Network suddenly quit working
I networked our home with ethernet cable. Im using Earthlink cable via Time-Warner in Los Angeles. Its worked like a charm for at least 3 years. Now the only way I can connect to the Internet is if I bypass the router and plug the ethernet cable directly into my Mac. I changed no configurations. Its set on automatic, DHCP. I haven't upgraded to 10.4. It quit working while I was connected. Just could not jump to a new page.
I thought it was my Asante router so I bought a new Linksys. No luck. Ive tried resetting the router. Checked the connections.
I have admittedly networked my Earthlink cable without their knowledge. Not just to save the extra $5 or $10 a month, but I didnt like any of their methods. For example, I didnt want wireless. So here is my fear. Tell me if this is rational: Earthlink has found a way to detect other networks and they are sabotaging such systems. If thats crazy, go easy on me. Im a 51 year old emailer/surfer. I just like reading Appleinsider.
If I wasn't busted by Earthlink, then can you suggest any other causes and solutions? Thank you for your time.
I thought it was my Asante router so I bought a new Linksys. No luck. Ive tried resetting the router. Checked the connections.
I have admittedly networked my Earthlink cable without their knowledge. Not just to save the extra $5 or $10 a month, but I didnt like any of their methods. For example, I didnt want wireless. So here is my fear. Tell me if this is rational: Earthlink has found a way to detect other networks and they are sabotaging such systems. If thats crazy, go easy on me. Im a 51 year old emailer/surfer. I just like reading Appleinsider.
If I wasn't busted by Earthlink, then can you suggest any other causes and solutions? Thank you for your time.
Comments
Originally posted by reynard
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I thought it was my Asante router so I bought a new Linksys. No luck. Ive tried resetting the router. Checked the connections.
I have admittedly networked my Earthlink cable without their knowledge. Not just to save the extra $5 or $10 a month, but I didnt like any of their methods. For example, I didnt want wireless. So here is my fear. Tell me if this is rational: Earthlink has found a way to detect other networks and they are sabotaging such systems. If thats crazy, go easy on me. Im a 51 year old emailer/surfer. I just like reading Appleinsider.
Everybody does that. Don't worry. No, there is no way that they can tell that there is a router - all they see is an IP address and a MAC address.
Now they MAY have instituted checking the MAC address against the one that is assigned to the ethernet chip in your computer. If that is the case, you can confirm it by calling them and just saying you got a new computer and the internet doesn't work. They will tell you if they are checking MAC address or not.
If they are checking MAC address, then the reason it does not work thru the router but DOES work directly is that it wants to see the computer's MAC address, not the MAC address of the router.
The instructions that came with the router should tell you how to "clone" the computer's MAC address to the router, so that Earthlink thinks it is talking to the computer and all is well.
Quote:
If I wasn't busted by Earthlink, then can you suggest any other causes and solutions? Thank you for your time.
If the need to clone MAC address isn't the problem, what I would do is go into the router's setup page (http://192.168.0.1 usually) and walk through it making sure that DHCP is on and that it is getting an IP from Earthlink.
Originally posted by lundy
Everybody does that. Don't worry. No, there is no way that they can tell that there is a router - all they see is an IP address and a MAC address.
Technically that isn't correct. There is one method to detect if an IP is a NAT box (Network Address Translation is what all those consumer routers use to route connections) based upon the lack of randomness of the random number generator that the NAT box is using... But I doubt that any ISP would go to the trouble of creating such a tool.
More information:
Link 1
Link 2
Originally posted by lundy
Now they MAY have instituted checking the MAC address against the one that is assigned to the ethernet chip in your computer. If that is the case, you can confirm it by calling them and just saying you got a new computer and the internet doesn't work. They will tell you if they are checking MAC address or not.
If they are checking MAC address, then the reason it does not work thru the router but DOES work directly is that it wants to see the computer's MAC address, not the MAC address of the router.
The instructions that came with the router should tell you how to "clone" the computer's MAC address to the router, so that Earthlink thinks it is talking to the computer and all is well.
I agree with you here though. This is most likely the problem. The easiest way for him to try and fix the problem is to clone the MAC of his computer on the router, rather than calling them up. I hate dealing with the Comcast customer service people. (back in 2000, one of them claimed that all computer parts would connect through USB in the future... even the processor and RAM)
If the need to clone MAC address isn't the problem, what I would do is go into the router's setup page (http://192.168.0.1 usually) and walk through it making sure that DHCP is on and that it is getting an IP from Earthlink.
Actually the default for Linksys (which he said he has now) is 192.168.1.1 unless they've recently changed it.
Originally posted by reynard
Problem solved! Thank you Pyr and lundy. When you suggested that I clone the MAC address I was intimidated by the word "clone". Not to worry however, there is just such an option on the Linksys configuration menu. Selected that option and the world was right again. Thanks, too, from my 17 year-old-the-internet-is-a-right-not-a-privilege son.
Eh, don't be intimidated too much by this stuff. It's easy if you know what you are doing, and we can help talk you through it if you need it.