Can anyone help me with a sudden but apparent stupidity about networking? My router was getting very slow with its connections, not only Internet but also dropping or blocking connections to other PCs. I got a new Linksys router to replace the failed unit but I can't seem to get it to work.
I followed the instructions to configure it, but now I can't access the configuration screens on the router. I can ping the router, I can ping the gateway, and I can ping the local machine. OS X says that the Built-in Ethernet connection is active and shows an IP address through which it is successfully connected to the Internet. The OS X boot screen identifies a network and starts the network services. I get a ready light from the network card and the cable connections are good.
But when I try to do anything on the network besides pinging local hosts, nothing works. I can't get into the router configuration screens through Safari, and I can't get into the router through Windows. When I did my last router configuration, it was as simple as plugging the modem into the WAN port and turning on the computers. Both OS X and Windows automatically identified the router and configured automatically. I don't see where anything has changed in those configurations besides OS X now showing the new IP address of the router on the DHCP configuration screen.
At this point, I'm totally stuck, because no systems can access the Linksys router's configuration screens. It's like there's a firewall blocking access to it. I can do a reset-to-defaults on the router, but why should this be necessary? I don't understand what I'm doing wrong, but I'm guessing that I have a PEBKAC error.
I tried turning off the router for five minutes, but that failed to fix the problem too. Then I tried resetting the router to defaults by holding down the Reset button for 30 seconds, but I still can't access the router's configuration screens. The router shows network activity, and it is connecting to the modem, but I can't do anything with it.
The workaround was to change the IP address of the new router to match the old router's IP address.
Also, the reset on the Linksys router appears to happen after 3 seconds of pressing the Reset button, not 30 seconds as stated in the manual. The power light blinks when the reset occurs.
Can anyone explain how to change the IP address that the operating systems are looking for from the router?