Router problems

[Nurian]

I swear, sometimes if it's not one thing, it's the other.
We just paid our internet bill a couple days ago. Everything is hunky freakin' dorey until yesterday. Internet goes down. I call AT&T, sure enough, outage. Fine.

This morning, internet is still down, so I call them again. I did what they asked and come to find out I can get on the internet just fine without my router (Netgear WGR614v7). They can't help with it as it's a 3rd party router.
I call Netgear. They say they can help, but it'll be $100/min. Ummm....no.

For 4 hours, I've been fighting with this plastic turd. I've restarted the modem, the router and my computer. I even set the router back to factory settings. I pinged the router in the run command and it comes back fine, so I know the computer recognizes it. My modems ethernet light comes on when I connect it to the router, so it recognizes it, too. I have the username and password correct, set it to automatically get ISP Address and DNS address. In short, nothing has changed from before except that it doesn't connect now.

What's going on?

[csquared]

Who is doing the PPPoE login, DSL Modem or Router? Is the DSL Modem set to Bridged Ethernet?

[Andara Bledin]

I have to say that AT&T sucks, then.

Well, ok, I say that normally and without prompting all the time, but at least my ISP will walk me through getting my router working, even though it's 3rd party. Hell, when I first switched, I was still using an old Earthlink-branded modem.

Unfortunately, I have no advice on how to get around whatever problem you're expereincing.

^-.-^

[Ironclad Alibi]

Bad cable maybe?

[DrFaroohk]

I feel stupid offering a suggestion you've probably tried, but I haven't seen any mention of it - Firmware perhaps?

[lordlundar]

I have to say that AT&T sucks, then.

I can see their point on this. The router was not a part that they installed, so they cannot take responsibility for it. They confirmed that, given the setup they are responsible for which does not include the router, the connection is stable.

They've done more than some companies do, which is usually blame a particular part outright and end the call.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Yeah, AT&T isn't responsible for what somebody else's router does or doesn't do.

But the manufacturer of the modem charging $100 for support over the phone? That's quite dickish.

[Nurian]

Well, I decided to get a new router because I had no idea what was going on. I set it up the same way.....and it doesn't work either. I go through all the steps and can't figure it out. I'm ready to call netgear on THIS router (since it's in warranty) when I realized it:

I put my PPPoE username and password in the modem and my router. My router doesn't need to know that. I tell my router not to use the username and password...and it works.

So there you go. There was no real issue. Just a PEBKAC.


....at least I have a new router

[EDIT] And I really wished I had seen your post before I bought the new one, csquared. Would have save me $40

[technical.angel]

But, hey, new router. I have that happen to me too. All the sudden, it will only work with my main (hardwired) desktop.

So, I upgraded to an N wireless router.

[Naaman]

[EDIT] And I really wished I had seen your post before I bought the new one, csquared. Would have save me $40

Just think of it as $40 well spent when working router cacks out

[csquared]

You should probably configure your DSL modem to Bridged Ethernet. It should not be logging into the PPPoE. Let the Router do that. It will also avoid issues with double NATing.

I have AT&T, a Westel modem and a D-Link router. Here is the article that explains the setup.
http://www.dslreports.com/faq/7125

Even if you don't have the same equipment, you should do something similar. Before I followed these instructions, I was only getting about 75% of the bandwidth that I should have.

[Midorikawa]

You should probably configure your DSL modem to Bridged Ethernet. It should not be logging into the PPPoE. Let the Router do that. It will also avoid issues with double NATing.

Seconded. Double NAT causes tons of odd issues from slow connectivity to intermittent failure to connect to server errors that come and go and have no real rhyme or reason, to just up and not working one day.