Not sure where to put this. Started off as wireless router issue

McGraw · 29-04-2008, 09:43

Hello.

My mate has asked me to go round to wirelessly connect his daughter's Vista laptop to his existing wireless network on old NTL equipment.

I'm not exactly sure why it wouldn't connect but I wanted to avoid taking a whole evening out of my life for a favour so I tried to sort things remotely. Unfortunately I couldn't get Messenger to accept his assistance request even though I'm definitely on the latest version.

So, I told him to do what I would do myself and reset his router (A belkin 54g job). He did this and he described the lights flashing on and he said it was definitely different to what happens when it normally switches on.

Despite this, his network, according to his laptops are still security enabled with the old SSID which I find pretty unbelievable.

Also, I asked him to connect his laptop to the router with cat 5 but he didn't get a gateway ip which again, I find pretty incredible.

Now he is saying that his phone isn't working and neither is his other, previously working laptop getting on the internet even though it's saying he's connected to the router. How can his phone not be working? When I had NTL, it had it's own separate BT style socket.

Can anyone give me any clues as to what the heck might be going on before I trek round there on Wednesday.

Cheers.

trevortt · 29-04-2008, 09:47

What are the specs, make model of the laptop also, is the the router Vista compatible?

**Rob** · 29-04-2008, 09:48

It's always possible that Virgin Media have cut your mate off - perhaps a billing issue? If the phone isn't working, and his modem lights are off, then I'd be pointing to a cable service issue and contacting Virgin Media.

McGraw · 29-04-2008, 09:51

Never even considered that the router wouldn't be Vista compatible.

He hasn't been cut off as it was all working fine until I told him to pull plugs/reboot stuff etc.

**Rob** · 29-04-2008, 10:02

But why would the phone die, when on cable that is a separate connection to the broadband, or is he on a ADSL service

McGraw · 29-04-2008, 10:27

I know what you're saying re: the phone shouldn't be affected at all so I think he might be winding me up up about that.

On the other hand though, I distinctly remember his set up being different to mine. His STB is downstairs and all the internet stuff is upstairs.

GeoffW · 29-04-2008, 13:23

You need to build up the connection in stages. First directly connected to the router, make sure you get a DHCP address, then access the config page with your browser ( http://192.168.1.1 ) and check the WAN status and the wireless set up.

Then connect wirelessly to the router config page. If all this is working and the internet is up then it should all work.

Horace · 01-05-2008, 22:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by trevortt

What are the specs, make model of the laptop also, is the the router Vista compatible?

Routers are OS and computer independent. Any computer; MAC, PC, Amiga etc with a working network card will work with any consumer grade router.
The specs of the laptop will be irrelevant too as long as they have the necessary wired or wireless networking capability.

This forum is here to help people and it's not helpful leading people on wild goose chases by making them consider problems that don't exist.

Polevik · 17-06-2008, 12:46

did I read that correctly a router not being vista compatible :-)
as correctly stated by horace a router is not operating system dependent. I mean I dont like vista but lets not blame the poor thing for everything :-)

you need to check your network cards control panel > network centrum> manage my network connections..
when the router is connected via cat5 is the local area connection (LAN) getting an IP address? if not . set a static IP of 192.168.2.55 with subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and a default gateway of 192.168.2.1. now open dos. and see if you can ping the router.

ping 192.168.2.1
if you get a reply then we can carry on configuring the router using the web-based interface at http://192.168.2.1

if we dont get a reply ( request timed out) then try replacing the cat5 cable . if that does not do the trick
go back in your network connections and disable the wireless card.

ping again .. if it fails again .. try resetting the router once more . once its reset check if the lan port light on the router actually becomes solid when you have connected the cat5 cable.

if after the reset the ping still fails.
pick up the phone and ring belkin 0845 607 7787 as their equipment has lifetime warranty.