ADSL Router

  • Thread starter Thread starter MIG
  • Start date Start date
M

MIG

A small charity I support got BT Broadband, but it's limited to one
location. My bright idea was to get an ADSL router that they could
all share and which would double as a network hub. I got an ADDON
ADSL router from Maplin.

Unfortunately, the manual is useless. The pages telling you how to
configure IP for XP have screen dumps from 98 or 2000 (although you
can work it out) but there is no information on how to access the
router from the PC (running XP Home unforch).

They tell you to type in an IP address to get the HTTP configuration
menu of the router, but the PC doesn't know where that IP address is
and tries to connect to the Internet. Presumably they need to be in
the same workgroup, but they don't say what the workgroup of the
router is.

Basically a useless tin box unless I can get round this (incidentally,
the light comes on on the router/hub showing that the PC is
connected).

Has anyone used this before and knows how to get round it?

Thanks.
 
They tell you to type in an IP address to get the HTTP configuration
menu of the router, but the PC doesn't know where that IP address is
and tries to connect to the Internet. Presumably they need to be in
the same workgroup, but they don't say what the workgroup of the
router is.

You are right that the PC needs to be in the same IP address range as
the router to enable you to get into the configuration screen.

You need to temporarily change the IP address of the PC you are using
to access the router. Do this:

1. Go to Control Panel, then Network Connections.

2. Right-click on your LAN connection icon, and select Properties.

3. In the General tab, highlight the TCP/IP settings for your LAN
adapter, then click on the Properties button.

4. Select the radio button that says "Use the following IP address".

5. Enter an IP address in the same subnet as the address of the
router. For example, if the router's configuration address is
192.168.2.254 you could put in 192.168.2.100

6. The subnet mask should be 255.255.255.0

7. Click OK.

8. You should now be able to get into the configuration menu of your
router, using the web browser on the PC.

When finished, you will have to undo all these steps to put the PC
back the way it was! [You may find that, once into the configuration
menu, you can change the IP address of the router to a free address in
your own subnet, so you won't have to go through this process again.]

HTH.
 
Answer sounds silly to me.
If a computer is connected to a router, simply open IE and in the address
bar, type in the address for the router. See its manual.
Linksys is http://192.168.1.1 I think DLink is http://192.168.0.1 But
look at the manual or go online to look it up.
That can't attempt to access the Internet since the address is nonroutable.


Walt Davidson said:
They tell you to type in an IP address to get the HTTP configuration
menu of the router, but the PC doesn't know where that IP address is
and tries to connect to the Internet. Presumably they need to be in
the same workgroup, but they don't say what the workgroup of the
router is.

You are right that the PC needs to be in the same IP address range as
the router to enable you to get into the configuration screen.

You need to temporarily change the IP address of the PC you are using
to access the router. Do this:

1. Go to Control Panel, then Network Connections.

2. Right-click on your LAN connection icon, and select Properties.

3. In the General tab, highlight the TCP/IP settings for your LAN
adapter, then click on the Properties button.

4. Select the radio button that says "Use the following IP address".

5. Enter an IP address in the same subnet as the address of the
router. For example, if the router's configuration address is
192.168.2.254 you could put in 192.168.2.100

6. The subnet mask should be 255.255.255.0

7. Click OK.

8. You should now be able to get into the configuration menu of your
router, using the web browser on the PC.

When finished, you will have to undo all these steps to put the PC
back the way it was! [You may find that, once into the configuration
menu, you can change the IP address of the router to a free address in
your own subnet, so you won't have to go through this process again.]

HTH.
 
A small charity I support got BT Broadband, but it's limited to one
location. My bright idea was to get an ADSL router that they could
all share and which would double as a network hub. I got an ADDON
ADSL router from Maplin.

Which make and model is it? If another reader has this router all will
become clear very quickly.

Unfortunately, the manual is useless. The pages telling you how to
configure IP for XP have screen dumps from 98 or 2000 (although you
can work it out) but there is no information on how to access the
router from the PC (running XP Home unforch).

They tell you to type in an IP address to get the HTTP configuration
menu of the router, but the PC doesn't know where that IP address is
and tries to connect to the Internet. Presumably they need to be in
the same workgroup, but they don't say what the workgroup of the
router is.

No, workgroup names don't come into it at this stage.

These routers expect your computer to be set to receive an ip address
automatically so that when you follow their instructions it all works.
Where your existing setup uses static addressing (like mine here) you
have to temporarily change things to address the router as per the
post by Walt. You can give your machine an ip address within the
router's range but it will be easier to set your machine to receive an
address automatically then you should be able to address the router
okay.


Jim.
 
Answer sounds silly to me.
If a computer is connected to a router, simply open IE and in the address
bar, type in the address for the router. See its manual.
Linksys is http://192.168.1.1 I think DLink is http://192.168.0.1 But
look at the manual or go online to look it up.
That can't attempt to access the Internet since the address is nonroutable.

Your post makes assumptions about the existing situation which you
cannot make. If this network doesn't have a shared Internet connection
yet then more than likely it doesn't use dhcp and the router won't be
immediately addressable unless (by chance) it happens to fall within
the existing ip scheme.


Jim.
 
Sorry I bothered to reply, then.

I won't in future.

It wasn't a silly answer. Don't be put off by comments like this.
Clearly you have come across something like this before and I would
guess that ultimately you are very close to a good solution.


Jim.
 
James Egan said:
Which make and model is it? If another reader has this router all will
become clear very quickly.

I think ADDON may be a kind of own brand for Maplin. When I get the
chance I will go back there.
No, workgroup names don't come into it at this stage.

These routers expect your computer to be set to receive an ip address
automatically so that when you follow their instructions it all works.
Where your existing setup uses static addressing (like mine here) you
have to temporarily change things to address the router as per the
post by Walt. You can give your machine an ip address within the
router's range but it will be easier to set your machine to receive an
address automatically then you should be able to address the router
okay.


Jim.

(This refers to my fleeting visit yesterday; I haven't had the chance
to go back.)

IP addresses were static and the manual said change them to be
automatic. Unfortunately, everything came up blank when I did
IPconfig. The manual said in that case give it a fixed IP address and
change the default gateway to 10.0.0.2. The screen dump implied
making the PC IP address 10.0.0.8, which would be in the same range.

However, still no go. Typing the IP address in IE only results in a
request to connect to the Internet, in every combination I've tried so
far.

What I forgot to do while I was there was ping 10.0.0.2.
 
IP addresses were static and the manual said change them to be
automatic. Unfortunately, everything came up blank when I did
IPconfig. The manual said in that case give it a fixed IP address and
change the default gateway to 10.0.0.2. The screen dump implied
making the PC IP address 10.0.0.8, which would be in the same range.

However, still no go. Typing the IP address in IE only results in a
request to connect to the Internet, in every combination I've tried so
far.

What I forgot to do while I was there was ping 10.0.0.2.

I wouldn't bother with the static address. It will most likely fail
for the same reason it isn't receiving it's address automatically.

What does it say when you

ipconfig /all



Jim.
 
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