Help with NTL Modem to Ethernet to Router

Soldato
Joined
12 Sep 2005
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Location
Norwich, England
Hi, today i went to do a home networking job which involved setting up a wireless network connecting 1 laptop and one desktop. Now the client has already bought the router and a ubs adapter for the desktop as the laptop has wifi built in.

Now the network is going fine, both pc's connect to it with good signal strengh but the problem is with the internet connection.

I unplugged the usb cable from the ntl modem which was being used and used the ethernet cable from the modem to the router, but the internet would not connect with the router, the router internet light wouldnt light up, and in the router status it wouldnt show any details, so I rang NTL they said set the router to DHCP and gave me the address(name server sort of thing) which was ntlworld and that went into to fields and they gave me two dns ip's which i entered, but it still wouldn't connect.

I rang ntl again and they said you need to reinstall the modem and select use ethernet but it would never complete the installation, it would say error with NIC.

I shall be going back tomorrow afternoon so any help would be great.
 
youve tried unplugging the modem, right? thats the only thing i can think of. as for reinstalling the modem.....you dont need any software if your usnign ethernet. infact id uninstall any software you have on the pc for the modem
 
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well i read somewhere if your using ethernet you can set it up without drivers.

yer i turned it off and on a few times but the thernet light would never light up and nor the internet light on the router.

Also the router is this Linksys WRT54GS Wireless-G , if anyone has this and used NTL, if they could give me their settings, it would be great.
 
Yes. When I first bought a router, my modem had been plugged into my ethernet port on my machine. When I swapped them over, I had to switch off the modem for a while, so that when it turned back on it registered the new mac ID of the router.

If that doesn't work, try a few combinations of either turn off modem, wait a minute, turn back on and then plug into router. Or, connect modem, turn off modem, wait a minute then turn back on.

Either way, it will work eventually.

I'm using a WRT54GS and NTL doesn't have any specific settings as the IP is dynamically assigned, thus you need DHCP turned on. Just use the setting Automatic Configuration - DHCP on the firstpage when logging into the router. Once you have done this, goto the STATUS page on the router and click DHCP RELEASE. Wait, then choose DHCP RENEW.
 
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Hank_Marvin said:
lol ok, i'll try it till i'm all out of idea's, so i should get rid of the drivers then.

I've edited my post with a few extra pointers mate :)
 
yes get rid of the drivers as i said. NTL's usb drivers are nothing but trouble lol

im using a WRT54-g with mine and its faultless. no drivers, no setting up needed. Just auto-DHCP and its plug and play:)
 
yer i tried that release/renew but no effect, but im thinking i should turn everything off, connect everything, then just turn on one at a time.
 
If the ethernet (ie, link) lights aren't coming on then all the DHCP renewing in the world isn't gonna make it work.

Have you tried using a different ethernet cable just incase it is dodgy? It could also be that the ethernet port on the modem (or router) is buggered. I went through a couple of cable modems due to the ethernet ports dying.
 
well at the start i did wonder about a faulty cable or faulty modem ethernet port, but when ntl said you need to install it as ethernet...

but it possibly could be a faulty ethernet port on the modem as the owner had been pushing an rj-11 into it, i also tried plugging the ethernet straight from the modem into the laptop ethernet port and this didnt work either.
 
different cable? Are any of the pins bent in the socket. All you need to do is start the ntl box and then the router when the modem lights stop flashing.
 
well im going to take a piece of ethernet cable with me so i can rule out faulty cable, i'll look for bent pins.

so PC's off - modem on with cables in then the router once its ready and then hope for green internet light.
 
Yea, also try it the other way round. Router on, modem off. Plug in modem to WAN socket on router. Turn modem on.
 
after trying many combinations it still doesnt work, but i've left them both connected to each other so maybe that will solve it.

Also NTL engineer is coming tomorrow to text the modem, so hopefully he will says its broke.
 
if you hook up the modem to a PC directly via ethernet and go to http://80.5.176.26 in a web browser then you might be able to set it up from there.

after doing that, hook up the router directly to the PC without the modem connected to either and go to the router's setup IP address. turn on DHCP, hook up everything and it should all work I think.

i hope that isn't really basic or irrelevant but I did that with mine and it all worked fine.
 
At a guess it's because the port on the Linksys isn't autosense (i thought it was..) meaning you need a crossover cable rather than a patch cable.
 
well they supplied a piece of netowkr cable, so im guessing thats the right stuff, and i used a piece of network cable that i use to connect my router to my pc and that didnt work either.

the pc has no ethernet port, it was using usb before.
 
Phnom_Penh said:

Sounds simple enough to me. NTL modems have both a USB connection and an ethernet connection.

Although, obviously it's going to be weird once connected to the router because if the computer has no ethernet port, how will it connect to the router? If that's why you're confused?
 
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