Castle Village Network

The network

Inside your apartment

Every apartment at Castle Village has an Ethernet jack, installed by Panix (or previously by VZA, if that jack is still working). The Ethernet jack is part of the CV campus network, which has a high-speed connection to the Internet provided by Panix. In addition to the apartments, CV's intercoms, security cameras, burners, and CoGens all use this Internet link.

In your apartment, you can connect a single computer to the Internet by plugging your computer directly into the Ethernet jack, or you can plug a wired or wireless router into the jack and then use multiple computers (including devices like Internet radios or smartphones) with the network.

If you would like us to set up a router for you, you can order one of two wireless routers that we will configure for you. We can also assist you with configuring a router that you already own or buy separately.

In community spaces

Wireless routers have been placed to provide service in all the public areas of Castle Village: laundry rooms, roof decks, the outdoor veranda and the community room. You connect to the campus-wide routers using a username & password that you create by visiting the wireless account manager in your web browser (from your apartment, on a computer that is connected to the Castle Village network).

Setting up a router

If you are switching from a cable or DSL connection, and you already have a router that was plugged in between your home network and the cable or DSL modem, that router will probably work without any changes once you plug its WAN ("Internet", "Uplink" or "outside") port into the Castle Village network jack.

If you have bought a new router, the default settings should be close to what you need. A new router will probably work immediately for wired devices without any changes. However, you must make a few adjustments on a wireless router, as described in Setting Up.

If you opt to purchase a router from us, then you pick up your router from the management office, and call our support line (212-741-4400, x1) when you are ready to plug it in.

Wireless

You may connect to the Castle Village Internet service wirelessly in two different ways: either using your own wireless network through a router that you have plugged into your apartment's Castle Village ethernet jack, or by using the common area wireless Internet service.

If you are using your own wireless network, you must enable security authentication on it so that your neighbors don't use your connection. For your own wireless network network, you create your own usernames and passwords (as many as you like) using your router's admin interface. For help setting up your wireless network on your own router, please see our setup page.

To use the Castle Village common area wireless Internet service, please see our wireless page.

Email service

Incoming email

The Internet connection you're getting through Castle Village doesn't include email, but you may connect to your existing email accounts or use one of the many free email providers, such as Gmail or Yahoo, through our service. Alternately, we can provide you with a mailbox for $5/month or $50/year. You may call us at 212-741-4400 during our office hours (Monday-Friday, 10am-6pm) if you would like to set one up.

Outgoing email

When you switch to the Castle Village network connection from your previous DSL or cable connection, you may find that you are no longer able to send mail. This will happen if the outgoing (SMTP) mailserver you have been using only accepts connections from senders who are directly connected to that server's network.

To get around this, you may configure your email program to use our SMTP server. Use the following settings:

Mailserver: mail.panix.com
Port: 587

Note that very few mail servers have this problem, so don't make this change unless you need to.

If you need help changing these settings, please call Panix support at (212) 741-4400 x1 or send us e-mail.