Problems with Home Network

[SpanishFry]

OK, a friend of mine called me over to his house to help him. He has 3 PCs networked all running XP. His router went out, he bought another one, now the PCs cannot see each other.

The DSL connection works fine on all three computers and they are all on the same workgroup. The DSL connects to the main compute by USB. That computer then plugs into the WAN port of the Linksys router, the other computers are plugged into the other ports.

I got there and the computer with the DSL connection shows that connection and then a bridge with the "local area connection" and is manually confiured to 192.168.0.1 while the Linksys is giving out 192.168.1.x .

1. If I take the main computer off of the WAN port and move it to one of the other ports the internet is no longer shared.

2. If on the WAN port there is no 2-way traffic across the router.

Thanks for any help, I've never worked with DSL before, I'm used to cable that goes directly into the router.

 

[drkavnge99]

you must shut off DHCP on the router and set up internet connection sharing on the PC the modem is connected to. Disable the bridge and connect the PC who is hooked up to the modem to a regular port. The PC connected to the modem should be 192.168.0.1 because it's acting as a gateway and is broadcasting DHCP to assign IP's to the rest of the network.

 

[JackMDS]

If the main feed comes from a USB Modem to One computer you can not use the Router as Router.

You can use the Router as a passive switch, and you need to install and configure Software NAT (ICS).

You are much better off buying a "Normal" (External Ethernet) DSL Modem, and then you can use the Router.

Example: Model 5515 ETHERNET ADSL Bridge Modem. ($69).

 

[SpanishFry]

Thanks guys.

So if I disable DHCP on the router and hook the DSL-PC to a normal port it will assign the IPs itself through ICS? And on the other computers I can set them to automatically assign or should I manually configure them with an ip of 192.168.0.x and the default gateway of 192.168.0.1?? Thanks, it's getting clearer.

 

[drkavnge99]

It should automatically assign as long as you have ICS up and running.

 

[artemedes]

Maybe I misses something in the thread, but it seems like you have all the parts there to make it run great, but are doing it the hard way.

If you don't have an extra NIC for the first computer (the one currently connected to the modem) then buy one. They are cheap. Then I would hook up the router via the WAN link to the DSL modems ethernet link. Then hook all the computers to the router. This would be a much better setup for two reasons. First you would be loosing that stupid USB connection. Second all the pc's would be behind a NAT firewall. With all the internet worms running around I can't imagine not wanting to be behind some kind of firewall. The router should have all the options you would need for port forwarding and what not.

I have helped three people who were having trouble with their broadband, and in all three cases they were trying to hook the broadband modem up to the pc through the USB port. As soon as we used the ethernet port it was all good. It is just a good solid connection to the modem. I found the USB to be flaky and slower.

You may have to turn off and unplug the DSL modem for 30 seconds to get it to work. Depends on how the modem and how it is setup by the ISP.

Hope that helps

 

[drkavnge99]

artemedes- I guess I ASSumed that his dsl modem only supported USB and not ethernet because alot of DSL modems I have seen especially with long time users of DSL have only had USB to hook it up.

 

[SpanishFry]

USB Only

I've only configured broadband networks with cable modems. That's why this is such a pain to me.

 

[artemedes]

I guess I ASSumed that his dsl modem only supported USB and not ethernet because alot of DSL modems I have seen especially with long time users of DSL have only had USB to hook it up.

Well that makes sense. My experience has been the opposite. I have seen about a dozen different broadband modems (both cable and DSL) and all of them had an ethernet connection, but only some newer ones had the USB port. Back when starcraft ruled the day, a friend ordered roadrunner as soon as it was available for him. He tried the USB first cause he didn't have a NIC, and was having terrible time with online gaming. Web browsing was okay, but he had a horrible connection that was usually above 200ms and he kept getting dropped and slowing down whatever game we were playing. As soon as he bought an NIC he had a faster/better connection than my university line I was using at the time (which kicked butt).

Anyway, I just don't think you get the full advantage of broadband if you connected to it over USB.

 

[artemedes]

USB Only

Thats a bummer. Can you get a different modem? If it is part of his monthly package then I would request one with an ethernet port. If he owns it I would think it would be worth it to buy a new one.