Help me get my neighbours network working (I broke it)

pengwinzz · 24 Mar 2006 at 22:22

I’ll try and keep this brief

I’m replacing my neighbour’s current adsl router, an efficient networks 5861 (provided by bt) with a linksys WAG54GS

the old router looks like this in case your wondering
http://www.andovercg.com/ebay/images/gre-0412.jpg

I wanted to check the old routers config page so I could set the new one up correctly. After finding the manual for the old router on the net, it tells me that the web config address for this router is 192.168.254.254

When trying to access the web config page I just get a very basic blue bt page with 2 options for vpn and another to change the connection login, it looked nothing like what it was supposed to in the manual and didn’t display any dns/dhcp/port forwarding options etc

I gave bt’s tech support a couple of tries, they were pretty useless, with responses such as “I’m sorry that’s not a router we support” even though it was from them

So I plugged the new linksys router in (and set it up from one of the clients), it works perfectly fine with all the clients as they just obtain there ip’s automatically, the server however is a different matter.

The server at present cannot access the internet, despite the fact it’s all plugged in fine I can’t even ping the router from the server let alone view the linksys config page.

I decided to plug the old router back in since I couldn’t get the new one working with the server, once plugged back in, the old router failed to power up and is now as dead as the dodo – doh!!!

The server is used as an incoming mail server and file server, it is running windows 2000 advanced server

I’ll point out now that it was not me who set the server up
I’ll also point out that I don’t have any experience of setting up a dns/dhcp/gateways as it’s not something I’ve ever needed to do before

I could probably get net access working on the server if I set all the ip settings to auto but it needs a static ip for all of the clients to get their mail

I presume that the reason the server can’t connect to the net is to do with the ip settings gateway/dns etc though I’m not sure how to fix it myself, the server is also acting as a dns (I think) not sure why though as the clients do not need it to (maybe the mail server app needs it?)

Here is what the ipconfig of the server looks like

There is also a program called wingate running in the sys tray, I’m not sure if this is actually doing anything or just a relic from when the server used to run win nt and share the 56k net connection with the clients

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pengwinzz/Image5.jpg

Here is what the working ipconfig of one of the clients looks like

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pengwinzz/Image6.jpg

Can anybody please help me out and let me know what I need to change to get the server working again?

benjo plz. · 24 Mar 2006 at 22:24

Probably a good idea to remove wingate. Also, have you put in the username and password correctly on the router?

pengwinzz · 24 Mar 2006 at 22:38

i'll try that (though it was working fine with winagte in the sys tray with the old router)

the username and password are definitely correct as net access works fine on the clients

Sone · 24 Mar 2006 at 22:42

looks to me the server and the linksys box have the same ip (from images 3 and 6), what is the ip address of the linksys box?

with old bt box its probably the power supply gone, you could bodge in an old pc power supply if you needed

pengwinzz · 24 Mar 2006 at 22:48

the linksys router's ip is 192.168.1.1
the servers current static ip is set to 192.168.254.1

sadly (if it is the power supply) on the old router the power unit is internal, on the plus side though, technically its rented from bt so they should replace it for free

Sone · 24 Mar 2006 at 23:01

pengwinzz said:
the linksys router's ip is 192.168.1.1
the servers current static ip is set to 192.168.254.1

sadly (if it is the power supply) on the old router the power unit is internal, on the plus side though, technically its rented from bt so they should replace it for free

didn't check subnet, school boy mistake :mad:

Sone · 24 Mar 2006 at 23:04

pengwinzz said:
the linksys router's ip is 192.168.1.1
the servers current static ip is set to 192.168.254.1

sadly (if it is the power supply) on the old router the power unit is internal, on the plus side though, technically its rented from bt so they should replace it for free

edit, don't listen to me i am tired

computer techie · 24 Mar 2006 at 23:04

you need to configure the tcp/ip settings as below:

static ip:192.168.1.5
subnet mask:255.255.255.0
defualt gateway: 192.168.1.1
prefered dns server:192.168.1.1

just configure the tcp/ip settings as above and it will work fine

pengwinzz · 24 Mar 2006 at 23:48

thanks, i'll try that out tomorrow

i'll let you know how it goes

Phil99 · 24 Mar 2006 at 23:52

Add 192.168.254.254 to the list of DNS servers and see if everything works.

Sounds like classic lack of DNS problems.

If it was set as 127.0.0.1 before and worked it's likely you'll have to play around with the DNS Server settings, and if you don't have a clue what you're doing with it I'd suggest getting someone else in (preferably the one who set it up)

I'd have a reasonable idea of what to do but wouldn't touch it due to the damage you could do as I'm not 100% confident.

benjo plz. · 25 Mar 2006 at 11:06

The DNS of 127.0.0.1 was from the old wingate setup.

Topgun · 25 Mar 2006 at 13:33

you can capture the contents of the screen to the clipboard using the "print screen" key on your keyboard. Alt+ Print Screen captures just the active window. This should save you taking pictures of the screen with your camera! You can safely remote wingate.

Jez · 25 Mar 2006 at 15:13

computer techie said:
you need to configure the tcp/ip settings as below:

static ip:192.168.1.5
subnet mask:255.255.255.0
defualt gateway: 192.168.1.1
prefered dns server:192.168.1.1

just configure the tcp/ip settings as above and it will work fine

Exactly, are you and i the only ones thinking that this is blatently obvious? I dont see where the discussion has even come from, the server is just on the old routers subnet, just flick it over as computer techie has said and there wont be an issue.

tolien · 25 Mar 2006 at 16:02

Jez said:
Exactly, are you and i the only ones thinking that this is blatently obvious?

You aren't the only ones

By the by (directed at the OP), you don't need to use a camera to take screenshots

Curiosityx · 25 Mar 2006 at 18:34

Is he a business customer or private?

The BT effiecient networks box you have is normally supplied to BT business customers for ADSL connectivity, ithey come pre-configued with the correct IP addressing details, BT wont give you access to the config on the box they will only give you access to the web front end so that you can use it to log onto the BT ADSL service using you account username and password.

BT should have supplied a public address block for you too use, specifying what IP has been assigned to the router and the next avalible public address is that you can use normally you would give the next avaliable IP to your firewall.

Example:

First IP Address > Router > 83.46.212.11 >Subnet 255.255.255.248
Next avaliable IP > Normally assigned to external interface of the firewall > 83.46.212.12 > Subnet > 255.255.255.248

From here on most people would use NAT on the firewall so that a private IP addressing scheme can be used on the trusted side of the firewall.

If the BT SUPPLIED router is dead youll need to give them a call and arrange a swap out as it would be pre-configured with correct IP and Subnet.

I would be 99% certain that your problem is not based arround the server or DNS but the fact that you havent got the correct public IP and subnet configured on whatever your using as the first device on the network.

As far as im aware the BT business ADSL service does not use DHCP for client setup like a residential service does.

pengwinzz · 25 Mar 2006 at 19:12

Thanks for the help guys, I appreciate it. All is well now, the server is working fine.

about the camera photos, it’s a little hard to get print screen screenshots from a machine that has no net connection, on to the net

computer techie · 25 Mar 2006 at 19:27

pengwinzz said:
Thanks for the help guys, I appreciate it. All is well now, the server is working fine.

about the camera photos, it’s a little hard to get print screen screenshots from a machine that has no net connection, on to the net

how did you sort it in end mate

Burbleflop · 25 Mar 2006 at 19:29

pengwinzz said:
about the camera photos, it’s a little hard to get print screen screenshots from a machine that has no net connection, on to the net

Not really - Floppy drive, USB pen drive, CD-RW, DVD-RW...

pengwinzz · 25 Mar 2006 at 21:30

computer techie said:
how did you sort it in end mate

I just needed to make the ip’s tally to the new router (which you pointed out)

The old router was of course 192.168.254.x and the new one was 192.168.1.x

A rather blonde oversight on my part

, thanks again

Burberryflop said:
Not really - Floppy drive, USB pen drive, CD-RW, DVD-RW...

I didn’t have any floppies with me (compression in paint would have been crap anyway), I don’t have a pen drive (must get one) and the server doesn’t have a burner