Unable to setup my wireless router.

Hi guys,
I'm trying to hook up a wireless router for a friend of mine, too bad he's using XP. He has Earthlink DSL that is PPPOE. He has this setup:
Earthlink DSL PPPOE>Modem>Router>New wireless router>computer.

I tried plugging in the new wireless router into the existing router, they are both Linksys. The computer reconized the new wirless router when it was operating on the wireless network and also when connected through an ethernet cable, however it was unable to connect and go on the web. I then tried to configure the new router by typing in 192.168.1.1, instead of connecting to the new wireless router it was connecting to the original router which I don't know the password.

To make matters worse the owner of the house is in the middle east and my friend is house sitting for 6 months.

So after working at it for a few hours I was only able to get the computer to work connected to the original router. And when it was working off the second router it would only reconize that it was there and not connect to the internet.

I sugested that my friend email the owner and find out the login and pass for the PPPOE Earthlink DSL so we could simply replace the old router with the new wireless one and avoid having two routers. My understanding is that you need to change the settings for the router to PPPOE and enter a login and password for it to be able to connect to the internet.

A tech friend suggested that I just bridge the connection?

What would you suggest I do?

Thanks very much, as always.