Need some router help - Updated Info - Still need help

[New2Computers]

<< My Linksys BEFSR41's dhcp support for automatically assigning up addresses to it from my cable connection provider does not include 255.255.254.0 (Class C?) subnet masks... which makes it basically impossible to use my connection on more then one computer currently, since I can't use the router. >>



Ok, now after devling deeper into the problem and having a greater understanding of how the router configuration works, the drop down menu is most likely for assigning a subnet mask for the local area network, not for when it is connecting through DHCP, with which it should automatically get the subnet mask from my provider.

I still cannot connect through the router though... I have the MAC address cloned, the latest firmware, the proxys typed in, checked and rechecked..

Someone from work said it could possibly even be looking for my machine name instead of/as well as the MAC address... but that does not make sense as I have been able to connect fine, without using the router, on a few different computers...

Any ideas?

 

[jbjtkbw00]

Have you contacted Linksys directly? They've actually helped me on occasion. Also, their online help is pretty thorough. I own the same router and I have 2 computers connected through it sharing access to my Road Runner account. It was pretty much plug and go. I'm running Windows XP Professional on both and I didn't even have to mess around with any settings. Also, I'm using the Linksys LNE1000TX NIC cards in both systems.

I know this hasn't exactly answered your question fully, but I hope it gives you a little more insight. Good luck.

-Mike

 

[New2Computers]

Yes I contacted Linksys, they are the ones that told me their router didnt support that subnet setting.

They said to try to set the router to a static ip and change it as my ip changes but that is way too difficult and annoying to continuously reconfigure the router. I know I already tried it Everytime I type all that stuff in I spend over an hour typing and retyping since I always seem to type something in wrong, the MAC address or something heh

I could still use some more help if anyone has any ideas

 

[Lord Evermore]

Class C is 255.255.255.0

I can almost guarantee that it does support 254.0, or any other size. AT&T uses a 248.0 address block, and while I personally haven't used the Linksys for a long time, my roommate's family still is and they're working fine, and we always worked fine as far as IP addresses while using the Linksys. (Using a Netgear RT314 now.) The DHCP client on the Linksys should be able to accept any address and block size your ISP chooses to use.

On the INTERNAL LAN interface the Linksys does not support anything but a Class C block of addresses. This is the DHCP server side and is completely separate from your external interface, and supports up to 253 machines being connected (technically).

 

[New2Computers]

I'm just passing the information I received I don't really understand any of it.

The only thing I'm sure of is that when my router is set up for dhcp, my computer cannot get any internet activity.

When my router is set to the static ip address I can connect until the address changes.

I connect fine without going through the router.

In the router configuration when you choose automatically obtain an ip address there is a drop down menu to choose the subnet mask and .254 is not on the list, all of them are variations of 255.255.255.0 (255.255.255.178 etc).

I really have no clue Lord Evermore, if you have any ideas what I can try please let me know.

 

[lorlabnew]

Looks like you're screwed with the Linksys. Btw, did you check if there is any firmware upgrade for that router?

I'm using Netgear RT314 as the other guy above, and have no problems to setup anything. The Netgear routers are very cheap compared to what I've paid some time ago ($200 I think), I believe you could get one for around $60-80. Have attbi.com cable connection, and it has 255.255.252.0 subnet mask (DHCP assigned IP address).

RT314 has Unix command line advanced interface, so it's highly configurable, and Netgear keeps updating the firmware quite often; I'm very pleased with my router. Actually, all my hubs are Netgear as well, like their sturdy construction (router itself is small & nice built too).

Dave






<< I'm just passing the information I received I don't really understand any of it.

The only thing I'm sure of is that when my router is set up for dhcp, my computer cannot get any internet activity.

When my router is set to the static ip address I can connect until the address changes.

I connect fine without going through the router.

In the router configuration when you choose automatically obtain an ip address there is a drop down menu to choose the subnet mask and .254 is not on the list, all of them are variations of 255.255.255.0 (255.255.255.178 etc).

I really have no clue Lord Evermore, if you have any ideas what I can try please let me know. >>

 

[jbjtkbw00]

A few additional suggestions

[1Try updating the firmware to it's most current release[/list]
[2]Try disabling the DHCP[/list]
[3]And finally, try resetting your router by inserting a small pin through the hole in the front. Hold it til the red light comes on and release[/list]

I've experienced my router performing "time-outs". I couldn't connect through the router at all, but when I connected directly from the modem, things went fine. I performed option 3 from above, and voila, everything worked fine.

I'm not much more experienced than you are, but I do agree with the earlier post from Lord Evermore: the Linksys should perform fine.

-Mike

 

[New2Computers]

Thanks for the help guys, I have the newest version of the firmware.

This was the reply from Linksys:

Dear Valued Linksys Costumer,

Thank you for contacting Linksys Technical Support. My apology but the router only supports Class C subnets.

below that was just the contact information... I guess that means I read it wrong and posted that it didn't support Class C subnets. Ooops!!

I'm kind of stumped myself, I really wish I didn't have to spend more money but I will if I'm sure that will fix my problem.

 

[Lord Evermore]

Well, it's been so long since I used a Linksys. However I don't recall any need to select a netmask from a dropdown list. It was always just typed in manually. In addition, if you are setting it to obtain the information automatically, it doesn't matter whether you'd have to type it in or select from a dropdown, since that was disabled when you select the automatic IP info.

Here's a possibility: does your ISP require that you register your network card's MAC address with them in order to get service? Meaning, can you just plug your cable modem into any random machine, any network card, and still get service, or do you have to do it with ONLY the one computer that you originally got it installed with? Many cable providers require the MAC address of the NIC to be registered, and will not assign an IP to anything else. You may not have even known it was being done during the install, as the cable installer would have just called it in when he registered the cable modem's MAC address and serial number.

If your ISP does require it (you may need to call tech support to find out, or look through their support web pages), then you have two options. The Linksys I think now supports MAC spoofing, so you can tell it to spoof using the MAC address of your computer that does work on the connection, OR you can call the cable company and have them register the router's MAC address. Mediaone/AT&T, my provider, allows me to register multiple MAC addresses, though only one can be online at a time, so that I can switch between my router and a single workstation for troubleshooting (and they do know it's a router, they've never given me trouble about it).

[Edit] Based on that email, I would say that they didn't understand what you were asking about. I think they were talking about the internal network connection only supporting a Class C, not the external address.

 

[New2Computers]

Thanks for the help Evermore, yes I've tried that.. my router is currently spoofed to the original pc I was connecting on, but the company does not require the address since I have been able to directly connect to it without going through the router on a couple different PCs.

I just typed it in to make sure

 

[New2Computers]

Up

 

[speed01]

Try setting your DNS entry to your internal IP address and the router. When my ISP went to dynamic addressing, I had a lot of fun trying to get anything to connect to the internet until I set my server to itself and the gateway and then setting the rest of my machines to the server for DNS resolution.

 

[Lord Evermore]

First thing, when you get new information, it's best to just add a new post to the thread with the new information. Otherwise it's hard to tell where people started replying to the new information. (Just my opinin of course.)

Second: when you set up the router, leave the router turned off, reboot the cable modem (leave it off for 1 minute then turn it back on), wait for it to sync with the network (there should be lights on it, they may not be well labelled but eventually you should probably have a power light and a sync light on steady, depending on model). Then turn on the router, wait for it to reboot, then wait 1 minute. Then telnet into the router from your machine and check the status page. See if it has any information listed for the external interface's IP, DNS, etc.

You may have already tried all that, but it's about all I've got left. The cable/dsl routers are almost completely plug and play, some people don't need to configure a single thing on them. Since you don't really need to spoof the MAC address, you should theoretically be able to do the same.

 

[Tarmouth]

can't offer much help with cable set up (im on dsl) but i have a few questions ; Does you rig have internal LAN ? My linsys gave me hell till i noticed my internal was conflicting. Also had problems till i set the option for MTU in the linksys(although this may be due to dsl set up and not applicable for you).

 

[rmblam]

It sounds like you are making this harder than it is.

Did you try:

- setting the router to use DHCP. (reboot the router)

- Configuring each client to "automatically obtain IP and DNS". (reboot each client)

- eliminate the proxy.


What ISP do you use?

You might find an answer or two here also. http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/dsl.htm

 

[Bleep]

It sounds to me like you do not have windows networking installed. Check and make sure tcp/ip is bound to your network cards. Get your LAN going and working before trying to connect to your WAN. Are all your machines on the same workgroup?? Make sure that each machine has it's own name.
Bleep

 

[PlatinumGold]

Ok, now after devling deeper into the problem and having a greater understanding of how the router configuration works, the drop down menu is most likely for assigning a subnet mask for the local area network, not for when it is connecting through DHCP, with which it should automatically get the subnet mask from my provider.


no.

a router is basically 2 nic cards, one going to the ISP and one going to YOUR LAN.

if you set up the NIC going to the ISP as Dynamic it will pick up all IP info necessary for that end of the connection. the NIC going to your lan however still needs it's info. now most of that should be coded into the router. all router's set up internal NICS using Class C subnets. now again, ur confusion is, which NIC ur referring to when you talk about supporting Class C or not.

the netgear router i have calls the Nic goin to the ISP as the WAN and the Nic goin to my internal lan as the LAN, wowsers.

you shouldn't have to worry about subnet mask etc from your ISP, that should work dynamically.

one thing you might wanna check. often the ISP's look for a certain mac address. it could be u originally set everything up using your PC then installed the Router. if such is the case, the ISP will have the PC's mac address on record. what you wanna do then is call them and tell them u changed nics and they will make the appropriate changes or have ur router spoof ur pc's mac address.

 

[New2Computers]

The router is set for dhcp...

I have reset the router many times, hard resets (holding a pencil in the small hole) and soft ones..

I have tried cloning the MAC address as you mentioned PlatinumGold, but it still does not work nor do I believe this is the problem since i was able to connect directly through the modem itself and the connection was working fine, thats what I'm using to connect on this PC as I'm typing this.

Yes, Windows networking should be fine, I had a PPPoE DSL provider before this, and am able to connect to the internet directly through the modem itself.

The network card is set to automatically obtain the information rmblam.

Speed01, I'm not quite sure what you are talking about in your statement, if you could clarify so I can make an attempt at your possible fix I would appreciate it.

Thanks for all the help so far guys, I just seem really unlucky

 

[speed01]

Recently, my ISP switched from static addressing to dynamic. According to them, all I had to do was switch my IP to DHCP and everything
would work. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. If i connected one PC directly to the modem, it worked fine but once I went through the
router, nothing would work. After a lot of experimenting, I discovered that if I set the DNS search order of my server to the router internal address
(ie 192.168.1.1) and to itself (ie 192.168.1.2) it would once again connect normally. So I then went a step further and set the rest of my
machines to the same set of addresses and now everything works properly. I haven't quite figured out why it works this way but it does and
if I turn the server off none of the other machines can get out which isn't a problem for me since the server is always on anyway. Hope it helps.

Speed

BTW, turn off the DHCP service to your PC from the router and assign the PC a static address first.

 

[New2Computers]

Thanks Speed, I'm well aquainted with networking and server information, so can you clarify for me as to what that means I should try on the router DNS settings?

 

[jbjtkbw00]

OK, this is gonna sound REALLY dumb. Have you tried another router to see if this one is defective? I know that we've been talking settings, resetting and such, but I still can't get over the fact that this thing isn't working from normal plug and play operation. Just a suggestion, mind you. Let us know.

-Mike

 

[Lord Evermore]

The router acts as a "proxy DNS" server for you. You set your PC to use your router's internal address as the DNS server. Then when you make requests, they go to the router and then it makes the request to the real DNS server.

For my Netgear, this is assigned by DHCP anyway. You can look by running "winipcfg" in Win9x or "ipconfig /all" on a command prompt in NT/2k/XP.

I don't see a response after I suggested it, did you ever try logging into the router's web-based setup after connecting to the cable modem? You need to first see if your router is even GETTING anything from the network as far as IP. If it's not, then the internal networking isn't going to make a bit of difference.

 

[speed01]

Let the router get it's info from DHCP. On your pc, set the DNS search order to the router internal address and then to itself and see if it works.
You could also try setting the pc DNS to the DNS address given to your router if the above doesn't work.
You want the router to use DHCP but not act as a DHCP server for your pc. Assign the router an address such as 192.168.1.1 and give your pc
an address like 192.168.1.2. That way, you can set your pc DNS search order to 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.2.

 

[Lord Evermore]

And what exactly is the point of telling the computer to use itself to lookup DNS?

 

[New2Computers]

The router is not defective, I am connected through it right now... just not using DHCP, I have it set to use a static ip address.

Once I set it to use dynamic instead of static... I shouldn't have to change anything else to make it work... but it just won't connect.

Yes I can access the web-based set-up Evermore, at least I can right now and its hooked up to the modem.