Cable/DSL Router Question...

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 8:41 pm

Well, yesterday, our old Terrayon (I think that's how it's spelled.) modem gave out, so today, I went down to the local Comcast building and exchanged it for a new Motorola modem.

It works perfectly, and I can get on the internet and download stuff, just like I could before, but the Cisco Systems LINKSYS Cable/DSL router isn't connected to the modem, and our PC is telling me that:

"You might not be able to access the internet or some network resources. This problem occurred because the network did not assign a network address to the computer."

I don't understand why I'm getting this message, because everything does work fine, bypassing the router.

And, in any event, the router is plugged in, but the power light isn't on, so we can't use it.

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 9:29 pm

Try this (assuming you're running WindowsXP) :

Go to Start | Run and type "cmd" to bring up a command prompt.

From the command prompt, type "ipconfig /all" and let us know what the results for IP address, and default gateway are (you might want to replace the last digits of your IP address with "xxx" for privacy purposes when you do this.) If it's something that starts with 169.254.x.x that generally means Windows isn't getting a DHCP address from anywhere (although if this was the case it probably wouldn't work at all.) Most routers will provide a 192.168.1.x address. In some cases if you're on a wireless connection, it is possible that the system is ignoring your equipment entirely and hopping onto someone else's unsecured wireless access point (which will usually get you an Internet connection, but can be difficult to track down at times.) If the IP address is something else, it's probably coming from Comcast's server directly.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 9:48 pm

Vexorg wrote:Try this (assuming you're running WindowsXP) :

Go to Start | Run and type "cmd" to bring up a command prompt.

From the command prompt, type "ipconfig /all" and let us know what the results for IP address, and default gateway are (you might want to replace the last digits of your IP address with "xxx" for privacy purposes when you do this.) If it's something that starts with 169.254.x.x that generally means Windows isn't getting a DHCP address from anywhere (although if this was the case it probably wouldn't work at all.) Most routers will provide a 192.168.1.x address. In some cases if you're on a wireless connection, it is possible that the system is ignoring your equipment entirely and hopping onto someone else's unsecured wireless access point (which will usually get you an Internet connection, but can be difficult to track down at times.) If the IP address is something else, it's probably coming from Comcast's server directly.

How do I get to the command prompt?

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 9:53 pm

Vexorg wrote:Go to Start | Run and type "cmd" to bring up a command prompt.

That is, click the Start button in the lower left corner of the screen, then select Run... in the menu that pops up.

After you click Run..., there should be a small window in the corner with a text input box. Then type cmd in the text box and it will open up the prompt.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 10:18 pm

Got it-Default Gateway: 67.177.240.1

IP: 67.177.241.216

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 1:57 am

OK, based on that, it looks like your system is picking up an IP address directly from Comcast. If you only have one computer to connect this would probably be OK for now, but make absolutely certain you have a firewall running on your system (at the very least Windows Firewall, but something better like Norton or McAfee firewall or ZoneAlarm wouldn't hurt.) Usually your router would handle assigning IP addresses for you, and would also cover firewall functionality. As for why you might be getting error messages about limited connectivity, it can happen if there are other network connections (like the Ethernet port if you use wireless, or sometimes Firewire shows up as a connection.) If you disable the ones you aren't using, that might help the situation. The best way to do this is to try to resolve the problem with the router though (it may be a hardware issue, if a power surge knocked out the old cablemodem it could have taken out the router with it.)

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 3:43 am

Vexorg wrote:OK, based on that, it looks like your system is picking up an IP address directly from Comcast. If you only have one computer to connect this would probably be OK for now, but make absolutely certain you have a firewall running on your system (at the very least Windows Firewall, but something better like Norton or McAfee firewall or ZoneAlarm wouldn't hurt.) Usually your router would handle assigning IP addresses for you, and would also cover firewall functionality. As for why you might be getting error messages about limited connectivity, it can happen if there are other network connections (like the Ethernet port if you use wireless, or sometimes Firewire shows up as a connection.) If you disable the ones you aren't using, that might help the situation. The best way to do this is to try to resolve the problem with the router though (it may be a hardware issue, if a power surge knocked out the old cablemodem it could have taken out the router with it.)

Thanks for the info. I'd really rather not get another router, though, as long as we only have one PC. We do have Norton Antivirus installed on our PC, and it performs regular scans. I don't have wireless Ethernet; the Ethernet cable connects directly from the modem to an Ethernet port in our Vaio. The only connection that I am not using is the router, so I could disable that.

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 4:23 am

Antivirus software is a good thing to have, but I would recommend using some sort of firewall software in addition to the antivirus software if you are connecting the system directly to the Internet. Antivirus won't protect against things like port scans or malware. A firewall can block these.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 4:58 pm

Vexorg wrote:Antivirus software is a good thing to have, but I would recommend using some sort of firewall software in addition to the antivirus software if you are connecting the system directly to the Internet. Antivirus won't protect against things like port scans or malware. A firewall can block these.

Doesn't Windows XP have a built-in Firewall?

Post by **Shatterhand** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 3:58 am

Yeah, make sure it's ON !

And like he said, consider getting a BETTER firewall. Windows XP also comes with Wordpad, but that's hardly the best text editor you can have

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 3:02 am

Shatterhand wrote:Yeah, make sure it's ON !

And like he said, consider getting a BETTER firewall. Windows XP also comes with Wordpad, but that's hardly the best text editor you can have

Yeah, it's on. How much would a better firewall cost, and what does Wordpad have to do with PC security?

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 5:19 am

He was just making an example with the Wordpad. I think there is Tinyfirewall and Zonealarm available for free. I personally would turn off Xp's firewall, and keep ZA on all the time.