RT31P2 phone adapter with WRT54GP2 wireless Internet Q's

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

oddasudda wrote:

Here's the strange part. I cannot connect to the Internet, even if I just plug the modem directly into the PC. I know that it has nothing to do with needing to register a Mac address with my ISP (Adelphia does not require that). My PC, for some reason or another, needs to be connected to the RT3 (which is in turn connected to the modem) in order to connect. The TCP/IP settings for the network card haven't been touched.

That is strange. I think if we understood what's happening here we would be on the right path to solving the rest of your problems. I hope one of the networking experts here jumps in. In the meanwhile, have you really looked over the setup of the RT31 to understand what's unique about it? Is PPPoE enabled, for example? I understand that the RT31 is set up as a DHCP server, but are you using static IP to connect it to your ISP?

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 30, 2005 Posts: 15

Steve48 wrote:

oddasudda wrote:

Here's the strange part. I cannot connect to the Internet, even if I just plug the modem directly into the PC. I know that it has nothing to do with needing to register a Mac address with my ISP (Adelphia does not require that). My PC, for some reason or another, needs to be connected to the RT3 (which is in turn connected to the modem) in order to connect. The TCP/IP settings for the network card haven't been touched.

That is strange. I think if we understood what's happening here we would be on the right path to solving the rest of your problems. I hope one of the networking experts here jumps in. In the meanwhile, have you really looked over the setup of the RT31 to understand what's unique about it? Is PPPoE enabled, for example? I understand that the RT31 is set up as a DHCP server, but are you using static IP to connect it to your ISP?

My ISP does not assign static IP addresses, and PPPoE is not enabled on the RT31 ("Obtain IP automatically" is). The settings on the RT31 are the default ones.

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

Wow. I'm getting desperate. When you've tried connecting without the RT31- either with the new WRT or with just the computer plugged into the modem- are you using the same cables??

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 30, 2005 Posts: 15

Steve48 wrote:

Wow. I'm getting desperate. When you've tried connecting without the RT31- either with the new WRT or with just the computer plugged into the modem- are you using the same cables??

Here's some good news. I shut down and unplugged everything, reseting both of the routers. I plugged the Scientific Atlanta modem directly into the network card on my computer. I then powered up the modem and then the PC, roughly at the same time. When I first logged on to XP, I didn't have an Internet connection (it could be that the modem was still booting up -- it didn't seem like it, since the LED lights were already flashing the way they should be, but I don't discount it as a possibility). I went to the command prompt, and ipconfig returned an Adelphia-given IP address. Now the Internet is working fine. Currently, I am connected directly to my modem.

So we now know that there isn't some strange voodoo at work, here. Hopefully.

I would like to add that, when everything is set up normally (modem --> RT3 --> WRT & PC), the PC cannot connect locally to the WRT web admin. Right now I have RT3 LAN out to WRT Internet.

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 30, 2005 Posts: 15

Alright, I'm starting from scratch.

Right now, I have the following setup working:

Modem
|
RT3
||
PC network card & WRT Internet

I can connect to the Internet without a hitch. So, we now know that I can connect from the Dell PC both when (a) we go directly from modem to PC and when (b) we go from modem to RT3 to PC. I'm not even worrying about the wireless, yet.

Now I'm going to unplug the RT3 and see if I can connect using only the WRT. If I can, I'm also going to use the WRT web admin to change its local IP address to 192.168.15.2 and to disable its DHCP server. If I connect, I'll post my progress.

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 30, 2005 Posts: 15

This story only gets more bizarre.

So, we know that modem --> PC works just fine. We also know that modem --> RT3 --> PC works fine (that is, it did after I tried modem --> PC). But things get weird.

Like I said I would, I tried connecting to the Internet with the modem --> WRT --> PC setup. Nothing. The router, instead of assigning the PC an Adelphia IP address, assigns the computer the local 192.168.15.10x address and does nothing else. Reseting/unplugging the modem/router/PC does not change this. Regardless, I connected to the WRT web admin and assigned it a local IP of 192.168.15.2 and disabled its DHCP server. Those are the only changes I made.

Here's where things become strange. I reconnect and reset everything so that we're back to modem --> RT3 --> PC. I open my browser and go to vonage-forum.com. It connects and loads the page half-way. It connects to Google, too. After that, it can't connect to the Internet anymore. I am monitoring the IP address in the command prompt with ipconfig the entire time. First, the PC had an Adelphia IP address. Then, that IP address goes away, and it only has the local 192.168.15.10x address -- the same thing that happened with the WRT! I'm going bonkers, here!

My guess is this, although I know nothing of networking, and am probably wrong. One of two things seems to be happening: either (1) Adelphia does require customers to register the Mac addresses of their routers (highly unlikely), and someone went and registered my old router when I wasn't looking, which is why it works; or (2) the routers are, for some reason, "hijacking" the Adelphia IP and replacing it with the assigned local IPs. In other words, there's some sort of conflict between my modem (and Adelphia) trying to assign IPs and my routers assigning IPs with the local DHCP server.

I really have no clue. This is so frustrating.

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

I think you're going astray. It's normal for the router- either the WRT or the RT31- to assign an IP to the computer. That's what it means for the router to serve as a DHCP server. The Adelphia assigned IP goes to the router.

I think you should return the new WRT to the factory defaults and try again. Take things slowly. Connect modem->WRT (WAN/internet port)->Computer. Power up the modem. Wait 1 minute. Power up the WRT. Wait again. Then power up the computer. See if the computer gets an internet connection.

By the way, in your next-to-last posting your indicated that your base configuration of modem->RT31->PC had stopped working. In your last post it was working again. What happened there?