Can my router be saved?

Factual Questions
1

My girlfriend just switched from a DSL to cable ISP, and bought a new cable modem but tried to re-use her old wireless router (Netgear). The modem install worked fine – the ISP sees the modem, and when I plug the laptop directly into the modem I can go online.

But the router seems to be toast. All the lights just flash, slowly – on…off…on…off. I tried plugging into one of the router’s wired ports and logging on to its IP address (192.168.1.1, or something like that) but just get a “page cannot be found” message.

Called Netgear’s support number, and they spent 20 minutes trying to sell us an extended warranty, and finally gave up and said it would be $40 for them to help resolve the problem. F* that.

Before I drop some bucks at BestBuy for new hardware, is there anything that can be done?

2

If it worked on DSL and not on cable, I doubt the router is toast. Did you reset the router to the default settings?

Odd that 192.168.1.1 doesn’t get you into the router setup though.

3

Try doing a “30/30/30 reset”:

That will put your router back to factory defaults.

If all the lights are blinking in unison, though, it may be in recovery mode. In this mode, it may or may not hand out an address with DHCP. You may have to manually set a static IP on your machine, say 192.168.1.2. If you do that, and are able to ping 192.168.1.1, but not access the router’s web interface, it’s most likely in recovery mode.

If it is, you can TFTP a new flash image to the router. You can get the image on the Netgear support site, and you can get a tool to flash it with TFTP here.

I’d try the 30/30/30 reset first though, good luck!

4

I tried poking the reset button – “until the test light comes on” according to a troubleshooting website. But the test light never came on, although I doubt if I held it for 30 seconds.

I’ll try the 30/30/30 when I get there tonight. Thanks.

5

And if this doesn’t work, there’s always the “.30-30 reset”.

6

also verify the cable and the port on the router being used is good.

i have an otherwise good router with a dead port.

it is not uncommon to have a cable be bad.

7

My girlfriend reports that she changed power cords this morning, and when it powered back on the lights were flashing “different”. It sounds like it may have come out of recovery mode. We’ll see if we can log on and configure it…I’ll keep you posted.