Perplexed by this

[s37d]

I'm really puzzled by this one. I'm working on someone's computer/network because they can't get online. It's a wireless connection to a Dell laptop via cable internet via a Linksys WRT54G wireless router. I set up the network with a standard WPA encryption to the router and it worked fine, but stopped working shortly thereafter. Now it will not work at all. You see, it connects to the router just fine, 5 bars "excellent" signal, but can not get internet access. I also tried connecting it to the computer via network cable; no go. It wouldn't work with a non-secure open network, either.

Now, the computer itself works fine, I've tested it on my personal wireless network so the card and software is functional. I also tested the computer at this person's house by bypassing the router and connecting it directly to the modem via ethernet cat5 cable. This worked fine. At this point I said to myself, ok, since it works fine at my house on my wireless network, and it works fine at their house when bypassing the router, it must be the router. I reset(30 second hard reset) the WRT54G 2 times just to make sure it was the router, still didn't work.

We then went out and bought a new router. Set it up with just a basic open network, it connected fine with the laptop, 5 green bars "excellent" connection just like the old router. And, just like the old router, the internet was inaccessible.

Any ideas here? I'm boggled

 

[Hefemeister]

you did put the mac address in on the router for it to connect to the cable internet? Have you taken the router to your home network to confirm it works?

 

[s37d]

I haven't taken the router out of its original location to test it, just assumed it was bad. As far as MAC address, no I didn't change it or any settings on the new or old router. I've never had to enter in any MAC addresses before to get wireless internet to work.

 

[Hefemeister]

sorry I was referring to the mac cloning that most cable internet companies use (kinda like ppoe for dsl) when you use a router. You do not need any mac information for wireless and you had said you could hook up to the wireless but no internet. Just looking for reasons why the internet was not being passed by the router.

 

[s37d]

I'll restate the problem to make it clearer. We're dealing with 1 computer here(a laptop w/built in wifi), and 2 different locations, location A and B.

Laptop works fine when:

1) Directly connected to modem via ethernet cable at location A or B.(Comcast Cable Internet)
2) Connected to wireless router at location B

Laptop does not work when:

1) Connected to wireless router at location A -It connects with "excellent" signal, but cannot find the internet.

I read a guide that said this might be because the DHCP server isn't enabled, and to do the things listed here: Get IP From Router But Won't Connect To Out [Solved]

But, why would it be the DHCP server if it works fine wirelessly at location B?

Hmm I've been doing some research and I think the problem might be related to Comcast only recognizing the computer's MAC address as legit. It might be seeing the router and not identifying it as a registered MAC. Perhaps using the MAC clone feature on the router will fix my problem?

 

[Hefemeister]

Hmm I've been doing some research and I think the problem might be related to Comcast only recognizing the computer's MAC address as legit. It might be seeing the router and not identifying it as a registered MAC. Perhaps using the MAC clone feature on the router will fix my problem?

That was what I was asking in my prior post.

sorry I was referring to the mac cloning that most cable internet companies use (kinda like ppoe for dsl) when you use a router. You do not need any mac information for wireless and you had said you could hook up to the wireless but no internet. Just looking for reasons why the internet was not being passed by the router.

Sorry if I was not clear. The Cable company allows access via the mac address of the first computer that hooks up to it. You said the laptop hooked up to the internet when it was wired so the router needs to clone the wired lan mac address of the laptop not its wireless mac address.

 

[s37d]

K well I tried cloning mac, no success. Also called linksys and ran all kinds of tests on the old router, pinged it and it showed 25%-50% packet loss. Assuming router is bad since connection directly to modem bypassing router yields no packet loss. Ran out of time before I could test new router, will try tomorrow.

 

[Hefemeister]

my guess is old router went bad. New router just not set up quite right yet. didn't the old router already have a cloned mac address? The same as the laptops wired lan mac?

 

[s37d]

Yes it I tried cloned mac on both. Before I even called Linksys, I hooked up the new router and tried it with just default settings, open network, but it didn't work. I didn't try power cycling the modem or anything else, though. I'll try all that and also whatever else Linksys recommends over the phone, tomorrow. If new router still doesn't work, I'll be convinced that there's a ghost in the house.