Why isnt my ISP letting me route my cable connection...

Dillusion

Supreme [H]ardness
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Oct 21, 2003
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I have a cable connection at my house VIA brighthouse networks. Standard cable service yadda yadda. We have the modem they installed, and I have a linksys WRT54G for wireless and an EG005W gigabit switch for hard-wire local gigabit lan.

Using the single wire from the modem, I can get an internet signal no problem to ONE computer. But as soon as I connect it to my WRT54G, I cannot get a wireless signal to any computers. The computers can connect to the router, but there is no internet. When you go to do a windows repair, it says there is a problem with the DNS. Windows says it can connect to the primary DNS, but isnt getting shit from it.

Heres what I've done/am getting:

I can login to the router, and to a DHCP renew/release, the router renews and releases the DNS just fine, all the numbers renew, IP, etc.
I've tried unplugging pwoer chords for one second, five seconds, thirty seconds, etc.
I'm doing modem -> WRT54G -> GB switch
I have WAP2 personal security, G-only mode on my own channel (channel 3 2.4XX GHZ)
When I connect the WRT54G to the modem, the data light will blink even if no one has any activity or no one is connected to the router.
I have to reset the modem after connecting it to the WRT54G to get my connection back while using the single eth. line from the modem
I've tried calling linksys/brighthouse (ISP) but they all suck at life

It seems as if the signal isnt being routed. I have the modem cable in the WAN port on the WRT54G, not the LAN, which is where it should be....

Everything else is connected right/default...

...but still no internets...ideas?
 
Try to see if you can set the Router's MAC Address to the MAC address of the first PC you used to connect to the net. Then connect the router back. See if that helps
 
Also you might want to look through your router config again because the homeuser type routers pretty much always have that option.
 
Could call your ISP and tell them you got a new "computer" and that your connection is not working, this will usually make them think they need to reset your connection to allow a new MAC to be grabbed. Some ISP's operate this way, worth a shot.
 
I have a WRT54G, and it does have an option for cloning the MAC or manually entering it. There is a MAC address clone link on the main setup page. I had the same problem as you.
 
Ditto- I have the same router as well and know there is MAC cloning supported.

Like everyone else- I think that is your issue.
 
Ok, i made the MAC the same as my laptop which works fine with the cable and still no go....
 
Reflash the firmware on the router. I have linksys routers do this every so often, soon as you reflash it, it works fine.
 
I believe you should be using a crossover cable to connect the modem to your router. Not a straight-through.
 
Also in the router makesure you have something listed under the router name and host name. Some ISPS require it.
 
Had a similar problem at work when we chucked a standard wirelress router/modem combo in to get a basic WAN setup.

The three things we had to change in the wireless router's settings to get it work were first turning off DHCP on the wireless router and secondly, we had to turn off it's internal firewall so it'd let traffic through to the modem and finally we had to set it's IP address so it was in the range normally used by our network.

Hopefully this helps you find the problem and solve it.
 
Yes but it sounds like your setup was
Router > Modem > Network
From your "let traffic through to the modem" comment.

This is not the case here.
 
When I swap the cable from my computer to my wrt54g router, I have to unplug the cable modem and plug it back in. This assigns the IP lease to the router. It works for me on Mediacom as well as my sister on Comcast. Give it a try if you haven't already.

Just unplug both of them, plug the cable modem in, plug the router in. Wait a minute, check your internet.
 
Or turn off DHCP on your router and let the modem do it (if it has the ability). Also see what your router's gateway is and log into modem using that IP. Check the settings and make sure everything is set up right.
 
DHCP needs to be on as the modem doesnt do it, and its a cable connection.

I reflashed to the newest firmware and no good.

I also have a BEFSW114 that has the same problems.

I've tried a second cable modem, it still only works with one computer, with one cable connected, but not with the routers....

Windows repair still says its a DNS issue, and now i'm getting IP conflicts.
 
have you tried disabling the wap2? maybe the wireless cards don't support it, i have had to drop back the security a few times on machines ranging from usb to internal wifi, try to disable security and check.

if your not getting an ip or ip conflicts kinda sounds like the router is bunked. i would say flash up to dd-wrt, but a router should do what its suppose to, even if its cheap.

try to give it a manual ip on the client side.

if that doesn't work, i'd return and get new router.
 
also try to change that from channel 3 to something else, i think 11 is the normal one for wireless.
 
When the router is plugged into the cable modem... On the router's Status page, does the router have an IP address and DNS servers assigned from the cable provider? Can the router ping external IP addresses (IIRC, there is a ping test in the WRT54G itself) ?

If the router appears to be connected to the internet without issues, then we can move on to troubleshooting other aspects.
 
When I swap the cable from my computer to my wrt54g router, I have to unplug the cable modem and plug it back in. This assigns the IP lease to the router. It works for me on Mediacom as well as my sister on Comcast. Give it a try if you haven't already.

Just unplug both of them, plug the cable modem in, plug the router in. Wait a minute, check your internet.

same here.
 
Ok, this is a common problem, with some easy checklist items you have to do.

1. Cable companies use whatever MAC address of the machine you have connected when they do their install. So you have to 'Clone' (whatever PC was used to setup the account in the first place) the MAC address of that PC onto the Router (all Routers have this function, you might have to dig to find it). You should also write this MAC address down, in case you swap out PC's in the future (and or something happens to your Router).

2. DHCP should be setup on your Router, so you can get IP's to all the PC's you connect to it. Make sure you setup enough IP's for all your PC's (but don't do unlimited, as to help prevent hackers from getting DHCP address' from your network (should they get connected to your system).

3. If your connected system can get a vaild DHCP address from your Router (at the Command line, use IPCONFIG /All to see what is listed), but you still can't surf the web, then check the settings on your PC, to make sure there are no fixed address' listed under your Networking Section (all should say DHCP).

4. If everything is clear in your Networking Section (and all are DHCP), then perhaps your Cable Company has setup DNS servers on the one machine they originally used to setup your account. Check that machine, and if there are fixed DNS server IP's listed, you will have to put them in every PC you connect to your Router.

5. You might also have to turn off your PC's Firewall, and any other Security Suite you have loaded and see if that is causing the problem.

Hope the above helps you out. If not, it might be time for a call to your cable company for assistance (just tell them you got a new PC), or perhaps buy a new Router.

6. Forgot this one, on some cablemodems, you can access their internal pages (192.168.1.0 or something like that, should be listed in the manual the cable guy left you) to see what the MAC address they are using. Verify this is the same MAC address as what your PC that works is using. Remember, on most laptops that have WiFi, there are two MAC address', one for the Wireless NIC, and one for the Landline NIC. Make sure you are using the correct one, or none of your PC's will get internet access.
 
after reading this thread....


call their tech support. that is what they are paid to do.
 
after reading this thread....


call their tech support. that is what they are paid to do.

no, actually they're not. the official stance of MANY ISPs is that they do not support home networking equipment, unless it was purchased/installed by them as part of a package.
 
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