Re: Cannot simultaneously share DSL connection

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
.