Problems with AOL/Internet

[Garden Manager]

About a month ago i set up a wireless internet conection and network at home. I get my internet through AOL Broadband and use a Netgear DG834g wireless modem router (one of the few routers AOL supports).

After a lot of initial problems the system worked fine for about 3 weeks. Then suddenly the connection was lost whilst in use during the evening of last Bank Holiday Monday. No connection could be reestablished on either the Desktop or Laptop PC. Thinking it might be a problem with one of the computers I spent some considerable time checking and adjusting settings changng the firewall settings etc before contacting AOL. On their 'phone system was a recorded message saying there were technical problems in my area and to keep trying to reconnect, which I did to no avail.

After a few days of this i decided to contact AOL again and speak to a human being, who after a great rigmarole of details told me the same thing that there was a problem in the area, to keep trying and be patient. Not being totaly satisfied  with this i decided to leave it a day then phone again, this time to complain about poor service etc and insist on some straight answers. Before I could do this however the saga took a different turn. A chance meeting with a chap who runs a local computer shop lead to at least a partial solution. His technician advised me to disconnect the wireless modem and reconnect the old AOL supplied BT modem, then try connecting to the internet. The thought was that if i could connect with another modem then there couldnt possibly be a 'local technical problem' preventing me connecting as AOL were trying to make out. I tried this and was able to connect almost straight away!

This is annoying since it appears that whils the router is working fine in itself (the home network still functioned whilst the internet was down), it will not work with AOL. That particular modem was bought especialy because it is one of the few that WILL work with AOL and be supported by them.

I now need to find a way of reestablihing the wireless internet connection. I guess it will be back to AOL for 'help' (ha!), unless anyone out there can offer any advice or help?

It may be possible (though undesirable due to the upheaval it will cause) that a change of ISP may be needed if i get no joy with AOL. Can anyone recommend a good alternative ISP that will provide a similar internet provision to AOL Broadband Gold?

Many thanks

[Garden Manager]

[MrsKP]

colleague in the work says:

remove everything to do with AOL off the PC by deleting uninstalling etc, including all your modem drivers (both modems)

your PC (not the laptop) has to be the host which has to be wired to the wireless router.

set up your router settings via internet explorer.  you shouldn't have to install AOL at all cos it's basically programmed into your router. don't use the AOL disk (cos it's pish).  your router will say what's your isp, username, password.


set up the laptop (reinstall the wireless card if it's external)

set up the wireless connection

make sure that in your network connections that the high speed internet allows sharing with other computers.


that's it.

good luck.

[moonbells]

Failing that, assuming that you have two routers, plug the wireless one into the wired one and set its IP to be in the same domain but different end

eg if your wired router is 192.168.0.1 then you set the wireless router to 192.168.0.254 and set  everything on the wireless card's TCP/IP to auto assign.

Reboot both routers and hopefully they'll work... gives you two hardware firewalls on the wireless, too :)

(This is the set-up we have with BT at home)

Don't forget to use WPA encryption! (WEP's now crackable)

moonbells

[Garden Manager]

Thanks to all for replies.

All helpfull stuff, yet unneeded since i Have now sorted out the problem. I wwent onto AOL live help and was told to reconfigure the router settings. I hadnt fully completed the steps when the connection came back and is now fine. I think it just needed resetting. I am a bit annoyed though that this was all the problem was and it took sooooo long to get to the bottom of it.  Needless to say AOL is not flavour of the month around here. I am now seriously considering swtching ISP.  I have been recomended Tiscali - any good?

Thanks again for your help.

[MrsKP]

glad you got it sorted.  it's only ever something simple but takes ages to figure it out.

can't comment on tiscali, am still abusing the UK Online freebie that they've forgotten to start charging me again for ! 8)