Internet Connection Issues

November 17, 2005 10:14 AM

Internet connection issues: I can't seem to get my ADSL connection to work through my router.

I'm not exactly savvy when it comes to this stuff, so hopefully you kind folk will be able to explain in simple enough terms. Here's the sad story: a few days ago my room-mate and I noticed a strange computer on our network. Thinking that someone was leeching off our horribly unsecure wireless network I decided to see what I could do and ended up resetting the router and running its set-up program again. I changed the settings of the router so it was no longer wireless, and set-up my ADSL connection through it's prompted questions. However, now when I open up my browser it prompts me with my ADSL provider's login and connect window. Whether I try and connect through that or hit cancel, it still won't connect me to the web. On what may be a related note, I recently started using azureus for my bittorrent needs, and I'm worried that it may have something to do with that. Something about ports and gateways that I'm somewhat lacking in knowelege about, maybe?

posted by dazed_one to computers & internet (12 comments total)

sounds to me like you failed to put the proper login and password in the router, meaning that it's not being successful in making the asdl connection. Is there a setup disk that came from the provider you can run?
posted by tiamat at 10:21 AM on November 17, 2005

Even better, call your provider and tell them. They will tell you how to set up your router properly for their connection.
posted by poppo at 10:26 AM on November 17, 2005

What OS? Have you tried anything "IP" outside of websites? It's possible your browser is "branded" and looking for a specific connnection / program for access the pppoe connection. As long as you've put the correct login info (do you need to use the domain? @? or if you have a static connection, you may need to use [e-mail].)

In the router setup page, under "info" or something broad like that, see what IP address the router has; should be a public ip address. Once you're certain the router is communicating with the modem, then look to see if you've enabled dhcp on the router, etc.
posted by AllesKlar at 10:37 AM on November 17, 2005

Hmmmm... This is really confusing. My OS is WinXP and I'm using Firefox. My router is a Linksys and my service provider is Bell Sympatico. Right now I'm connected through the router, again (just unplugged everything and plugged it back in). Firefox still prompts ISP's connection login, however, when I hit cancel it seems to work. It doesn't prompt on start-up, nessecarily; it seems to do it at random times. Like as I'm writing this post.

I'd rather not have to deal with this through my ISP itself, as I hate having to deal with their automatic answering service, etc. I'm saving that as a last resort.

I'm certain the login info I provided when originally setting up the DSL connection through the router was correct.

"Have you tried anything "IP" outside of websites? It's possible your browser is "branded" and looking for a specific connnection / program for access the pppoe connection. As long as you've put the correct login info (do you need to use the domain? @? or if you have a static connection, you may need to use [e-mail].)"

The only IP that I've tried aside from websites is that of my router to access its config page. I'm not sure what you mean by "do you need to use the domain" and static connections. I assume my connection is static as I'd like a 24/7 permanent connection to the 'net.
posted by dazed_one at 11:08 AM on November 17, 2005

While posting that last message, here's what happened; I clicked "post", the login thing popped up, I hit cancel, and firefox said the operation timed out. I hit post again, the login thing popped up again, I hit cancel again, and then it posted. Weird, eh?
posted by dazed_one at 11:12 AM on November 17, 2005

dazed -- I just fixed a friend's Internet access using the same setup you describe. Here's what I gleaned from the experience: First, make sure the router is set to access Sympatico as PPPoE (PPP over Ethernet). Make sure the username and password are entered correctly. On the router setup page, go to Status and hit Connect, if you're not already connected. You might also want to make sure that XP is configured to use a gateway connection. There's a page at Bell that describes how to do that, can't remember where it is at the moment, but will check.
posted by greatgefilte at 11:41 AM on November 17, 2005

A static account assigns you the same public IP address everytime, so one could host a service on a machine "connected" to the IP address. Otherwise, you are assigned an IP address from a pool; "dynamic." As far as trying other things, what i mean, is can you ping, use IM, access email accounts via pop3 / imap; Hmm.. that is odd; can you disable what sounds like a "connection manager?"
posted by AllesKlar at 11:45 AM on November 17, 2005

Recent developments: On my router config page under the heading of Internet Connection, there's an option for either "Connect on Demand: Max Idle Time [blank box] Min" or "Keep Alive: Redial Period [30] Sec". Currently it's set to keep alive, however the login prompt seems to pop up every... you guessed it, 30 seconds.
posted by dazed_one at 11:57 AM on November 17, 2005

You might want to course through this forum.
posted by AllesKlar at 11:58 AM on November 17, 2005

Oops; sounds like you figured it out; I think a 0 value means "always on"
posted by AllesKlar at 12:00 PM on November 17, 2005

0 apparantly doesn't mean always on. It only permits me a number between 20 and 180. Looks like it's time to call tech support.
posted by dazed_one at 12:25 PM on November 17, 2005

Fixed. Reset router for the third time, ran through greatgefilte's steps, and now she runs fine. Thanks for your help people.
posted by dazed_one at 1:11 PM on November 17, 2005