Why won't my WTRC45G Linksys Router connect with my Westell 6100 Modem?

Question

Wow am I getting sick and tired of this! I've been going through this for about 2 weeks now... here's the story...

We have Verizon Wireless DSL... and it connects perfectly when the modem is hooked directly up to the computer. Although, when we hook the router up to everything... (and yes... all the wires are hooked up correctly!)... it will not connect to the internet.

The linksys installation goes to step 10 and then when it tries to connect to the internet, it says it cannot connect. I've spoken to Verizon and Linksys tech support and managers and technicians SEVERAL times and no one can seem to tell me what the problem is... they are trying to send a technician out which will cost me $199!!!! I've tried connecting in Bridge mode and nothing seems to be working!

The status of my lights are the following...
Modem = All solid lights for power, ethernet, DSL and Internet.
Router = Solid lights for Power, WLAN, 1, and Internet.

Any help would MUCH appreciated! Thank you

Answer 1

Do you need a straight or a cross cable between modem and router WAN port? It could be this is the problem.

Also, you need to reboot the modem when you disconnect the pc and connect the router. The modem notes the MAC address of the pc's NIC port and unless you reboot it won't talk with the modem in most cases.

I am assuming you have a dynamic WAN IP.

Check the Linksys site for the latest router firmware. If they have newer firmware, download it to your pc and upload it to the router. There may be a bug in the older firmware.

Let's run tests with a cable from the pc to the LAN port of the router first; if these work then there is a problem with the wireless configuration.

Does the router provide LAN ip addresses? (Go to command prompt and type in "ipconfig" without quotes and hit enter; see if you have a valid LAN IP address (usually 192.168.1.x where x is between 2 and 254, some times it may be 192.168.0.x). If you do not have a LAN IP, is the pc's network card set to obtain an IP automatically? If so, the router is not set up to provide LAN IP via DHCP - correct this part.

Let's assume you get a LAN IP. Note the default gateway ip. Now enter "ping 192.168.x.y" without the quotes, where 192.168.x.y is the default gateway ip. You should receive 4 successful responses. If so the LAN side is probably ok.

Now type into command prompt "ping 4.2.2.2". You should be getting 4 successful responses. If not, you have not set up the config of the WAN side of the router properly and you need to change this. If ping 4.2.2.2 is successful, then enter "ping yahoo.com". You should be getting 4 successful responses. If not you have a DNS problem. Make sure that the WAN is configured to obtain DNS automatically.

If none of this works, write back telling us what you did and how things responded to the things above. We can then dig deeper.

If all this works with the wired connection but NOT with wireless you have a config problem with the wireless. Check it carefully.

Write back if you are stuck telling us what you did.

It may seem like a major task but to unravel the problem we need to go step wise to pinpoint the failure point.

Answer 2

a few things need to be answered first...are you on dhcp or are you on pppoe. Easy answer is to look at the westell config page. Do you have a Connect/Disconnect (with a username/password) or do you have a Release/Renew? With this you will get the most important piece of information. Next have you disabled the NAT/PAT in the router, that would be accomplished thru the VC Configuration of the Westell. With this acclompished you should be able to fairly easily get your linksys router to work with your system. However if you are on DHCP their maybe another step. You need to release your ip held by your modem before you connect your router to it. If you have done this and you are still not getting connected then you will need to do what is called MAC Cloning. Which is where you have to change the MAC on the Router to be the same as the MAC on the Westell. If this sounds familiar from your talks with Verizon, that is only because I am a former Tier 3 support specialist (also known to you as a manager) for Verizon DSL. I would be happy to help you config this if I can.

Answer 3

Some ISP's still use MAC Specific IP Addressing. If this is the case, then your WAN IP is assigned to your computer until it's next release time. IF this is the case, then you have two options: 1) Clone your computer's MAC address to the router. A simple Google search will return instructions on how to do this. 2) Call your ISP and ask them to release/renew your WAN IP address. Do this after you have connected your router. Doing so, will assign the IP to your routers MAC address instead of just your one computer. Hope this helps in case your ISP is still old-school.

Answer 4

Your modem may have to be bridged... westell modems are modems and part router for some reaosn. I have bellsouth dsl and i had to bridge my modem becuase i had the same exact problem as you. I think the address may be 192.168.1.254.. i may be wrong tho. All you need to do is go into the router using that address and change it to bridge mode. If you want to use the modem again without the router you will have to change the setting back. Hope thats your problem and yes, it was very frustrating

Answer 5

I had the same problem with my linksys router. Everything was working except for not connecting to the internet. It worked after i secured the net work with the 128 bit wep password.