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I had a lady call me Friday about needing help with getting her wireless going. So I roll out there saturday and heres what she has

Bellsouth DSL using a westell modem

Linksys WRT45GS router

1 desktop and 1 laptop

Ok so i noticed the modem was hooked to the desktop via USB and the wireless not hooked up at all. She said is has never worked and shes had it about 4 months.(wireless) So i unhook the usb and plug in via Ethernet to the desktop. Nothing. So i check and recheck..no lights on NIC and no activity light for Ethernet on the modem. Ok so im thinking bad NIC or modem port. Test it with the lappy and modem port is fine. Try plugging it all in to the router and it gets nowhere. Cant ping passed router. I could get to internal setup but nothing passed that. Lappy sees the wireless and connects to router. So I tell her she needs a NIC and Ill take the wireless home to see if I can update firmware and maybe get it going.

So I bring it home and Im able to get online with it but you cant use the internet port to get it to work. I had to plug into one of the ethernet ports and Im able to surf. Thought that was weird. Also Im using cable for internet and shes on DSL but Ive never had to configure a router specifically for DSL before as ive had it in the past. So i get her new NIC and head back out today. New nic lights up but will not get an IP. Lappy will connect to router but it still wont get on internet. I tried every combination of settings in both the router and modem and it jut wont work. What in the hell is going on?? I about pulled my hair out. I tried running winsock fix on the desktop and still no luck. What am i overlooking here guys????

First, you did in fact power cycle the modem to reset it right? Also, I have found that many DSL networks these days are starting to use local ip address ranges, Verizon in particular seems to use the 192.168.1.x range. I had to configure the router first without the modem hooked up, so I could configure it to operate on the 192.168.0.x range.

Everything was power cycled numerous times. I used to work at the cable company so Im accustomed to doing that first.

Does the router show in its config utility that it has been issued an IP from the dsl modem(after power cycle)? Will the pc go online if its plugged directly into the dsl modem(after modem power cycled)? If it will then the modem is set to filter mac addresses. My brothers dsl at his shop is set up this way, they limit how many machines can use the connection. Easy fix for that router if this is the case. Use the "clone mac address" feature and it will tell the dsl modem that only the original pc is connected and will usually dump out an ip address to the router. If you have already tried this then I have no idea.....

Sounds like the router Internet input is dead to me.

Well i did see a setting in the modem for dhcp (not real sure what it said now) and tried disabling that hoping the router would take over as i figured that 2 of them trying to handle dhcp may be causing a problem, but it didnt seem to help anything. I swear i think i tried changing every setting on both devices trying to make it work to no avail. FP i know that port is bad. I told her to take it back and swap for a new one and call me when she did so

Did you set the modem to bridge mode? If not, you can try that. Then you set the router to PPPOE and enter all of the login info and let the router handle the login's for the DSL. If that doesn't work/isn't an option, hook the DSL Modem up to one of the regular ports on the router, not the internet port, and then assign the IP statically on the PCs to use the IP address of the DSL modem as the Gateway but the IP and Subnet can be whatever you're using on the router. There has been a rare occasion when I've had to do that. Hope this helps.

GL!

eGo

Ill give that a try Ego. Wonder why the new nic wont get an ip even when its attached directly to the modem? Thanks for the input guys. This one has a booger thats for sure. I love it though. Nothing like a a finicky pc to get your creative juices flowing

blade_146 wrote:Ill give that a try Ego. Wonder why the new nic wont get an ip even when its attached directly to the modem? Thanks for the input guys. This one has a booger thats for sure. I love it though. Nothing like a a finicky pc to get your creative juices flowing

Again, make sure you reset the modem. Power cycling actually is not always the course of action with more and more modems having a battery backup included.

blade_146 wrote:Wonder why the new nic wont get an ip even when its attached directly to the modem?

Sounds like the modem is either screwed up or its filtering mac addresses.

Some DSL modems are locked to a MAC address. You may have to call the ISP and tell them you're connecting a new device to it.