Help request: configuring a DD-WRT router with VM cable?

[christopherw]

Yeah, this router is running entirely vanilla, deliberately so just to make sure that there was nothing in the way of it...

... I might end up upgrading it to v24 (it's running v23 SP2 at the moment) and see if that makes any difference. I might even end up swapping out the linksys for the buffalo DD-WRT router, though that'll involve configuring that to get an IP (currently just using that as a switch on my DSL network)... it seems a bit snappier loading the admin pages too, so might end up changing for that reason


right, off to upgrade... I'll do a full reset first and see if that makes a diff.

[MovedGoalPosts]

For reference 2 screenshots which may help you:

[christopherw]

Full reset (firmware defaults), configured just the DHCP server so any PC plugged into the router would get an IP... Still the same problem: absolute refusal to serve the Internet. This is driving me crazy because I just can't figure out why this is happening...


Is there a known incompatibility with the Linksys WRT54GL and the Scientific Atlanta EPC2100R2 or something?

---------- Post added at 00:25 ---------- Previous post was at 00:25 ----------

Originally Posted by Rob

For reference 2 screenshots which may help you:

Invisible links?


[edit] never mind, right after I posted that they showed up <shrug>

---------- Post added at 00:34 ---------- Previous post was at 00:25 ----------

Rob - are you running a SciAtlantic EPC2100R2 or a Surfboard / ntl:250 / other modem?

[MovedGoalPosts]

Originally Posted by christopherw

Rob - are you running a SciAtlantic EPC2100R2 or a Surfboard / ntl:250 / other modem?

I'm a weirdo still getting VM broadband via a set top box. However the principles of connection should be the same.

I do find it very odd that your laptop MAC had to be cloned to your modem. That is weird as the modem should be able to operate independently of whatever computer is connected to it. I suspect this is the big problem.

Do you have to do anything to get other computers to connect direct to the modem (no router)? Do they all work auto, or do you have to fudge mac settings?

[brundles]

Have you checked the config the clients are getting via DHCP?

If you do an IPCONFIG /ALL what do you get shown for the default gateway and the DNS servers?

I'm just wondering if the router is (in general) OK and the problem is the DHCP config.

[christopherw]

Ok, this'll make you laugh.





You want to know what the culprit was?


the Cat5 cable supplied with my La Fonera. I've been using that - purely by random choice, as it was the first cat5 cable I unhooked from my kit when I started to pack up my room - and I've been working with that for the past few days plugging into routers, swapping it over, etc.


It's a regular Cat5E cable (I've doublechecked the wiring, it's not a crossover) and plugged into the La Fonera (the little Fon router which creates a free hotspot) it works perfectly. It also works perfectly for LAN traffic and it worked 100% fine on the Speedtouch ADSL2+ router we have for our Be* connection (i.e. in the past I've unplugged it and used it in the laptop quickly and it's worked fine).


However, neither the Linksys WRT54GL OR the Buffalo WBR-G54S routers I have seem to like the cable. LAN traffic is fine, but it just... doesn't work. The most I could get out of it was the modem's send light blinking whenever I tried to ping or load web pages, but the receive light stayed permanently silent. The MOMENT - literally, the very moment - I swapped it out for a spare Cat5 cable which I just had plugged into the router, the send AND receive lights started blinking like crazy, and everything on my laptop (MSN, Skype, etc) whirred into action and logged on.

I just went LOL......... YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME




Fired up a browser session, loaded the VM web page... Bang, there it is.







So, many many thanks to all who contributed to this thread - and my humblest apologies for inadvertantly making us all go round in circles pointlessly! I don't consider myself a noob - far from it! - but sometimes you get so involved in the technicalities of a setup you forget to do the simplest things like CHANGING THE CAT5 CABLE!!!!!!!!!



Let this be a lesson to us all... (and a lesson to me in admitting defeat gracefully!) In a month of Sundays, I would've never thought about changing the Cat5 cable, I just assumed from previous use - which was all fine and without problems - that the cable was good.



Computers will be the death of me... I'm going to sue Fon for the hair I've lost this past week!

---------- Post added at 02:18 ---------- Previous post was at 02:04 ----------

And here's the culprit:






Notice how thin it is... Which made me think of a new mantra:



If your cable's thin, chuck it in the bin!


Thanks to all who helped in the thread again, even if it was the stupidest bloody solution I still learnt a couple of things about DD-WRT I wasn't 100% sure of before, so it was a net win!

[MovedGoalPosts]

Glad you got it sorted - it's often the most simple obvious solutions that work. Just got to think of them they are that obvious

[Gareth]

Heh, would never have thought of that