Computer (or router) problem?

I'm using a computer at our central library right now. Was able to spend about four hours, on & off, on the internet at home yesterday. But now I can't access the internet at all from home. The WiFi link to the router indicates a good link from its monitoring software.

But when I go into the Network preference pane of System Preferences on my Mac, the router now properly indicates an address for itself of 192.168.11.1 - however, my computer is assigned an address of 192.168.11.37 by the router. The system indicates it is connected and capable of accessing the internet, but this isn't true.

None of the browsers I've tried (Firefox, Opera and Safari), or my email client (Mozilla Thunderbird) can access the internet under the above conditions. My computer is supposed to be assigned an address of 192.168.11.3, with my roommate's laptop being assigned an address of 192.168.11.2 - I'm guessing this is a router problem, not either computer, given my roommate's laptop needing three hours before providing internet access to him a few days ago.

Just wondered if anyone else might know if this most likely is a malfunction of the router? It's over two years old now, so no longer under warranty.

But in any event, I'm probably going to be missing longer than I thought.

The tech support guys from the router company or your isp provider might be able to help you get back online. They usually have an 800 number you can call.

I really hope you are back online by saturday.

The usual steps:

1) Plug out the router and the DSL modem, then plug them back into power outlet.

2) Wait for DSL modem to reconnect and for router to boot up.

3) If problem persists, call your Internet Provider and check network status.

4) If network status is fine, ask to be transferred to their tech support and tell them your connection stopped working.

You can also try changing the DNS addresses provided by your Internet Provider to OpenDNS (in your router):
https://www.opendns.com/start

When an ISP is having a purely DNS problem, which happens from time to time, switching to OpenDNS fixes it.

P.S. Your router assigning those addresses to your computers is NORMAL. It's called NAT, and has nothing to do with the problem, whatever it may be.

This is rather a "dumb" question WD, but you do have your computers set for DHCP, and the router set to provide it, don't you? It sounds like your router is assigning the computers private IP addresses as a DHCP server, but your computers are ignoring them and using fixed addresses. Either scheme can work of course, but if they don't agree about which scheme is in use (fixed IP addresses or assigned via DHCP) you'll have trouble.

You'll also have trouble if you've got two DHCP servers running (like, the router and your computer). That's guaranteed to screw you up.

I expect you've checked all of this, but I had to ask. Sometimes the simplest things are the ones we overlook.

Thank you, Jack & Justin.

Will have to wait until my roommate's next day off - the router is on his side of the house, & I want to print out your messages and we'll both work on it when we are both home.

And as to setting DHCP, my prefrence pane for "Network" indicates the following:

Configure IvP4:

Manually
DHCP With manual address
DHCP
BootP
Off

Normal setting is supposed to be DHCP

Only way I can get on the 'Net, for anywhere from30 seconds to 3 minutes at a time is by going to "DHCP with manual address and setting it to either 192.168,11.3 or 192.168.192.4. Thrn wait for it to assign properly (can't access the internet under this, or for that matter, the "Manually" choice). But when I go back and click on "apply" for DHCP (after clicking on "renew DHCP lease" once, internet access will be provided about one time out of ten. Btw, the router manufacturer is Buffalo Technology, which perhaps isn't quite as well known as some of the other manufacturers, at least not for routers. But this router has worked like a champ for over two years.

Thanks again, guys!

P.S. The DSL account is my roommates, ATT, though it was SBC when he first signed up - until the "Baby Bell" bought out its parent company!

Sounds like you need to determine how the router is set up WD. If it's not acting as a DHCP server (most do), then fixed IPs should work for you as long as you tell it what IP to use for your computer(s). If it's configured to assign IPs (via DHCP and/or Bootp) then you either have to let it assign your computer IP address or set it to deal with you at a fixed address. Typically routers are configured via some type of web interface, so you don't have to have physical access to it necessarily, but you do need to know it's IP as well as the name/pwd for the configuration page. In fact, it's a good idea to bookmark it, so you can see what it's up to from time to time.

It sounds like the router's DHCP configuration has come "unglued" somehow. Since they're actually simple computers themselves, that means that more than likely something's changed recently in the way it's configured, and that's what's causing all the trouble. Router software is also often buggy, so the correlation between what's wrong and what's happening may be difficult to see. Much less likely is a hardware failure of some sort, but frankly that doesn't happen much, and when it does (for routers anyway) it's generally not subtle at all.

So you're back to the normal troubleshooting starting point WD. What changed before the trouble started happening? I think you've been switching computers, so that could easily be where the problem's coming from. And keep an eye out for a computer acting as a DHCP server. From what you've posted about yours that's unlikely, but it's an easy way to get into trouble on a home network.

With my own router (non-wireless - Linksys) I had a problem with it needing to be rebooted 2 or 3 times a week for months. Then I changed some of the settings (they were for rather gizzy features I don't use) and it's been quite stable since then. (Knock on wood.) As far as I know, Buffalo makes good routers, although I don't know much about them. In my search for answers to my own rebooting problem I found quite a few lively router forums on the net. In fact, that's where I eventually found the idea for how to fix it. There's some open source software that people run on certain router models, and those folks know the ins-and-outs of this stuff quite intimately.