Having a horrible time getting router / modem to work

[Kulith]

Hi guys, I've been away from my house for two weeks. I took my laptop/desktop with me, and used it in a different house. I got back today and I spent all day trying to get the router + modem + laptop/desktop working again, never had a problem before. I should also mention I'm not new at all to router troubleshooting, I've done it way more than I'd like too. But I still can't figure out whats going on here. linksys wrt54g windows 7 x64.

All day long, all i've been getting was a "no internet / no network connection" with a yellow triangle and exclamation mark, but full wireless signal bars. I can connect to router setup 192.168.1.1 but not the internet.

Heres what I've tried:
pcs/modem/router power cycles (tried many, many times throughout the day)
router reset
hard modem reset (using button instead)
different cat6 cables
ipconfig /flushdns -> /registerdns -> /release -> /renew
router firmware upgrade
chatted with comcast ... just walked me through some basic troubleshooting..useless

Nothing helped, exactly the same as when I started.

Right now I am connected wired to the modem, but I am not convinced the modem isn't the problem. It never works just plugging it in, I have to diagnose the issue before it works. When I plug it in it connects to "network" and I get the same symptoms as above, but after diagnosing it connects to "network 2" and has internet.

Also, the router doesn't seem to get information from the modem. Under status it says ip 0.0.0.0 subnet mask 0.0.0.0 gateway 0.0.0.0 etc. So I have no idea if it's the router or the modem. AFAIK everything is behaving as if there is no cable between modem + router, but I've quadriple checked that there is, and it's snug.

Any help would be awesome, i've been trying to figure this out all day and now I'm really tired and my head hurts -.-

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

What make/model "modem" do you have?

 

[ghost6303]

but after diagnosing it connects to "network 2" and has internet.

where are you reading network and network 2? if your computer only has one physical ethernet port, you should not be seeing windows connect to more then one network. it should not be switching between two network adapters.

when you have the yellow triangle, right click on it and hit status. under the support tab, did the router assign you an IP successfully? DHCP? if yes, the problem is between the modem / internet provider. if no, the problem is probably your router, or you have your TCP/IP set to static for your network adapter.

you said you have comcast so il assume you have the standard SB5100 or similar modem. the comcast computer should assign the modem an external IP thru DHCP, which gets passed thru to your router. the router should use its internal DHCP server to give out local IPs to all the LAN ports, and then NAT them together.

you can go to http://192.168.100.1 to get to the modems web interface and check its status.

 

[Kulith]

What make/model "modem" do you have?

RCA DCM425

where are you reading network and network 2? if your computer only has one physical ethernet port, you should not be seeing windows connect to more then one network. it should not be switching between two network adapters.

Just under "network connections" it only works when it connects to network 2. I only have 1 ethernet port. http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/1945/captureysm.png

when you have the yellow triangle, right click on it and hit status. under the support tab, did the router assign you an IP successfully? DHCP? if yes, the problem is between the modem / internet provider. if no, the problem is probably your router, or you have your TCP/IP set to static for your network adapter.

I don't see the support tab..., but under status -> details it shows me local ip 192.168.1.101 and dhcp server 192.168.1.1 among other things.

you said you have comcast so il assume you have the standard SB5100 or similar modem. the comcast computer should assign the modem an external IP thru DHCP, which gets passed thru to your router. the router should use its internal DHCP server to give out local IPs to all the LAN ports, and then NAT them together.

you can go to http://192.168.100.1 to get to the modems web interface and check its status.

under the modems event log, it shows me this: http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/2823/modemeventlog.png everything on the modem home page says complete/operational.
does that mean it's the router?

 

[Kulith]

does anybody have any idea?

I'm fed up with this and I'm about to buy a nice new gigabit router, but I want to make sure it's not the modem.

 

[dashpuppy]

does anybody have any idea?

I'm fed up with this and I'm about to buy a nice new gigabit router, but I want to make sure it's not the modem.

Can you plug your computer into your modem and it works fine ?

Turn on yuor windows firewall, then try direct connection to your modem.

Post some links of new routers you are looking at. What is the budget ?

 

[Kulith]

Can you plug your computer into your modem and it works fine ?

Turn on yuor windows firewall, then try direct connection to your modem.

Post some links of new routers you are looking at. What is the budget ?

yes modem works fine, as mentioned above it's odd that it doesn't connect to the modem until It finds network 2 though.

I just bought a wndr3700 from ewiz for $125.

I've had the wrt54g for probably like 6 years, figure it can't live forever anyway.