broadband network failure

[pawz]

hello all frustrated and frazzled Gracie here.

About a year ago we helped some friends set up an AOL Broadband network (we did try to persuade them to go for some other ISP, but as they were already using AOL, they preferred not to change).

All has been fine until the other day, when...there was Broadband to all four computers when the folks went out, but when they came back, there wasn't.

I actually did not take too much notice of this analysis because out of the four computers accessing Broadband, only the laptop is unchanged, and I am not sure that was ever properly configured anyway.

The computer that we originally used to set up the router and the broadband has recently been made redundant and a spiffy new XP machine has replaced it. The other two machines have been reformatted, and the last reformat was at about the same time as the Broadband went down, so I assumed that the configuration details were no longer present and that was why broadband was no longer accessible. Simply putting AOL back on - the router ( Thompson Speedtouch 500) was showing an amber light on internet connectivity- had
not fixed the problem, so we had been called in to see what we could do.

After an initial check to make sure all cards were seen and all the necessary protocols, file share and Microsoft client were present, and the workgroup name was the same, I ran the setup wizard just to make sure, but still no joy, so I called up AOL techy folks, and we eventually succeeded in getting the XP connected to the AOL server and the router was all green, e-mail and the web made available to the XP machine - but none of the others.

The guy on the other end of the phone seemed relieved when I said the rest was probably LAN configurations that needed

tweaking, so that was that and thank you for your help,byebye - only it wasn't, because I spent the rest of the afternoon trying everything I normally do to get a computer on the net ( but we have cable) and going over the same ground again and again to try and get the LAN up and running and the other two Windows 98 computers to see the router, and failed. There are no IP addresses for those ethernet cards. In our router at home ( LinkSys) I can go into a status page and renew the IP,look at what computers are on the network and what IP's they are assigned to, but with the SpeedTouch there doesn't seem to be anything user-configurable.

I eventually phoned AOL up again as I had run out of ideas, but, they said, they do not support networks running Windows 98 or ME.

Where do we go from here I wonder? I can't understand why ethernet cards that are recognised in DM, have all their protocols bound, etc, etc, are not being assigned IP addresses by the router - no subnetmask, nothing. I don't know enough about network configuration to know what to do next - except buy another router, but that one has all the greens now and the AOL icon at the bottom of the desktop thinks it is connected, but when I go into AOL it says it cannot connect to the DNS, and the IP config remains full of zeros for those two machines, yet the XP machine, running on the same network is recognised and active.

Any ideas please?

 

[netmanrick]

Is DHCP turned on ? Usually there is a default ip address on the client side of the router & cable unit.
As a suggestion I would start with the lowest common denominator. Is my cabling good ? Is my router performing correctly(DHCP or static addressing,arp table correct).
Bypass the router,connect directly from cable unit to each pc.............does that work.
Has the local ISP done anything ?

Rick Harris
SC Dept of Motor Vehicles
Network Operations

 

[pawz]

hello Rick, I am happy to say that the problem has been fixed, and that it was because (somehow) the router configuration had been changed from PPPoA to DHCP_Spoof, and this last permits only one broadband connection, which is why there were no IP's for the other network cards available. Quite HOW that configuration came about, or how dial-up was also enabled, and DNS, which apparently ought not to have been, I don't know, and after two days of trying to work out what the problem was, I don't too much care just now, as long as everything continues as it should.

Thought you would like to know anyway.

Thank you for your help.

 

[bcastner]

See if a firmware update is available for that router.
As a guess, a brief voltage interruption left the firmware in an unknow state.

One thing I always do in such a setting is to cold reset that router and any switch, etc. including modem. I mean a full power off and restart.

 

[pawz]

Hi Bill.
I did wonder about a factory default type reset but wasn't brave enough to try as it wasn't my network ( although we did successfully set it up, with AOL's help about a year back) and I am not yet knowledgeable enough about adsl routers to confidently revert to defaults and then tweak the settings.

We did get it going the first day, but it was down again the next day because it had the wrong configuration set, and although I had seen it(DHCP_Spoof) I did not realise it was wrong. I have now got myself a couple of books from the public library to learn more about protocols.

I shall pass on your comment about a voltage interruption to the customer. He thinks it is all his fault, and though he certainly muddied the water, it would be nice to tell him it might not have been him after all.

 

[edfair]

I would assume that at this point the user has figured out the way to access the router for maintenance purposes. If so, it would be a good time to document the settings and the method to change them as this type of problem has a history of repeating itself and starting over is much easier if all the details are known.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[pawz]

yes Ed, good point.
I have made notes about how to get it up again and what configuration details to look for when I am in, and the IP address so I can call it up from whatever machine I am working from, but as you say, next time I go I ought to make a more thorough job of it.

thank you