Riddle Me This: iBurst Uncapped+ Modem & Router

Hi everybody.

I've lurked on the MyBB forums for a good long while, since it's an excellent source of information, and now I finally have a reason to register because, of course, I have a problem.

I signed up for a wireless Uncapped+ package yesterday, and got a 2Mb modem, and the Linksys Router.

The helpful sales person at the iBurst showroom configured the router for me, and I went home and followed the installation instructions. (Win 7 64-bit OS.) Ran the disc, installed the dashboard, installed the drivers, restarted, and plugged in the modem.

Modem indicates signal, router indicates internet and ethernet (and WLAN) connections. But the PC and the dashboard show nothing. The PC doesn't detect the modem or the router, and the Dashboard says "Disconnected" and "No Signal."

Connecting via the Dashboard gives an error message. I can ping the router though.

So, although the router was pre-configured, I decide to run the disc that came with it. Go through the set-up process, and the PC detects the router, and adds a LAN connection. As soon as I have that LAN connection, it tells me that I have internet access through it. So I connect to the LAN, and I'm online. (Connecting to the iBurst PPPoE connection in my network centre returns an error, but using the LAN gives me a connection.)

Dashboard still says No Signal and Disconnected.

I try skipping the router, and just plugging straight into the modem, and nothing. No way to connect. Plug back into the router, and instant connection. No way to connect or disconnect, it's just permanently on as long as the modem is powered.

Tech support was not very helpful, their suggestion ended up being to uninstall everything and re-install it, with a comment that I didn’t need the dashboard on Win7.

I'm a bit wary of doing that, since it is working. (46Kb/s down and I suspect my signal isn't fantastic, thinking about an antenna.) However, I'm not too happy with not being able to manually connect / disconnect or seeing my signal strength and usage.

Anybody ever seen this before or had a similar experience? Will appreciate any insight/advice.

Thanks.

Iblis said:

Hi everybody.

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Welcome to MyBB!

Iblis said:

I try skipping the router, and just plugging straight into the modem, and nothing. No way to connect. Plug back into the router, and instant connection. No way to connect or disconnect, it's just permanently on as long as the modem is powered.

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If the modem is plugged into the router, you don't need any drivers or dashboard on the PC, the connection should be always on (although you probably change it to on-demand, if you really want to).

If you plug the modem directly into the PC, you will require the drivers, and you will need to create a PPPoE dial-up connection in Windows.

As far as I know, the dashboard talks to the drivers to get the signal strength and so it won't work when the modem is not plugged directly into the PC.

Iblis said:

I'm a bit wary of doing that, since it is working. (46Kb/s down and I suspect my signal isn't fantastic, thinking about an antenna.)

Click to expand...

Don't think any further, just get an external antenna.

Thanks for the feedback ginggs, and for the welcome.

So basically, as long as I can get online, I'm fine huh?

I am wondering though why I can't get online without the router. When I try with just the modem, I get the same errors, either with the dashboard, (The modem has reported an error) or with the PPPoE connection (Error (ah hell...) 614 or something).

Tried on 2 different machines (both 64bit Win& though) and got the same problem.

Regardless, it is working.

And I'll probably take your advice about the antenna, although I apparently need a splitter too for the 2Mb modem. Is there a way to check signal strength without the dashboard or terminal?

If you can see the tower and there are no leaves in the trees then you will get a good signal strength.

ginggs said:

If you plug the modem directly into the PC, you will require the drivers, and you will need to create a PPPoE dial-up connection in Windows.

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^^^ Requiring drivers only applies if you connect the 1Mbps modem via USB. The 2Mbps modem does not have a USB port; you can only connect it via Ethernet.

You might need a cross-over cable if your network card can't detect this and compensate. You can also try plugging both the modem and your PC into an Ethernet switch and then see if you can get PPPoE to work.

Iblis said:

And I'll probably take your advice about the antenna, although I apparently need a splitter too for the 2Mb modem. Is there a way to check signal strength without the dashboard or terminal?

Click to expand...

You can try this, but it probably won't work while connected with your router. :wtf:
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...t-signal-monitoring-for-Mac-Linux-amp-Windows

noswal said:

If you can see the tower and there are no leaves in the trees then you will get a good signal strength.

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Haha, I'm within a few km's of the Northcliff tower, but I can't see it. And not only are there trees in the way, there are probably some bits of buildings in the way too.

That said, every speed test I've done have been faster than the one before. Got 0.9Mb/s last night. (Don't actually know what I could/should be getting though.)

ginggs said:

You might need a cross-over cable if your network card can't detect this and compensate. You can also try plugging both the modem and your PC into an Ethernet switch and then see if you can get PPPoE to work.

Click to expand...

The modem and router are both plugged into an ethernet switch. I'm using the router's ethernet ports, and have disabled the wireless on it. But the PPPoE still doesn't work.

Still, apart from that, all is going well so far...hooked my second PC into the router and it is connecting as well. I'll try the suggestion in that thread you linked to, (thanks), just in case it works.

My only concern is that if anything goes wrong, I won't know what it is.

Thanks again for the advice and support. If anybody has any other ideas or suggestions, I'm open to them.

Iblis said:

The modem and router are both plugged into an ethernet switch. I'm using the router's ethernet ports, and have disabled the wireless on it. But the PPPoE still doesn't work.

Click to expand...

I meant if you want to test signal strength from the PC, connect only the PC and the modem to the switch, no router. Then you should be able to establish a PPPoE connection from the PC.

I'm not sure why you have both the modem and the router plugged into a switch. I think a normal configuration would be modem into router's WAN port, router's LAN port into switch, PCs into switch.

In any configuration though, you can only establish one PPPoE connection at a time, so you can't make the connection from a PC while the router has an active connection, and even without a router, you can't make two PPPoE connections from two PCs at the same time (that's why you have a router).

Sorry, my bad. I read switch and thought router. For some reason, they appeared synonymous to me.