I am having Internet problems

[DaJe]

Alright, so, I added a second internet connection to my plan. Charter keeps telling me different **** evey time I've called them, and none of them really know anything (one of them tried to convince me that radio waves travel through wires). And they keep ****ing things up with my modems, such as completely shutting one off. Anyways, here's my basic problem. If I have both modems hooked up at once, it seems to work fine. BUT, if I hook my router up to one of them, only one modem will work. It seems they try to both take the same IP or something. I no longer even have my original IP (because of charter ****ing around with things), but that doesn't matter.

So I'll just sum it up

Have 2 modems
Have 1 router
2 modems + 0 router = working
1 modem + (1 modem + 1 router) = 1 modem working

[.Maleficus.]

You can give a computer a static IP for you network (I did this to my server to make things a lot easier). TBH though, I have no idea how to do this under Windows. I'll look into it quick.


Edit: Ah ha! Found it. To set the properties, go Start > All Programs > Accessories > Communications > Network Connections. Double click the icon of the connection you want to change. In the General Tab, scroll down to TCP/IP, click it and then click Properties. Select "Use the following IP address" and fill in the options. For the IP, do something like 192.168.1.xxx (xxx being a number of your choice). For the Subnet Mask do 255.255.255.0, and for default gateway address do 192.168.1.1 (the IP of your router). That should settle any IP troubles (if that was the cause in the first place, and if not then I guess I can't help..)

Good luck!


Edit 2: Damn you guys are fast. The router should already has a static IP (should be 192.168.1.1). Type that into a browser, and you should be asked for a username and password (it'll log you into your router settings (and if you want to try this, for the username you can leave it blank and for the password do "admin")). Just change the settings for the adapters.

[DaJe]

Speaking of servers, the second conenction is for use for a server. Perhaps I should give the royter a static IP? The router is hooked up to the modem that is not in use for the server. It's hooked up to the one for my home network.

[calumc]

for a static ip in windows you just have to go into the tcp/ip settigs for the adapter and change the settings in there to manual

[DaJe]

If I set a static IP on my router, would I have to give each device connected to it a static local IP?

[Airbozo]

If I set a static IP on my router, would I have to give each device connected to it a static local IP?

That depends on whether or not the router is issuing dhcp addy's. Probably not so yes you would have to.

[calumc]

as far as i know you dont do anything with the routerbut you just give each computer on the network a different static ip with the router as the DNS

[DaJe]

Anyone mind walking me through this a little for a Linksys WRT54G? Just to make sure I don't make any mistakes, so I can get this done right the first time.

[calumc]

if you go to portforward.com it has a very detailed guide for setting up static ips and you dont need to worry about the port forwarding part

[SgtM]

Anyone mind walking me through this a little for a Linksys WRT54G? Just to make sure I don't make any mistakes, so I can get this done right the first time.

I wouldn't mind at all. However, I'm not at home where I can take extra screen shots of my router. I do have some screenshots of my router in photobucket.. Here they are. I don't know how helpful they'll be.

Here's how the network should be setup.

Cable Modem --> router --> hosts.

Linksys routers are set to a 192.168.0.1 network by default. They also assign IP addresses via DHCP (automatically) by default. All of these options are customizable.

Charter is correct in that your modem listens for a certain frequency in order to talk to the cable network. Referencing a radio wave was just a way to put it in perspective, although it sounds like they did a poor job of explaining it to you. Anyway.. So the internet comes in to your house via your modem. What happens next is that your modem acts as a bridge between the internet, and your router.. it’s just passing traffic, and authentication for your ISP that it’s allowed to be on their network. They do this by MAC filtering. Your router has 2 sides to it.. the WAN side, and the LAN side. The WAN side will plug into your modem, and it will receive an IP address (assigned via DHCP, unless you’re paying for a static address) from your ISP.

On the LAN side, this is where you can get playful. You can keep everything on a 192.168.0.1 network, or a 172.17.0.1 network, or even 10.0.0.1. Those are all private network addresses. How you setup your hosts is also up to you. You can leave everything as DHCP, or set it up statically.

Now, if you need to setup remote desktop and you want to access that from work or a friends house. What you’ll need to do is set that host up with a static address, and forward the appropriate port (3389) to it from the router. From outside, you’ll hit your WAN address (get that from www.whatismyip.com), and you’ll be able to get in to your computer.

I think this will give you a good start. If you need any other help, just ask. I’m planning on doing a more intensive write up on networking after I get moved and set my network back up. Look for it in the Tips, Tricks and Tutorials section.

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f186/sgtm_usmc/port_forward.jpg

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f186/sgtm_usmc/router.jpg

[DaJe]

Things just got ****ed up, and I couldn't even access my router. I'm not sure what I did, but I had to reset the damn thing to even get into it. As for now, I managed to set one of the IPs that I had, to my router, and set it as static. Now both modems and the router are all hooked up at once and seem to be working for now. Now I just need to re-configure every device to connect to the router again. I'll let you guys know what happens after that. And when I'm back, +rep to everyone.

[DaJe]

Some things seem to have ****ed up again or something, I don't even know anymore. Charter was supposed to come by to install another cable from the phone pole to my house. I think I'll call them up to make sure that's still going to happen, and then see if that helps it at all.

[SgtM]

Lets start back at the root. What exactly is happening with the modem(s)? Are they just dropping signal all the time? I used to install cable and DSL internet.. I can help out with this. Cable modems are very sensitive to the decible level. Usually, they work in the +5 to -5 dB range. Any more or any less, and there could be problems. Splitters, wall plates, ground blocks, drops and taps are all points of failure. Normally when you install a cable modem, you bring the drop to the house and into the NID, terminating at a ground block. Then, you bring the line into the home, at which point, it can be split to rooms, cable boxes, and the modem.

Modems need to be "home run" meaning, that they will be on the first split right after the ground block. (if I was at home, I would take pictures for you). The best way to do this, is after the line is brought into the house, terminate it on a 2 way splitter.. one line goes to the modem, and the other goes to either a TV, cable box, or another splitter. Now, everytime the line is terminated, there is some loss of signal (though it's VERY small). The same is true when it's split. On a 2 way splitter, each leg drops 3.5 dB, a 3 way has one 3.5 dB drop, and two 7 dB drops, and a 4 way splitter is a 7 dB drop all around.

So, we're through all the splitters and everything.. now, we need to worry about the quality of the cable. I don't care what a cable installer tells you, if you have RG59 in your home, it needs to be ripped out and sacrificed to the communications Gods. That stuff is complete crap when it comes to carrying a modem signal. What you want to make sure is that ALL of the cables leading up to your modem is the RG6 flavor. That's the good stuff.

Hanging a new drop isn't going to do much good if someone screwed up the wiring. Have the tech check that stuff out first.

[DaJe]

The modems get signals. The problem comes when I try to hook the touter up to one. There's conflicting IPs or something of that nature. Right now I have both modems hooked up and no router hooked up. And it probably would help if there was a new cable that came straight from the phone pole and through the wall, bypassing all the other stuff.

[SgtM]

Ok.. then I was reading too much into this to start off with. New cable and modems aren't going to help. Here's what I think is you're best bet. Take the router, and reset it to factory defaults. I can help you set it back up from there.

[DaJe]

I did reset it. I ahd to because I stopped being able to access it. So, let's begin.

[Crazy Buddhist]

Some things seem to have ****ed up again or something, I don't even know anymore. Charter was supposed to come by to install another cable from the phone pole to my house. I think I'll call them up to make sure that's still going to happen, and then see if that helps it at all.

I wondered if someone was going to ask this ^^^ .

That will solve your problem. At least the first stage of it. You can not have two connections running on one line - they use the same bandwidth.

The new line is essential for the getting everything including the second connection to work. Get the new line in then come back for help setting up if you are still having problems.

Will you be leaving the server as stand-alone on that new line or still connected to the rest of your network? How you set things up once the new line is in will depend on this.

[DaJe]

I'll leave it all alone on that line. The thing is though, right now I have both modems running, I just don't have the router running.

[Crazy Buddhist]

I'll leave it all alone on that line. The thing is though, right now I have both modems running, I just don't have the router running.

That's very odd. Is this connection via a cable network? Or standard telephone line. If it's cable I guess they might both connect over the one cable but I would still be a bit surprised.

You might have them "running" as in recognising the line but are both carrying traffic simultaneously? Do they both have internet connectivity? Try running MSN Messenger on two computers attached to the two of them .. two accounts ... and talking to yourself that way.

As you are leaving the sever standalone - almost all of the above advice is pretty much irrelevant. You just want the server on one line and everything else as it always used to be.

[DaJe]

It's cable. It seems to be that both will work when the router isn't hook up. I think I'll have them hook another cable up and then see what happens.

[Crazy Buddhist]

It's cable. It seems to be that both will work when the router isn't hook up. I think I'll have them hook another cable up and then see what happens.

so you can connect computers to both and use the internet at the sane time?

[DaJe]

I'll go connect both just straight to computers right now, do some speed tests, run some programs, transfer some files, and see how it all runs and if it works. I'm not sure if Charter is even coming. Today was like the absolute last day they could possibly show up.

[DaJe]

Right now I have both modems hooked up, as well as the router hooked up. I have no devices running off of the wireless right now though, so I don't know if having those going would affect it at all. Hopefully this will last like this, but perhaps it's only temporary, and will soon fail again.

[SgtM]

I seem to be a little confused. Why would you need both modems hooked up? The router can only feed off of one or the other.

[DaJe]

Because one modem and the router would be for a home network, and the other modem would be for a server.

[SgtM]

Ok.. that makes sense. I can see clearly now. Sorry man.. Sometime these nights can really get to me.

What Charter should have done was installed a second drop to your house for the second modem. Call them and tell them to get off their asses and get out there and hang it before I launch a DOS. Cable reps (including about 40% of techs) can be real idiots.

[DaJe]

According to one of them, radio signals travel through wires...

[SgtM]

Well.. not radio freqs.. it's VHF (Very High Frequency). Originally it was UHF (Ultra High Frequency).

[SgtM]

Daje - whatever happened with this?

[Crazy Buddhist]

Daje - whatever happened with this?

Was wondering that too lol

CrazyB

[DaJe]

What happened was that right now, both modems and the router are all working right now, so I decided not to screw with it, and they're still working.