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Alan · Post by **Alan** » Sun Sep 28, 2003 12:31 am

We finally have cable after 2 months. But I can't connect through the cable modem. When I connect straight to my computer i get a 169.blah.blah.blah IP. I spent like an hour with tech support and he concluded it was my ethernet card, which as you see works perfectly with Verizon. So a tech guy's coming on Thursday.

When I try to connect with the router it says it's connected, and i have a 12.blah.blah.blah IP but when I try to look at any web page I can resolve IPs but can't actually connect to them.

quantus · Post by **quantus** » Sun Sep 28, 2003 7:56 am

Ummm... are you resetting the cable modem after each switch from computer to router? I've had trouble just switching computers without resetting the modem too.

Is the router connecting and getting an IP? You've said that you get a connection with the router. I think you're not resolving web pages because the DNS servers aren't being set correctly. Didn't the cable guy tell you what the DNS servers were statically?

The tech guy is obviously full of crap and doesn't know what he's talking about if he's saying it's because of your ethernet card. I've NEVER heard of a problem with an ethernet card just not working.

VLSmooth · Post by **VLSmooth** » Sun Sep 28, 2003 11:00 am

Some tidbits:

169.*.*.* is the default ip when a computer can't find ANY connection, be it WAN or LAN.
As for a faulty ethernet card, I gotta agree with Joe, that's BS (well, sans a ridiculously low chance like 0.001%)
12.*.*.* sounds like your router's default ip range. To my knowledge, this differs depending on brand. For instance, my Belkin router uses 192.168.2.*. A router assigns an IP regardless of WAN connectivity. This means that even if the router isn't connected to the cable modem, connected computers should still get an automatically assigned IP from the router.
Your router should have a web interface. For example, internally I just need to access 192.168.2.1 and enter in my password. From there (possibly even without a password), it should show your WAN connectivity. If this is "not connected" or similar, you're kinda SOL. This is very likely if plugging the ethernet cable from the modem directly into a computer results in 169.*.*.*.
Regarding Joe's advice of resetting the modem, if you haven't already done that, DO IT. By reset, I mean power cycle it, which means literally unplug it for a few seconds, then plug it in again. Also, remember that the process is NOT instaneous. The vast majority of modems go through a diagnostic stage (the lights blink in a predetermined sequence), which lasts ~1 minute. I actually recommend you reset the cable modem when it's not connected to a computer, until the lights on the modem are stable. Then hook it up to a computer and reboot it if it's on, otherwise, turn it on.
Static DNS addresses are, for the most part, unnecessary. If DHCP is screwed up on their end, chances are they have MAJOR problems.

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Sun Sep 28, 2003 6:29 pm

Yeah I've resetted the router, modem, and my computer, and nothing worked. And now my router doesn't get a connection with the modem so I gave up.

quantus · Post by **quantus** » Sun Sep 28, 2003 10:23 pm

I'd suggest you call again and talk to their level 3 tech person. ISP's usually have 3 levels with the first level knowing Jack and not even Shit. The second level knows Jack and Shit and the third level actually has a clue.

I'm really thinking that it's either a weak cable signal to the modem and you're not reading the lights on it correctly, or they have major problems with their DNS, or they're being dumb and not pinging your cable modem with the right signal which is also somewhat major.