Troubleshooting

76

N150 WiFi Router (N150R)

Cannot Log In to the Router

If you are unable to log in to the router from a computer on your local network, check the

following:

•

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

between the computer and the router as described in the previous section.

•

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

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.

•

If your computer’s IP address is shown as 169.254.x.x, recent versions of Windows and

MacOS generate and assign an IP address if the computer cannot reach a DHCP server.

These autogenerated addresses are in the range of 169.254.x.x. If your IP address is in

this range, check the connection from the computer to the router, and reboot your

computer.

•

If your router’s IP address was changed and you do not know the current IP address,

clear the router’s configuration to factory defaults. This sets the router’s IP address to

192.168.1.1. This procedure is explained in

Default Factory Settings

on page 83.

•

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

Internet Explorer, click

Refresh

to be sure that the Java applet is loaded.

•

Try quitting the browser and launching it again.

•

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

is

admin

, and the password is

admin

. Make sure that Caps Lock is off when you enter

this information.

•

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

router in your network, consider replacing the existing router.

•

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

network, the router cannot perform many gateway services. For example, the router

cannot convert ADSL or cable data into Ethernet networking information.

Cannot Access the Internet

If you can access your router but not the Internet, check to see if the router can obtain an IP

address from your Internet service provider (ISP). Unless your ISP provides a fixed IP

address, your router requests an IP address from the ISP. You can determine whether the

request was successful using the Router Status screen.



To check the WAN IP address:

1.

Start your browser, and select an external site such as www.on-networks.com.

2.

Access the router interface at

www.mywifirouter.com.

3.

Select

Management > Router Status

.

4.

Check that an IP address is shown for the Internet port. If 0.0.0.0 is shown, your router has

not obtained an IP address from your ISP.

Troubleshooting

77

N150 WiFi Router (N150R)

If your router cannot obtain an IP address from the ISP, you might need to force your cable or

DSL modem to recognize your new router by restarting your network, as described in

Sequence to Restart Your Network

on page 74.

If your router is still unable to obtain an IP address from the ISP, the problem might be one of

the following:

•

Your Internet service provider (ISP) might require a login program.

Ask your ISP whether they require PPP over Ethernet (PPPoE) or some other type of

login.

•

If your ISP requires a login, the login name and password might be set incorrectly.

•

Your ISP might check for your computer’s host name.

Assign the computer host name of your ISP account as the account name in the Internet

Setup screen.

•

Your ISP allows only one Ethernet MAC address to connect to Internet and might check

for your computer’s MAC address. In this case, do one of the following:

-

Inform your ISP that you have bought a new network device, and ask them to use the

router’s MAC address.

-

Configure your router to clone your computer’s MAC address.

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

from the Internet:

•

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 provides the addresses of one

or two DNS servers for your use. If you entered a DNS address during the router’s

configuration, reboot your computer, and verify the DNS address. You can configure your

computer manually with DNS addresses, as explained in your operating system

documentation

.

•

Your computer might not have the router configured as its TCP/IP gateway.

If your computer obtains its information from the router by DHCP, reboot the computer,

and verify the gateway address.

•

You might be running login software that is no longer needed.

If your ISP provided a program to log you in to the Internet (such as WinPoET), you no

longer need to run that software after installing your router. You might need to go to

Internet Explorer and select

Tools > Internet Options

, click the

Connections

tab, and

select

Never dial a connection

.

Troubleshooting PPPoE

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



To troubleshoot a PPPoE connection:

1.

Log in to the router.

Troubleshooting

78

N150 WiFi Router (N150R)

2.

Select

Management > Router Status

.

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

router continues 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.

Note:

Unless you connect manually, the router does not authenticate

using PPPoE until data is transmitted to the network.

Troubleshooting Internet Browsing

If your 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 provides the addresses of one or two DNS servers for your use. If you

entered a DNS address during the 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 router configured as its default gateway.

Reboot the computer and verify that the router address (www.mywifirouter.com) is listed

by your computer as the default gateway address.

•

You might be running log in software that is no longer needed. If your ISP provided a

program to log you in to the Internet (such as WinPoET), you no longer need to run that

software after installing your router. You might need to go to Internet Explorer and select

Tools > Internet Options

, click the

Connections

tab, and select

Never dial a

connection

.

Changes Not Saved

If the router does not save the changes you make in the router interface, check the following:

•

When entering configuration settings, always click the

Apply

button before moving to

another screen or tab, or your changes are lost.

•

Click the

Refresh

or

Reload

button in the web browser. The changes might have

occurred, but the old settings might be in the web browser’s cache.

Troubleshooting

79

N150 WiFi Router (N150R)

Wireless Connectivity

If you are having trouble connecting wirelessly to the router, try to isolate the problem.

•

Does the wireless device or computer that you are using find your wireless network?

If not, check the WiFi LED on the front of the router. It should be lit. If it is not, you can

enable the wireless router radio from

Advanced > WiFi Settings

.

If you disabled the router’s SSID broadcast, then your wireless network is hidden and

does not show up in your wireless client’s scanning list. (By default, SSID broadcast is

enabled.)

•

Does your wireless device support the security that you are using for your wireless

network (WPA or WPA2)?

•

If you want to view the wireless settings for the router, use an Ethernet cable to connect a

computer to a LAN port on the router. Then log in to the router, and select

Setup > WiFi

Settings

see (

WiFi Setup

on page 23).

Note:

Be sure to click

Apply

if you make changes.

Wireless Signal Strength

If your wireless device finds your network, but the signal strength is weak, check these

conditions:

•

Is your router too far from your computer, or too close? Place your computer near the

router, but at least 6 feet away, and see whether the signal strength improves.

•

Is your wireless signal blocked by objects between the router and your computer?

Restore the Factory Settings and Password

This section explains how to restore the factory settings, changing the router’s administration

password back to

admin

. You can erase the current configuration and restore factory

defaults in two ways:

•

Use the Erase function of the router (see

Erase

on page 55).

•

Use the Reset button on the back of the router. See

Default Factory Settings

on page 83.

If you restore the factory settings and the router fails to restart, or the green Power/Test

LED continues to blink slowly, the unit might be defective. If the error persists, you might

have a hardware problem and should contact technical support.

Troubleshooting

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N150 WiFi Router (N150R)

Troubleshoot Your Network Using the Ping Utility

Most network devices and routers contain a ping utility that sends an echo request packet to

the designated device. The device then responds with an echo reply. Troubleshooting a

network is made easy by using the ping utility in your computer or workstation.

Test the LAN Path to Your Router

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

correctly.



To ping the router from a Windows PC:

1.

From the Windows toolbar, click

Start

, and then select

Run

.

2.

In the field provided, type

ping

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

ping www.routerlogin.net

3.

Click

OK

.

You should see a message like this one:

Pinging <IP address > with 32 bytes of data

If the path is working, you see this message:

Reply from < IP address >: 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 functioning correctly, you could have one of the following problems:

•

Wrong physical connections

For a wired connection, make sure that the numbered LAN port LED is on for the port to

which you are connected.

Check that the appropriate LEDs are on for your network devices. If your router and

computer are connected to a separate Ethernet switch, make sure that the link LEDs are

on for the switch ports that are connected to your computer and router.

•

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 address for your router and your computer are correct and that the

addresses are on the same subnet.