modem to router issues

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Matoomba

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Hi there, brand new to the site and not sure if I'm even supposed to type here, but it does say "ask a question", so here goes:

I switched from Charter broadband to Century Link(I didn't know they had bought Qwest). I changed modems as well of course. I use(or used too) a Linksys EA2700 N600 Wireless router for my network. Century Link uses the Actiontec(Centurylink 5891) C1000A.
I need my Linksys downstream from this. The problem is they do not work together very well. Meaning that my connection now starts and stops(best explanation I can give) and is slow and times out sometimes. I cannot play my MMO either.
I'm fairly computer literate so I went searching for a solution and found this(in 2 forms actually lol):

http://www.betterbuilt.com/docs/ppoe_setup_07252005.pdf

I have done this 3 times, at least, to no avail. I even went into the Actiontec and set it to transparent bridge and that killed the internet connection.
I have one computer coming off the Actiontec in the living room(up front) and I ran cat-5 to the bedroom in back, where 2 more computers are and the Linksys.
It is a mobile home so its all metal and wi-fi distance is limited and slow, but with one up front and one in back I thought to cover the whole place. The 3 computers are(well only 2 right now) hard wired, I'm a gamer 'nuff said.

How can I get the Actiontec to play with my Linksys, nicely? I hope I explained this well. I have spent all day working on it and I have given up. I appreciate your time and thank you up front.



P.S. It is a good thing I saved all that I had typed in that little box at first, lol.
 
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Correct. Your computer connected to your modem may stop working and here's why:

Most ISP's will only allow one public IP and they enforce this via MAC address filtering. But some allow multiple devices to have public IP's. You won't know until you call them and ask them.

Ideally in a home networked environment where you're only given one public IP, you want only one router to be between you and the public internet. Consumer-level/home routers generally only do NAT-based routing and cause problems when you put multiple routers behind your public network. That's the double-NAT I referred to in my original post. There are ways to have the routers use RIP, a dynamic routing protocol, and this eliminates NATing, but only some...
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pquinn1212

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I had a similar problem and it was down to my firmware once i fixed that i had a steady connection but i couldn't browse and this was down to my MTU setting being to high
 
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humangod

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I'm assuming you have DSL since you have a modem. You usually cannot put your modem into bridge mode without your provider reconfiguring the DSLAM on their end to work with a bridged modem. In one of my past lives, I worked for an ISP and we had two brands of DSLAM: Occam and Nokia. The older Nokia DSLAMs had to be reconfigured on the port-level for a bridged modem; the Occam DSLAM did not. But either way, the modem's config changes slightly and if done incorrectly, you lose the connection.

It's highly likely that your modem is in routed mode, meaning it is getting the public IP and providing a /24 private network via DHCP to your Linksys router. Then you Linksys router is getting a private IP via DHCP on it's WAN port and then it too is providing a /24 private network via DHCP to all devices on its LAN ports. This is a double NAT, and it very well could be that both private networks could be the same network, confusing the hell out of your Linksys.

To fix this, call your provider and tell them you want your DSL service to be bridged so your Linksys is provided the public IP instead of your DSL modem. Let them handle the logistics and configuration. It's not your job to do this. Get this done, and goodbye double NAT and identical networks in your Linksys routing table. Your troubles should disappear.
 
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Matoomba

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Yes but I have a computer running off of their modem as well. Won't that render that computer offline? Other than that your post makes sense and if I can use their modem(it has 4 ports as well as being wireless just like my Linksys) up in front like I am now, then I will call them ASAP!

 
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humangod

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Correct. Your computer connected to your modem may stop working and here's why:

Most ISP's will only allow one public IP and they enforce this via MAC address filtering. But some allow multiple devices to have public IP's. You won't know until you call them and ask them.

Ideally in a home networked environment where you're only given one public IP, you want only one router to be between you and the public internet. Consumer-level/home routers generally only do NAT-based routing and cause problems when you put multiple routers behind your public network. That's the double-NAT I referred to in my original post. There are ways to have the routers use RIP, a dynamic routing protocol, and this eliminates NATing, but only some consumer-based routers support this. And you'd have to have a deeper knowledge of networking to implement it.

If I were you, I'd move all of my devices behind your own personal router and only have your router connected to your modem. Then I'd call my ISP and tell them to put me directly on the internet, possibly by having them bridge my modem.

Of course, if they let you have multiple public IP's, keeping your current topology isn't a problem. But it's unlikely they will do that, considering the IPv4 crunch we're in.

Let me know what else you need.
 
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Matoomba

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Well I called them up and we basically went through the same thing I did yesterday. You are right, they will not let me have more than 1 IP. Amazing in this day and age that an ISP is downsizing my home network capability. My only other option is to go back to Charter(please kill me) since their modem I used last time had no problems with my router, but it had only 1 cat5 port.

Thank you for your time guys.
 
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humangod

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You're not defeated yet. What network is the ISP-supplied modem handing out to your computer via DHCP? And what network is your router handing out to your other computers?

If it's the same, that could be your problem. And if they are the same, you can easily change it. For example, if your modem is giving out 192.168.0.0/24 and then your router is also giving out 192.168.0.0/24, that's a big problem.
 
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Matoomba

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Actiontec= 192.168.0.1

Linksys= 192.168.0.2

 
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Matoomba

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Tried that on both computers and it disappears a split second later.
 
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humangod

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You're running ipconfig from the start menu. You have to first open the CMD prompt first. Type 'cmd' in the start menu and it'll open the cmd prompt.

But if what you wrote in the previous post is correct, that both your Linksys and your Actiontec are providing 192.168.0.0/24 networks, that's your problem. This means on both your WAN and your LAN side of your Linksys, you have the same networks. Routers can't have multiple interfaces on the same network (your 4 LAN ports are considered the same interface as far as routing is concerned). An easier way for me to say this is your WAN and your LAN side of your Linksys must be on different networks. Here's your solution:

Change your Linksys DHCP server to hand out the following on your LAN:

Network: 10.0.0.0 (your Router's LAN IP will need to be 10.0.0.1. Do NOT change your WAN IP)
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 10.0.0.1
Starting DHCP IP address/IP range: 10.0.0.10 Ending DHCP IP address: 10.0.0.254

I'm confident this will solve your problem if you configure this correctly.
 
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humangod

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Btw, you'll need to save your configuration on your Linksys when complete. Then restart your computer that is connected to your Linksys (or release and renew your IP address if you know how).
 
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humangod

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Can't help you there. Make sure you follow the correct procedure to reset the router. Normally you need to be holding the reset button in as you connect the power cable.

If you can get your router working again, try what I suggested above: changing your LAN network addressing on your Linksys.
 
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