Cannot Get Wireless or Wired Router Connection to Work

[Rosh]

Hey all,

I have been trying to set up a router at my girlfriend's apartment. I first tried a Linksys router that I had brought from home. I hooked it up from the wall port, to the router, to my computer. I was able to access the normal Linksys wireless setup page at 192.168.0.1 and set up a network fine. I then unplugged my ethernet cable and attempted to connect to the network and was not able to. If I recall, it 'connected' but there was no internet connection.

Likewise, I connected directly into the router to see if I could at least get the LAN internet to work but to no avail; it was the same issue.

I then tried with a Netgear router she had bought and I had the same issue, both with the wireless and the wired connection.

I tried setting both of these up both ones on my laptop and her Macbook with the same results.

I ran ipconfig but I couldn't release/renew because the 'Media is disconnected' and I'm not sure where to go from there. I also made sure all the wires were snugly in their ports and even tried switching between ports. Could anyone provide some assistance?

 

[chev65]

Normally you would connect the wall port to a modem first, then to a router, then plug machines into router or use the wireless from the router. Do you have a modem?

 

[Rosh]

Well, the internet is already provided through the wall port so the modem is not necessary. I've used my Linksys at school (which has the same setup) and had the wall port hooked up to my router, which was hooked to my computer and I set up the wireless from there, no issue.

 

[chev65]

Well, the internet is already provided through the wall port so the modem is not necessary. I've used my Linksys at school (which has the same setup) and had the wall port hooked up to my router, which was hooked to my computer and I set up the wireless from there, no issue.

All things being equal I'd have to disagree with you on that point.

The modem is required I can assure you.

 

[Rosh]

Well, I know that I personally do not use a modem at school. The school probably has them in hubs somewhere, but the students do not use modems. Likewise here at the apartment, the housing owners probably have servers of modems somewhere, but they are not accessible by the tenants. We just plug into the wall for our internet.

So no, no modems. (At least that we can do anything with)

 

[xcythe]

Modem?

Well, I know that I personally do not use a modem at school. The school probably has them in hubs somewhere, but the students do not use modems. Likewise here at the apartment, the housing owners probably have servers of modems somewhere, but they are not accessible by the tenants. We just plug into the wall for our internet.

So no, no modems. (At least that we can do anything with)

You are using your int. modem when you plug in. Hopefully it's a CAT5, so it's gigabit or at least 10/100. What specific routers are they? Linksys and Netgear? What Firmware? Wirelessrouters need 5 min to reset NVRAM and re-initialize. Do a hard reset(30/30/30) on your wireless routers before re-trying. Hold a pin on the reset button,(tiny hole on Netgear, small red hole on Linksys) for 30 seconds, then power off, (DO NOT RELEASE PIN) for 30 seconds, Power On, DO NOT RELEASE PIN, for 30 seconds, Okay Now relinquish your hold on the pin, wait ~10 seconds, turn it off ~10 seconds, then back on, give it five minutes to go through all of its light show, then it's a factory reset. Those routers can benefit from custom firmware, OpenWRT, DDwrt and Tomato. I use dd-wrt
When you get your routers rebooted and go to logon on to the settings page, Wirelessly, you have to clear the browser cache. And reset your laptop wifi adapter.
1) Factory Reset Router
2) Acquire hardwire signal, CAT5 GOES IN YELLOW PORT ON ROUTER, COMMUNICATING SIGNALS IN OTHER PORTS!
2) Re-set wifi adapter on laptop, clear browser cache, log-on to access point, (admin/password, or admin/admin, or user/password, etc) Set-up router. Note everytime you change a setting and hit 'apply/update' , router has to update its dalvik cache-NVRAM, it takes 2 min.

(recently I was updating firmware{dd-wrt} into a NetGear N3700. I was using my tablet to CAT5 to router, no outside connections to the world. I updated the firmware through the web interface, and got no response, then I noticed New firmware, but it was corrupt, then my modem was a brick, upsetting, but no sweat, just a new process. TFTP. What had really happened was my tablet used its dual band wifi card to logon to an open local Netgear N3400, update his firmware, with all my settings, PW/login. I was able to get back in a week later, and set his stuff to default, boost his broadcast strength, but had to leave ddwrt in. You not supposed to be able to update firmware w/o hardwire. His system just had to reboot and it was fine. The netgear broadcasting 'dd-wrt' disappeared after a couple weeks, a cheap belkin G took its place. Still don't know who it is)

 

[Rosh]

Well, I know that I personally do not use a modem at school. The school probably has them in hubs somewhere, but the students do not use modems. Likewise here at the apartment, the housing owners probably have servers of modems somewhere, but they are not accessible by the tenants. We just plug into the wall for our internet.

So no, no modems. (At least that we can do anything with)

You are using your int. modem when you plug in. Hopefully it's a CAT5, so it's gigabit or at least 10/100. What specific routers are they? Linksys and Netgear? What Firmware? Wirelessrouters need 5 min to reset NVRAM and re-initialize. Do a hard reset(30/30/30) on your wireless routers before re-trying. Hold a pin on the reset button,(tiny hole on Netgear, small red hole on Linksys) for 30 seconds, then power off, (DO NOT RELEASE PIN) for 30 seconds, Power On, DO NOT RELEASE PIN, for 30 seconds, Okay Now relinquish your hold on the pin, wait ~10 seconds, turn it off ~10 seconds, then back on, give it five minutes to go through all of its light show, then it's a factory reset. Those routers can benefit from custom firmware, OpenWRT, DDwrt and Tomato. I use dd-wrt
When you get your routers rebooted and go to logon on to the settings page, Wirelessly, you have to clear the browser cache. And reset your laptop wifi adapter.
1) Factory Reset Router
2) Acquire hardwire signal, CAT5 GOES IN YELLOW PORT ON ROUTER, COMMUNICATING SIGNALS IN OTHER PORTS!
2) Re-set wifi adapter on laptop, clear browser cache, log-on to access point, (admin/password, or admin/admin, or user/password, etc) Set-up router. Note everytime you change a setting and hit 'apply/update' , router has to update its dalvik cache-NVRAM, it takes 2 min.

(recently I was updating firmware{dd-wrt} into a NetGear N3700. I was using my tablet to CAT5 to router, no outside connections to the world. I updated the firmware through the web interface, and got no response, then I noticed New firmware, but it was corrupt, then my modem was a brick, upsetting, but no sweat, just a new process. TFTP. What had really happened was my tablet used its dual band wifi card to logon to an open local Netgear N3400, update his firmware, with all my settings, PW/login. I was able to get back in a week later, and set his stuff to default, boost his broadcast strength, but had to leave ddwrt in. You not supposed to be able to update firmware w/o hardwire. His system just had to reboot and it was fine. The netgear broadcasting 'dd-wrt' disappeared after a couple weeks, a cheap belkin G took its place. Still don't know who it is)

Well, this is where my networking greenness comes out. I wasn't too terribly familiar with a few of the terms you used. I was able to pull off the factory reset but the problems still remain.

I figure it has something to do with the way the apartment complex's internet is configured around here. My girlfriend had previously talked to some IT techs and they said the router probably wouldn't work because the 'IP address rotates every 8 hours' at the complex. I'm not sure what to do about this.

 

[xcythe]

Can you see your router on "available wireless networks" in the pop-up window on your laptop? If it's broadcasting you should logon to it, either the IP address, 192.168.0.1 or routerlogin.net or something. I ususally find it on the router, or DL linksys software. You can set the router up to reset itself, every hour, or night, whenever. There are settings for static or dynamic IP. If you can get internet from the wall, the router can broadcast it.