http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r18287993 en Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:58:13 EDT Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:58:13 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18321401 foxx : I just want to update my original post. The probelm with Windows not being able to find the DNS server was caused by not entering any value for the router NDS server during the router WAN setup. In the router WAN option if you enter 192.168.1.1 for the primary DNS server and 127.0.0.1 for secondary DNS server, then you can elect for the window to "obtain DNS server automattically". Both method work ok.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18321401 Sat, 12 May 2007 00:28:34 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18288036 sashwa : Thanks for sharing, foxx.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18288036 Sat, 05 May 2007 21:28:17 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18287993 foxx : I finally managed to get my Encore-104 router to work with MSN NetDSL800 after four days of trying. I went through a very painful and frustrating experience . I decide to write this post in hopes that no another person go through the same pain. Forget about calling your router support because they immediately know this is not their problem, and your ISP provider, Qwest in my case really don’t have any control over the DSL modem so you are on your own. NetDSL800 is pre-configured (read locked) so nothing can be changed, therefore you have to configure your router to work with the modem.

1. Router basics. Most router regardless of the make on one side have many ports (usually 4), which are called the LAN (local area network) inputs. The LAN inputs is where you plug your local devices such as home computers, and on the other side there is a single port called WAN port (Wide area network). This port connects the router to the outside world, in your case to the modem input.

2. Router LAN set up. Plug in computer to the router, don’t plug in the router to modem yet, power up and log on to your router, select network setting, you will see three options, we are interested in LAN and WAN, Select LAN . For the LAN IP address enter 192.x.x.x, where x is any number 1 through 255. actually anything that starts with 192 works, but Never, Never use 192.168.x.x, because the modem LAN addresses are 192.168.1.2,and 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.x.x setting will put the modem LAN and router WAN on the same subnet. You may or may not get a warning message but your set up is not going to work. I chose 192.192.192.1 for the LAN address. For the subnet mask you have two choices 255.255.0.0 or 255.255.255.0, chose 255.255.255.0. The submask determines how many IP address LAN can have, with the above setting you have 255 IP address available for router to assign to LAN ports which is from 192.192.192.1 to 192.192.192.255. As you see this is plenty a router with 4 port LAN.

3. WAN set up, for you WAN chose “Dynamic IP” , which means the router will get its address from the modem automatically. Now go to DHCP setup and for start IP address enter 192.192.192.100 and for End IP address 192.192.192.199. This means the router now has 100 address to assign to its LAN port starting with address 192.192.192.100 ending with 192.192.192.199.

This may not be the case with your router but each time I changed the LAN address of my router it went into lock position for under a minute giving error message “ You have no authority to access this router” then was back online (not documented in the user manual). Don’t forget to change your password after setting is done because everybody knows (adim,admin) as the default username and password for all routers, this will give hackers a chance to get into your router.

4. Power up, remove the power from the router and modem, connect the router to modem, power up the router and wait until it has finished booting up then power up the modem . Wait until the desktop tray tells you the connection has been established, or click on the two computer icon in the desktop tray to see the status. On windows XP click on start then RUN then type “cmd” without the quotes then type in IPCONFIG . This command will force the computer to talk to the router and modem and get all addresses and information windows needs to connect to the internet, then type ping 192.168.1.1, and ping 192.168.1.2, if pings returns values your are all set. Open up your browser the home page should pop up. If the browser times out and nothing happens then in the browser address field type 64.233.167.104, this is web address for Google.com, if the Google page opens it means there is problem with DNS server. Computers only understand numbers, so when you type in google.com this goes to public server that translate it to 64.233.167.104, now computer know where to go. To fix this problem in the desktop tray double click on the two computers icon a window opens click on properties another window opens, highlight “internet protocol (TCP/CP), click on properties, chose “Use the following DNS server addresses” in the Preferred DNS server type in 192.168.1.1, and for Alternate DNS server 127.0.0.1 and close the windows. Now everything should work fine, hopefully. One minor detail, each time my router was refreshing I was getting an annoying popping sound, to fix this problem go c:\windows\media and rename “Window xp start.wav”, I know there are better ways to this through the control panel but this is the easiest . Thanks to jmanos3 of this forum help me to get started, but I felt a more detailed explanation is needed for people who are new to networking. Post your success stories ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18287993 Sat, 05 May 2007 21:20:39 EDT