[Nikos]

I have been having some major problems trying to get the router which I purchased a year ago to work again. The model # is BEFSR41. I had the router up and working properly for a few months, but decided to take it down once I stopped playing XBox Live to ridden some of the cord mess. Well, I have decided I would like to hook the router back up so that I can play my XBox again. However, this time around I haven't had any luck at all.

I have went through every single direction in the guidelines at least 6-8 times with no luck at all. I made sure I plugged every cable in the right slots, made sure the computer was configured and then configured the router, and even reset the router as suggested in the help guidelines.

I have a cable modem connecting through a static IP. One problem I did notice is that when I went to fill in my subnet mask, it said a number was invalid, but according to my IP settings that was the correct subnet mask. It was the 3rd part of the number that I was getting the error with. Underneath in the network setup, I noticed a list of possible subnet masks and saw one similar to mine. When I checked my IP settings, I found my subnet mask to be 255.255.248.0, but I noticed as a possible mask there was 255.255.255.248 as an option. I wasn't sure if that could be one of my possible problems or not?

This brings me to the network setup part that the guidelines don't even discuss. When I go to list my IP and other fields in the internet setup area, it ends up being completely different than the network setup IP. I didn't even have to add an IP to the network field and it automatically filled in a completely different IP. Should the network IP be the same as my internet IP? And likewise for the subnet mask?

Every indication that the router is working fine is there. The internet light, the power light, and the 1st ethernet slot are all lit up. I wonder also if I could have downloaded a windows/security update over the period of time that could have changed a setting that I need? When I went to check my IP and other information required to configure the router, I noticed under IP Routing Enabled and WINS Proxy Enabled it says No. Should any of those be saying yes, and if so how can I change that? My operating system is Windows XP.

I'm not sure what else to add to this already lengthy post. I would appreciate any help you can give me on this matter.

Thanks

 

[Stephonovich]

First, why are you manually configuring this? The Xbox is capable of handling DHCP, which could very easily fix all this.

A subnet mask of 255.255.248.8 implies a Class B network, which I highly doubt you have. What's your IP address set to? (again, using DHCP would bypass all this) It should be between 192.0.0.0 and 223.255.255.255. (usual settings for a home network is 192.168.0.1, 192.168.0.2, etc. No idea why, actually)

 

[Nikos]

What do you means by "the XBox could do all of this for me?" I can't connect to the net through the router at all so I don't know how the XBox would help anything?

 

[Stephonovich]

Ack; I thought you were meaning you couldn't get on Live. Especially since you said the status lights are all OK.

Well, then back to square one. Have you tried the simplest fix? Open up a command prompt, type 'ipconfig release' (without quotes), then unplug your router's power. Leave it unplugged for about a minute or so, then plug it back in. XP should automatically renew your DNS license, but if not, type 'ipconfig renew' in a command prompt.

 

[Nikos]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephonovich Ack; I thought you were meaning you couldn't get on Live. Especially since you said the status lights are all OK. Well, then back to square one. Have you tried the simplest fix? Open up a command prompt, type 'ipconfig release' (without quotes), then unplug your router's power. Leave it unplugged for about a minute or so, then plug it back in. XP should automatically renew your DNS license, but if not, type 'ipconfig renew' in a command prompt.

Unfortunely this did not help

.

Man I cant beleive how tough it is to get this problem identified and solved

 

[Stephonovich]

What brand/model is your router? Also, have you tried enabling DHCP yet?

 

[Nikos]

Link Sys model # is BEFSR41

 

[Stephonovich]

Man... I've got no idea. Linksys isn't known for having problems with something as basic as this. All I can suggest is try it on another computer and see if it works there. Also, of course, reset the router to it's factory default.

 

[daycart1]

My router often needs to be reset. This means cutting power to it, restarting the computer, and then repowering the router. Did you try this yet--I hope your problem is this simple.

 

[Stephonovich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daycart1 My router often needs to be reset. This means cutting power to it, restarting the computer, and then repowering the router. Did you try this yet--I hope your problem is this simple.

You don't, by any chance, have a 900MHz phone sitting near your router, do you? If you do, try removing it to at least 10-15 feet (more the better) away. I moved one of our wireless phones upstairs and put a corded one down here, and all my connection problems went away.