[PLUG] Routers (Resolved - Finally)

[Mel Andres]

John Jason Jordan wrote:
> On Tue, 10 Apr 2007 09:13:46 -0700
> Mel Andres <mel97215 at comcast.net> dijo:
>
>   
>> John Jason Jordan wrote:
>>     
>>> My router is dying. It's a Linksys 10/100 without a firewall. For a
>>> replacement I'd like gigabit and a firewall. I just got back from Fry's
>>> where I bought a Linksys RVS400 for $129 that turned out to be DOA.
>>> Since my dying router is also Linksys I am currently not impressed with
>>> Linksys quality. 
>>>       
>
>   
>> I found support from Linksys to be problematic. They are tied to a 
>> windows based script, and insist on using the GUI.
>> After three iterations, of warranty based support calls, I bought a 
>> Belkin. Not necessarily cheap, but been happier ever since.
>>     
>
> It took the better part of today, but I am back online. 
>
> The first thing I did was go to Free Geek to get a new plain 10/100
> router. Unfortunately, I arrove too early and they weren't open yet, so
> I killed some time going to City Liqudators and a couple other places
> checking out storage cabinets for the clinic. (Disappointing results.)
> Finally at Free Geek I bought a D-Link and a Linksys for $15 each.
>
> When I got them home I couldn't get either one to work. I spent at
> least an hour poking at them with every trick I knew of, but no way
> could I get on the internet. When my frustration level got too high I
> packed them up and took them back to Free Geek, along with my laptop. A
> kind soul from the back room got the configuration page up on each one
> in Firefox, and also showed me how to use a paper clip to reset them to
> factory defaults, in case I got the router so goobered up that it
> wouldn't even respond to a ping. Another gentleman was watching and
> added the suggestion that Comcast likes to block routers by locking a
> router's MAC address into the modem so the modem won't let traffic
> through from any other device. (This sounded a bit phony to me, but
> what do I know?)
>
> So back at home I tried the Linksys first. While it worked at Free
> Geek, back at home I couldn't even get the configuration page up on the
> browser. Eventually I hooked my Ubuntu laptop directly to the cable
> modem so I could at least get on the net, then went to linksys.com and
> found a tech support number. The call to tech support was taken by a
> young lady whose English pronunciation was terrible. Add that the phone
> connection was spitting static on every word, and I ended up having to
> ask her to repeat every sentence, sometimes two or three times. Finally
> she insisted that she could not help unless I was running Windows, so I
> booted my Windows 2000 desktop. She asked me to type ipconfig at a
> command line, which gave an ip address of 169.something. It was an
> address I had never seen before. I tried to get her to explain what it
> meant, but the communication problem made it impossible for me to
> understand her. After a few more minutes she asked for the serial
> number of the router. When I gave it to her she said it was "past its
> expired of warranty out," but that she could give me a number for their
> Premium Support Service, which would cost me only $29.50 for the first
> five minutes and $5 a minute thereafter. I hung up on her. Anyone need
> a Linksys router?
>
> At that point I plugged in the D-Link. Again, no matter what I did, I
> could not get on the net. Finally I called Comcast to see if the second
> gentleman's opinion was correct. A helpful fellow (native English
> speaker with a good phone connection!) spent 15 minutes with me, but
> couldn't get it working. He did say that the only MAC address Comcast
> looks at is the modem's MAC address and that, unless I changed the
> modem, there should be no problem. Just in case, I got him to give me
> the MAC address of my modem, which I now have taped to the side of its
> plastic housing.
>
> After hanging up with him I shut down the Windows 2000 desktop, took
> the cables for the three computers off the separate 8-port switch where
> they normally live and put them directly on the router, then went to my
> Ubuntu laptop. On the laptop I was finally able to get the
> configuration page up in Firefox for the D-Link, although I still
> couldn't go anywhere on the internet. I poked and poked and then,
> suddenly, it worked!! Unfortunately, I have no idea why it suddenly
> decided to work. That is bad, because I like to document which specific
> poke fixed something for next time I break it. 
>
> Now I need to put the cables back on the 8-port switch because the
> router has only four ports + modem, and I have three computers and four
> laser printers. But I'll tackle that later. For now I'm just happy to
> have a router that works.
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>   
The mystery with the Linksys was solved. Once I had the Belkin up and 
running, I tossed it into a closet and forgot about it for awhile. 
Later, my son-in-law started working for Comcast, and I gave it to him. 
My problem was that the wireless would work, but the gateway failed to 
connect us to the internet. Linksys support sent me two replacements and 
couldn't get them to work. Alex, opened up a command prompt, instead of 
using the GUI.
With an ipconfig /release; ipconfig /renew - all was working normally. 
Of course, I wondered why I hadn't thought of that myself. But then, 
neither did advanced tech support at Linksys. There was no need to clone 
a MAC address either.

Mel