Is my router broke?

cjenkins · Feb 16, 2009, 09:11:15

Hi there, I think something has gone seriously wrong with my router at home but thought I'd ask the experts for confirmation.

I was away for the weekend and I decided to switch off my router while I was gone. We left Saturday morning and at that time everything was working fine bar the occasional browsing drop which a lot of people seemed to be having due to the DNS problems. So I got back yesterday evening, turned on the computer and router, and I can't get anything at all. Not only do I have no internet connection but I can't even see the router "home page", which is what leads me to think it's a problem with the router itself.

The DSL and internet lights on the router are green as normal. As is the ethernet light. When I plug the cable out from my splitter, the DSL and internet lights go off, plug it back in and they flash before finally settling green. All that is normal as far as I know. Also when I plug the ethernet cable out the "network cable unplugged" icon comes up so I know there's no physical problem with the cables. The only strange things are that the WLAN light stays red on the router (I use wireless connection to a Wii) and periodically the WLAN light and ethernet lights blink in unison.

I tried master resetting the router, made no difference at all.

Any ideas what might be causing this? Any help would be much appreciated.

Rik · Feb 16, 2009, 09:18:12

What router are we talking about, CJ?

cjenkins · Feb 16, 2009, 09:21:12

Ah yes, sorry. It's a Speedtouch 780WL.

Rik · Feb 16, 2009, 09:28:16

I've no experience of Speedtouch, beyond the frog, but stealing an answer from Sebby, see if you can access via Telnet:

Open a command prompt, and type telnet, hit enter, then type o 192.168.1.254 and hit enter. You'll then have to enter your username and password - if you haven't set a password, enter Administrator as the username, hit enter, then hit enter again. Now you're in the CLI.

If that works, you're communicating with the router, if it doesn't, then it does sound like it's died. However, wait for some of the Speedtouch experts before arranging the funeral.

cjenkins · Feb 16, 2009, 09:38:48

Thanks for the suggestion Rik.

I'm at work so just had the other half try that and it said it couldn't connect to the host on port 23, or something like that.

I'll try to contact Thomson but sounds like a cremation is in order.

Rik · Feb 16, 2009, 09:41:04

Can you check it on a friend's line? Or borrow a router to check your ethernet port is OK? It would be worth a look in device manager to check there are no warnings about the network card there.

Ray · Feb 16, 2009, 09:48:16

Quote from: Rik on Feb 16, 2009, 09:41:04
Can you check it on a friend's line? Or borrow a router to check your ethernet port is OK? It would be worth a look in device manager to check there are no warnings about the network card there.

Good point, Rik, I had a similar problem to this a couple of months ago and thought it was the router, but it turned out to be the NIC it was only sending data out but wasn't receiving any data back, changed it for another NIC and problem solved.

Rik · Feb 16, 2009, 09:49:43

Computers!

cjenkins · Feb 16, 2009, 09:56:34

I have a work laptop which I tried connecting last night also, wirelessly. It couldn't connect to the internet or see the router on that either so am I right in thinking that rules out the ethernet port or network card on the pc?

I'll try and pinch a router out of work for the evening and check. I've also emailed Thomson so hopefully they can trhow in their 2 cents worth.

Thanks for the help guys

Rik · Feb 16, 2009, 09:59:45

It does look very likely that the router has failed, CJ, but swapping in another will prove it for sure.

David · Feb 16, 2009, 10:23:43

Good Luck with it CJ keep us informed

Ray · Feb 16, 2009, 11:15:14

Quote from: Rik on Feb 16, 2009, 09:49:43
Computers!

You can say that again, Rik, just had to do an OS reinstall on my Server

started up this morning couldn't connect to it went to the Server everything started up as normal but everything locked up except for being able to move the mouse cursor around the screen. A couple of reboots didn't fix it so went for a reinstall.

Rik · Feb 16, 2009, 11:16:10

Deep joy, Ray.

Sebby · Feb 16, 2009, 13:38:49

The only thing I can think, given that another computer has already been tried (and wirelessly at that), is that the router has failed in some way. After all, electronics often fail after a power cycle, especially if they're on the edge. The things I'd suggest - factory reset, different computer, etc - have already been tried. You could try the router at another location, but as it can't even be accessed (wired or wireless) I can't imagine the ADSL connection has anything to do with it.

LesD · Feb 16, 2009, 20:00:11

Quote from: cjenkins on Feb 16, 2009, 09:11:15
I tried master resetting the router, made no difference at all.

I know that this may be stating the obvious but to connect to the WAN (get the red light out) you would need to put your own access details, password etc. back into the router after the master reset and how to do that without being able to connect to the device has me foxed!

I lost access to my router when the DNS setting in the PC's TCP/IP was hijacked a month or three ago and found that the only way I could get into it was with its IP address until I put this DNS setting back to automatic. See here for more on this one.

I don't know if any of this will help but as crossed my mind I though I would add my two penneth!

Rik · Feb 17, 2009, 09:24:41

Fair point, Les, unless the default state is an 'open' network, I suppose?

D-Dan · Feb 17, 2009, 19:06:44

If you are using Vista (blegh) then you could try the network map in Network control panel to see if the router appears there.

Steve