Wired Home Networking (for a newbee)

bpape · « **Reply #20 on:** 31 Aug 2007, 01:37 pm »

What specific router did you buy? What network card do you have in the PC?

Bryan

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #21 on:** 31 Aug 2007, 01:47 pm »

Good morning Bryan,
Here's the router:

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1149562300349&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&lid=0034926718B08

I'll see if I can hack into my Dell account (it's been a while), and find the specifics on the card.

Thanks man,
Bob

bpape · « **Reply #22 on:** 31 Aug 2007, 01:56 pm »

OK. I assume you've enabled PPoE?

Bryan

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #23 on:** 31 Aug 2007, 02:52 pm »

Quote from: Bob in St. Louis on 31 Aug 2007, 01:47 pm

I'll see if I can hack into my Dell account (it's been a while),

Well that was easy.

I can get into my Dell account and see "General information" (VERY general) about my specific machine.
Under the "Current System Configuration" tab, it lists "Network Card" but when I click on it, it says "Error on page".

I'm at work now, so I can't get to my PC. Spent over an hour diddling with Dells website.....I can call the wife and see if I can walk her through the card information. What specifics do you need?

Quote

I assume you've enabled PPoE?

Um......

.... If I did, it was purely unintentional Bryan. Please don't assume I did anything as I'm a babe in the woods when it come to networking.

Sorry man.

Bob

bpape · « **Reply #24 on:** 31 Aug 2007, 03:10 pm »

No problem. PPoE is Point to Point over Ethernet. It is an older standard to do networking via a modem. DSL still uses it sometimes.

Nothing special on the net card - just trying to really understand what you have.

Bryan

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #25 on:** 31 Aug 2007, 03:21 pm »

I did a quick Google on PPoE and have a basic understanding now.

The card would have been 'the standard' for a Dell XPS400 that's 13 months old. I didn't upgrade it from what Dell would have stuck in there. Something basic I'm sure, nothing fancy.
Don't know if that helps or not.

Bob

bpape · « **Reply #26 on:** 31 Aug 2007, 03:26 pm »

Just a thought - you may not need it.

Bryan

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #27 on:** 31 Aug 2007, 04:05 pm »

REALLY?

woodsyi · « **Reply #28 on:** 31 Aug 2007, 04:16 pm »

Bob,

I am keeping a tap on your travails. I just don't have any ideas to contribute as I am really a plug and play type of guy when it comes to PC.

I hope somebody comes through for you.

bpape · « **Reply #29 on:** 31 Aug 2007, 05:11 pm »

It is just something to look into. My first thought is to make sure the PC and router are talking to each other regardless of the outside world (the PC that has the modem). Then, I'd troubleshoot the connection from the other PCs to the router using the internal IP address (should be 192.168.1.1 by default with the Linksys).

You should be able to run the setup/config app on the router from any of the PCs in the house that are connected to it whether or not you're dialed up. If you can't then that needs to be resolved first.

Bryan

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #30 on:** 31 Aug 2007, 05:39 pm »

Thanks Bryan,
I did read through the troubleshooting section. It says if the indicator lights for the specific 'ports' (#1, #2, #3, #4) are lit, then the connection has been made. I've got lights illuminated for the ports being used. So it 'appears' that the unit see's the two PC's.

The setup/config is where it 'brickwalls' me. It walks you step by step, one wire at a time, making you click 'next' at each step. Once it reaches a certain point it asks for my password. In the literature it says that it needs to be the same password as my ISP. Knowing that highspeed is an 'always on' connection, I had my dial-up AOL connected while doing the setup/config.

Bob

bpape · « **Reply #31 on:** 31 Aug 2007, 06:42 pm »

Hopefully, that's an easy one. Look in the quick setup guide. There is a default username and password from the factory on the modem. Use that one to get in. After that, you should be able to configure and then change to your ISP setup.

Bryan

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #32 on:** 31 Aug 2007, 07:06 pm »

If memory serves, I believe the factory username is 'admin'. I thought I had tried that, but can't remember.....I pushed a LOT of buttons last night.

Will try the 'admin' name and check PPoE settings again tonight. I've been digging around the net searching for key words like 'dial up' and 'router'. Found a few interesting sites, but none that seem to be exactly my situation.

Bryan, thanks man
Bob

bpape · « **Reply #33 on:** 31 Aug 2007, 07:24 pm »

Before you do anything with PPoE, just get so you can get into the router. I think it's Admin with no password IIRC.

Once you get past this step, then you can progress to the next step. Sorry, the programmer/debugger is coming out in me.

Bryan

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #34 on:** 31 Aug 2007, 07:48 pm »

Cool. No apologies necessary Bryan. You're a helluva guy for helping.
And you're doing a helluva job not using big words.

Bob

bpape · « **Reply #35 on:** 31 Aug 2007, 09:47 pm »

Well, I'm not a network engineer - but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn last night

I'm just trying to step you through a piece at a time to see exactly where the problem is. I've honestly not ever set up one quite like this before. I've done shared dialups but always with a dedicated machine to do such or a box meant specifically for this purpose.

Will do what I can.

Bryan

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #36 on:** 1 Sep 2007, 12:59 am »

Quote from: bpape on 31 Aug 2007, 09:47 pm

Well, I'm not a network engineer - but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn last night

Bryan, that's the funniest thing I've read today!!

Quote

I've honestly not ever set up one quite like this before.

You mean, halfassed????

Back at home now.....
Ok, tried entering "admin". Nothing, same thing.....repeatedly. Although it never technically says I've entered invalid information, it still wants it again.

It seems to "time out" in the same amount of time regardless if the internet is connected/on, or not....Don't know if that matters, or gives a clue. I noticed, by the way, it's not asking for user ID, it's asking for a password. Sooooo, I entered my ISP's password. Nothing. I tried admin again. Nothing.

Indicator lights illuminated:
- "WLAN",
- #1 (to Dell)
- #2 (to Gateway).

That's all I've got connected to the router. Occasionally, they'll all blink like somethings happening. But it doesn't seem to correspond to anything in particular that I've done.

Time to logoff and do some IP address diggin'

Bob

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #37 on:** 1 Sep 2007, 01:08 am »

By the way, I meant to ask;
It seems apparent to me that the type of cable I'm using may be vital. Back on page one it was mentioned that a crossover cable has the same jacks/terminations as a standard ethernet cable and will physically interchange.
Could I inadvertantly be using the wrong cable? Do I check by testing for continuity from 'pins' "A" to "A", and "B" to "B" etc.... My thinking is that the crossover cable would NOT have continuity on equal pins.....
I shouldn't be using crossover cables with this router, right?

Bob

Rashiki · « **Reply #38 on:** 1 Sep 2007, 06:01 am »

Sorry, I've been away from this thread for a while, but it seems like there's a lot of confusion here. I thought that Bob was trying to get two computers to talk to each other without a broadband connection. My recommendation was for a crossover cable, ethernet hub or router. It looks like Bob now has a router, but I'm unclear on what's happened next. Since Bob doesn't have broadband, the standard router configuration will probably not work. I'm also unclear on exactly what Bob is trying to accomplish.
A) sharing a dial-up internet connection?
B) sharing files between the two computers?
C) something else I'm missing?

A doesn't really make sense if both computers have their own dial-up modem, unless there's a need for both to be online at the same time.
B can be achieved in a bunch of different ways. If both computers are running Windows, you can just make sure that both have the IPX protocol installed, plug them both into the numbered ports on the router and they should see each other. Of course, Windows networking is notoriously finicky, so the computers may never see each other this way.

I'm not sure what you're expecting to see when you plug the computer into the router. If your TCP/IP settings are set to the defaults, the router should assign an address to the computer. This will probably be an address like 192.168.1.100. The router will assign itself an address like 192.168.1.1. You can check the numbers by opening a command prompt (go to Start/run and type cmd), then type ipconfig. At this point, the only thing your computer will see on the network is itself and the router. If you plug in your second computer, it should also get an address like 192.168.1.101. Now, the two computers should be able to see each other. From the command prompt try typing "ping 192.168.1.101" or whatever the other computer's address is. If things are working, you should see a bunch of responses.Press Ctrl-C to stop the pinging.

Now, if you've gotten this far, the computers can talk to each other, but that's just the first step. Let me know where you stand right now and we'll see what the next step should be.

-Rob

Rashiki · « **Reply #39 on:** 1 Sep 2007, 06:04 am »

Quote from: Bob in St. Louis on 1 Sep 2007, 01:08 am

By the way, I meant to ask;
It seems apparent to me that the type of cable I'm using may be vital. Back on page one it was mentioned that a crossover cable has the same jacks/terminations as a standard ethernet cable and will physically interchange.
Could I inadvertantly be using the wrong cable? Do I check by testing for continuity from 'pins' "A" to "A", and "B" to "B" etc.... My thinking is that the crossover cable would NOT have continuity on equal pins.....
I shouldn't be using crossover cables with this router, right?

No, you shouldn't be using a crossover cable, although I suspect that if you did have one plugged in it would work anyway. It's probably best to play safe and just use standard cables if you have a router.

Check here for a wiring diagram: http://www.incentre.net/incentre/frame/ethernet.html
Your assumption about wiring is correct.

-Rob