Tag Archives: router

Life’s like that

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In all my years of servicing computers, it hasn’t happened before, but there’s always a first time. Let me explain.

One of my clients wanted to replace his aging and misbehaving D-Link router+modem so he called me up. Okies, no biggie there, I told him straightaway to substitute it with the Linksys WRT54G2 router (setting it up was a painful experience when I did it for myself, but after the ordeal and threatening the brainless gadget, it has behaved well ever since. Read more here) The client gave the go-ahead, so I went to my supplier and bought it.

On the eve of setting it up for my client, I was just twiddling my fingers and feeling very pleased with myself. And then it hit me like a ton of bricks—the Linksys WRT54G2 is only a router, it doesn’t have a modem in it. Ugh, panic started to grip me and I quickly contacted the supplier and asked him whether he had any combo routers and modems in stock…sorry, nope (Murphy’s Law strikes again) The only recourse was to get another DSL modem and that of course would mean that the client would have to cough up some extra cash. I called the client up, explained the situation to him, and apologized. He said he’d consult with his daughters and get back to me.

I waited for a few minutes, my client called up, and said that no, his daughters said it was going to be too costly. I offered my apologies to him again and said it was entirely my fault (and it was). He was very polite, and said he hoped I could get a refund for the Linksys router.

Well over here in good old Malaysia, it’s next to impossible to get your money back after you’ve paid for a product (especially when it’s not defective in any way) Fortunately my supplier said I could exchange it for something else—phew! Let’s see, my 80GB hard drive was beginning to fill up, so yeah, I’ll spring for a Western Digital 500GB hard drive…my supplier said that’d be fine.

I think I handled this episode pretty well, but I’ve learned a few things from it:

  1. If it’s your fault, apologize straightaway. Don’t make up any excuses because you’ll look even more like a fool. I apologized immediately to my client and I behaved like a professional. I made a snafu, so there. It happens.
  2. Learn to laugh, or at least smile to yourself. No point overheating your own systems, if you know what I mean. I was grateful that my supplier at least offered to exchange the Linksys for a hard drive.
  3. Learn from your mistakes. I didn’t think carefully enough this time. It won’t happen again…gotta think these things through very, very meticulously.

“A man’s errors are his portals of discovery.” James Joyce

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Network Magic

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Just some info for those of you who have Linksys routers and have been using LELA 3.0 (Linksys Easy Link Advisor). LELA obviously has some bugs in it, let me explain. A few days ago, due to my tinkering around with some router settings, no doubt—I managed to send my Linksys WRT54G2 south again. Never mind, this time I’m prepared; I give it the Reset injection, redo some settings, and all is well—my Internet connection works again. Everything’s hunky-dory, huh.

Not quite. When I open up LELA from the taskbar, it reports that my computer is offline. What the heck, I can connect to the Internet! At first I thought about uninstalling and reinstalling LELA. Then I recall the first time I installed it—this behemoth takes something like 20 minutes to install and configure the network. Thanks, but no thanks. Next, I scour the Linksys forums, and lo and behold, I discover some interesting nuggets of information and a gem.

It seems like I’m not the only one having trouble with LELA. Upon further reading I find out that LELA is about to be discontinued, giving way to Network Magic. It’s available in two versions—Pro and Essentials. The latest version is 5.1, so I uninstall LELA and download this new program. It’s a 7-day trial but I can still use the basic features after the trial expires, since I’m using a Linksys router. The two features I lose will be the ability to share printers and folders (I don’t use this anyway) plus the ability to control and monitor my network (nah, no big deal). You can find the product comparisons and downloads here.

Here’s a screenshot of Network Magic on my system:

Network Magic

To quote from the Network Magic FAQ page:

Is Network Magic 5.1 replacing LELA 3.0?

Yes, Network Magic 5.1 is replacing the Linksys Easylink Advisor (LELA) 3.0. Features that were part of LELA, such as the Go Wireless connection manager and the LELA Network Map, are now included in Network Magic 5.1. When you install a Linksys router or other Linksys hardware, you’ll automatically get Network Magic 5.1 to try for 7 days. You can purchase Network Magic Essentials or Network Magic Pro to continue using it after the 7 day trial, or if you are a Linksys hardware user, you can use the basic Network Magic features indefinitely.

By the way, Network Magic runs very smoothly on my computer (Pentium 4 with 3GB of RAM) Furthermore the installation and configuration is quick and painless, unlike its predecessor. So if you’re still struggling with LELA, ditch it and go for Network Magic instead.

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The morning after (the acid test)

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It’s a Sunday morning, just before I leave for church. I’d managed to get the Linksys router to work yesterday, after lots of cussing and tearing of hair, but above all, patience. Now I had about 30 minutes before leaving, so I fired up the whole computer, plus the Linksys and the D-Link. Vista started up, entered my password, waited for the whole thing to load. I looked for the network icon in my taskbar to light up with those familiar blue lights, signaling that all was well. Nothing, nada, nyet, zippo—what the heck? Oh well, it’ll have to wait until after church (I didn’t want to get myself all worked up on a Sunday morning when I had to be playing the organ in church).

Arrived home after church. Enough is enough. Did a factory reset of the Linksys again—jabbed its backside for 30 seconds. Heh, it actually feels good to do that. Anyway, it responded and I was able to connect to the Internet. OK, great. Installed the Linksys USB adapter drivers in the male offspring’s computer, no problems there. Inserted the adapter, fiddled around with some settings, and presto, his computer’s online—wonderful!

At this juncture, I’m wondering whether I should burn some joss-sticks and incense to appease the wireless entities. On second thoughts, NO. I walk up to the Linksys, and tell it in no subtle manner that if it ever misbehaves again, it’s a straight 70 feet drop from the nearest window. There haven’t been any problems so far…

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The acid test

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So, having bought the Linksys WRT54G2 router together with a USB adapter, I opened the package up a few days ago and proceeded to setup. Nothing could have prepared me for what was about to come. I’m fortunate I’ve acquired patience for computer troubleshooting all these years. Little did I know that this wireless setup would be testing my patience to its limits.

OK, I open up the box, and there’s the black Linksys router, together with a setup CD, Ethernet cable, a brief installation guide, a power cable and adapter. I look at the CD; it has a bold sticker saying Run CD first before connecting cables. Well, who am I to argue with that, so I pop the CD into my DVD-ROM drive, and it does a couple of diagnostics, tells me to connect the Ethernet cables, plug in the router’s power supply, and here I go on the home stretch—at least that’s what I thought. Remember Murphy’s Law—“If something can go wrong, it will…” And it did—up pops an error message at the end: Error 322: Your router could not be configured correctly. Please check the cables, blah blah blah. I exit the setup, and repeat the whole process again, and again. Error 322 keeps popping up! At this point, ordinary mortals would probably have picked up the router and thrown it out of the nearest window. But remember—we’re dealing with a computer geek here, and us geeks never give up!

The number one rule of computer troubleshooting is—if it fails, try something else. Alright, enough of that darn CD. I take out the router and test my Internet with my existing D-Link DSL500G ADSL modem. The Internet works—good. Connect the Linksys into the picture, ensuring the cables are properly connected, and—Internet fails. OK, I’m getting somewhere now. Remembering that my D-Link was configured with a static IP address, I go into the Linksys web configuration page (using Internet Explorer) and enter a few settings. Then I test—no Internet. Change this—test. Change that—test. The internet was dead as a door knob.

What do I do when things don’t work out? I go swimming. Or make some strong coffee. It’s important to take a step back and not get so caught up that you could really throw the stuff out the window—besides, I could hurt somebody, right? And end up paying for more stuff. Anyway, here come my two good friends online for some friendly banter and chat: Doris and Uncle Ian. It’s nice to chat with fellow geeks, exchanging our failures and successes. Not only that, I called the shop up, where I bought the router from. They gave some advice regarding the router settings, but unfortunately that didn’t work.

At this juncture, I’m like taking two steps back. I re-evaluate my current settings:

  1. My D-Link router was configured for a static IP address, and worked when the Linksys was taken out of the system. In other words, I could access the Internet.
  2. I did a factory reset of the Linksys. Opened up the Linksys web configuration page, and configured it to have a static IP address, together with a subnet mask, gateway, and my ISP’s DNS addresses.
  3. In Vista, I opened up the Network and Sharing Center > View status > Properties. Opened up Internet Protocol Version 4. In the General tab, I chose Obtain an IP address automatically and Obtain DNS server address automatically. Previously I had specified the IP address and DNS addresses (which did not succeed in allowing me to connect to the Internet). I just had to try every option.
  4. Click on OK and close all those windows. And what do you know—it works! The Internet is accessible once more, wonder of wonders.

Now please, don’t ask me why it works—I’m just glad it does! Which goes to show, perseverance and patience does pay off, even if it is a little delayed. Now excuse me while I go configure that USB adapter for my male offspring. That’s another story for another post.

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Congratulations…

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are in order for my son (aka male offspring) Brandon, who managed to score a maximum of 8 A’s for his PMR—a major Malaysian examination for 9th Graders (or Form 3, as it’s locally known). This is wonderful news indeed, to start off the New Year, and as promised, Brandon, your Linksys WRT54G2 wireless router and USB adapter is on the way, as soon as stocks are available, lol.

Linksys WRT54G2 Wireless Router

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