Modem and wireless choices.

[shadow]

Re: Modem and wireless choices.

I've also noticed something and that is that both modem and wireless router used a web based configuration.... nothing worong with that.... but why are the two IP address number to access the web based config exactly the same?
Both use 192.168.1.1 to access the web based setup utility.... is this whats causing the router not to detect an internet connection?

I recommend you just use the web interface to configure the devices. Having the modem and router have the same IP address is very very bad! When you specify the address, which one is it supposed to connect to? In short, this creates a mess (which you have now experienced).

Therefore I recommend you configure one device and change its IP to something like 192.168.1.2. Then configure the second and leave it as 192.168.1.1.

Hope this helps a bit.

By the way, WRT54g routers are awesome! Also I am pretty sure that the AG300 is also a router (although with a built in modem).

It is no problem, however I would recommend you use the AG300 purely as a modem and let the WRT54g handle the routing. However another idea is using the WRT54g as a wireless access point only and letting the AG300 handle the routing and modem parts. It does not really matter, I have the same sort of setup. I use my cheap wired router (with built in modem) purely as a modem and my WRT54g as a router and wireless access point.

[stevo1210]

Re: Modem and wireless choices.

Having the modem and router have the same IP address is very very bad! When you specify the address, which one is it supposed to connect to? In short, this creates a mess (which you have now experienced).

Therefore I recommend you configure one device and change its IP to something like 192.168.1.2. Then configure the second and leave it as 192.168.1.1.

Thanks for the tip. Changing the IP address of the modem to something else really made a big difference.
I got everything up and running tonight (finally).... it involved a lot of fiddling around it took a few hours until I actually got the router to communicate with the modem correctly.
I found the problem and it's a strange one that I've never experienced before.
WHen I plug the ethernet cable from the modem to the port on the WRT54G that says "internet", i don't get any internet connection through to the router. When I decided to fiddle around and plug the ethernet cable from the modem into one of the ethernet ports designed for the computers to be plugged in to, the internet came up working nicely.
Whats going on here?? Currently there is no cable plugged into the 'internet' port on the WRT54G but I'm getting a decent internet connection.

Thanks.

[Paul S]

Re: Modem and wireless choices.

My guess on this is that when you use the "internet" port, it uses the built in firewall. Using the other port maybe bypasses the firewall, and maybe only using it as a switch. This may mean that you need to configure the firewall.

You want the router to give out the IP addresses, and configure the computers to get their address via DHCP.

[shadow]

Re: Modem and wireless choices.

I found the problem and it's a strange one that I've never experienced before.
WHen I plug the ethernet cable from the modem to the port on the WRT54G that says "internet", i don't get any internet connection through to the router. When I decided to fiddle around and plug the ethernet cable from the modem into one of the ethernet ports designed for the computers to be plugged in to, the internet came up working nicely.
Whats going on here?? Currently there is no cable plugged into the 'internet' port on the WRT54G but I'm getting a decent internet connection.

Thanks.

Stevo, I think you need to understand the situation a little better with respect to your network configuration.

A router is used to 'convert' LAN (Local Area Network) packets that want to go outbound to a WAN (Wide Area Network) and vice versa. The 'internet' port on the WRT54g is actually a WAN interface. It does not actually need to be the Internet, or if it is the Internet, it can be any type of connection (ADSL, Cable, Dial-up, Satellite etc.). The requirement is that it needs to contain a standard Ethernet interface (so you can actually plug it in and you can use it through some sort of standard communication protocol).

Now, your AG300 is also a router, however it contains an ADSL modem. Therefore it can also route LAN packets to the WAN and vice versa. However the WAN interface on the AG300 can only be ADSL and instead of a standard Ethernet port, you have the RJ11 plug (standard telephone plug).

Your network has two routers and a modem in there. The whole problem stems from the fact that the AG300 is a router with a modem (these have multiple LAN ports, WLAN interface etc. ) and not just a plain old modem (usually only have one wired port).

Now there are various ways around this sort of situation and it really depends upon what you want to do.

1. This is what I do, make the router with built in modem act as a modem only. Usually there is a way to do this. However I am not familiar with your particular model.

The only settings you need to configure with the AG300 would be low level stuff like VPI, VCI. Just make sure they match the Aussie values, these should be listed somewhere on your ISP's page and it is probably already configured correctly if somewhere in teh AG300 there is a wizard and your geographic region is set to Australia.

I also suggest you turn off as many services as possible: firewall, routing, QOS, DHCP. As a plain modem, these routing settings/services are meaningless.

NOTE: the modem actually doesn't need to know the username and password to your Internet connection, this will be done with the WRT54g.

You would then plug in the AG300 into the WRT54g's 'internet' port and the WRT54g would handle the logon (through PPPoE protocol) and handle DHCP, QOS, port forwarding and all the other router gizmo's.

2. The second option is what you have at the moment. The AG300 is acting as a router and a modem. The WRT54g is basically just being an access point and a switch. The WRT54g is not doing any routing, all routing is being done by the AG300.

This is achieved by plugging in the AG300 into one of the WRT54g's wired LAN ports.

All your settings required for the routing and modem are handled by the AG300. Everything to do with routing should be disabled in the WRT54g. This includes firewall, QOS, routing etc.

3. The third option is a little complicated, I do not recommend it and I will not explain it fully in this post. This post is taking quite some time to write .

It is possible to have what is known as a double NAT setup. That is, the AG300 does some of the routing duties while the WRT54g doing some other routing duties. This involves the AG300 handling the logon stuff and initial communication while the WRT54g is responsible for the distribution of packets to the LAN.

This setup is only really used when you absolutely have to logon with the PPPoA protocol for ADSL and you really want the WRT54g to handle the distribution of packets to the LAN. This is usually not the case in Australia (I have heard that some ISP's in the US force users to logon with this protocol). Another possibility is that you want the router to link some other WAN (not the Internet) to your LAN, or if there is some wizz bang new Internet technology that doesn't use PPPoE protocol to logon.

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This is alot of reading, however I hope it gives you some idea on what's going on and the possibilities in solving your issues.

[stevo1210]

Re: Modem and wireless choices.

2. The second option is what you have at the moment. The AG300 is acting as a router and a modem. The WRT54g is basically just being an access point and a switch. The WRT54g is not doing any routing, all routing is being done by the AG300.

This is achieved by plugging in the AG300 into one of the WRT54g's wired LAN ports.

All your settings required for the routing and modem are handled by the AG300. Everything to do with routing should be disabled in the WRT54g. This includes firewall, QOS, routing etc.

I think i'll just leave it like that for now. I will disable the routing options in the WRT54G when I can get around to it.

On another note, I also bought a WRT54G for one of my friends. I got it up andrunning three nights ago on Saturday and today I get a call that they can't get onto the internet through wireless. Apparently they can connect to the wireless network, but cannot get any internet.
So now they have to use the modem by itself and connect and extra long ethernet cable to get internet.
With thier WRT54G, i connected the modem to the internet port because it was a standalone mdoem.... internet worked perfectly wirelessly and wired. I can't understand what could be wrong.
The modem is a 2wire one provided by the internet company.
Does anyone have any ideas to what is going on??

Thanks.

[zandrax]

Re: Modem and wireless choices.

On another note, I also bought a WRT54G for one of my friends. I got it up andrunning three nights ago on Saturday and today I get a call that they can't get onto the internet through wireless. Apparently they can connect to the wireless network, but cannot get any internet.
So now they have to use the modem by itself and connect and extra long ethernet cable to get internet.
With thier WRT54G, i connected the modem to the internet port because it was a standalone mdoem.... internet worked perfectly wirelessly and wired. I can't understand what could be wrong.
The modem is a 2wire one provided by the internet company.
Does anyone have any ideas to what is going on??

First troubleshooting practice: reboot the router and see if the problem remains.
Then check settings: there is a chance he disabled the dhcp server or changed lan IPs except for the modem. Since your router is identical to his one, I think you can simply write on paper your working settings and insert them in his.

Zandrax

[stevo1210]

Re: Modem and wireless choices.

I asked my friend about the situtation again today. She told me that she has tried reconnecting the cables etc. and it still doesnt work. I fear that the cables may connected wrongly.
I will have to take myself up to thier place again this weekend to take a look.... I can see a 40KM drive ahead of me for this weekend.

Thanks.

[zandrax]

Re: Modem and wireless choices.

I asked my friend about the situtation again today. She told me that she has tried reconnecting the cables etc. and it still doesnt work. I fear that the cables may connected wrongly.

Maybe she put the modem cable into a lan connector, so the WRT can't find any modem.

I will have to take myself up to thier place again this weekend to take a look.... I can see a 40KM drive ahead of me for this weekend.

Should I wish chookas for you?

Zandrax

[kikkoman]

Re: Modem and wireless choices.

Some ISPs (unofficially) require you to clone the router's MAC address to the connected clients.

[bgavin]

Re: Modem and wireless choices.

I tried to install the new Linksys WAP54G into the client's new WRT54GL system.

Dead out of the box. Controller works OK, but transmitter is completely dead. Power LED glows Red, not Green. This is a big Tip Off, right away.

This is v3.1 hardware, 2007 firmware is the latest but not installed. The unit was manufactured in December 2007, and came with 2005 firmware installed. Flashing the latest firmware did not fix the problem.

I was just inside the 30-day window for a Newegg refund, so the paper work is started today. The customer is buying another one locally, and I will install it tomorrow before leaving for vacation. She is urgent to get it up and running.

[bgavin]

Re: Modem and wireless choices.

Update to this: the red LED is not a failure indication as it is on the routers. For some reason they use red as the good status color. Go figure.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Modem and wireless choices.

Um,,, They were short on green ones that day??
????

[stevo1210]

Re: Modem and wireless choices.

I asked my friend about the situtation again today. She told me that she has tried reconnecting the cables etc. and it still doesnt work. I fear that the cables may connected wrongly.
I will have to take myself up to thier place again this weekend to take a look.... I can see a 40KM drive ahead of me for this weekend.

Thanks.

OK, I got the job done about a week ago, but I forgot about this thread so here goes. I came up to my friends place and she showed me the modem and the router. They were connected properly but there was no internet connection.

I connected my laptop my wireless and when I first tested the connection using the ipconfig utility in Windows, it had shown me that there was an IP address which was a good sign that the Linksys was alive and well.
But there was no Internet gateway detected. I rebooted the Linksys router and the 2 wire gateway was detected along with the IP address given out by the Linksys router. I still couldnt connect to the net though.
But it all changed when I got a LAN cable and plugged my laptop into one of the LAN ports on the WRT54G. I got an Internet connection.... then internet worked through WLAN so I was happy for a short while until i turned the two off to move them. I restarted the two and internet died again.... IP address and gateway were still there according to IPconfig even though I was connected by LAN.
Then I randomly disconnected the phone line from the modem and connected it directly to the wall plug without a filter thing this time and it worked flawlessly. After I restarted the two devices again, it still worked. So now I presume the ADSL filter screwed something up. Now it is connected directly to the phone line with no filter and theres not a single problem.
There are filters connected to the other telephones though... obviously to stop the internet from dropping out when someone picks up the phone.
So 2 weeks have passed so far and I haven't heard a single complaint from my friend.... I asked her today about the internet and she said that it was happily running so I'm happy as well.
But what I want to know.... is that should there be an ADSL filter for the modem? I know I don't have one for my modem and I never did. I only have filters for my phones because internet would drop out everytime I picked up the phone.

Thanks.

[shadow]

Re: Modem and wireless choices.

But what I want to know.... is that should there be an ADSL filter for the modem?

The simple answer is definitely not!!

The filter is meant to filter out ADSL signals to normal analogue phones. This ensures that there won't be any interference with the ADSL signal caused by normal analogue telephones.

By filtering the modem, you are effectively 'disconnecting' or filtering out the necessary ADSL signals required for the Internet to the modem. Definitely not what you want.

[bgavin]

Re: Modem and wireless choices.

Um,,, They were short on green ones that day??
????

That sounds as good a reason as any. Dumb.

Then again, the Microsoft Office products vary wildly in their setup tabs, and look and feel. I guess this gives Linksys license to use green power LEDS for anything WRT, and red ones for anything WAP. They also use 192.168.1.245 as the default IP. Go figure.

Anyway, the WAP54G makes a decent access point and also a repeater. I have it installed as a repeater. It will only function as a repeater with another WAP or WRT device. You get the MAC address from the *wireless* side of the WRT router, and plug that into the access point. It requires you use the same SSID name (it is a repeater) and WEP keys. I use channel 11 which is the highest frequency they support. It seems to have a bit of advantage getting through obstructions.

[shadow]

Re: Modem and wireless choices.

I wouldn't mind the 192.168.1.245 default. I got a Linksys WRT54gs which has a default IP address of 192.168.1.1 and I am using a SMC Barricade 7904BRA ADSL2+ as my modem, the default IP address is 192.168.2.1. Bah so annoying when I was changing firmware with these two devices!