Networking issue LAN/WAN

jor el

I have a strange problem connecting to the internet via IOLBB. Currently my setup is that I have the BB modem, Prestige 623R, connected to a wireless router. The wireless router then serves the internet connection to a couple of PCs aswell as acting as a LAN router.

The modem IP is 192.168.1.1, the wireless is 192.168.1.3 and my first PC is 192.168.1.33, subnet 255.255.255.0

I can ping both router and modem from my PC, I can configure them via the web interfaces and all works well. But I can't connect to the internet or ping any outside servers from a DOS prompt. I can however ping the IOLBB DNS servers, 194.125.2.240 and 194.125.2.241 from the DOS prompt and my external IP address as assigned by IOL.

In the modem's diagnostics I can ping various servers so the BB connection is definitely up and running.
Here is a screencap of the WAN status page inthe routers config. Everything seems fine, though I'm not sure if 255.255.255.255 is the correct mask for the WAN.


I think this is some sort of DNS/routing problem as I can't get a connection from any PC to the internet even though the connection to the modem is fine and the connection from modem to internet is also fine.

Does the PC need to setup a default gateway? Currently I am using 192.168.1.1 but if I delete this is still works.

Any suggestions? I was going to contact IOL tech support but I don't think this is an issue on their side, it definitely seems like a problem with my setup.

JoyPad

If you can ping the DNS servers, then it's definitely not a routing problem.

Just check your routing table looks like this:

C:\>route print
Active Routes:
Network Destination        Netmask          Gateway       Interface  Metric
          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0      192.168.1.1    192.168.1.33       1
        127.0.0.0        255.0.0.0        127.0.0.1       127.0.0.1       1
      192.168.1.0    255.255.255.0     192.168.1.33    192.168.1.33       1
     192.168.1.33  255.255.255.255        127.0.0.1       127.0.0.1       1
    192.168.1.255  255.255.255.255     192.168.1.33    192.168.1.33       1
        224.0.0.0        224.0.0.0     192.168.1.33    192.168.1.33       1
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255     192.168.1.33    192.168.1.33       1
Default Gateway:       192.168.1.1
===========================================================================

For DNS settings, you can do one of:
1. set the DNS server on your PC to 192.168.1.1 (modem), and configure the modem to do DNS forwarding (it should be there by default). This method ensures you find the proper DNS servers of IOL, even if they change them (not likely though).
2. set the DNS servers on your PC to whatever IPs you know are good.

To test your DNS settings, run nslookup, like this:

C:\>nslookup
Default Server:  ns4.ns.esat.net
Address:  194.125.2.240

> yahoo.com
Server:  ns4.ns.esat.net
Address:  194.125.2.240

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    yahoo.com
Addresses:  216.109.112.135, 66.94.234.13

> exit

C:\>

If these are good, then yo should be able to ping yahoo.com:

C:\>ping yahoo.com

Pinging yahoo.com [216.109.112.135] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=109ms TTL=52
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=94ms TTL=52
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=110ms TTL=52
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=110ms TTL=52

Ping statistics for 216.109.112.135:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 94ms, Maximum =  110ms, Average =  105ms

Cheers,
JP

jor el

nslookup gave me nothing: no response from server. So I set the DNS servers manually to be esat's and all is well now.

Thanks.

JoyPad

Btw, jor el, I forgot to praise your sig. That's a great quote.
It reminds me of this quote that was printed in our science lab, when I was in 4th grade or so:
"The man who knows, and knows that he knows, that's an educated man. Listen to him.
The man who knows, but doesn't know that he knows, he's asleep. Wake him up.
The man who doesn't know, but knows that he doesn't know, he's uninformed. Teach him.
The man who doesn't know, and he doesn't know that he doesn't know, that's a fool. Avoid him."

jor el

That last one could be used to describe many a poster around some of these forums!

Anyway, thanks for the help. Still puzzling why it happened. I've recently moved house and have just got the BB connected. I had IOLBB at my last address too and it worked fine without setting the DNS servers. I assumed it would continue to work but obviously was wrong.

Anyway, tis all working fine now so I won't go messing with it.

JoyPad

Still puzzling why it happened. I've recently moved house and have just got the BB connected. I had IOLBB at my last address too and it worked fine without setting the DNS servers. I assumed it would continue to work but obviously was wrong.

The only cause I can see for that is because you've probably configured the DNS addresses manually into your PC's IP config.
This works until they change those IPs, and then you need to update them.
However, if you'd use DNS forwarding, that wouldn't be the case: the modem automatically finds out DNS addresses when it connects, and if you nominate the modem as your only DNS server, then DNS forwarding will make sure your requests are passed on to the appropriate DNS servers.

Anyway, if you don't want to touch it anymore, maybe keep this in mind for "next time".

Cheers,
JP