I wonder if anyone has some ideas here. I can’t set up my BEFSR41 v4.3 router through the set –up disc, and the wonderful, hardworking Linksys tech support person was trying to help me manually set it up.  We were on live chat using my main computer (desktop) connected to the Internet and were using my laptop, connected with an Ethernet wire to port 1 of the router. (He said we were “cloning” the settings to my router using the laptop.)  Both machines have Vista.  Anyway, we got to a point in the chat where the Lynksys setup page appeared on my laptop.  At that very moment, the chat screen on my computer linked to the Internet stopped accepting input from my keyboard!  Tech support thought I was not responding and rang off.

[I suspect a part of the  set-up problem issue might be my Earthlink account.  Their tech support just tried to sell me a home networking service using their own router.  Perhaps they have set the system to make third party routers incompatible?  One of their staff told me to try bridging my modem by changing my settings from routing to bridge, but that just wrecked my connection entirely, and I had to use their tech support in a somewhat long session to reestablish the Internet connection.]

The Linksys tech support rep took me through these steps to manually reset and reconfigure the router's settings. [Note:  We chatted through my main computer, connected to the modem but not the router.  Then we followed this procedure:

1.   Retrieved first the Physical Address (or MAC Address) of my main Vista computer (the one that I was using to chat to the rep ) so that we could clone it to the router using the laptop.

2.  We set up my lap tap (Plugged the router into a power outlet. Then connected the spare Ethernet cable to port # 1 at the back of the router and connected the other end to the laptop).  All the appropriate LED lights came on.

3.  Accessed the setup page of my router by doing the following steps on my Vista laptop:

3.  1. Opened another Internet Explorer page. 2. On the newly opened IE page, erased everything on the address bar then typed: "192.168.1.1" (without the quotes), then hit the Enter key. 3. A log-in screen appeared. Typed admin on the Password field, and then click on OK.

At that point the set-up page appeared on my laptop, but the chat screen on my desk top would no longer accept my keyboard input. After a time, since the rep saw no response from, he logged out.

Does anyone have any idea what the next steps would have been had I been able to communicate with tech?  Oh – and I just remembered:  At some point at his direction I typed in some numbers to the Internet settings on the laptop that were meant to be permanent IP (or DNS? Can’t remember!) addresses.  …just thought I would try posting here to give myself and tech support a rest before I tried them again.

1)  Please state your ISP

2)  Please state the make and exact model number of your modem (not the BEFSR41).

3)  Please do the following test:

Power down your entire network.  Using an ethernet cable, connect your modem directly to your computer.  (Do not use the BEFSR41 for this test.)  Power up the modem and computer.  Verify that you have a working Internet connection, then proceed with the following:  (Even if your Internet connection does not work, state this, and proceed.)

Go to "Start" > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt.
A black DOS box will appear. Type in "ipconfig /all" (with no quotes), then hit the Enter key.   Copy all the results to your next post.  To do the copy, highlight the results, then use the copy (Ctrl-c) keys and the paste (Ctrl-v) keys.  If your "IP address" does not start with 192.168 , then for security reasons, erase the last half of your IP address.

Thanks for responding!

The information you asked for is as follows:

1.  My ISP is Earthlink

2.  The model is BEFSR41 version. 4.3 Ethernet Cable/DSL router with 4-port switch Linksys Cisco (I'm putting down everything I can think of).  The serial number is C2181J800531.  MAC is 00259C6B9044.

3. I could connect to the Internet using the ethernel wire.

4.  The information from ipconfig/all is

  Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

  DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

  DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

  NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

unnel adapter Local Area Connection* 6:

  Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

  Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :

  Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface

  Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-00-54-55-4E-01

  DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No

  Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

unnel adapter Local Area Connection* 9:

  Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

  Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :

  Description . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.{404B9F4D-C24C-4DAA-8354-66617F4DD

B9}

  Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0

  DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No

  Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

As your ISP is an DSL Provider, most of the DSL Provider Modem are setup in a DHCP Mode, So their modem acts like an Router. And in these you are trying to setup your Linksys Router with your DSL Modem. As your Modem and the Linksys Router has the Same IP address, so you wont be able to go online from the Linksys Router.

There are certain Rules  to configure the Router with the DSL Modem.

Login to the Linksys Router setup page, and below the setup tab you need to change the LAN IP of the Linksys Router to 192.168.5.1 and click on Save Settings.... Once all the settings are saved on your Router then you need to Unplug the Power from the Router and from the Modem, wait for 30seconds and then first plug the Power to the Modem and again for 30seconds and then plug the power to the Linksys Router. 

Now on your computer check if you are Online. 

If you are still having problems:

For item 2)   Please state the make and model number of your modem, not the BEFSR41 router.

For item 4)  Was this really without using the BEFSR41 router?  If not, please repeat test with your computer connected directly to your modem, and post the results. 

So sorry  -- I misread your 1st question.  My modem is a Zyxel P-600 series.   Model Number P-660R-ELNK

Serial Number S060Y10052923.  

The MAC address is 00134974C86E.

I definitely did not use the router for # 4.  However, I powered dowen the network and did the procedure again. The router is not connected, I promise.  It is in its cardboard box.

 I could connect to the Internet.  The results are below:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6001]

Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Susan>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

   Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Susan-PC

   Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :

   Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid

   IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

   WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :

   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) 82566DC Gigabit Platf

nect

   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-16-76-BC-02-56

   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::c8cb:989b:d203:3904%9(Pr

   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.34(Preferred)

   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

   Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, November 07, 2009 6:

   Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, November 10, 2009 6:2

   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

   DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 6:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :

   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interf

   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-00-54-55-4E-01

   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No

   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 9:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :

   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.{404B9F4D-C24C-4DAA-835

3B9}

   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0

   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No

   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Note:  When I was working with chat support, we were chatting through my desktop.  The desktop was connected directly to the modem.  At tech's instructions, my laptop was connected with an Ethernet wire to port 1 of the router.  Nothing was connected to the Internet port of the router.  Typing 192.168.1.1 into the address bar and typing admin in the log-in screen, I could get to the Linksys page.   [that's when communication went awry]. 

Last night I hooked up everything the same way.  When Windows was loading up, I saw a message that I had an IP conflict.   I definitely DID see through an icon that the laptop recognized it was connected to the router.   I tried to get to the Linksys page again, but the page would not come up when I typed admin into the password place.

I feel I am making progress though!  After work today, I am going to try to get to the Linksys page again, this time using my desktop.

Thanks for all your help -- even if we don't get this solved, I must say in a strange way this is fun.

If you are not able to go online from the Linksys Router, these is because your Modem and the Router IP address is in the same Range.

You can try the settings which you have mentioned in my earlier post and that should fix your problem and you should be able to go online from the Linksys Router.... 

Many thanks to you for all your help!!  Thanks to Gollum as well.  I'm going to try all your suggestions.  I like the idea of a switch -- anything simple would be great.

I believe my ISP, Earthlink, tries to make things tough so that customers pay an extra monthly fee for home networking.  I did find an article stating the Earthink expects you to bridge your modem to use a router.  I've got directions for that and will try that too.

I think I'm  soon going to swtich my ISP to Verizon, which I'm told likes my router just fine.

Again, MANY thanks for all your help.