Wow Ken, you sound mad?? Did that ruffle your penguin feathers? A quick lesson on the difference between "cable" service and "DSL". Don't be fooled that just because your sitting behind the best firewall and virus protection that money can buy that you are safe!!! Let's not forget about the data that's "coming in & going away". DSL service is a direct line from your point to the ISP. This means the only entity with access to that line is your provider. It's a very good idea to review their privacy agreement in the contract you signed. Relative to DSL and traditional dial-up users, cable modem users have a higher risk of exposure to packet sniffers since entire neighborhoods of cable modem users are effectively part of the same LAN. A packet sniffer installed on any cable modem user's computer in a neighborhood is able to capture data transmitted by any other cable modem in the same neighborhood. You are also more susceptible to risks such as unprotected windows shares than users with other types of connectivity A packet sniffer is a program that captures data from information packets as they travel over the network. That data may include user names, passwords, and proprietary information that travels over the network in clear text. With perhaps hundreds or thousands of passwords captured by the packet sniffer, intruders can launch widespread attacks on systems. Installing a packet sniffer does not necessarily require administrator-level access. So ....... Ken ....... unless your using encryption software to and from your PC while using cable broadband you are a target waiting for a hit. And if you have remote users enabled and someone sniffs your password, that fantastic firewall becomes garbage. PS: Did you just assume I'm using XP & IE? I wouldn't touch XP with your PC, let alone mine. Any software, at release, that had 286,000 known errors isn't making it to my desktop. SP1 & SP2 only complicated the known errors. I like telling my PC what to do, not vice versa. "If Microsoft keeps developing software for Idiots, all we are going to have in the future is a lot of Idiots"
I think I have officially pinpointed my problem. Got RR Friday night and I'm still having the same glitch that prompted this thread. I at least know that it's the router. I have excellent reception to the router and awesome speed, but about 25% of the time, the router is "acquiring network connection." I tried webbie's solution about changing the channel...didn't work. I am just shy of calling Linksys customer service, but thought I'd try here first. Any ideas?
Chuck, Where are you seeing this message "but about 25% of the time, the router is "acquiring network connection." Is that appearing on your PC, or are you viewing the status screen on the Linksys router and seeing that message?
There is an icon on the bottom right that will show the connection strength, the name of the network, and whether or not it is connected. I am simply guessing about 25%, but it's close. During those times, if I hold the cursor over the icon, it will say one of the following two (can't remember the exact verbage): "Acquiring network connection" or "Acquiring network address" By the way, when the computer is searching for the connection, there is either a red "X" over the icon or a small yellow ball going back and forth under the icon. Anytime I see these, I know I've momentarily lost connection.
Help me out with a definition on "WiFi" real quick. That is not in my everyday computer jargon dictionary. I would assume that it IS WiFi since you assumed that.
I think I see what you're saying. It is wireless. I have a Linksys Wireless-G router in one room and my computer in another. I have a Linksys network card in the computer. Is that what you're asking?
Chuck, You mentioned you tried changing channels - did you try *all* the available fequencies? You should have 1-11 available to try out on a Linksys. It can be tedious, but you may find that by trial and error going through each one you'll find one that works without this issue. Also, the icon that you check out on your PC to see the strength of signal, etc. Is that the Linksys icon, or, is it the Windows wireless network icon? If it is the Windows wireless icon (will look like a PC with radio waves coming off of it), you can also try right clicking on it and choosing the REPAIR option. As mentioned by devilock76, having somebody else try to connect to your wirelss router to see if they get the same results might help to narrow it down for you. Also, I'd be interested in seeing a program like Network Stumbler or AirSnare run at your location. Either could help determine if there might be a more powerful signal pushing into your territory and causing the problem of interrupting your connection.
I only have one named network. I named it Halle. Seriously, I do only have one named network and it is the default name, Linksys. Somehow I don't think the number of networks is the issue. I have yet to hook my wife's laptop up to the network, so I may try that route tonight to see how her computer reacts to it. Webbie, I admit it. I only tried about 4 channels and I've never even seen the repair button. The icon IS the Windows wireless icon, I just didn't know how to describe it. Anyway, thanks guys!! I'll give you an update tomorrow after I try all of this.
Oh, the speed is awesome, but get this. It won't let me register my account and my email with RR online because it keeps interrupting the process saying that I have no internet access. I haven't done much uploading or downloading yet because of my little problem, but I did upload some pics to shutterfly yesterday and each pic took about .5 seconds, about a tenth of the time it took with Dockpoint.
dam man, that sucks. it could be any number of things too. id do as these guys have already recommended, get another laptop over there to eliminate the possiblility of you having a bad card. in the mean time id probably hard wire your computer to see if it works then, check settings, etc. process of elimination...ugh
Disclaimer: If you laugh and call me stupid while reading this, I don't blame you. So here is my continuous nightmare. I went one more time to the activation site for RR and hit "Enter". Again it tells me that I have to have an internet connection to complete the activation. I decided the first thing I would do last night would be to take the router out of the picture. I got a longer piece of cable and hooked the cable modem directly into the ethernet port on the back of the CPU. I open IE and it tells me that I must connect to the internet. I hit "try again" and then "cancel" and the internet comes up anyway. Each page I tried to go to popped up the same message. So just for pure entertainment, I went back to the activation page for RR. Now it tells me that I have not accepted the security dialogues. I still don't know what those are. So I disabled both the wireless network and the local area network, because, honestly, I don't know what either of them does at this point. My knowledge of broadband or cable is that you really don't have to configure any kind of new internet connection, right? I always thought it was just there. Well, I tried it anyway. I went through the "new internet connection" wizard and selected everything pertaining to broadband. So why can't I get a connection? Also, if I wanted to, how do I simply start over? If I want to take the router completely out of the picture and have cables running all over my house, I don't care at this point. My computer problems started when I bought that god-forsaken router anyway.
Don't do it Chuck, Drunky just wants to drink all of your beer and try to look up your wifes skirt. Do not let this man in your house.
Good answer! :wink: Look, if the man wants to come drink beer, I'm OK with that. He and I both had babies, we might enjoy that. Plus, I have Ping Pong!!!
Chuck...we feel your pain! 8) Here's what I would try - reset the Linksys router to factory defaults. Check in the documentation that came with it...normally there is a recessed reset button you can push to do this. Make sure you have it DETACHED from the Road Runner modem when you do the reset. Once it is reset to factory defaults: 1. Turn OFF your RoadRunner modem. 2. Turn OFF your Linksys router 3. Turn OFF your PC. 4. Connect the Linksys router to the RoadRunner modem with the ethernet cable. 5. Turn ON the RoadRunner modem and give it time to start up and you have all "green" lights on the front of it. 6. Now, turn ON the Linksys router and let it start up and make sure you get all "green" lights on the front of it. 7. Now, attach your PC to one of the ports on the back of the router with an ethernet cable (don't want to start off with wireless...first confirm it works directly wired.) 8. Turn on your PC and let it boot up, and see if you have an Internet connection. 9. If you do, go to the RoadRunner activation page and complete that. 10. If all this is working correctly, you can then proceed to seeing if you can get it to work wirelessly. If that process doesn't work for you, it may be a faulty router. It's going to be very important to reset the router to factory defaults to clear out any remaining settings that may be there from your previous ISP. Plan B involves sacrificing a chicken on your front porch, but I don't think we need to go that far yet. :wink:
also run the cd u got from RR. it should set it up no problemo. ps. i laughed and called you stupid when reading your post :lol: j/k
Partially good news. If you are reading this, I now have an internet connection at home with no down time. Yippeeeeeee!!! However, still having the problem with RR activation. It gives me this message after pressing "Enter": We're sorry, we are not able to see the Internet from your computer. As this is a Web-based process, an Internet connection must be established before proceeding. Please click the BACK button to try again. If you are still unable to proceed, please click the CONTINUE LATER button and try again when you are connected to the Internet. If connectivity problems persist, please call your local Road Runner provider. So space, any ideas? I tried going to Help at rr.com and it won't let me get into the help sections, online chat help, email help, nothing. Is this because I've not been activated? Also, I didn't get a CD to run for backup with my welcome packet. PS. Thanks webbie. I did what you suggested, worked the first time.
Chuck, Glad to hear you are back online. I'd advise calling RR Support. I ran into this same thing a couple months ago...was installing a new PC at a home and the RR installer was there at the same time. I got the computer running, we fired up Road Runner and then he took over to go to the registration page...and it wouldn't work! (Was kinda funny to see this happening to their own tech!) As I remember, it had something to do with the registration screen requiring Java and the Internet Explorer browser was preventing the applet from running for security reasons. I'll bet if you get online and call their tech line they will be able to get you fixed up pretty quick. Good luck!
Just wanted to thank you guys for your help. I'm down to less than 5% of the time that my router loses connection, so I think I may simply have a somewhat faulty router. However, I have internet connection wireless or hard-wired and my RR works and is activated. Thanks again. One other small question. I can't seem to get a connection with Firefox. In the options tab, I selected "Direct connect to the internet" and obviously avoided all of the buttons for proxy's. Every time I bring up Firefox, it gives me "start.mozilla.blah.blah couldn't not be located". Says the same on any site I type in. I spent an hour last night in the help section and couldn't find the answer. Any idea what I've missed?
All I have is Windows XP firewall and I'm running Norton as an AV and Ad-Aware. That's it. One option I thought about was uninstalling it and then reinstalling. I originally installed it with the "glitch" and Dockpoint. Bad download, perhaps?
