Unable to set up Router No Dial tone+ many attempts

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

Mundy5: (and others)

I am trying to swap out one RT because one ethernet port went bad. The "old" RT has a MAC last 4 as 79AB. The "new RT has a MAC last 4 as 78DD7

This has been going on since Wednesday when suddenly,after talking to a tier 1 basic techie, (Roger) he made a change in the internal system. When I rebooted, I was w/o phone service

The only way I could get the "new" Rt working was via daisy chaining from ethernet port 3 of "old" to ethernet port 1 of new.

I swapped out the cable from the SB 4100, and the RT connected with Vonage.

However, when I rebooted, I had no ethernet connection on the new RT. Thus began my long, and frustrating problem

Mundy wrote:

Quote:

First let's make sure the cables are all in the right places.

SB4100 -> RT31P2 -> computer NIC

Actually there is no NIC; it is on the ASUS mobo (400 FSB) the light lights up when I power up the computer It is integrated on the board

The errors came when I used the set up utility.on the CD

You wrote:

Quote:

4. Power up the RT31P2 wait until its finishes booting up.
5. Power up the computer.

Run ipconfig/all

Does the computer ip address begins with 192.168.15.xxx?

Yes

This is what I did:

Quote:

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

you wrote:

Quote:

If any of these settings is not originally there, then you need to save before we go to the next page.

Here is what I did today:
made a direct connection to the SB 4100 to VIA Rhine ll Fast Ethernet Adapter on ASUS mobo.
ran ipconfig
got 169.254.227.48

ran ipconfig/release followed by ipconfig/renew

The renew timed out because it was unable to contact the DHCP server

I got the "no connection balloon, also.

Now I am using my "old" RT (last 4 MAC 79AB) to connect and get the help I so much need

This is truly odd: I get "no connection" with a direct connection from SB4100, but I am running well, albeit no phone with the old RT

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

PoppaJohn,

we have isolated at least this one problem. Now it makes infinite sense why when you remove your old rt that the system fails to connect to the internet.

It is my suspicion that your old rt's mac address was configured into the SB4100 so that is why when you switched rts your SB4100 couldn't communicate with anything, your new rt nor directly with your computer for internet access. Here is what we are going to do.

1. Connect your computer directly to the SB4100.
2. Open IE and go to 192.168.100.1 (this opens up the web config of the SB4100).
3. Select the third item on the configuration manager "Addresses"
4. Scroll down to the very bottom. There should be a table "Known CPE MAC Address (Max 1)". Write down that MAC address.

I would almost bet that it is the MAC address of your old rt.

Record that MAC address carefully.

5. Disconnect computer from SB4100.
6. Power up the rt31p2 and wait for full bootup. (Power light only should be solid).
7. Connect computer to port 1 of the rt31p2 but do not connect rt31p2 to the SB4100.
8. Open up IE and type in 192.168.15.1
9. Go to MAC Address Clone (second link to the right from "Basic Setup")
10. Double check that it is enabled.
11. Enter in the recorded MAC address from the SB4100's "Known CPE MAC Address (Max 1)"

Now power down everything.

Then reboot SB4100 first, rt31p2, wait for rt31p2 phone light to come on solid first. Then plug in computer.

Tell me what works and what doesn't.

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

Mundy5:

I'd use all caps, but the mod might not like it. Please consider me shouting for absolute joy!

I thank God upon every remembrance of what you just did...

I am now up and running, and I have phone service. WOO HOO, WOO HOO HOO

It is obvious that you researched the problem, and did it in a manner that I have been unable to do.

Nevertheless, Mundy 5, unless you are a Vonage Tier Two Tech, there is a possibility that your wisdom may be lost in the shuffle. How may we be able to add this to the data base?

The problem was obviously in the software setting of the SB4100 cable modem, and all the Tier One Techies kept pointing me to the new router, not understanding that my inability to connect was a cable modem problem. They could not communicate.

When Vonage works, it is awesome. When something like what happened to me happens, well, frustration happens.

m5: If you are a TTT for Vonage,tell your bosses that you need a well-deserved raise. Better yet, if you are a TTT, please PM me, so I can tell your bosses myself. I promise you that because I am so very grateful! Very Happy

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

PoppaJohn,

I think the best thing to do is to leave it up to our mod on whether this solution should be placed in our FAQs page or just simply referred as a solution to the rt31p2 not getting through to the internet solution. Everyone out there who is struggling with getting the rt to get through to the internet and get a functional phone line, take a look at this thread for a possible solution.

Posts: 76 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: May 18, 2005 Posts: 76

mundy5 - out of curiosity, does the SB4100 still hold the MAC of the device that was conencted to it if you power off the SB for a few minutes? I own a SB5100 and if I turn off the unit for three minutes or so and start it back up, I can connect just about any device to it without having to clone the MAC address of the last device. I had to do this several time while testing different VPN tunnelling routers for clients.

I've found that powering off the modem and the router for at least three minutes then powering up the modem first (and letting it fully boot up for a minute), then powering on the router, there is never a need to clone MAC addresses.

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

cid92,

you might be correct. I know that it is recommended to power down for at least 5 minutes on the SB4100, and on the web configuration page, there is a way to restore to factory defaults which I'm sure would also clear the MAC address.

I've never tested it since I always cloned my MAC address.

Posts: 44 · Full Forum Member Joined: Feb 03, 2005 Posts: 44

The SB4100 can be quickly reset by inserting the end of a paper clip into the small hole on the back of the modem between the USB connector and the Cable connection.

I don't bother cloning the MAC address because with multiple machines on the rt31p2, I prefer the SB4100 to always see the router. Less troubles that way for me. Seems like the router needs rebooting more often than I would prefer..

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

cid 92 et. al.:

I do not know thew "official" explanation as to what the SB4100 does re:holding onto the mac address.

However, in my experience, I had to do as mundy5 told me, and encode the mac address manually. Then it worked.

My problem was a new router not being seen, and I had tried to power down the SB4100 for several minutes, and see if I got a connection. It did not work.

Thus, Mundy5 's address was right on the mark.

Posts: 44 · Full Forum Member Joined: Feb 03, 2005 Posts: 44

I'm sure the procedure defined by Mundy5 works for you, but If I had to go through that procedure (entering the MAC address) everytime the RT31P2 was replaced (the 4th and current incarnation is an E model, first three were noisy D models) or lost it's mind--meaning I have phone service but no internet connection(s) -- I would have tossed out Vonage a long time ago. Mundy5's procedure works because it's providing the SB4100 with the MAC address it learned.

With the occasional power failures, occasional modem reboots and Rt31P2 reboots I experience, it's just so much for me easier to have the SB4100 modem know(learn) the real MAC address of the RT31P2 and be done with it.