Help needed for technophobe

Katykat

I am hopeless at anything technical so I got my wireless router installed professionally. All worked well for 6 months when the connection failed. I phoned Virgin help who said the connection was good, must be the router,. I took it back to PC World as it was in guarantee, and fair enough they gave me a new one. I told them it wasn't fair to have to pay £50 again, they said, " oh its dead easy to install" Needless to say, I cant do it. The disc doesn't do anything when I load it, although it is appearing in the programe list. I just keep getting the message, " no network detected". Its driving me nuts, ( which is why I paid someone to do it for me originally. I'm now wondering if it is the router at all, as the problem is still the same with the new one.
Any ideas anyone?????

tom9980

More info required most importantly which router make/model and are you connecting with an ethernet cable or by wireless connection?

Also dig out your ISP settings username, password etc they send you when you signed up.

exup

virgin, like most ISPs will blame anything else before their equipment or connection.
I take it the connection is coming through the wall via a cable (or phone line)
into a modem ? Do you know that the modem is OK? THe model number of the virgin modem may help too.

You should be able to connect a PC directly to this modem with an ethernet cable, and this should allow you to see if you can connect without the router in the way.

The router itself should have connection lights on it to show you its switchports are working.

If the router can connect to the modem - then that light should be showing green, If the router can connect to your PC then the appropriate port light should be on too.

(Usually most home routers have 4 ports for PC connections and 1 for the modem whether wireless or not).

THe router itself should have its own browser window so you can set it up with something like internet explorer . and your router manual whoudl tell you what the URL / IP address is to access it.
so typing in the address bar on explorer something like http://192.168.1.1/ may bring it up -

Katykat

well first, I am able to connect to the internet directly through the Virgin modem. Its only when I connect the wireless router that the connection fails. Its a ZyXEL router, it has 1 blue port which says WAN, and 4 yellow ports that say LAN. It was originally connected with the blue port by the technician. All the lights are flashing when it is plugged in. I dont understand about the browser window and setting it up with IE ( told you I was a technophobe) I'm beginning to think I'll have to get someone in ( or maybe my 6 yr old nephew could do it,Ha Ha)

espresso

Katykat wrote: »

I am hopeless at anything technical so I got my wireless router installed professionally. All worked well for 6 months when the connection failed. I phoned Virgin help who said the connection was good, must be the router,. I took it back to PC World as it was in guarantee, and fair enough they gave me a new one. I told them it wasn't fair to have to pay £50 again, they said, " oh its dead easy to install" Needless to say, I cant do it. The disc doesn't do anything when I load it, although it is appearing in the programe list. I just keep getting the message, " no network detected". Its driving me nuts, ( which is why I paid someone to do it for me originally. I'm now wondering if it is the router at all, as the problem is still the same with the new one.
Any ideas anyone?????

You do not need to load any CD but when you connect the router to the modem, everything needs to be powered down. First power up the modem and wait for the LED's to stabilise, then power up the router followed by the PC.

Browntoa

whole of S.E England is out on Virgin Broadband at the moment according to their service line

totalsolutions

you may have to look at the wireless settings for the "old" router as the pc will remember them and not let you in to reset the pc wireless property settings. Looking on the searching for wireless near you message RIGHT click and click properties and update the security settings. err you may need help with this ;-(

Katykat

espresso- Just to clarify- should I unplug the modem, & shut down the computer, then first repower the modem, power up the router and then power up the computer?

espresso

Katykat wrote: »

espresso- Just to clarify- should I unplug the modem, & shut down the computer, then first repower the modem, power up the router and then power up the computer?

Yes, providing that your broadband is actually working (re. post #6 above) when using the modem and you are trying to add the router into the set-up.

Katykat

Well, it didn't work. The broadband is working, I'm connected like that now, but still no wireless. Thanks anyway folks.

espresso

Katykat wrote: »

Well, it didn't work. The broadband is working, I'm connected like that now, but still no wireless. Thanks anyway folks.

Well now that the router is connected up and working, you can now move on to the wireless connection. You were asked what model Zyxel you have, but you have not answered. You may need to log into the router to enable the wireless but you will need to set-up the WPA encryption anyway to make your connection secure. This should be done while connected using the Ethernet cable.