Any nerds that know shit 'bout routers and to make them just fucking work?

I've never had nothing but fucking huge amounts of trouble with routers. Every single one I've ever had or had to use. I know there are times it's my own ignorance, though there are of course others where they're just junk and far from being a perfect design. And the times when it is my fault for not knowing what to do, fuck that too. For what these things are used for and the wide variety of people who use them, they should be way more intuitive and user-friendly than they actually are. A "reset" and especially "hard reset" should actually fucking reset the thing so that it's brand new and that when I plug it in and install it again it should be like fucking brand new, ask me what I want my username and password to be, and just fucking work. But it fucking doesn't.

I've tried going to tech and Linksys-brand forums for help but those always produce responses that produce no results, or that contain advice that is so fucking far over my head I'd need to go to another forum and another and another to decipher what the fuck the first person was originally telling me to do. Check for your IP address? Do an ipconfig? I tried figuring out shit like this (and other things), and even when I was able to do so, it lead me nowhere.

So does anybody actually know what's up with these things at all? If not, I won't post at-length my specific problem and steps I've gone through already. If anybody know what's up, just say so, and I can type that shit out for your reading pleasure. Or if it's something simple (for you, and not for me obviously) just type that shit up for me and I'll give it a go.

Basic problem: router does in fact broadcasts a signal, any wireless device that you try to connect to the signal, either doesn't connect at all and says there was a problem and to unplug and replug it in, or it says that the password doesn't match the network even though it definitely does.

my router is a Linksys/Cisco WRT160n v3

THANK YOU

When you reset it, generally the default login info is username: admin and password: admin

Following the basic instructions should be able to get you set up right, but if it doesn't then you can login to it via a web browser by going to the default IP address, which is usually 192.168.1.1. You may need to hook up directly with a network cable to do this though, since your wireless doesn't connect.

From in there, you can configure your wireless broadcast name, and password for connecting.

Sorry I just read the part where you were confused about IP address.


What operating system are you using? Windows 7?

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Here's a good little instruction for getting to the web based configuration page. Looks like the defualt username is actually left blank, and the password is admin. Do you have the setup CD for it?

No, you basically have to be a router technician just to figure out how to use one of those god damn things.

Your IP is probably set up automatically.

you probably running windows 7, that is your problem, windows is pretty much phasing out third party routers by making them not compatible with their operating system.

I had a router that worked perfectly with XP, got new computer with the new operating system and it stopped working so I said fuck it and wired the bitch

Yeah thats stupid, if Windows was phasing out 3rd party routers, then anyone who runs Windows won't be going online.

just go around a look at the routers that are not compatible with windows vista/7

My router is Linksys/Cisco 110 and I've got a super old Linksys BEFR whatever before Cisco bought them and they both work.

Ancient Rune wrote:

just go around a look at the routers that are not compatible with windows vista/7

Please find one and show me what you are talking about because I have never heard of that. A router doesn't even know what operating systems are, they just see IP addresses and send traffic to where they need to go.

never heard of that either. All mine and my family's machines are running Win 7 now and our routers are old as shit. They're linksys and d-links though so I guess doesn't really affect me.

tuggernuts wrote:

Ancient Rune wrote:

just go around a look at the routers that are not compatible with windows vista/7

Please find one and show me what you are talking about because I have never heard of that. A router doesn't even know what operating systems are, they just see IP addresses and send traffic to where they need to go.

I dont know then i just knowmine wouldnt work on vista when it worked fine on xp, the only thing i can think of is that it had to do with it not liking fios

Sooo were you able to get it working? Do you need more specific instructions?

You're all dumb. Routers aren't OS specific. They aren't difficult. If you're still experiencing issues, please post exactly wtf is happening because this thread hurts my brain.

^^^That's exactly what I've already said kthx.

Will try soon, maybe the weekend. Waking up early and 11+ hour days hurts my brain even before troubleshooting shit I don't understand.

Though I gotta say, I think I've already tried literally every thing mentioned.

Well reset the thing to defaults and post step by step what you do and what is going wrong.

OK so I did the reset again, and this time it looks like the reset/hard reset actually took. Before, when I tried it all the different ways the stupid internet told me to I'd plug it back in and connect and it would say it was connected to multiple networks, usually a combination of "linksys" and any random previous network name this thing's had in the past (most of them existing from trying to figure this thing out). But now, the only network that I can see that it's broadcasting is the new one I made after doing the reset and reinstalling the software (yes I have the CD).

BUT! The fucking thing still doesn't work. I wrote down exactly my network name, password and network key. A side note about that: I was fucking confused as shit with those two, the password and the network key. I thought they were the same thing and the software stupidly used the two interchangeably. It turns out that instead of that, they just stupidly don't inform their consumer that the password is for the admin website/configuration and the network key is what you type in when you try to wirelessly connect a device to the internet via the router (right? I still never got reassurance about this, that's just my deduction skills).

For the first time ever, I can now actually access the ip address admin website thing. Everything comes up, but I don't see anything obvious there that helps me. I've clicked on every damn menu and submenu and I'm lost. It's not that EVERYTHING is Greek to me, I actually know what a good amount of the shit means, but there's still no giant red FIX THIS FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT button so I get no where.

In the Status -> Wireless Network menu, I clearly see my Network Name (SSID). Looking for confirmation on what my network key, which remember, is what I think it asks for when you try to sign on with another wireless computer, I see what I typed in but it's labeled a "passphrase" (fucking christ, just shoot me) in the Wireless -> Wireless Security menu. THEN, when I go to the Administration -> Management menu, at the very top it says "Router Password" and "re-enter to confirm," BUT! What's filled in is all asterisks (or black dots, rather), the amount of dots/asterisks is about twice as long as both my password as well as network key, and there's no button to "show characters".

Each time I think I make progress I end up being just as stuck but more confused. In that same Management menu, there's a submenu called "Factory Defaults," just with a button for "RESTORE ALL SETTINGS". So what's the deal? Am I really fucking up that bad? Should I try the restore all settings button or another hard reset? Or is this router just actually fucked?

Yes, the network key or passphrase is what you you enter when you see "New Wireless Connection" and connect to the wireless network.

The router password would be the password to log into the web interface.


What you need to do is set your Network Name (SSID) to what you want. Then set your wireless key to what you want.

Make sure to click save or apply or confirm or whatever is there to commit those changes. You should then be able to connect with your wireless. On your computer when you view the available wireless networks, you should see the SSID that you typed in, choose that and then put in the passphrase/network key that you configured.

tuggernuts wrote:

What you need to do is set your Network Name (SSID) to what you want. Then set your wireless key to what you want.

Make sure to click save or apply or confirm or whatever is there to commit those changes. You should then be able to connect with your wireless. On your computer when you view the available wireless networks, you should see the SSID that you typed in, choose that and then put in the passphrase/network key that you configured.

Huh? Why are you telling me to do this when I said that I've already done this numerous times, including most recently after having reset it and selecting yet another new SSID and passphrase upon the reinstall? Like I said, the router most certainly broadcasts the network and I can see it on the list of available networks, but it never accepts the password despite my quadruple-checking that I have it right.

Can you see any setting for the type of security key it is? Examples would be WPA2-Personal, WPA, WEP, etc.

The router and your computer need to be using the same type of security. This should be somewhere near where you configure the passphrase.

yet another things that's been meticulously checked to match.

it's wpa-2 and AES, by the way.

Have you tried updating the driver of your wireless card in your laptop? Or even try uninstalling and reinstalling it.

No, and I honestly wouldn't know how to, mostly because I'm not even sure what that even means, in terms of a wireless card being software or hardware. Plus it's not my laptop, it's the fag roommate's. But methinks you're suggesting that the problem is with the laptop's ability to wirelessly connect, which I would suggest is not a possibility. He uses it wirelessly at work all the time, and he travels for the Army and goes to friend's and family's houses and he says it always works every other place. Plus there's a PS3 that he has and that bitch refuses to connect, as well.

But I had a small breakthrough, maybe, though it's one I've had before that turned out to be gilded.

So I basically got it to connect by just trying to connect different ways. The most recent method that finally worked was copying the network info (I'm not sure "network info" was the exact phrasing) onto a USB flash drive and connecting that flash drive to the laptop that I want to wirelessly connect. When connecting to the selected network there's the option of inputting the password, making a new network, and somewhere in there, copying the network info from the flash drive. I selected that, got the same shit I had been getting (like I said, I quadruple-or-more-checked my name and passwords and settings and everything). Then I fucked around for a while, more or less just going back and forth between manually connecting and doing the flash drive thingy. After the fifth time or so, I was prompted with a exclamation point saying that before I go any further to hit the configure button on my router (the one that's got the two arrows 69'ing). I click that and it connects, and actually surfs the web and shit.

BUT!

Like how it actually connected in the past, it had a strange side effect. When going into the Network & Sharing Center, it says that it's connected to multiple networks. The first one at the top of the page is the one that I made and named, though with a mysterious "2" at the end of it after a space, and it says it's a private network and has the little home logo for it being a home network. Below that is the second network, which is again, the one I made and named, without any addendum, and it's listed as a public network. Naturally, like the first time, I said why do I need two? I tried disconnecting one, the public one first, and upon doing so, it disconnects entirely. It does the same thing when doing the opposite and disconnecting from the private network first.

When I first stumbled upon this solution weeks ago, I mostly decided that it was working well enough and didn't care to work on it any more that day since I had already spent many hours to get to that point. I still didn't like it, because I knew that the computer being connected to a network and thinking it was two could be a problem, and I also didn't like that one was listed as public and could therefore still potentially be lifted/viewed by some hacker in the area or whatever the fuck. But to top it all off, the fucking thing went right back to not connecting at all the next day. I highly anticipate that happening again in this instance since everything else is identical to how it was "working" before.

Am I going places I should be with this? Like I said before...since I now, for the first time, have access to the ip webpage, should I do that restore factory defaults button? Or is that not any different/better than the resets/hard resets I've done?

lil help from the most boisterous nerds? Cincy and Cghost? Mr Tugs is already trying but I'm not hearing or getting anything new.

weird, eh?