I have bought a Belkin Wireless Gateway Router and had some problems with setting it up to work with my Telkom supplied POTS ADSL router. I finally got it working and thought others might benefit from a how-to to get it working.
First of all, do not do an auto install with the auto installer in the way that they decribe in the manuals. It's a waste of time. The auto installer has no idea how to connect to your POTS router.
Second of all, although your POTS router connects to your ISP with PPPoE, you should not use the ADSL/PPPoE option when you specify your connection type.
So, here is the setup:
1. Don't bring the Belkin router into the system yet. Connect to your POTS router the way you usually do. I had mine connected dirtectly to one desktop PC with an ethernet cable. You might have yours connecting to more than one PC via a switch or hub. That shouldn't be a problem.
2. Make sure you know the IP of your POTS router on your internal LAN. Mine was 192.168.10.200. There is no way to find this out, except to know it, but I think they are all the same, as far as I know. There is no reason for this to have changed on your POTS router.
3. Use your browser and the POTS router's IP to get into the http interface of your POTS router. Under Basic Config, System, check and make a note of the DNS addresses that the Telkom guys have put into your POTS router for your connection. I had two: 168.95.192.1 and 168.95.1.1. Yours could be the same or different. Write these IPs down.
4. Still in the http interface to your POTS router, under Basic Config, go to DHCP and Disable it. Your Belkin router will become the DHCP server for your network, so you don't need this one. I had mine off already because I had assigned a static IP to my PC connected to the POTS router. Yours may be enabled in which case you must disable it.
5. Click Save and Restart. Then click Save. Then click restart and wait for the POTS router to restart itself.
6. You can check if everything is still working at this point as before. It's a good idea because you are about to bring the Belkin router into the system and if things don't work it's good to know that the initial setup was working properly. Simply check if you can access web pages through your browser. Check your mailbox at your ISP, something like that.
7. Now connect the Belkin router into your system the way in which it is described in your manuals, ie. take the ethernet cable running to your PC from the POTS router out and plug it into the Belkin router in the green port, then plug the supplied blue ethernet cable into your PC and connect it into one of the four Belkin output ports (blue). Get power to the Beklin router and power it up.
8. Now you have to access the Belkin router's http interface and you may have to change the IP of your PC to do so. To access the Belkin router's http interface you have to connect to 192.168.2.1 via your browser. This may not work, because you may have a 192.168.10.* IP from your POTS router's DHCP, or possibly as a static IP. Simply try to connect to 192.168.2.1 through your browser and if it doesn't work, go to your Network Settings and change your TCP/IP settings to 'Obtain an IP address automatically'. Depending on your Windows OS (98, or XP, or whatever) you may have to restart your PC. Do that if you have to. Retry to access the Belkin router's http interface through the browser on 192.168.2.1. If it still doesn't work, check what your IP is (IPCONFIG run in the DOS window will tell you). It should be an 192.168.2.* address. If it is not you are most likely not getting a connection to the Belkin router at all (bad ethernet cable, bad network card, not plugged in properly, something along those lines). What should happen is that the Belkin router's DHCP server will have given you a 192.168.2.* IP and set your gateway to 192.168.2.1 (the Belkin router's IP). If this is the case, you are good to go on.
9. In the Belkin router's http interface, under Internet WAN, click on Connection Type. It will prompt you for a password, which is blank by default so just Submit. Choose Static (yes, go figure) as your connection type and click Next.
10. You will now be prompted for an IP address, a subnet mask and an ISP gateway address. For IP, put in anything on the 192.168.10.* subnet (doesn't matter what, as long as it is not your POTS router's IP, which is probably 200 - so make it 192.168.10.50, for example). Subnet mask is 255.255.255.0 and ISP gateway address is your POTS router's IP, so probably 192.168.10.200.
11. When you click Apply changes it will prompt you for DNS settings. Here you supply the two DNS addresses that you got from your POTS router in step 3 above. Mine were 168.95.192.1 and 168.95.1.1. Apply changes again.
12. At this point the Internet Status in the top right hand corner of your http interface of the Belkin router should change to Connected in green. Yay! You have internet access. The green light on the Belkin router furthermost to the right (labeled "Connected") will now also become solid for the first time. You don't have to do anything to save your changes. Just close the browser and you should be able to connect the PC that you are on to the internet via the Belkin router (connected via the blue cable).
13. Now you can follow the steps in the manuals to setup your wireless connection and play around with that. I found that straight forward: you have to give the Belkin router an SSID (a name for the wireless network) and then, using that SSID you should be able to connect to the Belkin router from a notebook or PC that can do wireless connections. Any computers accessing the internet via the Beklin router (whether through cable or wireless) must now use 192.168.2.1 as their gateway. This will be supplied automatically by the Belkin router's DHCP server, so you should not have to worry about it.
14. Very important is to secure your wireless network. Again use the manuals for that. It is straight forward. Be sure to do this step or people in your physical area will see your network and be able to connect to it. They will also be able to access any unsecured shares on any drives on the network, so BEWARE!!
I had some problems with lots of disconnections intermittently. An internet forum article said this was due to overheating, so I moved the router away from any computers and stood it upright in a corner on its own. Now it's perfect, so I assume their was some kind of interference, whether heat or not, I don't know.
I hope this helps anyone else who has to do an installation like this.
First of all, do not do an auto install with the auto installer in the way that they decribe in the manuals. It's a waste of time. The auto installer has no idea how to connect to your POTS router.
Second of all, although your POTS router connects to your ISP with PPPoE, you should not use the ADSL/PPPoE option when you specify your connection type.
So, here is the setup:
1. Don't bring the Belkin router into the system yet. Connect to your POTS router the way you usually do. I had mine connected dirtectly to one desktop PC with an ethernet cable. You might have yours connecting to more than one PC via a switch or hub. That shouldn't be a problem.
2. Make sure you know the IP of your POTS router on your internal LAN. Mine was 192.168.10.200. There is no way to find this out, except to know it, but I think they are all the same, as far as I know. There is no reason for this to have changed on your POTS router.
3. Use your browser and the POTS router's IP to get into the http interface of your POTS router. Under Basic Config, System, check and make a note of the DNS addresses that the Telkom guys have put into your POTS router for your connection. I had two: 168.95.192.1 and 168.95.1.1. Yours could be the same or different. Write these IPs down.
4. Still in the http interface to your POTS router, under Basic Config, go to DHCP and Disable it. Your Belkin router will become the DHCP server for your network, so you don't need this one. I had mine off already because I had assigned a static IP to my PC connected to the POTS router. Yours may be enabled in which case you must disable it.
5. Click Save and Restart. Then click Save. Then click restart and wait for the POTS router to restart itself.
6. You can check if everything is still working at this point as before. It's a good idea because you are about to bring the Belkin router into the system and if things don't work it's good to know that the initial setup was working properly. Simply check if you can access web pages through your browser. Check your mailbox at your ISP, something like that.
7. Now connect the Belkin router into your system the way in which it is described in your manuals, ie. take the ethernet cable running to your PC from the POTS router out and plug it into the Belkin router in the green port, then plug the supplied blue ethernet cable into your PC and connect it into one of the four Belkin output ports (blue). Get power to the Beklin router and power it up.
8. Now you have to access the Belkin router's http interface and you may have to change the IP of your PC to do so. To access the Belkin router's http interface you have to connect to 192.168.2.1 via your browser. This may not work, because you may have a 192.168.10.* IP from your POTS router's DHCP, or possibly as a static IP. Simply try to connect to 192.168.2.1 through your browser and if it doesn't work, go to your Network Settings and change your TCP/IP settings to 'Obtain an IP address automatically'. Depending on your Windows OS (98, or XP, or whatever) you may have to restart your PC. Do that if you have to. Retry to access the Belkin router's http interface through the browser on 192.168.2.1. If it still doesn't work, check what your IP is (IPCONFIG run in the DOS window will tell you). It should be an 192.168.2.* address. If it is not you are most likely not getting a connection to the Belkin router at all (bad ethernet cable, bad network card, not plugged in properly, something along those lines). What should happen is that the Belkin router's DHCP server will have given you a 192.168.2.* IP and set your gateway to 192.168.2.1 (the Belkin router's IP). If this is the case, you are good to go on.
9. In the Belkin router's http interface, under Internet WAN, click on Connection Type. It will prompt you for a password, which is blank by default so just Submit. Choose Static (yes, go figure) as your connection type and click Next.
10. You will now be prompted for an IP address, a subnet mask and an ISP gateway address. For IP, put in anything on the 192.168.10.* subnet (doesn't matter what, as long as it is not your POTS router's IP, which is probably 200 - so make it 192.168.10.50, for example). Subnet mask is 255.255.255.0 and ISP gateway address is your POTS router's IP, so probably 192.168.10.200.
11. When you click Apply changes it will prompt you for DNS settings. Here you supply the two DNS addresses that you got from your POTS router in step 3 above. Mine were 168.95.192.1 and 168.95.1.1. Apply changes again.
12. At this point the Internet Status in the top right hand corner of your http interface of the Belkin router should change to Connected in green. Yay! You have internet access. The green light on the Belkin router furthermost to the right (labeled "Connected") will now also become solid for the first time. You don't have to do anything to save your changes. Just close the browser and you should be able to connect the PC that you are on to the internet via the Belkin router (connected via the blue cable).
13. Now you can follow the steps in the manuals to setup your wireless connection and play around with that. I found that straight forward: you have to give the Belkin router an SSID (a name for the wireless network) and then, using that SSID you should be able to connect to the Belkin router from a notebook or PC that can do wireless connections. Any computers accessing the internet via the Beklin router (whether through cable or wireless) must now use 192.168.2.1 as their gateway. This will be supplied automatically by the Belkin router's DHCP server, so you should not have to worry about it.
14. Very important is to secure your wireless network. Again use the manuals for that. It is straight forward. Be sure to do this step or people in your physical area will see your network and be able to connect to it. They will also be able to access any unsecured shares on any drives on the network, so BEWARE!!
I had some problems with lots of disconnections intermittently. An internet forum article said this was due to overheating, so I moved the router away from any computers and stood it upright in a corner on its own. Now it's perfect, so I assume their was some kind of interference, whether heat or not, I don't know.
I hope this helps anyone else who has to do an installation like this.