Hi all, I am having an issue with connecting to the DSL AT&T provides. The router is alive, but after entering in PPPoE username, password (correct ones, btw) the system simply never sees the internet. Now AT&T told me they have some sort of “direct connect” so that I can hook directly from the wall jack to my PC, and that works just fine … I’m using it right now. But when I connect to the N900 nothing happens. I tried downloading the latest firmware upgrade but the N900 tells me it’s not a valid image file. AT&T said something about trying to set up some sort of pass through, but I’m not suire the person knew what they were talking about. In any case, they were of little help. Thanks !!!
First, are you using the lastest firmware 1.04.08? When you login to the routers Web UI it should say what firmware it is at the top of the page.
Second, when you say that it doesn’t see the internet, do you mean that in the router UI it says that it is not connected to the internet? Have you actually tried to navigate to a web page to see if it pulls that page up?
Third, when the person at AT&T told you set up a “pass-through” what they probably meant is to change the device mode to extender. Login to the Web UI, then navigate to Advanced Settings / Admin / Device Mode and then change the “Mode” to “Extender Mode (wired AP)”. This basically turns the router into a switch.
Just to let you know, I also have AT&T DSL and the N900 works for me.
Direct Connect DSL? What’s that? DSL is carried over a phone line, not ethernet.
So how are you conecting directly from a phone jack to your PC? That seems unlikely to me. Seems like that would require a DSL card in the PC.
Can you describe that more?
1 - When I download the latest firmware and try to install it from a file, the router says the image is invalid and stops.
2 - Yes, the router UI says it does not see the internet. However, when I plug the ethernet cab;e from the wall jack, I get on line. I also can see the router UI, but the router either says the internet connection is “not connected” or “busy” at various times.
3 - i tried the extender mode, but then the router ui didn’t see any internet at all, so that didn’t seem to do anything. I tried plugging the cable from the wall into other ports to see what happened with no effect. Are there other settings i might need to adjust if I do that?
4 - are you on uverse or their older dsl (they had some acronym for it,m but I can’t find that nywhere)? do you need a separate modem from the router?
thanks, i’ll keep trying on the extender mode, going crazy here
Yes, that was my question too. When they initially installed it, they said that is how this is setup. IIn this case, I run a miniport ppoe connection from the network control panel and plug the ethernet cable into the wall. I don’t know edxactly how they split the phone from it. I am using a laptop, so no dsl cards here. Wish I could explain it better, as they were quite unclear. When it was installed on the original router a coouple of years ago, they got it to work, but I have no idea what the guy did. Not that I’m a rookie by any means, but this has me stumped
Tinwarble wrote:
First, are you using the lastest firmware 1.04.08? When you login to the routers Web UI it should say what firmware it is at the top of the page.
Second, when you say that it doesn’t see the internet, do you mean that in the router UI it says that it is not connected to the internet? Have you actually tried to navigate to a web page to see if it pulls that page up?
Third, when the person at AT&T told you set up a “pass-through” what they probably meant is to change the device mode to extender. Login to the Web UI, then navigate to Advanced Settings / Admin / Device Mode and then change the “Mode” to “Extender Mode (wired AP)”. This basically turns the router into a switch.
Just to let you know, I also have AT&T DSL and the N900 works for me.
ok, on trying extender mode again, I find the follwoing:
1 - the connection status goes to “connected”. However, I still don’t have any real connection to the outside world. No websites can be found
2 - it creates an “unidentified network” that I can’t access, but appears to be AT&T??? I still log on to the router ok with the original router name
3 - router addy changes to 168.254.221.218
4 - I lose 3/4 of the functionality of the router - guest, wd2go, parental, etc. all gone
If you use Miniport PPoE on your PC, you probably need to make see you configure PPoE on the n900…
Ok, well first, yes I’m on the older dsl.
Now I have the router in extender mode, so I will have to come back to why it may not be working in router mode when I have a chance to change it.
But in extender mode, if the router is showing connected, but your PC is giving you an “unidentified network” then you are probably having a IP/DNS conflict. If your able to login to the routers UI and see what IP is set, then on your PC first pull up the command prompt, you can do this by clicking the start button and typing in “cmd” the the search box. Then once you have the command prompt up, type in “ipconfig /all” (without the "). Then make note of your IP, Subnet, Default Gateway and DNS, your IP should be close to the same as on the router and the rest should match.
If it doesn’t, then (if your running Windows 7) then you can try setting as static IP for your PC by going to Control Panel / Network & Sharing Center, then click on Change adapter settings, then right click on the Network Connection and select Properties. Then click on Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and then click properties.
Then, in that box select “Use the following IP address:” then type in your IP (if the routers is 168.254.221.218, then use something like 168.254.221.102), then change the Subnet Mask & Default gateway to the same as what your router displays. Then select Use the following “DNS server address:” and for Preferred DNS server type in the same as your router, you can leave the Alternate blank. Select OK, then click OK in the other properties window and if you did everything correctly the Connection should change from “unidentified network”.
