[Madrag]

hello all,

here's what's happening:

I have a new ISP and they require me to introduce the IP settings manually (either for the mac as well as the subnet mask, the router and the DNS servers...

Now, if I only use one mac, that's ok.

But when using a router, I will need it to distribute the IPs (or else there will be a clash of IPs).

But I don't know how to configure everything so the router distributes the IPs and uses the ADSL modem correctly.

I know this might be fairly simple, but I'm stumped...

Could anyone help?

TIA!

[ghporter]

I think the best way to do this is to manually set the router with the ISP-provided IP address, subnet mask, DNS server, etc., and then configure it to simply distribute IPs on your LAN. Most routers are built to do that by default right out of the box.

If you provide the make and model of your router, we can give you more details.

[Madrag]

you're right, I forgot to mention:

my router is a surecom EP-4504AX

[ghporter]

Yep, I seem to be right. Here's what you do:

Using your browser, enter 192.168.1.1 in the address box and click Go/hit enter. You'll get a password box from the browser; there is no username, and the password is "admin" (without quotes, of course).

Once you're into the browser-based configuration system, you should be able to use the Setup Wizard that's apparently part of the configuration system. Just follow the instructions for "Fixed IP for WAN." It should be pretty simple.

Once you have the network stuff set up, MAKE SURE YOU CHANGE THE ADMIN PASSWORD OF YOUR ROUTER!!!! There are a number of security bulletins about this particular router, mostly dealing with the ability of an outside person to access the configuration and change anything he might want to. Change your password ASAP!

I hope this has helped.

[Madrag]

ok, I explained wrongly my problem...

The fixed IP is related to the standard IP that the modem will detect (192.168.1.2)
Not really a fixed IP, sorry. The only fixed part is that the modem requires a fixed IP (or maybe not: the instructions to use the modem were to set a static IP for the mac (192.168.1.2), an IP to the router (modem: 192.168.1.1) the gateway (255.255.255.0) and the DNS (XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX)).

What I've done so far is to set the router to use the 192.168.1.2 IP and distribute any other to the machines.

Now, I'm trying to configure the modem (which incidently - and probably the cause of my problem - is also a router), so that the modem isn't routing, but only behaving as a modem.

My ISP needs me to connect through PPPoE, so I configured that in the router, and set automatic DHCP in the system prefs, and also set the DNS IP.

Now I'm seeing the router (and it is working), but isn't connecting to my ADSL modem...

Any thoughts? (was I clear this time?)

[Madrag]

I managed to make it work (i'm using the internet through the router atm), but it seems slow compared to the direct modem access...

The way I made it work was setting the PPPoE in the router, and turning the modem into pure briged (disconect the router in the modem).

[ghporter]

I had not thought about your modem being an issue... Sorry about that. You did The Right Thing in configuring the modem to act as a bridge; most act like NAT routers if configured to do so - and here in the U.S. ISPs provide the modem for a low price and configure them the way they want, so I just didn't think about it.

One thing to do is find in your router a setting for "MTU" or Maximum Transmission Unit. If you're using PPPoE, you should set your router's MTU for 1492, or sometimes less if there are other processes going on. On the other hand, if your modem is the box with the fixed IP, you can probably just set your router to receive a dynamic IP using the Cable Internet instructions in the manual. Depending on what's going on, the appropriate one of these two tasks should speed you up by quite a bit.

[Madrag]

thanks for the tip, I'll try those two and reply with the results.

Anyway, I need to test it thoroughly, because the speed could have been afected by the net traffic (I was testing it at night, a time that sometimes has more traffic than during day).

BTW, the router's MTU was already set for 1492 (the marvels of the defaults)

[Madrag]

My speed seems to be as fast as witha direct connection to the modem

I also tried the two suggestions to speed up and the speed is the same.

It must have been net traffic.

[ghporter]

I'm glad you're doing well with this setup. Enjoy!