Netgear MR814v2 wireless router won't talk to BT Broadband

[David.Castell]

I have a NetGear MR814v2 wireless router talking to a D-Link DSL 300-T modem talking to BT Broadband.

My PC can talk just fine with the internet when connected directly to the modem. It can talk just fine with the wireless router. But going through the router it will not talk to the internet.

The router receives the right IP address and netmask from BT's DHCP server. Something like 81.157.91.100 and 255.255.255.255. The router uses these settings on its WAN side. It passes the right IP address and subnet mask up to the PC: 192.168.0.2 and 255.255.255.0.

The latest suggestion from NetGear tech support is that the router can't route on the WAN side because of the 255.255.255.255 subnet mask supplied by the BT DHCP server. Both BT Broadband and NetGear must be common, so, if this is the problem then I would expect there is a work around. Any ideas?


Other info: My PC is using XP SP2. Firewall turned off. Right now I'm using the ethernet connection to the wireless router to simplify things (and for another reason). I have no proxy server. Pings to explicit internet IP addresses don't work, so it's not a name server issue. I've started things up in the right order (and even in other orders). I've tested the cables elsewhere. I've done a hardware reset on the router. The lights on the router are all in the states they should be. The modem's IP address is 192.168.1.1. I have uploaded the latest firmware for the router.


Thanks in advance, David

[speedtouchguru]

Have you tried the username/password? If you can talk to your router and the router's reporting an ADSL signal present then it could be a UID/PW issue.

Had a similar problem with a Belkin Wireless Router I set up for one of my friends who's on Tesco ADSL. Retype UID/PW and it worked fine.

Might sound trite but I would check that first.

[thumpert]

David, I don't know whether you misstyped it but you said the router passed the IP as 192.168.0.2 but you said your modems IP is 192.168.1.1 If that is true then you are operating on 2 different subnets and that may be the root of your problem.

Derek T

[David.Castell]

The modem and the router are on different subnets. The modem is on 192.168.1.x and the router is on 192.168.0.x.

I think this is right. The job of the router is to route between different subnets. I'll give it a suck it and see tonight though.

Thanks

[David.Castell]

The modem establishes the connection to BT Broadband. It sends the ID and password (well, in fact the password is ignored by BT).

The modem remains connected even if I disconnect the direct connection with the PC, put the router in the middle, and then revert back. So, I don't believe the router needs to log in to BT Broadband.

Right now the router is configured not to log on. I'll give it a try though based on your suggestion.

Thanks, David

[thumpert]

David,


I have read through the DLink documentation now and see what you mean. Is the default gateway on the router set 192.168.1.1 with the DNS set to the same?

Derek T

[David.Castell]

If the modem is not connected to the ADSL then its DHCP offers its settings that will allow the PC to talk to the modem.

IP address = 192.168.1.2
Subnet mask = 255.255.255.0
Default gateway = 192.168.1.1
DNS Server = 192.168.1.1



But if the modem is connected to the ADSL then its DHCP offers the settings provided to it by BT's DHCP server:

IP address = 81.156.175.100 (or some such value)
Subnet mask = 255.255.255.255
Default gateway = 81.156.175.100
DNS Server = 194.74.65.87


Using a network monitor on my PC, I watched the DHCP conversion between my PC and the modem, which was already connected to the ADSL. The modem's DCHP immediately offered the BT IP address and netmask. All looks good to me. So the DLink modem is doing what I'd expect. Which still leaves the question of how to get the router to talk to the internet.

[thumpert]

David,

In your router's basic settings page have you set fixed IP and DNS or have you left it to get it Dynamically from your ISP. You might want to try and set them to the Modem IP of 192.168.1.1

Derek T