# Ugh, more problems.



## Kantastic (Dec 4, 2010)

Cisco/Linksys WRT160N V2 is acting up again, although this time it may have been my fault. I came home at around midnight and my parents told me they couldn't stream media through their HTPC, so I checked all the computers in the house and they were all either extremely slow or constantly failing to load webpages. I went ahead and reset the router, nothing. I reset the modem and my internet was gone altogether.

It turns out that there was an internet outage in my area and my internet stopped working for a couple hours.

Well, I just got off a call with Time Warner now and everything works with the modem, I'm on TPU directly connected to the modem right now. My router though, is a different story. Microsoft says there's a DNS server error, and I have no clue what that means. I tried flushing the DNS cache through command prompt, but it didn't help. I reset the router again, didn't help. I pinged www.yahoo.com through command prompt and it said it couldn't find the homepage with that domain or something. I can access my router's homepage (192.168.1.1) while connected to it though.

I was hoping that I could make it past the year problem-free, maybe permanently problem free, but that's too good to be true. Something troubleshoot this for me! 

Now be right back while I make a WTB thread in the FS forum for a Linksys WRT54GL that so many people have raved about, particularly with Tomato.


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## Athlon2K15 (Dec 4, 2010)

rest it to factory defaults through the admin tab and check the firmware version a new build came out on the 15th

http://homesupport.cisco.com/en-us/wireless/lbc/WRT160N


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## Athlon2K15 (Dec 4, 2010)

on another note i have a WRT54G2 with DDWRT installed already that i would trade you straight up for your 160N


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## Kantastic (Dec 4, 2010)

AthlonX2 said:


> rest it to factory defaults through the admin tab and check the firmware version a new build came out on the 15th
> 
> http://homesupport.cisco.com/en-us/wireless/lbc/WRT160N



Done, no luck. 



AthlonX2 said:


> on another note i have a WRT54G2 with DDWRT installed already that i would trade you straight up for your 160N



Lets focus on getting all my machines back online first, especially before my parents come home and throw a fit about not being able to go online.


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## timta2 (Dec 4, 2010)

What DNS address is the router using? How is the router obtaining it's connection to the modem (dynamic or static)? Have you tried using one of the OpenDNS addresses to test?

Mine are 209.18.47.61 and 209.18.47.62 (also Time Warner)


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## Kantastic (Dec 4, 2010)

timta2 said:


> What DNS address is the router using? How is the router obtaining it's connection to the modem (dynamic or static)? Have you tried using one of the OpenDNS addresses to test?
> 
> Mine are 209.18.47.61 and 209.18.47.62 (also Time Warner)



Lets take a step backwards, all this networking talk is like a foreign language to me. How exactly do I find the info you requested?


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## timta2 (Dec 4, 2010)

Well my thinking is that the router isn't using the right DNS address. Maybe something happened during the outage. You can find that info usually in the "Router Status" (or similar) section of the Router's configuration (192.168.1.1).

It's in "Status"->"Router" on yours.


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## Kantastic (Dec 4, 2010)

Looks like I don't even have a DNS address. 


```
Firmware Version:	v2.0.03 build 009Aug 21, 2009
Firmware Verification: e8235438ca0893272b95da2368931c57
Current Time: Not Available
Internet MAC Address: Removed
Host Name:	 
Domain Name:	
Internet Connection	
Connection Type:	Automatic Configuration - DHCP
Internet IP Address: 0.0.0.0
Subnet Mask: 0.0.0.0
Default Gateway:	0.0.0.0
DNS1:	
DNS2:	
DNS3:	
MTU:	 1500
DHCP Lease Time:
```


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## timta2 (Dec 4, 2010)

In the same window hit "Release" and the "Renew" and see what happens. It should automatically be getting the correct information for setup from the modem.


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## Kantastic (Dec 4, 2010)

timta2 said:


> In the same window hit "Release" and the "Renew" and see what happens.



I did that the first time I went to that page, nothing happens at all. I hit release, nothing. I hit renew, nothing.


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## timta2 (Dec 4, 2010)

What does it say in "Setup"->"Mac Address Clone"?

Sometimes a provider ties the modem to the first device connected via it's MAC address. I don't know if Time Warner still does it, but I have my router using a cloned address from one of my computers. The MAC id is like a social security number, every device has a special one that no other device has.


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## sapetto (Dec 4, 2010)

Unplug the router for a 5-10 minutes. BTW maybe it's your ISP that is having connection problems


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## Kantastic (Dec 4, 2010)

timta2 said:


> What does it say in "Setup"->"Mac Address Clone"?
> 
> Sometimes a provider ties the modem to the first device connected via it's MAC address. I don't know if Time Warner still does it, but I have my router using a cloned address from one of my computers. The MAC id is like a social security number, every device a special one that nobody has.



It shows my MAC address grayed out and "Disabled" is selected. I removed my MAC address from the post above because my computer tech teacher said something about someone abusing his and getting him in trouble with his ISP or something. Not sure if there's any truth to it, so it's there but simply removed by me if that was what you found unusual.



sapetto said:


> Unplug the router for a 5-10 minutes. BTW maybe it's your ISP that is having connection problems



Time Warner did a signal check and said my modem is working fine. I'm also on the internet directly connected to the modem with a normal ping and download/upload speeds.







I have the router unplugged now, I'll plug it back in in 10 minutes and see what's up.


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## timta2 (Dec 4, 2010)

> It shows my MAC address grayed out and "Disabled" is selected.



Ok so it was probably not cloned before. (Unless you held in the "Reset" button in the back-You didn't specify how you reset it earlier!)



> Unplug the router for a 5-10 minutes. BTW maybe it's your ISP that is having connection problems



Saphetto might be right about it being a Time Warner problem. The people you talk to on the phone really are clueless. (The tech told me on the phone there was nothing wrong with my modem from their end. After 3 trips out to my house the tech realized that I was using an old unsupported modem!).

Basically you know what the problem is (The router is not getting the right configuration info from the modem) and you will have to figure out why that is. It's possible that there is a hardware problem with the router. Maybe you can get the configuration info and try to enter it manually into the router (IP address, DNS).


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## Kantastic (Dec 4, 2010)

timta2 said:


> Ok so it was probably not cloned before. (Unless you held in the "Reset" button in the back-You didn't specify how you reset it earlier!)



I did it both ways, holding down the reset button and via the admin tab in the router's homepage. I hope I didn't do anything wrong. 



timta2 said:


> Saphetto might be right about it being a Time Warner problem. The people you talk to on the phone really are clueless.
> 
> Basically you know what the problem is (The router is not getting the right configuration info from the modem) and you will have to figure out why that is. It's possible that there is a hardware problem with the router. Maybe you can get the configuration info and try to enter it manually into the router (IP address, DNS).



I'm absolutely clueless on how to do that, I'm hoping I can leave this as a last resort.


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## timta2 (Dec 4, 2010)

You might be able to ask Customer Service if they have the service tied to a MAC address and what that address is. It might be one of your other computers (maybe the first one ever hooked up to the connection). You want them to be using the MAC address of the router (it's usually on the sticker of the router) or it's the default address in the "Clone MAC address" screen. With that option you can also make it whatever you want.

You could also ask them for IP Address and DNS (which you can also grab from the single computer that works when connected without the router) which you can manually enter in to the router. You do that in the "Basic Setup" tab. For "Internet Connection Type" you choose the one that isn't "Automatically" (Manual? I'm not sure) and enter the IP address and DNS address below that. It's actually pretty easy and there are all kinds of guides on how to do it.


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## newtekie1 (Dec 4, 2010)

Chances are you have to clone the mac address of your PC, so that the cable modem sees the router as a computer and not a Cisco router.(They don't like when you use routers, because that is free internet connections that they want you paying for instead, or at the very least they want you to buy/pay for their router.)  The service usually isn't tied to a specific MAC address anymore, but they do block MAC address from certain devices.

Go to Setup -> Mac Address Clone.

Select Enable, then clone the Mac Address of the PC you are using to directly connect to the modem.  The router should then get an IP address from the modem and the internet should work.


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## Kantastic (Dec 4, 2010)

Phew! I got it to work by cloning my MAC address like n1 specified, and I'm back online, so thank you newt!

And timta, I'm networking-illiterate but I think you were this [.] close to hitting the issue on the nail. Thanks for working with me throughout the afternoon, I can't tell you how grateful I am.



timta2 said:


> LOL. Look what I typed @ 3:57pm!    I don't think you could hit "the issue on the nail" any more than that!
> Regardless, I'm glad you got it working and your family members are happy now



 I didn't see the edit since I reply to messages quite prompt and don't reread them. BIG THANKS TO YOU AGAIN!


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## timta2 (Dec 4, 2010)

> And timta, I'm networking-illiterate but I think you were this [.] close to hitting the issue on the nail. Thanks for working with me throughout the afternoon, I can't tell you how grateful I am.



LOL. Look what I typed @ 3:57pm!    I don't think you could hit "the issue on the nail" any more than that!
Regardless, I'm glad you got it working and your family members are happy now 

And, please remember that if you push that "reset" button on the back that it defaults to the factory settings and you will have to do that all over again!



> I didn't see the edit since I reply to messages quite prompt and don't reread them. BIG THANKS TO YOU AGAIN!



Ah, I understand, you are welcome. It's a pleasure to help an awesome fellow TPU'er.


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