Question How to troubleshoot router

[champagne_p]

Hello all, so due to my current living situation Im kind of forced to bum internet off my uncle and have my router bridged to my uncles router who lives next door to me. Through that I have my desktop hooked to up via Ethernet since I don’t have a WiFi card. Now suddenly I have no internet and I get an error saying “Ethernet doesn’t have a valid ip configuration”. I tried troubleshooting my network adapter and all that to no avail. What leads me to believe it’s the router is because when I try to connect my phone to my router it still says it doesn’t have internet. But if I connect my phone to my uncles router, which is the source of my internet, it connects just fine. I know my uncle didn’t block me because like I said I can still connect to his router plus he doesn’t even have a clue how to turn on a router let alone block me specifically and he’s perfectly fine with me using his internet. I digress, so my question is how do I know for sure it’s my router and how do I go about troubleshooting it and fixing it? I’ve tried to go into it’s settings but without internet for some reason it doesn’t let me even though my desktop is connected to it through Ethernet cable. I’ve already tried different Ethernet cables to see if that was the problem but still no connection. And when the internet is working I have no problem going into it’s settings. Any help on how to go about this is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance and sorry if it was a long post.

 

[bill001g]

Not sure how you were using the device you call a router. The function you describe is more of a repeater or extender but it varies greatly.

If you can't get into the router with a ethernet cable first be very sure you are using the proper IP address. Many times when you are running these as repeaters you must change it from the default. You may also have to set a ip manually in your PC since the DHCP function is disabled when it is not running as a router. With the connection broken you can not get a IP from the remote router like you normally do.

Worst case you do a factory reset on the router and start over. The exact procedure varies a bit between router but there is generally a switch or something on the router that will reset it.

 

[champagne_p]

Not sure how you were using the device you call a router. The function you describe is more of a repeater or extender but it varies greatly.

If you can't get into the router with a ethernet cable first be very sure you are using the proper IP address. Many times when you are running these as repeaters you must change it from the default. You may also have to set a ip manually in your PC since the DHCP function is disabled when it is not running as a router. With the connection broken you can not get a IP from the remote router like you normally do.

Worst case you do a factory reset on the router and start over. The exact procedure varies a bit between router but there is generally a switch or something on the router that will reset it.

Yes sorry that’s what I meant to say, I use it as a repeater/access point or whatever the proper term is but it actually is a tp link router I re-purposed for that reason. I did change the default IP address myself and was typing it right but for some reason it wouldn't let me reach the page. Luckily through tp links page I found another way. I tried setting an IP address on my PC manually as you pointed out because of the DHCP being disabled and unless I was doing it wrong, that wasn't the problem. Just as you suggested I reset the the router to factory settings and re-did everything which is what I was trying to avoid. Not a big deal but this is not the first time this has happened to me and was searching to see if there was an easier and faster fix in case it happens again instead of resetting each time. Anyways I think I rambled on too long sorry but thank you for your help an input.

 

[bill001g]

It is not real common but routers sometimes have bug and they do stuff like get a damaged configuration file so they do not boot properly. It is nice they made it so easy to factory reset these device I remember years ago you had to disassemble them and short things on the motherboard.