No, you don't and again, it has ZERO to do with any laws or regulations. You are accessing a NETWORK..you do not own that network. The owners (that is the PRIVATE COMPANY) dictate what they allow to use as an access point, period.
You got a modem to work on your COMPUTER??? How, exactly, did you manage that? The ISP modem is the access point to a home...you don't connect it to a computer, you connect it to the ISP's network, and plug your computer into it. And if this is the same computer/modem you had before, again...you have accomplished absolutely NOTHING. They can still turn your access off, period.
A 'significant fire risk'??? From a low-power device? Really? And as you were told before, if you can access the modem, you can set your DNS server to be whatever you want...and you can ALSO tell your computer to use whatever DNS server you want, which will essentially bypass whatever the modem says. And WiFi is SO INSECURE that most business use it...right?? Sorry, no. An 8 character password (which is short) that contains upper/lower case letters, numbers, and special characters will take somewhere around 27,727 years. 95 possible characters. 8 character password = 95 x 95 x 95 x 95 x 95 x 95 x 95 x 95. That is a total of 663,420,430,000,000,000 guesses, and using a top of the line GPU dedicated to NOTHING BUT DOING THIS, would get you about 750,000 guesses per second. Do the math. Yes, it can be done, typically by social engineering or by having a weak password. And you would have to have something worth stealing to make it worth anyones time.

The minutes of research you've done are showing here. Do a few more minutes of research.
AGAIN: CALL YOUR ISP. Can't be much simpler...tell them you don't want wireless at all. They probably have approved devices that are made for businesses (who DO use Wifi, but their own), and will more than likely send you one instead.

Plug the router into a power strip with a switch. Turn it off when not in use.
Ed

" non-wireless router-modem "

Maybe. It is really easy to just disable wifi function on almost every modem.

Saying it is a modem however doesn't fully tell us what your isp needs to connect. ADSL ADSL2 or what sort of system we can't tell so far.


I meant that a device by most countries laws have to have some sort of identification on it.
There may or may not be a law that says you have the right to use your own hardware.

There has been fights in the area of right to repair and that ultimately gets close to this issue.

A quick google search turns up some information on TalkTalk's router offerings (it's dated Dec 2020, but is likely to be still relevant) Depending on your package there's two different router models. https://www.cable.co.uk/providers/talktalk/routers/

Another quick search shows that plugging something in to one of the ethernet ports and browsing to 192.168.1.1 should give you the admin login page and the default details are on a sticker on the back of the router. If 192.168.1.1 doesn't work then check whatever settings your computer was configured with, the default gateway IP address should also give you the relevant admin login page.

It's highly likely the information in how to login is provided in a "Getting Started" guide that came with the router as the recommendation from ISPs is to reconfigure the password and/or SSID for wireless. At which point you should be able to disable WiFi and configure things like which DNS servers to use.

Depending on the device you may be able to switch the router to "bridge" or "modem" mode which should disable the WiFi settings and simply re-present your public IP on (usually the first) ethernet port, at which point you can use whatever router / firewall you wish. In my own setup I have a Virgin Media Smart Hub 3 in "bridge" mode with a Netgear Nighthawk R7000 acting as my internal router and WiFi access point.

This is just them telling you they won't help you if you need customer help with your old router.

I was told something very similar years ago, but they weren't as generous, the new router would have cost me dearly (or I'd have had to change to a "better" - read: more expensive - contract). I am still using that same old modem/router to date, but I'd have been happy to take the new one for free.

If wifi is your only concern, I agree with all the other posters here: it is very, very unlikely that it's impossible to disable. Figure out how, and use the new one.

And, I cannot resist to add: I must agree with TB0ne that you have some very unclear (mis)conceptions about the differences between company policy and law and regulation. Not saying TalkTalk is beyond reproach, but what you are saying there makes no sense.

I did the same thing - I ignored my ISP's letters and continued to use the old equipment. My service kept working. The last thing the ISP wanted was to lose a customer.

Eventually, 768 kbit/s was no longer adequate. Upgrading required new equipment and a higher fee.

I suspect that the OP may be trying to avoid a rate increase. He can always find out what will happen if he ignores the letter.
Ed

My old modem is now working fine and I intend to stick with it.

Security - is wireless less or more secure than cryptocurrency wallets? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58277359

I am sceptical that a new modem will allow super-fast downloading of big files from https://archive.org/ or anywhere else.

Good for you; again, *DO NOT* be surprised if they just cut your service off. AGAIN: it is their network, you are just paying to access it.
This was explained before; re-read the reply about this. And again, you are concerned about the 'significant risk of fire' by keeping it turned on, along with several other things that make little to no sense, so I'm not sure what else you need (or want) to hear. You are also free to do your own research about this, as there are a LOT of papers written about wifi security.
And since you won't plug it in, why does it matter?? Again, their network=their rules. It is VERY possible that the speed will be much greater, but since you won't upgrade (for free), it's immaterial, isn't it??

On any system you can use your own equipment. The issue here is what actually defines the boundary between their network and yours, and they do have the right to specify the equipment they deem compatible with their network. What you attach on your side of that (modem/router) is up to you.

Remember there are 2 sides to the modem. Your side - the LAN - is freely yours to manage. Their side - the WAN connection - has to properly interact with their equipment and they can either manage it directly or mandate the settings you must enter for it to operate.

I once was been required to buy a modem from the ISP, even though I managed it in order to meet the hardware compatibility requirements. In one instance I owned the router/modem but in order for it to work with their equipment the ISP specified the WAN config on it, and I was on the phone with their tech as it was configured.

I am not sure why the extreme paranoia about wifi, but as has already been said, any wifi modem/router/AP can have the radios disabled so wifi is not in use. That is something most users are aware of by now since user config is necessary and leaving the default login/password config on a new piece of hardware is a major security risk..

With all due respect, this is all which was needed. The rest of your post invites argument.

After a lot of nagging I unwillingly plugged in the router-modem the ISP sent me.

The speed is just the same as it was before, no improvement at all. Even though it is set to "automatic" and I have not changed any settings, it still uses ADSL.

This is despite there being a fibre-to-cabinet cabinet near me.

It won't be long now before I get a letter from the ISP trying to make me pay extra for faster speeds.

All I want is a bicycle to ride down to the shops, but I get told that these are superseded technology and I am offered the choice of either this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockhe...in_F-22_Raptor or Nothing.

Edit: The diagram that can be seen here after scrolling down the page https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband suggests that ADSL remains in service in parallel with fibre, so the implication of Talktalk's threatening letters that ADSL is going to stop being available is probably untrue.

You seem to either be ignoring what you're told, or are just plain missing the point and are not understanding what you're told.

AGAIN: use whatever it is you want to use. Want to use your old device that you have 'tweaked'?? Go for it..you question was, "Can talktalk disrupt my service if I don't?" The answer remains: YES, THEY CAN. Nothing else to tell you.

Want to complain about your speed? Then *CALL YOUR ISP* If you have ADSL only, it will quite obviously not be fiber speeds...and again, since you still miss the point...the new device may handle better speeds that your ISP is going to roll out, but have not yet. But, since you won't call them, and want to whine about being 'nagged', what do you expect to find out?

Got a problem with your ISP? Call them. Want to use your old device? Go for it.

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I would guess that if they are telling you adsl will be ended, the conclusion would be that there is a transition period where both adsl and fibre will be active while they get their customers to switch over. If they ended adsl and used fibre only and you did not already have the new equipment to match then you would suddenly have no connection.

I guess they really are looking out for you, and you probably should accept that.