Virgin Media (NTL) Cable Broadband - Problem with Router

[jonesmark]

Hi all,

1st post on the forums, hope you can help me o)

I've had NTL (now Virgin Media) broadband for a few years - I've always connected directly from desktop PC to the cable modem in my set top box via ethernet, always worked fine. A few months ago I bought a Netgeat wireless router, connected that (PC <-> router <-> modem in set top box) and it worked fine, both the direct cabled connection and the wireless.

Yesterday, NTL came round to and upgraded me to a separate, external cable modem via a splitter on the co-axial cable that comes into my apartment - standard thing that has been done to a few of my workmates.

The connection works ok when I connect my desktop PC via ethernet directly to the new external modem. BUT, when I connect via my router (PC <-> router <-> external modem) it doesn't work. My PC can talk to the router but the router won't talk to the modem, it won't pick up its IP address.

I spent hours on the phone to NTL and Netgear tech support - nice as they are, their sum advice is "turn everything off and on again and see if it works". This doesn't help however.

My router is a Netgear WGR614v7 wirless, not sure what my external NTL modem is - just a standard Virgin Media one I think.

Anyone else had this problem or have any advice ?

Thanks in advance,

jm.

[BenMcr]

Did you switch off the modem when you were swapping between the computer and the router?

Plus this needs to go into the Internet forum as it isn't an install issue (as the modem works in the PC)

[saabmania2]

hi,
press the reset button on the back of the router to start with,
then you have to do everything in order
switch off modem and router

then boot the modem until the ready light is steady i.e not flashing
then boot the router
this should get you running on wireless
then you can setup your security settings on the router
hth

p.s and welcome to the forum

[jonesmark]

Hi, thanks for the tips and thanks for moving my post to the correct section o)

I've tried the above i.e. I switch everything off, reset the router back to factory settings, switch on the modem (wait for lights to stabalise and look good), switch on PC and router.

I can then view the router configuration page from my desktop PC - I go through the standard set up wizard thing (where it auto detects the connection), but it says it finds a static IP address on the modem instead of getting a DHCP one assigned - I think this means something's wrong between the router and the modem.

I've also tried configuring the router myself - so, I set up the standard settings e.g. "get IP address automatically" and I clone the MAC address of the desktop PC onto the router - but it still doesn't help, the router won't pick up the IP address of the cable modem, in fact it shows it as "0.0.0.0".

A strange thing is, earlier on, I didn't clone the MAC address of the desktop PC onto the router, and it almost worked - the router picked up a dynamic IP address from the cable modem, and I could ping URLs (e.g. google.co.uk), but viewing web pages in a browser didn't seem to work or it was very slow.

Do NTL have to set something up on their side for the modem to work with a router ?

I wonder if I've been switching things around too quickly - perhaps I should leave everything off overnight and try it again in the morning ?

The really odd thing is that, if I connect back to my old modem inside my set top box, everything works fine - via the router and also when connected directly - it's just that the router won't talk to the new cable modem properly.

[rinstiah]

I have a similar problem. Did anyone find a soloution for this? I can connect to the internet when I plug my modem directly into my PC via the Ethernet. But when I plug the cable modem into the router WAN port, the router dosnt want to connect to the internet. I can connect to the router and the management console for it (192.168.1.1). The little 'i' light flashes, but it flashes orange. If I set the router to static IP, and set the IP to that of the modem, the little i light turns green, but there is still no connection to the internet. I have tried spoofing the MAC of the computers network card, and that dosnt work either.
I believe though, that I have a dynamic IP, so I have re-set the router to get IP dynamically, but the little i light goes rorange, and the ip address it resolves is 0.0.0.0.
Why can I not connect? What am I missing?

[Stabhappy]

turn both the router and the modem off, turn the modem on - wait for it to get the 'ready' light, then plug the router in and wait for it to fully power up. It's awkward I'll grant you, but it works.

[MovedGoalPosts]

Some of the Set Top Box broadband connections used a crossover rather than standard straight ethernet cable. You need a standard cable between modem and router's WAN (internet) port.

The router should be set to pick up it's IP addresses and stuff automatic from the modem. A fixed IP will not work.

[jonesmark]

The solution to my problem was to use a new ethernet cable. Once I put a new cable in, it all worked fine. I can't explain the science behind it, but it worked !

[Sir John Luke]

If the set top box is a Pace, probably as Rob says ^^^