Networking with a Linksys WRT54G

[Matuku]

I'm at university and in my room there is only one ethernet port which connects us to the network and hence the internet. I however have several things that I would like to connect to the internet at anyone time (Laptop, Eee PC, games console) and so brought up a spare Linksys WRT54G we had at home with the hope of setting up a small network in my room.

I tried running the installation disk as I was informed to do in the instructions and hence had the cable running from the ethernet wall port to the router and then another cable from there to my laptop. I tried both setting it up from the install CD as though treating it as a replacement router (the CD told me that there was already a router detected, no doubt the uni one) and as an addtional router. Both times the internet light flashes on the router but nothing happens; at the end of the installation the installer says "Checking System Settings" then a warning message flashes up saying "Connect your Broadband Router".

It may be useful to know a little about the uni internet. When we arrived we had to send of an email including details of which room we were in, the number of the ethernet port in that room and the MAC address of any device we wanted to be allowed on the network. We also had to install a Cisco Clean Access Agent on our computers and log into that using a username and password. I haven't approached the techs yet because I'm not sure they'll be all that amiable to the idea of the router so thought I'd ask here.

Is there anything I more I can try or is it time to bite the bullet and hope they'll play nice?

 

[spideymat1]

Matuku,

You may have to enter your mac address into the linksys router. Connect the router to you laptop and enter it's default ip address (this is listed in the documents along with the user id and password to login). Once you have logged in. Input your mac address into the router (I can't remember exactly where but it is under one of the tabs). After you do this, you should be able to get out to the internet from it. I hope this helps. It's what I had to do to make mine work.

 

[Matuku]

Just plug the laptop into the router without the internet cable also plugged in?

 

[PvilleStang]

You need to plug the laptop directly into the router, and basically assign the router the MAC address of your laptop's NIC card. Once you do that, you can plug your router into the ethernet port. From there you'll have to open a web browser on your laptop and log in to use the port. I did the same thing at the Univ of Texas about 5 years back, but they didn't require you use any sort of virus software. Rather, if they detected port activity on a known virus port, you'd get shut down until you fixed it and let the university see you fixed the issue.

To do the MAC address cloning, you need to go into the firm ware by opening up a web browser and typing in 192.168.1.1 in your address bar. From there, go to the setup menu (should be there by default) and the MAC Address Clone submenu. As long as your accessing through hardwire, click the clone MAC address button, and you're in business.

 

[Matuku]

Hey, cloned the MAC Address and it all worked like a charm! Cheers everyone.