At the end of my tether with Belkin wireless!!

I've posted various messages on this group and people have been very helpful, but still I can't get connected. A resume of the situation:

a) I have a laptop with XP home. b) I am in the UK and connected to talktalk broadband c) I bought a Belkin modem/router d) Tried to make connection with external netgear USB network adaptor (I had one lying around), but no luck! e) With same adaptor could connect to my neighbours wireless router (perhaps they have a netgear router?) f) Went and bought a belkin network adaptor thinking belkin goes with belkin and..still no luck. g) Cried

There is a Belkin Wireless Network Utility that shows a good connection between the router and the laptop, but no connection between the router and the Internet. But if I use the old usb modem I connect fine to my broadband connection. If tried with and without firewall and still no luck.

Any ideas?

Peter

Reply to
peter
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Peter:

Well, I would try a cross over cable between the router and the belkin. (Or, if the belkin has a port that is designated as a cross over port, use that port with a standard cable.)

Reply to
Richard Johnson

Have you tried "cloning" your laptops MAC address in the router's setup?

Reply to
Axel Hammerschmidt

How do you do that?

Peter

Axel Hammerschmidt wrote:

Reply to
peter

Somewhere on the router's web setup pages.

Reply to
Axel Hammerschmidt

I rang up Belkin (they were very helpful!). On the setup screen they were surprised that there was no connection to the Internet. This is a similar problem that I had from Wireless Network Utility screen. But how can this be if I can switch the cables over and connect via a USB modem in about 1 minute? The guy at Belkin thought that I should check my username and password, but to be honest I think he was stumped!

BTW: It's a combined router/modem from Belkin.

Peter

Richard Johns> Peter:

Reply to
peter

If this is a modem that you connect to your broadband isp, if it is replacing a modem that you already have, it has to be provisioned by your isp for it to work. (usually that means that they have to register the mac address and/or the s/n of the modem so that their system will recognize it)

Apologies if I misunderstood the description of your situation.

Reply to
rieker

I've been trying to set up the modem/router by typing in the username, password etc onto the setup screen that the belkin has. The modem/router should have "learnt" my settings, but somehow hasn't ?!?

Peter

rieker wrote:

Reply to
peter

No...you must register your 'new' modem with your isp. You cannot just buy a dsl or cable modem and take it home and hook it up. (only on dialup can you do that) Some isp's (in the US) have a web page where users can change their broadband modems, but it is still a special event.

Your isp will want to know things like: Manufacturer, model no. Serial no. mac address and maybe more.

After they register your modem, their system will then 'talk' to it and allow it to access the internet.

Likely your username/pwd will be unchanged.

Reply to
rieker

Whoa - this works if you plug hte USB modem directly into the PC, but doesn't work if you plug the router into the PC? Did you power _everything_ off betweentimes? Sometimes ISPs require this to swap between different hardware.

Also, try it without using the wireless bit for now, get it working with a plain ethernet cable from PC to router, then try re-enabling wireless to fix any problems there.

Reply to
Mark McIntyre

Interesing/annoying - I've noticed that the connection via the ethernet cable is never very good. When I'm connected this way for the belkin setup I can connect to the Internet. Now I don't know if it's a fault with my new laptop or possibly the cable.

If the ethernet cable never allowed me to connect to the internet, might this be the route of the problem. I keep getting the limited/no connection warning with the ethernet cable. I've tried plugging it into all four of the ethernet ports on the modem/router and the same with all.

Peter

Mark Mc> >

Reply to
peter

Peter,

Is this a cable connection or phone line/ADSL?

If it's a cable modem then see rieker's comments.

If it's an ADSL modem then you won't normally need to register it but you will need to make sure a) your line is broadband enabled and b) you have filters fitted to the phone sockets.

Reply to
CWatters

Ok so your computer can talk to the router ok but the router can't talk to your ISP.

Fire up that config menu again in the router an look to see if the router has managed to get a WAN IP address from the ISP. If not it will probably have a default WAN IP address listed in the manual. If it's not getting a valid IP address (ask your ISP) check the router is set to get a Dynamic WAN IP address.

Most modems/routers have a status page that reports on the condition of the connection with the ISP fire that up and see what it says.

Double check all the talktalk settings that you have to set in the router. I've been caught out in the past by the difference between the user name and the account name with my ISP. Try getting the data from the status pages in your old USB modem.

Double check any settings that refer to a "proxy" in the router. While you are at it do the same for IE -> tools -> Internet Options -> connections ->

LAN settings - proxy server

Reply to
CWatters

Trying to do this but the ethernet connection now seems very bad. When I plug it in I get "limited/no connection". I've tried all four ports. Tried another ethernet cable and the same result. Looks like there is a problem with the ethernet port on the router or the laptop? Is there anyway to find out which if any is faulty??

Peter

CWatters wrote:

Reply to
peter

If you are getting this with your ethernet cable, then either it or your router is broken. Try a new cable.

Reply to
Mark McIntyre

I would suggest going back to the start and working forward, this will allow you to see what the exact problem is. Also, aim to get a working internet connection via wire first before progressing to wireless.

Here's what I would do:

1) Completely reset the belkin router to factory settings (usually this involves inserting a paperclip in a hole at the back for 30 seconds).

2) Check the network settings for the wired connection on your laptop. Ensure that the connection is set for an automatically allocated IP address / gateway address / DNS address. Ensure the connection is set to show status when connected.

3) Connect power and phone cables to the router. Then connect a straight-through Cat-5 cable between the laptop and the router. Wait for the lights on the outer to settle down. There should be a DSL or ADSL light, and this show show a solid light (not flashing). The router should also show a light for the port (1-4) you connected to; the laptop should show a "double-screen" icon on the system tray for the network connection (opposite end of the taskbar from the start button).

4) Double-click the double-screen icon on the laptop and you should get a popup dialogue with two tabs "General" and "Support". Click the "Support" tab and check the IP address. If it starts with 169 then you do not have a good connection to the router, and either the router or the cable are suspect. If the IP address is something else (normally

192.168.x.x) then we can proceed to the next stage.

5) Below the IP address, check the "Default gateway" address. Open Internet Explorer and type that address into the address bar. THis should bring up the router control panel (you may need to log in). Go to the WAN / ADSL settings page, and enter your user-name and password; for TalkTalk the user-name is normally @talktalk.net, the password is usually an eight or ten character alternating alpha-numeric string. Ensure that you type these exactly as shown including the @talktalk.net part. If you are using a TalkTalk supplied password, the normally the alpha characters are lower-case. If it's your own password, then you will need to ensure that the case is correct. Dont change any other settings. Click Apply or Save Settings or whatever is shown.

6) Wait two minutes and you should now be connected to the internet. If not, then either the user-name/password are wrong, or the router is faulty, or the connection from the router to the phone is faulty. To check the latter if necessary, change the filter for a different one.

Try the above and post back with the results, and we should be able to get to the bottom of this. If the above works, then we should be able to wrap up the wireless part pretty quickly.

If you are posting back, the exact model number of the router would be useful.

Reply to
William

Thanks for the exhaustive list.

Everything works fine until no.6. So it must be the modem/router (BelkinF5D7632-4). I've used two different ethernet cables and tried all four ethernet ports on the Belkin.

Weird thing is that the network card (Belkin also) detects the Belkin modem/router just fine and tells me that I have an excellent connection. I've disabled the firewall but still doesn't help.

Peter

William wrote:

Reply to
peter

is this your router ?

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BTW - do you have the UK version or another version ?
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This is an ADSL device. Therefore, you should have an ADSL physical line installed at your location ? is that correct ? Does it look like a normal telephone jack on the wall - ?

That jack should then have a filter/splitter installed, and a RJ11 cable should then go from the wall jack to the modem/router and connect to the WAN port - not any of the Ethernet ports. Look at the quick install guide -

wall jack ---> splitter/filter ---> RJ11 cable ---> modem/router (WAN) connection

Reply to
P.Schuman

here's the manual -

Reply to
P.Schuman

Perhaps worth googling for "limited or no connection"...

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This thread has a load of suggestions - it could take a month to try them all!

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The only one I wouldn't try is enabling ICS. Thats likely to cause more problems.

It's not clear if the problem is due to your computer loosing the IP allocated by the DHCP server in the router OR of the router is loosing the IP address allocated by your ISP. It might be looking in the event logs to see if there are any errors in there that give a glue. Otherwise try forcing your PC to use a static IP to see if that helps.

If all else fails.... buy the T-Shirt...

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Reply to
CWatters

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