Re: Cannot simultaneously share DSL connection

"Lem" wrote:

Nancy wrote:
Thanks to everyone for their replies to my first post. Apparently I gave too
much information initially, and the real problem is being missed.

We understand that the internet sharing is not working because of the IP
address contained in the router. We understand that what needs to happen is
to change the settings via the router's configuration menu.

Our problem is that we cannot access the router's menu. To bring up the
menu, we must either (1) use the Linksys setup wizard -- but it hangs up in
an endless loop before it brings up the menu -- or (2) enter the router's IP
address (192.168.1.1) in our browser's URL address box. When we do that, we
get a URL failure.

We cannot get to the router menu. We cannot even ping the router through
the DOS-prompt command function.

All tech support instructions go something like this:
Open your web browser.
Type http://192.168.1.1 into the address bar and click on go.
The User Name and Password prompt will appear.

The User Name and Password prompt NEVER appear.

The Linksys user guide, in the troubleshooting area, has 3 suggestions if
one can't access the login screen. (Make sure "work offline" is not checked;
do a hard refresh; reduce internet security setting to medium or lower.)
We've done all 3, and they didn't help. We have used the router's reset
button (hard reset), and we've done a power cycle (shut down router, modem
and computers for over 2 minutes). We still get "address not found."

We are connected as follows: computer 1 and 2 connect to router ports;
router uplink port connects to DSL modem; DSL modem connects to phone jack.
All connections use appropriate network cables (except for the phone
connection, of course).

Linksys support had us exchange our first router for a second one, assuming
the first was defective. Are we experiencing two defective pieces of
equipment in a row? Or does someone have another idea? Thanks for any help.

I agree with Jack's approach.

The reason I asked about the network topology was because your ipconfig
results showed the "WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface" information. You should
only have PPPoE (which may show up in Network Connections as "WAN
Miniport" or "WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface") if the computer is directly
connected to the DSL modem.

I don't quite understand how the computers are connecting to the
Internet -- although they plainly are, as shown by the successful pings
to www.yahoo.com. According to the manual for the BEFSR41, by default
its Internet connection type is set to obtain an IP address
automatically. Typically, this will not work for DSL. DSL, at least in
the US, usually requires a PPPoE connection and you have to enter an
ISP-supplied username and password. I assume that you did this at some
point. But you must have done it someplace other than the router's
configuration (which you haven't been able to access). Perhaps when the
router fails to obtain an IP address, it just passes the connection to
the WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface software you installed on the computers.

When you did the hard reset of the router, did you press the reset
button for 30 seconds or more? Try keeping the reset button pressed
while you remove power from the router and then reconnect the power;
keep the reset button pressed for 30 seconds or more after you reconnect
the router's power. This "really hard reset" ought not to be necessary
if the router is new out the box, but, you never know ...

In any case, if you disable the WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface (one way to do
this may be through Network Connections) and uninstall/reinstall the
NICs as Jack suggested, you "should" be able to start fresh.

Good luck.

--
Lem MS MVP -- Networking

To the moon and back with 64 Kbits of RAM and 512 Kbits of ROM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer



GLORY HALLELUJAH!! IT WORKS!!

Thanks to everyone who chimed in on this. To complete the loop and give you
all some feedback, here's what finally got things to work:

We had tried Jack's suggestion (disconnect router and one computer, disable
PPPoE connection, delete network adapters, reboot) but it didn’t work. This
morning we tried again, but added in Lem’s suggestion of the “really hard
reset” (press and hold reset, remove router power, wait 30 seconds, reconnect
router power, wait another 30 seconds) followed up with doing Jack’s
procedure again. And this time, when we typed the router address in the
browser, we finally saw the router menu log-in for the first time ever.

(We had done the "hard reset" and the "power cycle" recommended by Linksys
countless times, but the "really hard reset" apparently was what was needed.)

From then on, it was easy. We followed Linksys’s instructions to complete
the router set-up, ran a “power cycle” and when everything powered up again,
there was the internet connection. We started up computer #2, and it was
automatically connected too. We’re in business. It’s only been 7 months
that we’ve been living with this problem.

Thanks very much to all of you who contribute your knowledge so freely. Now
that we’ve discovered Microsoft Newsgroups, they will be our preferred
resource for solving computer problems. You’re so much smarter than
corporate tech support!
.

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