Problem RT setup & MAC Address= No dial tone

Posts: 91 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Mar 08, 2005 Posts: 91

Can SOMEONE PLEASE help with my unique problem?

Yesterday, I made many calls to tech support, sometimes being on hold for over one hour trying to get the problem fixed.

In none of the calls when I was able to speak to someone, was I over-the-top ballistic, or condescending. I will not take out my frustrations on people trying to help

All I want is to have a RELIABLE phone connection. Now I have nothing. No dial tone, no phone lights on the RT.

As of now, I am connecting to the net, and getting through on the old (it has a bad ethernet port #1)router with the last 4 MAC #s 79AB.

Here is the history:
The only way that the new RT(last 4 MAC #s 7DD7) got through was when we daisy chained it, making a daisy chain connection from one ethernet port to another. Then we disconnected the SB4100 to the old RT, connecting it to the new, and eliminated the direct connection from the old RT to the computer, placing it on the new Rt, it worked. I was a happy camper.

That is until I rebooted the computer. Then I had no connection to the internet, nor telephone.

So I swapped out the new, and re wired the old. However, I now have no telephone. My hunch is that my phone # is assigned to the new RT (MAC 7DD7).

All I want is a good reliable connection. Someone, please help me get what I am needing.

Posts: 1179 · Member of the Week Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 1179

PoppaJohn,

Let me get the details straight first.

SB4100 -> RT31P2 -> telephone

Correct?

If so, did you change any of the configurations in the RT31P2 or is it factory default?

Also who is your ISP? Cable I assume right since the SB4100 is a cable modem.

This is the same setup as my own. I made sure that RT31P2 is cloning the mac address of my SB4100 and also obtaining IP address automatically. I believe those are the only 2 things you need to adjust for it to work if you had tinckered with it in the past. You can also reset it using a pin at the back of the RT31P2 keep it depressed for 30 secs just to be sure and it will reset to factory defaults.

You can get to these settings by connecting a computer directly to the RT31P2 and typing in 192.168.15.1 at the internet explorer address.

When everything is et up in the RT31P2, then do the following.
1. Turn off everything including the SB4100 and wait for 5 mins.
2. Plug in SB4100 and wait until all 3 lights are solid.
3. Plug in the RT31P2 and wait until the line1 light is solid.
4. Turn on the computer.
If steps 1-3 are successful, you should have computer access to the internet and a dial tone on the phone.

Let me know if this helps, Dan

Posts: 91 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Mar 08, 2005 Posts: 91

Mundy5 wrote:

Quote:

You can get to these settings by connecting a computer directly to the RT31P2 and typing in 192.168.15.1 at the internet explorer address.

When everything is et up in the RT31P2, then do the following.
1. Turn off everything including the SB4100 and wait for 5 mins.
2. Plug in SB4100 and wait until all 3 lights are solid.
3. Plug in the RT31P2 and wait until the line1 light is solid.
4. Turn on the computer.
If steps 1-3 are successful, you should have computer access to the internet and a dial tone on the phone

.

Did it. Server not found, no dial tone.

Thanks anyway. I reconnected the old RT, and now I can get on the net, but still no phone.

Posts: 1179 · Member of the Week Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 1179

When you say did it, are you just following the 1-4 steps? Did you go to the admin page of your rt31p2 and make sure of the settings for cloning, IP address etc?

Posts: 91 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Mar 08, 2005 Posts: 91

I did EXACTLY as you said.

BTW it was also what the basic techs told me to do, with the same results.

Man am I upset about this!

Posts: 20 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Apr 21, 2005 Posts: 20

Try cloning the MAC address of the *old* RT into the new and see what happens.

Posts: 91 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Mar 08, 2005 Posts: 91

Jeckler:

Tried that before with a techie.

Anytime I used the "new" RT, except via daisy chaining through the "old" RT, I could not get either internet or dial tone.

After I disconnected the daisy chain, and used the router alone it worked... until I rebooted. Then I got nothingness

Posts: 1179 · Member of the Week Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 1179

PoppaJohn,

I can fully understand your frustrations. I believe that there are two possibilities at this point (I'm sure there are also more possibilities but I can't think of them right now). Either one, you have a bad rt or two, the settings that you have adjusted are not taking place on the rt. Because I'm at work right now, I cannot walk you through some troubleshooting but when I get home, I'll try to make sure I have all the details to see if the changes have actually taken place (i.e. to verify the mac addresses of the cable modem and rt and to make sure that the DHCP is enabled on the rt, ip address is obtained automatically etc. All of this can be verified. I know that you said that you made these changes but let's find out if they worked. In my brief experience with rt31p2, sometimes the changes I implement in the web access does not get saved and so the next time I open it up, it resets back to the default. I don't know it does that but maybe that is what is going on.

Mundy5

Posts: 91 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Mar 08, 2005 Posts: 91

I just called tech support-- from 20 miles away. I talked to a supervisor, telling him the details. His advice was "use a corded phone, not a cordless" and we will call you back!

I explained that the corded/cordless was NOT the issue: I could hear the voice on all my phones telling me that I had the wrong tel port on every phone in the house. Thus each phone was wired correctly.

Nevertheless that was what I did. Nothing changed. I will refrain my sarcasm on this one.

I also reset the router from the back. Nothingness.

While you are commuting, I will try to play with the new router, and set up manually. When I use the setup CD, it always tells me that I have the wrong connection.

I tried to connect the SB4100 directly to the computer. ERROR
I tried to connect the router to the PC w/o the modem. ERROR
I had both connected properly .ERROR

Thank you for your patience in this matter.

Posts: 91 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Mar 08, 2005 Posts: 91

Since my last post, this is what I did

1 powered all down
2 started surfboard Modem waited five minutes
3 powered up connected to the router
4 waited five minutes power up computer
5 home page could not be displayed
6 opened Internet Explorer went to 192.168.15.1
7 could not get home page, could not navigate net
8 with the cable off and the Internet lights all on I reset the router using the button on the back held down for five seconds
9 powered up surfboard
10 went command prompt ipconfig/all
11 opened Internet Explorer again patch 192.168.15.1
12 cloned Mac (not good idea to show in public forum)
13 went to eBay page could not be displayed, no phone
14 disconnected new router re-established same connections on old router
15 phone lights went on the only during bootup, however I can surf the Internet and get e-mail
16 now all phones (corded on line 1, rest of house and cordless on phone line 2) have the same software woman's voice saying, "Your phone may be on the wrong phone port

What else could I have done? Did I do anything wrong? Is the RT somehow fried?

Anyone want to send me a sledge hammer?