The best place to have your Linksys hardware issues resolved is to start with Linksys’s technical support, to find product-specific problems, find answers to common problems, and access a forum and live technical support. Other technical support websites may include other questions, or offer you an opportunity to find an answer on your own.

2. My hardware is dead after performing a firmware update.

Go here.

3. What is the default username and password for Linksys setup?

“admin” for both, without quotations.

4. I’ve lost my internet connection! Help!

1. Check your change log to see what differences have been made since it last worked. It’s often cause-effect.
2. Check your wiring to make sure no connections are loose or unplugged. The lights on the modem/router can be a tip-off if something’d disconnected.
3. If you have a PPPoE connection on your WAN, you should set the Keep Alive time for 180 seconds.
4. Ensure that the router/modem’s MTU matches that specified by your ISP. Use Dr TCP to ensure your settings are correct.
5. Ensure any software-based firewall system allows connection from your ISP by putting it into your Trusted Zones section.
6. Sometimes a component of your computer system called WINSOCK coud be improperly configured or corrupted. Ensure that it’s properly installed.

5. How do I set a fixed/static IP for my PC?

1. Choose a unique IP for the PC, 192.168.1.#. # Can be any number between 2 and 99, or 150-254 (this prevents a conflict with the DHCP range of 100-149).

2. Obtain 1 or more (typically 2) DNS server addresses you can use. Your ISP usually defines these or find them at the Status tab in the LinkSys setup.

3. Operating systems vary. Most Windows PCs can use Control Panel to get to network settings (example: “Network and Dialup Connections” then “Local Area Connection” then “Properties”). Navigate to the settings for “TCP/IP” (example: “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)”).

4. Change from “Obtain an IP address automatically” to “Use the following IP address”. Enter these values (all are important and exact wording may vary):

IP address: 192.168.1.# (Step 1)

Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1

DNS servers: (Enter value from Step 2)

5. Click ‘OK’ as needed; you may need to reboot.

6. How do I change my router’s IP address?

Let’s say for some reason you need the router to have a very different IP address than it comes with – 192.168.1.1. Let’s say your network is going to work in the 172.16.100.X address space, so you’ll need to change the whole address of the router. In order to do this, you will probably have to adjust the computer’s network settings to work with the default address-this is usually best done by manually setting the computer’s IP to something like 192.168.1.11. Changing the router’s address is no problem; you connect to the router with your browser using its current IP, change the numbers in the little windows, and click “Apply.” The router makes the change and probably reboots itself.

Now to to access the router you’ll have to change a few of your computer’s network settings. Here’s how. How you proceed depends on how your computer’s address is set. If you manually set the computer’s address to 192.168.1.x, you’ll need to change that address to one in your new address space. If you had a static address of 192.168.1.11, in this example you’ll need to manually change it to 172.16.100.X (any number between .1 and .253 that isn’t already taken will work). If you didn’t manually set the address, and the computer’s set to automatically obtain an address, you just tell the computer to release its current address and get a new one.

In Windows operating systems, open a command prompt and type “ipconfig /release,” which dumps the automatic address it had, and then “ipconfig /renew,” which gets a new address, which will be in the address space that you just changed the router to. Of course you won’t type the quotes, and depending on which Windows version you have you may need to make it “release all” and “renew all.”

7. How do I access a modem connected to a WAN port?

Use a 10 Mbps hub and a second NIC in a PC. Connect the LAN port of the modem, WAN port of the Linksys, and the second NIC to this hub. The IP of the second NIC should be static and set to an IP in the IP mask range of the modem. For security precautions, unbind File and Print Sharing and the Client for Microsoft Networks from the second NIC.

???» Modem LAN port

???» 10 Mbps Hub «???» PC-A NIC#2

???» WAN port «?Router?» LAN ports «?» PC-A NIC#1, PC-B, PC-C, etc.

Note:

Instead of using a second NIC, a Spare PC with the sole purpose of accessing the modem could be used. In either case, PC-A NIC#2 or the Spare PC would have the ability to access the modem and capture packets between the modem and router at anytime.

8. How to I perform a firmware update for my Linksys router?

Go here.

9. How do I handle weakend or dropped wireless signals?

Go here.

10. Why isn’t FTP working with my router?

FTP should be reliable if you’re downloading from an FTP site on standard port 21. Otherwise, FTP is definitely not “NAT-friendly” (especially FTP servers).

Most problems can be traced to the fact FTP uses 2 connections – 1 for control and 1 for data. Plus there’s 2 modes for the data channel (PORT/Active and PASV/Passive) and these modes differ by which end “plays server” for this extra data channel. Just forwarding ports or DMZ is NOT the answer because the FTP communication sets up the data channel and addresses will go astray.

11. Why are my instant messenger programs dropping after 10 minutes?

See this forum thread for help regarding dropped IM programs

12. Where can I find firmware update information for my router?

BEFW11S4 : »www.linksys.com/download/firmwar···?fwid=17

BEFSR11 : »www.linksys.com/download/firmware.asp?fwid=1

BEFSR81 : »www.linksys.com/download/firmware.asp?fwid=5

BEFSR41 : »www.linksys.com/download/firmware.asp?fwid=3

BEFW11P1 : »www.linksys.com/download/firmwar···?fwid=18

BEFVP41 : »www.linksys.com/download/firmwar···fwid=158

BEFSRU31 : »www.linksys.com/download/firmware.asp?fwid=8

BEFN2PS4 : »www.linksys.com/download/firmwar···?fwid=12

WAP11 : »www.linksys.com/download/firmwar···?fwid=11

BEFSR41 VERSION 3 : »www.linksys.com/download/firmwar···fwid=183

13. What version of Linksys hardware do I own?

Here’s a great chart to use to determine your hardware version: Autopsy: Linksys WRT54G and WRT54GS Hardware Versions Under the Knife – LinksysInfo – Community Forums for Linksys Devices

14. How do I log into setup pages?

Even after verifying that the IP of the router is correct (responds to ping for example) the user receives an error 404 “This server could not verify that you are authorized to access. Either you supplied the wrong credentials(e.g., bad password), or your browser doesn’t understand how to supply the credentials required.” when he tries to access the setup page.

This is known to be a source of trouble with IE 5.5 and later. To resolve it open a browser page, select Tools, Internet Options. Go to the Security tab. Click in Custom Levels. Scroll down to the bottom where you see User Authentication, Logon. Make sure to select “Prompt for username and password”. Do that for the local network (Intranet) only unless you also experience problems with access to sites on the Internet.

15. How do I control my ping and stealth modes for my router?

The following is for the BEFSR41. Note that “SPI” was removed in recent firmware so does not apply.

“Pingable”: “Block WAN Request” Disabled and “SPI” Disabled.

TCP “Stealth”: “Block WAN Request” Enabled or “SPI” Enabled or see UDP “Stealth”.

UDP “Stealth”: Set a dummy-IP in DMZ. This also runs TCP “Stealth”. (warning: reported to cause instability)

16. How do I get set my Linksys hardware set up?

The Official Linksys Setup Helper page can walk you through the basics of identifying connections and getting everything hooked up.

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Linksys Router Setup – Linksys Cable Modem Troubleshooting