Netgear WNR845B Failure and Simultaneous PPPOE Failure??

We had some kind of power glitch last night (had to reset all our digital clocks, etc). And I had no Wireless connection to either of our Laptops (running Vista - pretty standard stuff) this morning.

Our router (connected to a Time-Warner cable modem) would appear to be pretty much 'dead' and my wife's wired ethernet connection both seem to be suddenly defective based on the following information.

1) The amber 'link' light on my cable modem, which goes on with a connection to a live client (like one of my laptops or my router) is off when connected to the router. It is on (and/or blinks with activity) when connected to MY laptop. I have done a number of hard resets (unplug for several minutes and plug back in) to the router. The activity lights on the modem are all off (other than the 4 wired connection lights which are on) when connected to the router (and work fine connected to MY laptop).

2) Neither of the laptops sees a wireless signal from the wireless router

3) I don't have a problem connecting my laptop directly to the cable modem and getting connected

4) I can't connect my wife's laptop (via ethernet wire) to the cable modem. The amber activity light on the cable modem comes on, but nothing happens (and the light never blinks indicating activity). "Network and Sharing" shows a connection to an "unidentified network" and the internet connection is X'ed out.

5) Re: #4 above, when I take the 'connect to a network' path on my wife's laptop, and enter my ISP's Username and Password, I get a failure and 'Diagnose the Problem' yields "did not find any problems ...".

6) Re: #5 above - if I disconnect the internet connection (as in plug the ethernet wire from my wife's laptop), the symptoms are identical which leads me to conclude that this 'problem diagnosis path' doesn't detect anything outside the 'walls' of the computer. And makes me wonder just exactly what it does detect.

I think (but don't actually recall specifically) that I have connected my wife's laptop via direct ethernet wire (maybe not, but I am relative certain that I have done this a couple times in the past). Assuming that this is true the data would indicate that somehow my wife's laptop's ethernet connection has died and additionally my router has died. But I am really suspicious of 'simultaneous failure' answers to problems like this (and I am not a particularly network savvy person).

Suggestions on where to go (other than replace a laptop and a wireless router, which is what the data indicates to me)?

Thanks.

dave

Reply to
Dave Lee
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In #1 below I made a serious mis-statement. "The activity lights on the modem are all off" should have read "the activity lights on the ROUTER are all off ..."

My apologies.

dave

Reply to
Dave Lee

I'd start with just the cable modem, one PC and a direct Ethernet connection. Call your internet provider and have them run you through the procedure to attach a computer to the cable modem. With the kind of power surge you experienced it's possible the cable modem has lost it's configuration. They can talk you through setting things back up. Don't even mention the router or they will get cranky and refuse to help you with the cable modem. I suspect the PPOE settings or Ethernet settings are configured incorrectly in the cable modem, if it has not actually been damaged by the power surge.

Get that working and you can then think about the router and wireless connection. It could be something as easy as the router needing to be hardware reset, the little hard to find button and then reprogrammed. It may have lost it's configuration, including the wireless settings.

As for testing the laptop, take one over to the local library and see if it will connect to their wireless connection if they have one. If they don't have one visit a coffee shop or other location that advertises free internet and test it there. Some might even offer an Ethernet connection to test with if you talk to them nice...

Reply to
GlowingBlueMist

Thanks for the response. In particular I think that finding a hard-wired test connection should be do-able and is the sensible next step.

dave

Reply to
Dave Lee

Excellent advice but I have a side question. Which country or provider uses PPOE over cable? That's a new one on me.

Reply to
Char Jackson

Here in the good old USofA my Windows Vista "Connect to a Network" window labels my hardwired/ethernet connection as "BroadBand Connection PPPoE". And it does that even when that port it isn't connected to anything.

dave

Reply to
Dave Lee

Re: Attached

After leaving for a couple of hours, I came back to "my problems". Things had changed - specifically

1) I had lost my wired ethernet connection 2) Suddenly lights on my router that had been totally dead were alive again

So I (yet again) did a hard re-set of pretty much everything in sight. And now everything is working.

Who knows what the real problem was.

dave

Reply to
Dave Lee

Ok, but that's obviously wrong. :-)

Reply to
Char Jackson

Glad you were able to get things going again. If it happens again I'd give this a try as it has helped others with similar problems, especially when nothing is physically damaged. Power down everything, PC, Router, Cable Modem. Then power on only the Cable modem and wait for all the lights to stabilize, say a couple of minutes or so. After that power on the router and wait for it's lights to stabilize. Last power on a PC and see what it can access, if anything.

On many devices the actual sequence of "powering" on the devices can make a big difference on how the devices connect to each other as they pass information back and forth.

Reply to
GlowingBlueMist

SNIP

connection to test with if you talk to them nice...

I can actually believe that, in this case, that might well have been the issue here.

Thanks for the follow-up.

dave

Reply to
Dave Lee

Hi, I'd make sure the AC adapter for the router is in good order. Or your router may have lost some configuration(like WPA set up?) I'd reset to factory default and start over configuring it. And have you reset cable modem? Bypasa router and connect directly to modem. I always keep a configuration back up file for the router.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Remember, when you get a power glich (Quick loss, not enuf to make clocks flash 12), they will all go off and then back on at the same time and really screw things up (new VOIP modem has battery backup)... i got a few elcheapo lamp timers and just do a power cycle thing every day at 4am (or when needed during t-storm times)....

Reply to
Peter Pan

Hmmm, Small UPS is pretty cheap.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

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