Home Networking Disaster -- Help!

May 23, 2006 2:06 PM

Home Networking Disaster -- Help!

I just bought a Linksys wireless router WRT54G and wanted to install it on our DSL connection. The connection uses a Westell modem. Previously, this modem worked fine on the one computer it was directly connected to.

This morning I pop in the Linksys wireless router wizard and follow the instructions -- plug cable A into B...etc.

When all is said and done the connection shows LIMITED OR NO CONNECTIVITY. Thinking it was my setup, I go over it at least 5 more times.
Then, for kicks, I directly plug the modem ethernet into my laptop (not the original computer) -- and the same thing happens!

The Westell modem lights up the POWER, ETHERNET and DSL lights but is dim on USB and INTERNET.

I've reset everything. blah -- hopeless.

HELP!

I'd be happy to give you anymore information.

posted by jne1813 to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

When just the computer is hooked up to the DSL modem does it get a WAN IP address or does it get something like 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x? When I hooked my father's connection up to the wireless I found out that both the modem and the wireless were trying to use the same IP address and were conflicting with each other.

Also, do you need to login to use the dsl? You probably never see it happen, but it might still be happening somewhere along the line. Maybe that process is being disrupted by the wireless router?
posted by chndrcks at 2:27 PM on May 23, 2006

Let me guess, you are using Verizon and the modem is a Westell 6100. I spent hours crying over this configuration not too long ago.

The following two pages should help you out enormously: 1, 2. You have to change the IP address of the westell modem and clone the modem's MAC address to the router.
posted by crazycanuck at 2:28 PM on May 23, 2006

Best answer: Hey there. You need to configure your Linksys router properly.

Basically, your computer probably had all of your DSL settings in it.

And your Linksys router also needs to know those DSL settings.

call your ISP and find out what your username and password are.

then plug your laptop into a ethernet cable and plug it into one of the 1-2-3-4 plugs on the back of your Linksys.

Then open a web browser and type this:

192.168.1.1

and when it asks for a user name and password, use the password admin -- leave the user name blank.

and you'll see a page that is the "guts" of your linksys. you'll need to input your ISP (DSL company)'s username and password and possibly some other information -- ask the person on the phone of your ISP for that sort of thing. (Although a lot of this info should be on your main PC as well... I'm going to assume that you have a PC.

Go to start > settings > control panel > network

right click on local area connection and select properties... then click on TCP/IP and click properties. then you'll see some manually inputted information. take all of that information from that page and input them into the similarly named things on your laptop with the linksys "guts" page open.)

okay, back to your linksys router... while you're in there, please secure your wireless connection by clicking on wireless, then security, and setting a password on your router. Your linksys router manual can tell you how to do this.

once you have set this all up happily, you can now test that your laptop is able to connect to the wireless signal and get on the internet.

happy now? then, go back to your desktop and change the tcp/ip properties that we were just in to "get automatically via DHCP"


this is my quickie version of this... someone else will likely post a link to similar instructions.

good luck.
posted by k8t at 2:33 PM on May 23, 2006 [1 favorite]

Order is important when things are powering up. Unplug power from modem and router, and shut off your computer. Let it sit for 5 minutes, then plug in the first piece (DSL). Wait for the lights to settle down, then power on the Router. Make sure you get Internet/network lights on the router, then turn on your computer.

Also, you can right click on your ethernet connection in Network Connections and select Repair...
posted by enfa at 2:34 PM on May 23, 2006

I had an amazing experience when I called Linksys to help me set up a router. They had incredibly helpful technical support people who walked me through the whole thing. After so many years of companies with worthless tech support I was totally unprepared for a corporation that went above and beyond the call in helping me configure the router *and* the computers.

Call them up! I hope you're experience is as good as mine.
posted by jasper411 at 3:12 PM on May 23, 2006

I recently bought a new WRT54G that included a bad ethernet cable. I'm a geek, so I plugged the cable into my cable tester and verified it...pair 1 was out.

So I took a close look at the terminated ends, and on one end, the orange and orange-white leads weren't all the way to the end of the terminator.

I cut that end off, re-terminated it, and now the cable's better than new!
posted by SlyBevel at 5:01 PM on May 23, 2006

don't forget to put your desktop computer on the network by plugging it into one of the 1-2-3-4 ports! happy wireless life!
posted by k8t at 5:36 PM on May 23, 2006