Verify your computer is getting an IP Address from the router

• On your computer open a command window (start – run – cmd – ok)

• At the prompt type IPCONFIG and press enter. You should see something like this.

  • IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.100

  • Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

  • Default Gateway . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

• If the IP address comes back as 0.0.0.0 or 169.254.x.x it means your computer is not getting an IP address from the router. If it does not come back with any values there is probably something wrong with your cable connections. Double check your cables, reboot your computer and or power cycle the router. When your computer is properly connected to your router, the link indicator lights on the router port you are plugged will be on.

• If all the lights are on and everything looks good, we need to try something a little more advanced.

• Click Start

• Control Panel

• Administrative Tools

• Computer Management

• System Tools

• Device Manager

• Expand Network Adapters.

• Right click on your network card and select Properties.

• Click on Advanced then Speed & Duplex.

• Change the Value to "10 Mb Half" and click OK.

• Run IPCONFIG again and check to see if you have an address.

Verify your router is getting an IP address for the ISP

• If you have an IP address an you cannot access the Internet you need to make sure your router is getting an IP address from your Internet Service Provider (ISP). The way you do this is open Internet Explorer and hit the STOP button. In the address line type http://<default gateway address>. In the above example it would be http://192.168.1.1. You will get prompted for a username and password. Most of the time the username is "admin" and the password is either left blank, admin or password.

• From here every router is different so I cannot provide step by step instructions. You just need to look around. What you are looking for is the Internet/WAN IP address. Sometimes there is a button that says WAN and sometimes there is a button labeled STATUS. Make sure that your Internet/WAN port is set for DHCP and that is has an address. If it does not, unplug your modem and your router. Then plug in your modem, wait 60 seconds, then plug in your router. Make sure the link lights are on and check again.

• If your Internet/WAN port is has an address that is in the same range as your computer (i.e. 192.168.1.x) go o the next step.

Verify that your Internet/WAN address is NOT the same as your LAN network

• Sometimes DSL providers give you a modem that is also a router. Many of these devices hand out private network addresses like your router does. If the address the modem hands gives your router is in the same address range your router is giving your computer, your computer will never find the Internet. For example if the Internet/WAN port on your router has and address of 192.168.1.2 and your computer has and address of 192.168.1.100 they are on the same network. The fix is pretty simple.

• Open up your web browser and login to your router as I explained earlier. You want to look for the place where you can change the LAN IP address. In our example the address would currently be 192.168.1.1.

• Now change that address to something other than what it currently is. For example change it to 192.168.5.1. Click Apply/OK. The router will reboot and your computer will loose its connection.

• Wait for the router to reboot.

• Now reboot your computer and log back on.

• Check your IP address (IPCONFIG) and make sure that you now have a 192.168.5.x address.

• The Internet should now work.

• If you change your "Speed & Duplex" setting above. Go back and change it to Auto.