How to change from dsl to cable on router to affect other computer?

[macwild]

I'm not sure I'm in the correct forum, but I saw the word "networking" on this forum and think it's the appropriate one for my issue.

I have two Macs networked together with a Linksys router. I set up the network myself, a long time ago, and don't remember much about the process. Yesterday, I had a technician come in and switch my internet connection from dsl to cable. My primary Mac accesses the internet fine, but the technician told me I would have to change a setting in my router from dsl to cable in order for my second computer to access the internet. Right now, my second computer says, "server not found." I know this has a simple solution, but I don't know how to make the change in the setting. Can someone please help?

Thank you for any assistance.

 

[calderone]

I suppose what the technician is referring to PPPOE authentication which some providers require. Typically the modem handles it, but the most routers can as well. It is strange that the one computer is working at all, did the technician connect the primary directly to the new cable modem?

Anyhow, to configure most Linksys routers you type in 192.168.1.1 into a browser. Unless you changed the default login it will be some variant of "admin" and "password" in either field. Typically it is just "admin" as the user name with no password. (I highly suggest you change this).

On the main page you will see something like this (ignore the red circle, although that is where you should go if you haven't changed the default password):

For Internet Setup change the connection type to "Obtain IP address automatically."

After doing this I would, if it does not work, I would recommend that you check that the technician did not connect the primary Mac directly to the new modem. As if this was the problem, it is unlikely that the primary Mac would have been connecting fine.

 

[macwild]

Thanks for your help.

Thank you for your help, Calderone. Yes, the technician seems to have connected the modem directly to my primary Mac using an ethernet cable. He told me that the cable connection would only work with my primary computer and that in order for the other computer to access the internet, I would have to instruct the router that it was now using cable instead of dsl. It seems to me that that connection should be automatically discovered across the network since everything seems to be set as "automatic" in the router (?).

I'm a little hesitant to make a change in the PPPoE setting because I'm not particularly technical and not positive it's the setting that the technician was referring to. I think I need to contact the cable company for clarification before I make the adjustment. Thank you for the Linksys instruction; I printed it out and will follow it once I get the cable company's affirmation.

Thanks, again, for your help. I'll let you know how I fare.

 

[jampat]

Stupid technicians. It is very very unlikely that the second mac will just magically find the connection the way he set it up. You need to change the wiring around to make this work. The ethernet cable from the modem needs to go to the WAN port on your router. The computers will plug into LAN ports on the router (or wireless).

PPPoE is only required for DSL, now that you have cable, don't worry about changing it, it's not needed anymore.

With the wiring setup properly and the router setup as instructed, reboot modem and router and it should just work.

 

[DewGuy1999]

+1 on jampat's reply. Do what he/she said and it should just work.

 

[macwild]

Thanks for your help.

All I needed to do was restore the network which required that I do several simple steps in a particular order. I think I was making it into more of a problem than it actually was.

If any non-technical newbie switching from dsl to cable encounters this problem, the simple steps below will re-establish your network. Steps have to be performed in the order below:

1. Power off computers and disconnect them from modem and router.
2. With an ethernet cable, plug the modem into the WAN/Internet port on the router.
3. Remove power cords from modem and router.
a. Power cord from cable modem is plugged into modem on one end with a power block plugged into a surge protector on the other.
b. Same with power cord from router.
b. Disconnect the power cords from modem and router, leaving the other end (power block) still plugged into the surge protector.
4. Plug the modem's power cord back into the modem FIRST and let it fully boot (all lights come on).
5. Then, plug in the router's power cord into the router.
6. Finally, with an ethernet cable, connect the just the PRIMARY computer into one of the LAN ports on the router and turn it on. (Internet connection should start up.)
7. Once internet connection is established on primary machine, connect other computer(s) to other LAN port(s) on router and power each one on one at a time. Each computer on network should establish its own connection to internet.

Network restored.

 

[LouisBlack]

All I needed to do was restore the network which required that I do several simple steps in a particular order. I think I was making it into more of a problem than it actually was.

If any non-technical newbie switching from dsl to cable encounters this problem, the simple steps below will re-establish your network. Steps have to be performed in the order below:

1. Power off computers and disconnect them from modem and router.
2. With an ethernet cable, plug the modem into the WAN/Internet port on the router.
3. Remove power cords from modem and router.
a. Power cord from cable modem is plugged into modem on one end with a power block plugged into a surge protector on the other.
b. Same with power cord from router.
b. Disconnect the power cords from modem and router, leaving the other end (power block) still plugged into the surge protector.
4. Plug the modem's power cord back into the modem FIRST and let it fully boot (all lights come on).
5. Then, plug in the router's power cord into the router.
6. Finally, with an ethernet cable, connect the just the PRIMARY computer into one of the LAN ports on the router and turn it on. (Internet connection should start up.)
7. Once internet connection is established on primary machine, connect other computer(s) to other LAN port(s) on router and power each one on one at a time. Each computer on network should establish its own connection to internet.

Network restored.

You make it sound far too complicated...

1. Plug modem into router's WAN port using ethernet cable
2. Plug both computers into router's LAN ports.
3. Turn router and modem off and back on.