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Linksys Router Help

DinoAdventure

DinoAdventure

macrumors member
Original poster
May 13, 2005
84
0
I bought a Linksys WRT54G a few months ago, I was able to set it up the first day using the directions from this site: http://garrickvanburen.com/archive/how-to-set-up-a-linksys-router-with-mac-os-x
Today I tried to access the settings page again to open up some of the needed ports to play SOCOM online on my PSP. I typed http://192.168.1.1 into safari and waited, but it never loaded, just said "server stopped responding". So I held down the reset button to go back to factory settings and plugged it back in again. Same deal, it just wont load the set up page. So now I'm stuck with a router that my Mac can't even connect to. I've been searching here and google forever, but I've yet to find a solution that works. I need help!

Thanks in advance.
 
Make sure that to reset the router you held down the reset button for 10+ seconds until the LEDs blinked. Pressing the button momentarily just does the equivalent of power-cycling the router.

Also after the reset ensure that you are using an ethernet cable to connect to the router while you are configuring it rather than using an 802.11 (airport) connection.
 
I'm just curious are you using the Linksys router to share a dial-up connection?

I ask because ever since I started using my router (same type as yours) to share my dial-up connection (had to change how it destributes DHCP and a few other odds and ends), my router has been doing the exact same thing that you are experiencing. My only advice is to try and reset it a couples times in succession before you try connecting to it. (Make sure to hold the reset button down a good long while). That works for me, of course then about an hour later I can no longer log into it via any webbrowser, so I then always have to keep resetting it and starting over to modify any settings down the line.

I've been stuck doing this for the last few months, since I still haven't found a reliable way to fix it. :(
 
tag said:
I've been stuck doing this for the last few months, since I still haven't found a reliable way to fix it. :(
Click to expand...

Have you checked to ensure you are running the latest firmware? I vaguely recall that one of the bug-fixes in the past year was dial-up related.
 
mrichmon said:
Have you checked to ensure you are running the latest firmware? I vaguely recall that one of the bug-fixes in the past year was dial-up related.
Click to expand...

Hmm I might just have to do that. I think my router is nearly 2 years old at this point, so it could probably use the update I guess. I'll search around linksys.com for some newer firmware, if that doesn't work I guess maybe I'll play around and try the openwrt firmware or something, that always looked interesting, I just never got around to trying it out, since my router does technically still work(just not well :rolleyes: ). I'll give a post for you all if it fixes this type of problem(Hopefully I'll have time to give it a shot tomorrow).
 
DinoAdventure said:
I typed http://192.168.1.1 QUOTE]

Start pinging ip addresses... 192.168.1.1, 192.168.2.1, maybe increase the 4th octet through 10, see what responds. Try that address.

- Delete temps files and cookies
- if your network connection is still working do a tracert to a known ip and hopefully your router will give its ip in the results (www.yahoo.com is good)
- did you do the reset for 10 seconds?
- if you have virtual pc, go into that and see if you get a different result
- use a different web browser, using Safari or IE?
- upgrade firmware via the linksys site
- borrow a friends laptop and see if gets a different result
- do you still have the setup cd-rom? if you did a proper reset then the cd-rom config should work

that should get you going a little.

James
Click to expand...
 
Simple Question. Are you sure you're connected to your network. I spent a few days diagnosing a similar problem, I couldn't see my XP box from my iBook and couldn't configure my router, only to find out I was connected to my neighbor's network. :eek: I guess his signal was stronger than mine in the back of my house...

Drove me nuts! ;)

B
 
I tried it today after school and it finally loaded in IE.

And no, it's not a dial-up connection, it's a T1 connection that I rent from a neighbor of mine.

Thanks for all the help.
 
Alright, so I'm in the setup page, but I now I need some more help. I can't remember how I had it set up when I first got it, and I can't get it working again. I'm able to connect to the router, but not to the internet. Attached are my settings in the Linksys setup and in the Network pane on my mac. I have tried a number of different settings but I can't make it work. All I remember is that one of the IP's is supposed to match the computer but one should be different, or something.

As you can see, I know little about networking. If someone could point me in the right direction I would be greatly appreciative.
 

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DinoAdventure said:
As you can see, I know little about networking. If someone could point me in the right direction I would be greatly appreciative.
Click to expand...
If you're going to configure the IP address of your Mac manually, you should keep it outside the DHCP range, e.g. 192.168.1.99, so the router doesn't hand out your computer's address to another box.

EDIT: If I read that correctly your LAN and WAN addresses are both in the 192.168.1.X range. Your internet gateway is pointing to the router's local IP address, and the router's internet address is also in the DHCP range. Sounds like a recipe for confusion! What is on the internet side of your WRT54G?

Unless you're behind another NAT router, your router's internet address should not be in the 192.168 range at all! Can you use the ping page in the WRT54G to ping something on the internet?

B
 
The only reason I tried manual is because the automatic settings didn't work. Trust me, I am plenty confused.

So if I want my mac's IP to be out of the DHCP range, what should I type in?

Sorry if I am confusing to deal with, I know nothing about this stuff.

Thanks.
 
DinoAdventure said:
The only reason I tried manual is because the automatic settings didn't work. Trust me, I am plenty confused.

So if I want my mac's IP to be out of the DHCP range, what should I type in?

Sorry if I am confusing to deal with, I know nothing about this stuff.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
No problem, manual settings are OK, but they require you to configure more things. As CRAM says, you need to tell it everything, including DNS server addresses.

From the router config page your DHCP range is 192.168.1.100 to 192.168.1.149 (50 maximum users), give your Mac an address in the range from 192.168.1.2 to 99 or 192.168.1.150 to 254. The article you originally linked to had 192.168.1.5. Try that.

However I think your bigger problem lies upstream from your router. If your "internet" address really is 192.168.1.102 you are behind another router and no amout of tweaking you do to this one will clear your firewall issues.

What is connected to the "internet"/WAN/public side of your router?

B
 
The "internet" plug has a cable that comes from my basement from another 2 linksys routers (the first one receives the connection from an antenna outside and the other runs 3 cables for the 3 computers in our house). I simply plugged the ethernet cord that i normally plug into my mac into the "internet" port on the wireless router. I don't think I need to change any of the settings on the other routers though, because when I set it up before I only tweaked the settings on the wireless router, I didn't have to touch the routers downstairs.

Where on the Linksys set up page can I find the DNS sever addresses?

Thanks again for the help.
 
DinoAdventure said:
The "internet" plug has a cable that comes from my basement from another 2 linksys routers (the first one receives the connection from an antenna outside and the other runs 3 cables for the 3 computers in our house). I simply plugged the ethernet cord that i normally plug into my mac into the "internet" port on the wireless router. I don't think I need to change any of the settings on the other routers though, because when I set it up before I only tweaked the settings on the wireless router, I didn't have to touch the routers downstairs.

Where on the Linksys set up page can I find the DNS sever addresses?

Thanks again for the help.
Click to expand...
OK.

Now it becomes a bit clearer. You appear to be trying to use your WRT54G as a WAP (wireless access point) or bridge, not a router, and that's where the fun starts. Your MAC should ideally be plugged in to one of the LAN ports not the "internet" (WAN) port.

Are the other two routers both WRT54Gs or are they something else?

Lastly, have you considered using an Aiprort Express instead of your WRT54G, I think it would be a better fit for this purpose...

B
 
CanadaRAM said:
You also have to serve DHCP from one and only one router on your network... typically the one that is physically cabled to the modem. Turn DHCP Serving off on the other routers.
Click to expand...
Or just have them serving DHCP in different subnets or address ranges.

e.g.

Router 1 (public=internet) (private=192.168.1.X)
Router 2 (public=192.168.1.X) (private=192.168.2.X)
Router 3 (public=192.168.1.X) (private=192.168.3.X)

This assumes that the "internet" sides of routers 2 and 3 are connected to the "private" sides of router 1.

the first one receives the connection from an antenna outside and the other runs 3 cables for the 3 computers in our house
Click to expand...

Also, sounds like the "router" that runs the wires to the three computers should really just be a hub or switch.

B
 
The ones downstairs are Linksys "etherfast cable/dsl" routers. I'm not sure of the exact name, they were provided by our internet guy.

As for buying an airport express, I don't really want to buy a new one considering that I had this one working untill just a few days ago. That's the frustrating part, it was working fine until I messed up the settings trying to get my PSP to work with it...

I'm gonna try going to automatic settings on the router, and then when it gives me DNS addresses I'll enter them manually on my mac. I'll report back in a few.
 
DinoAdventure said:
I'm gonna try going to automatic settings on the router, and then when it gives me DNS addresses I'll enter them manually on my mac. I'll report back in a few.
Click to expand...

You might want to plug the wire you use to feed your WRT54G into your Mac and let it DHCP.

You can certainly get it to work, but your life would be much simpler if you were using a switch as a switch and a WAP as a WAP. And definitely automatic settings unless absolutely necessary.

The WRT54G can be configured as all of those, but it takes some knowledge and potentially third party firmware.

e.g. if you only connect machines to the LAN ports of an Etherfast Cable/DSL router and disable DHCP (as CRAM suggests there can be only one DHCP server per ethernet network) you will effectively have a rather expensive 4 port switch.

You could probably do the same with the WRT54g, connect your router into the "upstream" port on the LAN sections, turn off DHCP and no-care what the internet settings are (though it would be good to set this to something outside the 192.168.1.X range). Do not however connect anything to the internet port on the WRT54g. Each router should have a distinct local IP address. e.g. 192.168.1.1, 192.168.1.2, 192.168.1.3 so they don't get confused.

Your Mac should then get its DHCP settings from the primary router in the basement and carry on its merry way. Then all the ports you need to open need to be configured on the main router in the basement.

B
 
Finally! It's up and running again. Turns out one of the routers downstairs was already set to 192.168.1.1 for the internet IP, so I just changed the wireless one to 192.168.1.6, made the corresponding change in my mac's settings and it worked.

Thanks a lot for all the help.
 
DinoAdventure said:
Today I tried to access the settings page again to open up some of the needed ports to play SOCOM online on my PSP.
Click to expand...
Wonderful! Now you're back to your original problem, or is that resolved too?

In any case, the only router you've got working as a router is the main one that hooks up to the antenna, so if you need to open ports, do it on that one.

B
 
DinoAdventure said:
Finally! It's up and running again. Turns out one of the routers downstairs was already set to 192.168.1.1 for the internet IP, so I just changed the wireless one to 192.168.1.6, made the corresponding change in my mac's settings and it worked.

Thanks a lot for all the help.
Click to expand...

That's fine, but once you plug another machine into your router or have a second wireless connection to your router then things will start to mess up.

It sounds like the router connected to the T1 line is running a DHCP server. You either need to change your router so that it is serving a different network into your house, eg. 192.168.10.x, or disable the DHCP server on your router.
There is a radio button to turn off DHCP on your router. Once you have done that you should set your Mac to get all of the network settings Dynamically via DHCP otherwise you may run into address conflicts in the future.

But ultimately you are just managing to have things working because you picked addresses that are currently unallocated. But these addresses could become allocated in the future if there are any changes to the hardware on these networks.

The clean way to set up what you need is (Assuming that the router connected to the T1 is running a DHCP server which appears to be the case.):

  1. Unplug all ethernet connections from your router.
  2. Turn off airport on your Mac.
  3. Connect an ethernet cable between your mac and your router for use during configuration of your router.
  4. Set Mac to get network settings Automatically via DHCP.
  5. Reset your router to factory defaults either via the web interface or by holding down the reset button for at least 15 seconds.
  6. Using the web browser on your Mac, open "http://192.168.1.1" -- this will open the configuration page for your router.
  7. Set the following options on your router:
    1. Internet Connection Type set to "Automatic -DHCP". This specifies that your router should get an address from the router connected to the T1 connection.
    2. Local IP Address set to 192.168.x.1 where x is any number between 2 and 255. This is specifies that all machines connecting to your router should be assigned addresses in the 192.168.2.y address range assuming you decided to use "2" in place of "x".
  8. Save your router settings.
  9. Disconnect your Mac from the ethernet cable to your router. This forces the Mac to request a new IP from the router since the old one will be invalid after setting the router settings above.
  10. Connect your Mac back up to your router with an ethernet cable. At this stage, if you check the IP address on your Mac it should be allocated an address on the 192.168.x.y network. If you used "2" in place of "x" above and your Mac is the only machine on your network then your Mac will have an IP address of 192.168.2.100.
  11. Disconnect your Mac from the ethernet cable and turn on Airport, you should still be assigned an ip on the 192.168.2.y network. (Ignore this step if you do not use airport networking.) The IP will probably be 192.168.2.101 if you used "2" in place of "x" above.
  12. At this stage, to access your router from within your network you need to open "http://192.168.2.1" assuming you used "2" in place of "x" above. Make sure that you can access your router and view the configuration pages. At this point you have your internal network functioning and you should be able to connect multiple machines to your router and have them allocated an IP correctly in the 192.168.2.y address range assuming you used "2" in place of "x" above.
  13. Connect the ethernet cable from the T1 router to the WAN port of your router.
  14. Now go to the "Status" page of your router and check the IP Address listed. The IP should be on the 192.168.1.y network since the IP external of the router is being assigned by the T1 router.

The effect of these settings is to say that your router controls the network addresses 192.168.2.y where y is between 1 and 255. The T1 router controls addresses 192.168.1.z and allocates an address on that network to your router as the external router IP address. Inside your network, the router uses the address 192.168.2.1.

Once you get to this point, you can leave your Mac using DHCP to obtain the addresses and you can set the password and any WEP settings you want on your router. I expect any additional machines such as your PSP will work fine on your home network with the only changes required to be setting up port forwarding.

When you open up any ports manually to do port forwarding you will also need to open up the corresponding ports on the T1 router. Otherwise, you can set the T1 router so that the external address of your router is in the DMZ for the T1 router. This means that you will effectively be directly on the internet and not behind the T1 router firewall.

Edit: changed description to consistently use "your router"... hopefully this reduces confusion in the steps.
 
The guys at the PSP websites said that in order to use the voice chat with SOCOM, i need to type in the MAC address of my PSP and assign it a "static IP". Then I can set the necessary ports to open for only the IP that I assigned to the PSP. Is there any way to do this on a linksys? Or is there any other suitable method of doing it?

Thanks
 
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