Question for the IT Gods - TechRepublic
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June 8, 2007 at 07:06 AM
joshua_r_heller

Question for the IT Gods

by joshua_r_heller . Updated 18 years, 12 months ago

Hello,

I work in China, and the “IT” people here are driving me nuts trying to help me out, so I figured I should probably ask some homegrown American IT Gods because these guys here are useless. Please help!

So, I just got signed up for Internet service in my apartment after 6 months of bureaucratic nonsense (all b/c I wanted International dialing capabilities), and this guy comes in and hooks me up with an Alcatel ADSL Home PlusPlus 500 Modem. It plugs into a phone line which acts as my phone line and my internet connection. I also have a little nifty phone line splitter.

Anyway, to get hooked up into the Internet, I have to use PPOE w/ a username and password, and I’m pretty sure I have an assigned IP address at home that I can’t change.

So, everything is going along well until I decide to modernize to a wireless router because I’m lazy and I’ve been sitting on a pillow in front of my wall socket because this cord is like 6 inches long.

So I go online and read all about routers and pick a Linksys 2.4 GHz 802.1gg “SpeedBooster” (Model #: WRT54GS). Looks fancy, so I got in it the mail today – so excited. I put in the install CD, and everything goes well, until…

Well, when I have my ethernet cable from the Alcatel modem plugged into my computer’s Ethernet port, I’m able to connect to the Internet. The second I pull it out to try to put it into the “Internet” port on the wireless router, I lose my internet connection…and then the “Internet” LED light on the Linksys router doesn’t light up, and the installation fails because the installation software isn’t able to tell that I have my router hooked up properly (since there is no Internet connection). How do I rig this up so that when I pull out my Ethernet cable I still have a connection to the Internet?

Am I retarded? (Probably) Please help.

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