I feel sorry for anyone who had to learn what the title of this page means. IPCONFIG is a DOS command that lets you see to what your computer is connected to, such as the inter net. Or in my case, what it was not connected to. A few days ago our laptops quit surfing the web. This was just about the time I started moving a bunch of my radio and computer stuff out in to the shop. We are going to lay some hard wood flooring in the loft where I had all my play toys. And besides that, Ham radio and tinkering makes a bit of noise so it made good sense to "take it outside."
So I moved my desktop and other stuff out, and that is about the time Jens laptop quit surfing the web. Hmm, I wonder why that happened, I thought. So I started trying to get it back on the net, and of course, got mine to where it would not connect wifi either. Then finally I got it to where I could not hook directly to the cable modem and surf. Yeah, I broke the Internet! Bummer.
So this lead me to spending the better parts of 4 days wrestling with this issue. but now..... I am back! How did I do it??? Well..... a bit of reading, tinkering, thinking,, a lot of frustration, 6 pots of coffee, a nervous break down, a bull dog attitude of not letting it beat me- called perseverance- and determination. I find solace in the fact that I read many many posts of others pulling there hair out trying to get there Linksys router to "talk" to Comcast. Comcast support will tell you to talk to Linksys, and Linksys will tell you it's a Comcast problem. Well actually, it is neither one....
Lightin'......
Just like lighting, this can strike you if you've got a cable connection. Here is how it works.
An ISP (Internet Service Provider aka Comcast) wants there system to connect to 1 and only 1 AP (Access Point) Comcast does not want to see a bunch of individual computers connected to there system. They dont care if you connect more than 1, but they dont want to see them. I guess it looks messy with my 5 computers connected..... So what you do is you register 1 computer with them through a Cable modem. So you hook your PC directly up to a cable modem via a LAN cat 5 cable that is connected directly to the cable line that goes outside and off to comcast land. Nothing but PC and cable modem.. got it.
But before you do this, first hold the reset button on the back of the modem for 30 seconds minimum. Let it boot up, then unplug it, then plug it back in, let it boot up, after all the lights stop flashing as if keeping time to Disco Duck, connect the pc to the modem.
And wait. Wait. Wait. Eventually it will see the modem.
Now if you have you winsock configed right, (and probably is) you should be able to connect to the net. Surf over and look at Google and Google information about why you cant WIFI comcast!!!! And you will see a lot of different posts about it, but here is the skinny..
After you connect with the Internet, this means that Comcast just "registered" your computer as it's client/customer. You are on the "inside" and a registered member of comcast land. How do they know your computer? Well each electronic device has a "finger print" number assigned to it. Yes, it's big brother. It's known as a "MAC" number. It looks something like 12:05:a5:23:df
This is not a real MAC number, I just made this one up, but that's what they look like. And your computer has it's very own, and Comcast knows it. It will let is network ONLY talk to a machine with that MAC number. ONLY ONLY ONLY!!!!! So how do you get 5 different computers on the net in the same house. You got to put up a curtain so that only Comcast sees the original "registered" MAC and your other machines work behind, and through this "curtain". Where can you buy an electronic curtain? It's in your router, if you know how to hang it. So this is what you do. After you've got one of your computers "registered with Comcast, disconnect your CAT 5 cable from the Cable modem and connect it in to a LAN port... NOW it has to be a LAN port, and not a WAN port.. LAN ports are the ones you have more of like 4 or more. The WAN we will use latter. After connecting the PC to the ROUTER LAN port, open your web browser ,,like Internet Explorer. ( I could have said I.E I.E. but that might have been confusing)
Now since you do not have your router connected to anything but your computer, the Internet will not pop up. No Google homepage.. not yet. IN the address bar of IE type this:
192.168.1.1
This will bring up your router. Another words you will be looking at the router setup menu/s of your router. It should say something about the router you own....
In the Basic Setup you need to make sure the Automatically assign DHCP or some such verbiage is checked, or selected. Automatic is nice, huh. After that look for a tab that says something like "MAC Cloning". You are going to clone your MAC! No test tubes required.
So you click on that tab and click a menu button to "Clone MAC". This is your curtain. Basically what this does is assigns your PC MAC number, to the router. Now save setting and un hook from the router. Now run a CAT 5 cable from your modem to the WAN and yes IT HAS TO GO IN TO THE WAN PORT!!!!!!!!!!! I've never used WAN until now... But there is a reason you must you use it..
So you now have a cable from the modem going in to the WAn of your router. The Modem sees the cloned MAC number it got from you "registered" PC that you connected to COMCAST a few steps back. So now Comcast sees your router that has the "registered" MAC. When you plug the modem in to the WAN port it keeps all of the LAN MAC numbers of you other PC's, on"the other side" of that electronic curtain. So now you can WIFI in to the router, as the WIFI is also on the other side of that curtain, or CAT 5 Connect to the router via a LAN port. Either way, you're on the net now. Except....... Jens laptop runs Vista..... It would not connect............??????????????
After several hours of set-reset-set. I thought.. Why not MAC clone the Vista machine and see if you can get it to WIFI the net?" Viola! It Worked!! Not only that but my PC will surf too.
So I am back on the net.
And to think, just a few days ago I din;t know hardly anything about MAC's , LAN,WAN, 30-30-30 resets and so on.
I am sooo Happy!
Ignorance is bliss
