Wireless broadband set up

scoot on

Hiya,

This is a complete technophobe post. I've been trying to set up a wireless router at home with no luck. And i've no idea what i'm doing wrong. I've installed a Belkin pcmcia card in the laptop and my brother in law gave us a Siemens wireless router. I'm having absolutely no joy. I get as far as setting up the router settings and when it goes to test the connection it just comes back as failed.
I have UTV broadband, so i've connected the modem to the router through the WAN port with the ethernet cable.
Is there anything else I should be doin? Anyone have any tips? It's driving me bonkers cuz usually I can sort these things out no problem.

Cabaal

moved to wireless

jor el

scoot on wrote:

I have UTV broadband, so i've connected the modem to the router through the WAN port with the ethernet cable.

Connect the modem to one of the LAN ports on the router, not the WAN port. That could be the problem. Also, since the modem is also a router, you have to disable routing functions in either the modem or the wireless router.

scoot on

jor el wrote:

Connect the modem to one of the LAN ports on the router, not the WAN port. That could be the problem. Also, since the modem is also a router, you have to disable routing functions in either the modem or the wireless router.

I connected it to one of the LAN ports last night aswell and that didn't work either.

How do you go about disabling the routing function?
Does it matter whether you disable this in the modem or the wireless router?

jor el

Shouldn't matter which, just disable the DHCP functions of one of them.

One thing to check, you do have the same IP range on both right? As in, if the modem is 192.168.1.1 then the router could be 192.168.1.2 (not 192.168.2.2).

I set mine up to have all routing done in the modem. It's output is connected to one of the LAN ports on the wireless router, using a straight through cable (not the cross over cable supplied with the modem). Some routers will switch internally if a cross-over cable is used, but some don't. I disabled the DHCP server in the router and that was it. Switch off any NAT in the wireless too. Router configs can be different though so it might take some digging around to see how yours works.

Make sure though to set up each individually with a direct connection by ethernet before connecting the two together. Also, can you connect to the wireless router through the wireless interface at all? If that's working then the problem lies somewhere between the other two.

scoot on

jor el wrote:

Shouldn't matter which, just disable the DHCP functions of one of them.

One thing to check, you do have the same IP range on both right? As in, if the modem is 192.168.1.1 then the router could be 192.168.1.2 (not 192.168.2.2).

I set mine up to have all routing done in the modem. It's output is connected to one of the LAN ports on the wireless router, using a straight through cable (not the cross over cable supplied with the modem). Some routers will switch internally if a cross-over cable is used, but some don't. I disabled the DHCP server in the router and that was it. Switch off any NAT in the wireless too. Router configs can be different though so it might take some digging around to see how yours works.

Make sure though to set up each individually with a direct connection by ethernet before connecting the two together. Also, can you connect to the wireless router through the wireless interface at all? If that's working then the problem lies somewhere between the other two.

Wireless interface? Can you explain a bit more? Excuse the ignorance!

As far as I can tell it says i'm connected to the router but won't connect to the internet.

I've never used broadband on the laptop before, we've only ever used it on the desktop. Do I need to install the modem from scratch on the laptop too before it will connect to the router?

jor el

What I mean is if you enter the address of the wireless router on the laptop in a browser will you get the configuration screen or nothing at all? That will tell you if you've connected to the wireless router.

No need to connect the modem to the laptop either, though if you plan to use the routing features of the wireless router then you'll have to connect to the modem firstly (either from the PC or laptop) and disable it's routing.

Best thing to do is connect the wireless router to the laptop (either directly with a cable or through the wireless link) and configure that router first. Then connect the router to the modem and try connecting the laptop and router through the wireless link. If you can do this then the laptop should be able to see the modem too. Try entering the modems IP address in a web browser and see if you get it's config screen.

irlrobins

The preferred way to link a DSL modem to a wireless router is to place the modem into bridge mode. Then connect it to the wireless router's WAN port. You then configure the router to handle the PPPoE settings etc. Much simpler way of doing it and causes less problems with ip conflicts, NAT firewalls, DHCP, etc.

Info on bridging modems is in the FAQ stickied at the top of the forum.

scoot on

Thanks a million guys,
I'll try that tonight.
It is connecting to the wireless interface. When I type in the IP address of the router I get to the configuration screen. Then when I go to test the it, it comes up with an error msg.
So by the sounds of it, it is the connection from the modem to the router.
I'll try all the suggestions you've given! Thanks for that!