Tag Archives: cable modem

fried netgear WGR614 v6

Computer Aid Posted on by

I hate it when a router “partially” fails.

A customer has a wgr614 v6 wireless router. It seems that it stopped working just after they had some electrical work done.

The cable modem works fine if connected directly to the PC

I take a look, and the router behaves very strangely:

  • When I start IE, it always goes to the netgear setup wizard (even if you try going to google!)
  • The PC gets it IP settings correctly (via dhcp)
  • pinging any (even non-existent) websites, gives a reply ping from the router…
  • I start bartPE, and it also generates the strange pings… so the problem is not the PC, its the router
  • I reset to factory default setting, but nothing changes.

Based on this, I declare the modem fried, and give the customer his options… I can take it back to the office, and see if I can resurrect it, or just give up and get a new router.

Customer elects for the new router.

connecting a cable modem to a 4 port router / wap

Computer Aid Posted on by

This is a slight rehash of one of my previous articles ( http://computer-aid.com.au/blog/2006/04/28/connecting-a-dsl-modem-to-a-4-port-router/ ).

A customer had an optus cable internet modem (connected to his pc via usb). He had purchased a wireless router (d-link) and asked me to set it up (as well as a wireless pcmcia card for his laptop & a second computer).

At first glance, I think: hey, easy… its not a telstra cable internet, and I once had optus cable internet & a router connected at home, so maybe 1 hours work).

Well, I'm now so used to adsl, that I forget to do some reasonable checks:

  1. When I change anything, refresh the network settings (or even restart all the network devices)… Not doing this can cause confusion & excursions down 'one-way streets' (ie: what the h*ll is going on here?).
  2. If something doesn't make sense, keep investigating, until you understand it.

When the PC is connected directly to the modem, the ipconfig /all command shows the optus gateway & dns servers. I setup the modem & router to use the same IP subnet (192.168.100.xxx). Figuring out the modem IP address was tricky… as it doesn't show up in ipconfig! I had to go to the motorola website to find out!

I disconnect the usb between the modem & the PC, then connect the modem to the router WAN port via ethernet, then PC to router (ethernet)… but it doesn't work well (here is where I should have restarted the modem/router/PC)…

I figure the modem isn't made to work on the wan port, So I'll use the "messy workaround" (ie avoid using the WAN port). It works, but ipconfig still shows the optus gateway & dns servers. This is where alarm bells should have rung, and I should have followed point 2 above.

I now setup the laptop wireless card. It connects to the router, but no internet connection. I also try the second PC, & it also cannot connect to the internet.

I'm really puzzled… 3 PCs connected to the router, but only 1 can see the internet… why???

Eventually, I try 3 wan port configurations (dhcp enabled on only the modem, and dhcp only enabled on the router, and dhcp enabled on both). After doing a correct restart every time, I find that the ipconfig settings look normal (ie gateway & dns settings correspond to the the router address) when only the router is setup for dhcp.

I then restart the laptop: hey, it works! The other PC also works now.

Although the cable modem is slightly different from an adsl modem, the overall setup is still very similar.

Telstra cable internet

Computer Aid Posted on by

A gentleman called saying that he got a new PC, but he couldn’t connect to the internet. He has cable internet a few weeks ago, but his PC broke down & he only just plugged in the PC. He also tried the PC at his brothers place, & he was able to connect without a problem.

I wonder if this is just a faulty cable, or a faulty modem.

Once I get to the house I ask a few more questions & I find his brother has ADSL internet, not cable internet, & his brother also has a router, so he can connect a few PCs, whereas my client connects directly from PC to cable modem.

The ISP is telstra, & I’ve used cable internet before (with Optus), so they should be similar.

After an hour of trying to “ping” the modem , trying different ethernet & USB cables, I couldn’t get to the modem “configuration” web page… unless I unplugged the modem from the “thick” cable… it just didn’t make sense!

I call telstra & I quickly find out that “Telstra does it differently”… You cannot communicate with the modem unless your pc runs a special “monitor” program in the background… So I ask the obvious question: what if I connect the modem to a router… the router cannot run the “monitor” program. But the tech assures me that as long as 1 PC on the router network is running the “monitor” then everything should be fine.

What a strange setup!

Anyway, after some confusion about passwords, everything is working fine. I help setup the email, & then go my merry way.