I pit my apparent router ineptitude

Every fucking time I do anything with networking I can’t get it to work for at least good week, this INCLUDES coming back to networks I already set up in other places.

The first time I set up a router it was fine, eventually it stopped working (like, wouldn’t turn on) after years of service and I got a Netgear rangemax, which I was assured to be “awesome” and that they “never had one come back.” God knows why I keep getting the same one because it ALWAYS fucking hates me. I tried to set it up at home, followed the instructions to the letter, it just up and decided “I’m not going to listen to you” I did the exact same setup process the CD gave me at least 10 times a day, for four days straight and on something like the ninth on the last day doing the exact same method I’d been using before… it worked. Why? 'Cause.

I took CCNA at school, failed the class because I refused to lie about the router pinging correctly. I was covering Unit 8 material with the teacher to complete Chapter 2, took me 3 months to get the old donated school routers and switches… and hubs, did I mention these are enterprise models from 6 or 7 years ago?) to ping correctly, I fixed the entirety of the CCNA lab (a back room from the Tech lab that was used exclusively for Comp Sci students to play with OS’s and CCNA students to do labs on the various routers, switches, and hubs) but I was so behind I couldn’t catch up on all the work for the rest of the semester because I was too honest to lie about whether it pinged or not (everyone else just made up something like “2ms” and moved on, I hate my dedication to not cheating).

I set up a router at my apartment for college this happens. Also, I had to broadcast my SSID because my laptop apparently doesn’t take kindly to the idea of connecting to hidden networks (“that network already exists!” Yes, and you’re not autoconnecting so I’m doing it manually again, LISTEN TO ME)

Now I come back home, my mom was working in my room with a wired connection, but since I’m (temporarily) moving back home to switch schools and my room is small I needed the room/wire for my desktop. It worked last night, with a bit of a hassle, then at about 4PM today it decides “nope, your laptop ain’t no good here.” (haven’t gotten around to setting up the desktop, and I can talk with my mom if I use my laptop in the living room instead of retreating to the back like a hermit) I tried, for 3 hours, to do stuff, resetting it to factory settings, taking off security, changing the SSID. Eventually it actually stops broadcasting a wireless signal, I mean it literally won’t accept wireless connection from ANYTHING (and started smoking, which usually isn’t good). So I go to Best Buy and sigh say it with me, buy the same model like an idiot (why? Insanity and that was the only model they had in stock). And now it keeps deciding during the setup process I’m following to the letter that it’s having trouble configuring the IP. I’m posting directly through the modem right now, I’m ready to buy six of these things and sacrifice them to some profane god just to make it work, but I hate this thing SO fucking much right now.

Though I admit, the venting felt good. If anyone can offer any config ideas it’s a WPN824v3.

I’ve always had good luck with my linksys. It has decent range coverage and copes pretty nice with my WPA2 TKP/AES encrypted traffic. For a bit I had SSID broadcasting turned off, and that worked okay. I ended up turning it back on though. About the only problem is the front cover keeps falling off and one of the antennas is broke. It kind of had a door fall on it.

You just use KIS. Plug the modem into the modem jack (there is a special one), plug a computer into one of the eithernet jacks. Then open up the router’s config page and set up wireless security. Mainly pick your protocol. WEP is getting cracked faster then a bowl full of peanuts these days so prolly wanna pick WPA home or WPA2 home. Don’t pick enterprise because that needs a special server. Set the password, then fire up a laptop and connect to the network. It’ll ask the password put it in and there you go.

I dunno what the cd does but those things always seem dodgy to me. Better to do it yourself.

Addendum the modem may require additional configuration if it uses PPOE or something. I live in DSL-less hicks so never had a chance to mess with that.

Well, I know WHAT to do, and that’s actually all the CD tells you to do (it also gives you a nice linear interface for setting up security stuff, hence why I use it). Trust me, I’ve tried it with the CD, without the CD, using 3 chickens wearing onyx spearhead necklaces, nothing pleases this thing. I’m actually getting fairly certain it’s my laptop this time, now I use Vista on my desktop, never had a problem, this thing seems resistant to having it’s settings changed, by the user at least. I might back everything up and just reformat.

What’s happening is I can get into the router IF (and only if) I go into the wired NIC properties and set the IPv4’s IP, subnet mask, and default gateway by hand, that doesn’t get me on the internet though, just into the settings. If I try to do its “detect the interwebs” setup process it’ll actually set my IP, gateway, and subnet to 0.0.0.0 (sometimes it’ll set my IP to something weird like 169.254.56.19, yes, that’s the actual IP it set me to once). It actually will set it to a manual IP config with those settings EVEN IF IT WAS SET TO AUTO ACQUIRE IP. I’m really starting to think it’s the laptop this time instead of my router.

Certain cable and DSL connections will not accept a new router. This may be what’s happening to you. You may need to call your provider to have them reset the IP.

I am generally speaking pretty clueless with anything not running IOS, but that IP is recognizable.

That’s not the router - it’s the OS’ way of saying “I haven’t heard from the DHCP server, so I am taking a wild guess at an IP address” - the 169.254.0.0/16 block is allocated for this purpose, the last two octets are a hash of the MAC address.

No clue if that’s any help to you. Could be the DHCP process is just not running…

Umm… problem solved. Apparently the firewall I had (which was highly recommended by friends) COMODO (Zone Alarm doesn’t have a Vista x64 version) decided it doesn’t particularly CARE whether I closed its process, it’s gonna “protect” me anyway. I uninstalled it and the new one worked fine (old one’s still shot though). I honestly didn’t think my firewall would work when none of its processes were running… anyone have any good 64-bit Vista firewalls? I need one now.

I opened this thread with anticipation only to be sorely disappointed that you didn’t gouge your big toe with a power tool.

Nothing personal.

Speaking of router ineptitude, for a while I had impact wrenches mixed up with plunging routers. That made for some interesting conversations.

Also, Jragon, if it makes you feel better, I recently started a thread in GQ about routers where I revealed my complete ignorance on the topic. Feel free to read it and laugh at me.

That’s what happens when you get an “apparent router” or a “virtual router”. They’re crap. Better get an actual hardware router.

Skip 3rd party firewall software and use Vista’s. XP’s firewall was limited in that it couldn’t block outgoing connections, but Vista’s firewall is fully featured although getting to the advanced configuration window isn’t very obvious. Just type WF.MSC in the Run box.

But… but… this one’s will powered! It’s less processor intensive AND more environmentally friendly, just don’t distract me… oooh shiny Jragon has gone offline