Got called by a friend to come look at why none of the PC's in his office could access the Internet any more. He had replaced his DSL modem a couple weeks ago and had been having problems ever since. 1 desktop machine (wired), two laptops (wireless), all running Vista, and connecting to the DSL modem through a fairly new Netgear WRT54 router (the "skinny" type with internal antennas).
Although the AT&T DNS servers are showing up on the modem's interface page, there is apparently something preventing them from being used when a PC needs to reach an Internet site. The only way I could get the PC's to work was to "hard code" the DNS server addresses in the network connection properties on each PC. What might be wrong? They are using Norton 360 on the PC's, if that matters.
Is that a Speedstream DSL modem, by any chance?
I installed a Linksys router at a client site a couple of months ago that used a Speedstream modem. Would work for about a minute and then stop. Weirdent thing I have seen. Seems that the router would first get the Public IP address from the modem and then it would switch to a Private IP address, right in front of your eyes...
I ended up assigning a Static Private address to the Router in the subnet the Speedstream modem used and that got things going properly...
Very strange indeed...
There could be a number of simple IP addressing problems stopping him, but has he tried first calling netgear support to ask about the configuration? If they can't or won't run it through with him, I'd be surprised. (And get equipment from another vendor.)
I'd shut down the wireless machines and wireless configuration, get the wired ethernet to work first, and then look at the WiFi as a totally separate issue.
Some of the stoppers can be real simple: The gateway address or DHCP range of the box is not the same from all vendors. And if you don't get DHCP working properly, the cmpputers can revert to APIPA (similar to DHCP but using an incompatible address range) and totally hose themselves.
If all that sounds like Greek...that's why it should be simpler to call the maker's tech support.
>> Is that a Speedstream DSL modem, by any chance? <<
They had been using a Speedstream 5100 until about 3 weeks ago, when they replaced it with a Motorola 2210-02 (box says AT&T, too). Went back there today to add RAM to the desktop PC and set security on the wireless connections. Office was busy so I had to limit my "intrusion" into their work, but when I looked at the Linksys configuration pages, I noticed it was only showing 1 DNS server address. Also noticed the firmware was version 1.0, and was dated about a year and a half ago. Think a firmware upgrade might help?
>> I'd shut down the wireless machines and wireless configuration, get the wired ethernet to work first, and then look at the WiFi as a totally separate issue. <<
All 3 machines are picking up an IP address via DHCP just fine. It's just DNS that's the problem.
Then the first suspect would be to call AT&T support and ask for the IP address of their primary and secondary DNS servers--they will have AT LEAST TWO because even DNS servers do go down.
Check with Motorola to make sure those addresses are properly entered in the "dsl modem" and then reboot it to make sure they are actually in effect. It is also possible that the gateway address in the Motorola box is not set the same as it was in the Linksys, that's probably a red herring but check it as well.
If they don't have DNS at that point, it could mean that AT&T is doing something "secure" and shutting out requests from unregistered boxes, similar to the way cable companies were infamous for shutting down new "modems" with unknown IP addresses. You may need to call back AT&T at that point to ask them if your new box needs to be "registered" by the MAC or IP address it is using, etc.
>>Motorola 2210-02
Did they go through the install process with that Modem? If not, it is still configured to connect to AT&T's servers to esyabkish the account, most likely. Those settings are "limited" to talking to the AT&T website...
Found that out with a client whose modem failed and the got that Motorolla unit as a replacement. The original settings log into a special server. Chaging the settings to their assigned login information got things going ptoperly...
>> Did they go through the install process with that Modem? <<
They don't know. Some other guy bought and installed it, so I asked them to track him down and see what he did. Is there supposed to be a setup CD with the modem, or a set of printed instructions, or what?
>>Is there supposed to be a setup CD with the modem
I do not recall a CD (and would never use it if there was obe as it wants to install Yahoo junk and "brand" IE/OE with AT&T/Yahoo logos). I also do not recall instructions either. What I did was attach the modem and the first time I brought up a web browser, the default DNS settings in the modem directed me to a set of configuration pages. Since the client already had an established account, those pages were not making sense. So, I went into the modem configuration and found the "custom" settings. I changed the PPPoE info to their account as well as the DNS settings to obtain automatically and that got things going properly. One other thing I found was that modem is a DHCP server, HOWEVER, it is "locked" into providing ONE address...
>> One other thing I found was that modem is a DHCP server, HOWEVER, it is "locked" into providing ONE address... <<
So DHCP is turned OFF in the modem? Otherwise, there'd be problems with a router, right?
No. DHCP is ON, but it only allows ONE address and there is no DHCP pool configuration option in the modem's web based configuration...
If you use a router, make sure to use a different subnet...
>> If you use a router, make sure to use a different subnet...
Had a chance to go by their office this afternoon, to look at the info on the router and the modem. Couldn't bring up the modem's interface: a sticker on the bottom says its address is 192.168.1.254, but every attempt to reach it resulted in an error message "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage." Even tried turning off the Norton 360 firewall on the PC I was using (having seen problems before with other firewall products when trying to reach a modem), but that didn't help. I do have the IP info on the PC and the router, if any of it might mean anything, absent the modem info.
See what is reported for the Gateway address when connected to the Modem - odds are good that's the Modem's IP address...
If push comes to shove, manually connect a PC to the modem and set a static address in the 192,168,1,xxx range and talk to it that way...
>> See what is reported for the Gateway address when connected to the Modem - odds are good that's the Modem's IP address...
Default Gateway on the router? That is 75.45.95.254
Default Gateway on the PC? That is 192.168.1.1
Most likely, you need to be cabled into the Modem directly to access it's configuration then...
