Annoying Router /Cable problem

Robtor · 14-01-2005, 22:23

Hi,
We have a ntl home:200 cable modem which has been connected to a pc sharing the internet to many others for while, but yesterday decided to get a linksys router.

Plugged it in to the router, hoping it would sort itself out but no dice, no internet available. So i ran an application on the linksys cd, which is put into the old internet sharing pc, finds details out for u like ip, gateway ip, etc, to put into the router. I entered this, but still nothing, so after a while i put the Mac address of the old intenet pc onto the router and then it seemed to work.

Worked all day yesterday. Worked this morning then suddenly stopped, tried unplugging modem etc, but still nothing. So plugged the cm back into the old internet pc rebooted it and wahey it worked. Swapped the wires round, cm back to router, internet works.. Turned modem off/on while still plugged in to make sure it could connect still with no involvement from the old net pc.

Internet worked fine again for a couple of hours, then stopped, Switched cm, and router off/on several times, still nothing. Cm back into old machine and net works fine again.
What's going on?? I dont understand how the new router/cm setup worked for over a day then suddenly stopped. Now i can only make the internet work if i plug the cm into a pc.

Sorry for the long, hard-to-read post, but i wanted to give the whole story.

Any Ideas?
Thanks

Raistlin · 14-01-2005, 22:35

Just to confirm that you have done things in this order:

1. Power everything off
2. Leave for a few minutes
3. Power CM back up and leave until lights settle
4. Plug router into CM and tunr router power on, leave until lights settle
5. Connect PC to router, boot PC up

There shouldn't be any need to put the MAC address of the old PC into the router. The CM will re-register itself to the MAC address of the router when you turn the router on during the above steps.

Just confirm that you've done as suggested above and then we'll explore more options.

Would also be useful if you could tell us what model of router you have, what operating system (OS) you are running with, and could you also confirm the connections that you have (ie which machines to the router, how many machines, exactly where the problem lies etc).

Also, do you have a firewall of any sort running?

Robtor · 14-01-2005, 22:52

Thanks very much for the quick reply, i will give it a go, although i think i pretty much did that when originally installing it.

The router is a Linksys EtherFastÃƒÆ’Ã†â€™ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…Â¡ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€šÃ ‚Â® Cable/DSL Router with 4-Port Switch ( http://www.linksys.com/international...oid=6&ipid=367 ), modem a ntl home 200, and all pcs are running xp.

There is one pc connected to the router, and 2 others connected to a hub which then connects to router. In the previous setup the connections going into the router went into a switch instead, which had another computer connected to share the net. There are no firewalls at the moment, apart from when xp sp2 decides to start its built in firewall!!

As i say i am just unsure what could cause it as things worked fine for over a day. But i have suddenly had an idea. When setting up as things didnt work kind of on auto, i ended up enter info into the router like the ip. Now i wonder as the ips arent garenteed to be static, maybe it's changed and doesnt match the ip ntl is giving me. Is that a reasonable idea?

Also, to make things worse, im not even home and i have to describe and talk my girlfriend through all of this... Nightmare!

Thanks again.

Raistlin · 14-01-2005, 22:59

Umm, it's certainly possible (I think) that NTL have cycled your IP. That's why it's a good idea not to muck about with it too much.

I think that the way it should be working is that the router should be obtaining an IP address from the CM and then allocating "internal" IP addresses to each computer on the network.

To be honest, networking really isn't my thing (especially not with more than two machines invoved).

The best suggestion that I can give at the moment is to reboot the CM, router, and one machine (after disconnecting the others from the network) and to get that one machine running propelry (following the instructions in my first post should work). But let the router sort out the IP address itself (by obtaining it from the CM) and let the computer sort out its own IP address (by obtaining it from the router).

Once you have that one machine runnning ok it should be a lot easier to get the others connected.

Raistlin · 14-01-2005, 23:01

Sorry, meant to say that you should set the router up so that it is managing things automatically and set your computer's network connection up to obtain IP address automatically.

Note to self: Raist, you really need to persuade your boss to send you on that networking course

Raistlin · 14-01-2005, 23:15

D'oh! I really am tired!!!

Where are my manners? Forgot to say:

to CF Robtor!

Kick off your shoes, sit back, relax, and enjoy your stay!

Robtor · 14-01-2005, 23:55

Woo thanks very much it seems to be working!

Describing to the girlfriend over the phone how to do it all, and it worked she was connected. Then got her to turn another comp on and it couldnt get internet..Then her other computer couldnt either....
Then i found out she plugged the cm into a normal network port on the router! Not the modem port, so got her to do the whole on/off process again, but connected to the right port, and 2 comps have been on the net for the last 30mins... Lets hope it stays that way.

Thanks so much for the help. Why doesnt it just tell u too do that in the router book, rather than insert cd, do this that blah blah?

Raistlin · 14-01-2005, 23:57

As with most things 'pooter hardware related the first instruction in every "Quick Start Guide" should always read:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quick Start Guide

Step 1: Take the shiney round thing (referred to hereafter as a CD-ROM) and throw it in the bin

You're more than welcome

Robtor · 16-01-2005, 15:46

Ok apparently it is back to not working now. It seems like the connection only lasts for a day or so, and before it completely cuts out it seems to be a bit off and on. I just dont understand how it is working fine and then just cuts out.

Any ideas?

Raistlin · 16-01-2005, 18:51

Hmm. Might be worth asking one of the NTL bod's on here to check your connection from their end..... **HINT**

Robtor · 16-01-2005, 19:03

Ha ha...Very subtle.

I dont think it's that as when it was connected via the old pc it was fine.

Not only does it disconnect daily on the router, it also generally seems very dodgey every hour or so now. It really is starting to get irritating.

I just tried installing the latest firmware for the router but i don't think that has fixed anything.

Raistlin · 16-01-2005, 19:26

Is it a wireless router? If so, what model is it?

Edit > D'oh! Ignore that, just re-read the thread!
____________

You mentioned that the XP SP2 firewall was working (when it decided to) have you tried completely disabling it?

maverick · 16-01-2005, 19:28

It sounds like your firewall on the router is set to deny dhcp requests.
The dhcp server will ask the router if it requires to keep the ip address,if it fails to respond the server will think the ip address is no longer required and drop it.Check the hardware firewall is not blocking dhcp requests.

Robtor · 16-01-2005, 19:37

Interesting suggestion, i'll have a look see what i can find.

This is all made much harder by me now being about 70miles away from the house in oxford and having to use remote access on the girlfriends pc. And ofcourse the internet has to be working there for RA to work!

nash · 16-01-2005, 20:26

Hi,
which version of Linksys router do you have , that particular router has a few versions.
I use the same router , version 1. The newer ones are version 3.
I have never had any probs at all leaving everything on default.
Maybe i could upload some screenies for you to check the settings compared to mine.