.

Pros: Robust Router, Allows multiple IP addresses, It can be good lesson and will assist learning IOS if you are an IT network person who is interested in this area.

Cons: More Expensive than a domestic or 'house wife' router from Netgear or D-Link etc. The router is not plug and play and requires more setup. The web based interface is very slow and virtually pointless.

Where to pick up Cisco router 837 up cheaply:  You guessed it - E-bay. E-bay is full of IT professionals who are selling surplus or 'aquired' routers they have left over from projects or upgrades. Make sure they give you the enable password or better still reset it to default configuration and the Cisco serial cable (blue in colour normally) if you don't have one.

Installing the Router

Step 1 Physically Installing the router.

The router is light weight and not big.  It is not rack mountable type of router so can be put on a shelf or on a cupboard.   Plug in the ADSL or WAN cable into the ADSL or WAN socket labelled (6) on the below diagram and the other end into the microfilter BT socket which has the ADSL enabled.

Plug the Blue Serial cable into the back of your PC.  Warning modern laptops have done away with RS232 serial ports and just give you USB ports.  You will need an RS232 type serial port - you can get converters.  Plug the other end into the console port on the back of the Cisco 837 router. You will also need to make a note of the com port you are using.

Power on the Cisco router - plug in the mains ideally into a power surge protecter if you have one (these routers aren't cheap).  And power it on with the on / off rocker switch at the back of the router.

Plug your PC's ethernet adapter into one of the built in 4-port switch ports on the back of the Cisco 837. Assign an IP address to your PC's ethernet work adapter.  In this example my PC has an address of 192.168.1.10. Also assign a valid Internet name server or DNS server to your machine so your computer can resolve domain names such as www.google.com or www.davidstclair.co.uk.

Step 2. Setting up the Link to PC and the Router

Now your router has been physically connected to the ISP network and to your PC you are ready to configure it to talk to the PC.  

Fire up a Hypher Terminal Session (or what ever your prefered Terminal Emulator Procomm/ PUTTY works just as good). Create a new Hypherterminal connection and set the settings to be choose the com port your Cisco cable is plugged into and set up the com properties like so:

Bits per sec    :  9600 
Data bits       :     8 
Parity          :  none 
Stop bits       :     1 
Flow control    :  none 

 Click okay and then hit return or enter on your PCs keyboard a couple of times. You should see a router> prompt
To alter the routers configuration we need to enter privileged mode to do that with your HyperTerminal session prompt type

enable       <hit return>

 You will be prompted to enter a password. If the router is at it's factory defaults it will have no password and just hitting return key will do it. If it is not a fresh build enter the password (known as the enable password or secret password if it is using the more secure password)

Now erase the existing configuration to make sure it is nice and fresh for you to setup.

write erase <hit return>

 Now reboot the unit:

 reload