32

Troubleshooting

a.

Make sure that the Ethernet cable connections are secure at the router and at the computer.

b.

Make sure that power is turned on to the connected computer.

c.

Be sure you are using Ethernet cables like the cable that was supplied with the wireless

router.

See

“Connecting Your Wireless Router” on page 14

for instructions.

For more information on WPS functionality and advanced features, see the online

User Manual.

Troubleshooting Login Problems

If you are unable to log in to the wireless router, check the following:

•

If you are using an Ethernet-connected computer, check the Ethernet connection between the

computer and the router as described in

“Checking Basic Router Functions” on page 30

.

•

Make sure you are using the correct login information. The factory default login name is

admin

and the password is

password

. Make sure that the Caps Lock is off when entering this

information.

•

Make sure your computer’s IP address is on the same subnet as the router. If your are using the

recommended addressing scheme, your computer’s address should be in the range of

192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.254. Refer to your computer’s documentation or see

“Preparing a

Computer for Network Access”

in

“Related Documents” on page 41

for help with configuring

your computer.

•

If your router’s IP address has been changed and you don’t know the current IP address, reset

the router’s configuration to the factory defaults. This procedure will reset the router’s IP

address to 192.168.1.1 (see

“Restoring the Default Password and Configuration Settings” on

page 39

).

•

Make sure your browser has Java, JavaScript, or ActiveX enabled. If you are using Internet

Explorer, click Refresh to be sure the Java applet is loaded. Try closing the browser and

reopening it again.

If your computer cannot reach a DHCP server, some operating systems will

assign an IP address in the range 169.254.x.x. If your IP address is in this range,

verify that you have a good connection from the computer to the router, then

restart (reboot) your computer.

Troubleshooting

33

•

If you are attempting to set up your NETGEAR router as an additional router behind an

existing router in your network, consider replacing the existing router instead. NETGEAR

does not support such a configuration.

•

If you are attempting to set up your NETGEAR router as a replacement for an ADSL gateway

in your network, the router cannot perform many gateway services, for example, converting

ADSL or Cable data into Ethernet networking information. NETGEAR does not support such

a configuration.

Checking the Internet Service Connection

If your router is unable to access the Internet, check the Internet connection, and then check the

wireless router.

•

Internet Connection

. The cable or DSL modem status lights indicate if the modem

connection is successful or not. Check your modem documentation or call your Internet

service provider for help with verifying that the modem has a successful connection.

•

Wireless Router Internet Light is Green or Blinking Green

. If your Internet light is green

or blinking green, then you have a good Internet connection and your wiring is correct.

•

Wireless Router Internet Light Off

. If the Internet light is off, verify that the Ethernet cable

is securely connected between the cable or DSL modem, and that both the modem and

wireless router are turned on.

Obtaining an Internet IP Address

If your wireless router is unable to access the Internet, and your Internet light is amber, check the

wireless router to see if it is able to get an Internet IP address from your service provider. Unless

you have a static IP address, your wireless router automatically requests an IP address from your

service provider.

To check the Internet IP address from the browser interface:

1.

Log in to the wireless router.

2.

Select the

Router Status

link under the

Maintenance

heading to check that an IP address is

shown for the Internet Port. If 0.0.0.0 is shown, your wireless router has not obtained an IP

address from your service provider.

If your router is unable to obtain an IP address from the your service provider, the problem might

be one of the following:

34

Troubleshooting

•

Your service provider might require a login. Ask your service provider whether they require a

PPP over Ethernet (PPPoE) login.

•

You might have incorrectly set the service name, user name or password. See

“Troubleshooting PPPoE” on page 34

.

•

Your service provider might check for your computer's host name. Assign the computer Host

Name of your ISP account to the wireless router on the

Basic Settings

screen.

•

Your service provider might only allow one Ethernet MAC address to connect to the Internet,

and check for your computer’s MAC address. If this is the case:

–

Inform your service provider that you have bought a new network device, and ask them to

use the wireless router’s MAC address, or

–

Configure your router to spoof your computer’s MAC address. On the

Basic Settings

screen in the Router MAC Address section, select “Use this Computer’s MAC Address”

and click

Apply.

Then restart your network in the correct sequence (see

“Basic Setup

Checklist” on page 29

).

Troubleshooting PPPoE

If you are using PPPoE, try troubleshooting your Internet connection.

To troubleshoot a PPPoE connection:

1.

Log in to the wireless router.

2.

Select

Router Status

under

Maintenance

on the main menu.

3.

Click

Connection Status

. If all of the steps indicate “OK,” then your PPPoE connection is up

and working.

If any of the steps indicate “Failed,” you can attempt to reconnect by clicking

Connect.

The

wireless router will continue to attempt to connect indefinitely.

If you cannot connect after several minutes, you might be using an incorrect service name,

user name, or password. There also might be a provisioning problem with your ISP.

Unless you connect manually, the wireless router will not authenticate using

PPPoE until data is transmitted to the network.

Troubleshooting

35

Troubleshooting Internet Browsing

If your wireless router can obtain an IP address but your computer is unable to load any web pages

from the Internet, check the following:

•

Your computer might not recognize any DNS server addresses

. A DNS server is a host on

the Internet that translates Internet names (such as www addresses) to numeric IP addresses.

Typically, your ISP will provide the addresses of one or two DNS servers for your use. If you

entered a DNS address during the wireless router’s configuration, restart your computer.

Alternatively, you can configure your computer manually with a DNS address, as explained in

the documentation for your computer

.

•

Your computer might not have the wireless router configured as its default gateway

.

Reboot the computer and verify that the wireless router address (192.168.1.1) is listed by your

computer as the default gateway address.

Using the Ping Utility to Troubleshoot

Most computers and routers have a diagnostic utility called

ping

that sends a request to a target

device. The device then replies. The ping utility makes it easy to troubleshoot a network.

Testing the Path from Your Computer to Your Router

You can ping the wireless router to verify that the LAN path from your computer to your router is

set up correctly.

To ping the wireless router from a Windows PC:

1.

From the Windows task bar, click

Start

and select

Run

.

2.

In the field provided, type

ping

followed by the address of the router, as in this example:

ping www.routerlogin.net

3.

Click

OK

. You should see a message like this one:

Pinging www.routerlogin.net with 32 bytes of data

If the path is working, you see this message:

Reply from www.routerlogin.net: bytes=32 time=NN ms TTL=xxx

If the path is not working, you see this message:

Request timed out

If the path is not working correctly, you could have one of the following problems:

36

Troubleshooting

•

Wrong physical connections

–

Make sure the LAN port light is on. If the light is off, follow the instructions in

“Basic

Setup Checklist” on page 29

.

–

Check that the corresponding lights are on for your computer’s network interface card.

•

Wrong network configuration

–

Verify that the Ethernet card driver software and TCP/IP software are both installed and

configured on your computer.

–

Verify that the IP addresses for your router and your computer are correct and that both

addresses are on the same subnet (for example, 192.168.1.x/255.255.255.0).

Testing the Path from a Computer to the Internet

After verifying that the path between your computer and the wireless router works correctly, test

the path from your PC to the Internet.

To test the path using ping from a Windows PC:

1.

From the Windows task bar, click

Start

and select

Run

.

2.

In the field provided, type

cmd

.

A command screen will display.

3.

At the

>

prompt, type the following:

ping -n 10 <

IP address

>

where <

IP address

> is the IP address of a remote device such as your ISP’s DNS server.

4.

Press

Enter.

If the path is working correctly, replies as in the previous section will display. If you do not receive

replies:

•

Check that your PC has the IP address of your router listed as the default gateway. If the IP

configuration of your PC is assigned by DHCP, this information will not be visible in your

PC’s Network Control Panel. Verify that the IP address of the router is listed as the TCP/IP

default gateway.

•

Check to see that the network address of your PC (the portion of the IP address specified by

the netmask) is different from the network address of the remote device.

•

If your ISP assigned a host name to your PC, enter that host name as the Account Name in the

Basic Settings menu.