Wireless Router trouble. (fixed)

[Weeble]

Okay, I'm normally fairly tech savvy, but maybe it's a combination of just getting back up to Newcastle for University, or the crappy day (weather-wise) we just had, or something completely random, I'm having trouble figuring this out and was wondering if any of you had any ideas I might be able to try.

Problem
The wireless router we have (Sitecom WL-160) won't allow clients access through to the internet (it's connected via a cable modem);
however, plugging a client directly into the cable modem allows full internet access no problem (which is how I'm able to write this post).

The router config displays the same public IP that I get when my computer is plugged into the modem, so I know the router can access the internet, but nothing else can gain access through the router.

Background
Up at Uni, I live in a house in a Virgin Cable area. The service is generally fantastic, had no problems so far.
We purchased a Sitecom Wireless Router (WL-160) and plugged it in to the cable modem, setup some wireless access restrictions and left it alone; the internet worked for both wired and wireless devices without a hitch.

Currently
During the Easter break I unplugged the wireless router and took it home (I did this before over Christmas), but didn't touch it or use it at home, so no details on it will have changed.
I got back to Newcastle today, and plugged the router in again (just as I had before) and tried to access the internet - nothing.
I've tried resetting literally all of my computers devices with regards to networks to no avail.
Plugging my computer (or laptop) directly into the cable modem allows full internet access, but obviously this isn't a solution as there are a number of computers which require access within the house, one of which is always connected via cable, the others via wireless.



If you need any more info, please ask!

 

[Souls]

Re: Wireless Router trouble.

Re: Wireless Router trouble.

Wireless routers typically have an "Enable/Disable" setting in configuration; is that set to disabled?

EDIT -- What are the specifics on the restrictions you set?

 

[Weeble]

Re: Wireless Router trouble.

Re: Wireless Router trouble.

All options that should be enabled are enabled. As I said, nothing changed internally on the router from being unplugged before Easter (when it worked as intended) to when I plugged it in when I got back 4 weeks later (when it no longer worked).

It's a basic WPA Passphrase encryption, nothing fancy.

 

[Souls]

Re: Wireless Router trouble.

Re: Wireless Router trouble.

Try removing the encryption and see if that's the problem?

 

[Weeble]

Re: Wireless Router trouble.

Re: Wireless Router trouble.

I did try that but then realised that was a silly idea - it's not just the wireless that's the problem; I can't access the internet through a wired connection either...

 

[Markb]

Re: Wireless Router trouble.

Re: Wireless Router trouble.

I'm unfamiliar with Sitecom equipment, but does the administration console web page / telnet interface have a ping utility? I assume when you say full internet access you mean you've tried accessing things via IPs and its not just a DNS related problem?

 

[Weeble]

Re: Wireless Router trouble.

Re: Wireless Router trouble.

Okay, slight update;

Took the router back to Maplin (where I bought it) and got them to look at it, just in case. The guy there mentioned something about the cable modem being assigned a new MAC address and something about Virgin not catching on to the fact... or something... however, he replaced the router for me with a new Netgear WGR614 v7.
I've just got back and plugged it in, without touching any of the settings.
It managed to find the IP address/connection settings no problem, but still won't let anything connect through it. There's no "ping" function per se on the router, and it doesn't seem like it can connect to the internet either (it has a self-updating tool which connects to the Netgear server and downloads the latest firmware, but it kept giving a "connection failed" message), so now I'm thinking it's a Virgin problem...
but this still doesn't make sense considering plugging anything directly into the modem works perfectly...
This is really confusing me.

And yeah Mark, I've tried pinging IPs from my computer and connecting directly to them but no joy.

 

[Weeble]

Re: Wireless Router trouble.

Re: Wireless Router trouble.

Bigger update;

Just spent about a half hour on the phone with some Netgear tech who treated me like a muppet ("now please clear the box at the top of the internet explorer window. Okay, now in that bar, please type w-w-w-dot-yahoo-dot-com. Press enter. Okay now what does it show?"), but it now works... Set my main PC to use the two DNS servers: 4.2.2.2 and 4.2.2.1 and it worked... for the entire network, wireless and all... which is irritating.
Ah well, at least it's working now!
Thanks for the ideas people!

 

[Charlie_B]

Re: Wireless Router trouble. (fixed)

I had a similar problem accessing the net via a Netgear router and Virgin cable modem on friday/saturday. It randomly fixed itself after a couple of unplug/reset/try again cycles while attempting to work out what was wrong.
So possibly Virgin was a bit screwy over the weekend.

 

[Souls]

Re: Wireless Router trouble. (fixed)

I'll use your topic for my own problem.

So lately my neighbors have been pretty enthusiastic about hopping on my internet connection, so I encrypted it via WEP. That's all fine and good, all the connections work fine, and just as speedy. However, whenever I'm playing a game over the internet, my connection just goes to hell. I'll have long lag spikes, etc. The thing is, I'm not lagging to anyone else (A lag box normally pops up for other players), it's just me. >>;

 

[BlackWolf]

Re: Wireless Router trouble. (fixed)

It sounds weird problem. First of all go to that game. Then play for a while and when you get lag spikes quit game. Drop that security and then try to play again. It might very well be that theres some other problems with your connection not just security.

If problem only exists with ecurity options on, try changing to WPA or something and try then again. Let us know what happens then.

One possibility is that your gaming requires too much of your comp so it cant keep up with processing pover it needs to scramble that connection between your comp and router.

As last you could tell if your using PCI/PCI-e card or on board wlan to connect to router?

 

[Polo]

Re: Wireless Router trouble. (fixed)

If problem only exists with ecurity options on, try changing to WPA or something and try then again. Let us know what happens then.

If it is due to the wireless encryption (although I doubt it is...), you could just remove the encryption and use MAC address filtering instead (ie. only allow your MAC address access to the router).

 

[Weeble]

Re: Wireless Router trouble. (fixed)

If it is due to the wireless encryption (although I doubt it is...), you could just remove the encryption and use MAC address filtering instead (ie. only allow your MAC address access to the router).

...which is really insecure

 

[BlackWolf]

Re: Wireless Router trouble. (fixed)

No its not.
It means someone whom wants to access the router must hack it to get there which is illegal. That you have open network and someone "loans" it is much harder to proove. Not everyone is willingly to do the work it needs to access such network.

 

[Weeble]

Re: Wireless Router trouble. (fixed)

Not really... You don't even have to hack a router to obtain a valid MAC address. In fact it's actually incredibly easy to sniff out a MAC address of a wireless computer trying to access a wireless router, and then spoofing said MAC address and gaining access. So what if it's illegal; thousands of people use their neighbors unsecured wireless connections every day, and that's technically illegal, but so what?