Thursday, September 1, 2011

Shark infested waters...again

Sigh,

You'd think I'd learn to stop messing with computers. So a few days ago our router went out, so none of our laptops could access the internet. We ordered a new one. I got one that was wireless-N but also supports open firmware (tomato). Today, I got the router and set out to get it running. For a moment, I had the wired connection working. Tried a few different things, then I updated the firmware...Got dd-wrt working, then updated to tomato 1.28. Then nothing. It was as if the router was on but not alive, all the lights were steady green, just no internet connection.

While testing I realized my Ethernet port went bad and just stopped working? Seriously? I've been building computers for a dozen years and never seen one of those go bad. I tried everything including alternate computers, cables, direct plug to router. And well, it was just bad. Sigh, anyway...

I basically had no computers working and multiple failed components.

Then I said a prayer (best way to get out of shark infested water)

I then read that tomato does not default to DHCP. A static ip address and gateway fixed that problem. I logged on finally (to tomato 1.28) and I got wireless working. Then, I had to replace the new Ethernet port (I got wireless).

Nothing like a little help from above to exit shark infested waters.