help with belkin router

[TheInvisibleManDidIt]

Belkin N f5d8233-4v4. All lights are on except wireless connection light. It was working fine yesterday morning, then just went off. Noone else in house other than me so definitley no wire's touched/ pulled/ settings changed.

I have internet connection through the pc that is connected to the router with the ethernet cable, but not to the lappys or gamestations. (luckily have a vodafone dongle thing so can still use my lappy. phew!!).

We've tried: turning off the modem and router and turning back on again. Going into the routers setup page and checked all settings are still fine. Everything appears to be on on there. Restoring the router to default settings. Still no joy. I've emailed belkins support team but don't really expect to hear back from them this weekend.

Anyone got any suggestions? tia.

If no laptops can 'see' the SSID from the router, then one of the following seems likely:

a) wi-fi on the Belkin has died

b) a neighbour has a wireless router and it's either on the same channel or one nearby (the channels are not separated like TV signals, but overlap the ones either side)

c) the router setting for 'enable wireless' has somehow been turned off.

I assume you have used encryption on your wi-fi setting, else a neighbour might have detected yours was 'open access' and come on to disable it as a 'warning bell' for you to sort it out, knowing that if they could get onto your router, anyone could... (and your internet connection too).

yeah we use encription. We also have to put the mac address of each computer and device on the belkin page before the router will allow access.

Can the wifi just die on the router? Does this mean a new router then? Bugger.

oh and the setting is on. I tried 2 other channels but i'll try a couple more. Thanks

It's not impossible for just the wi-fi part to die. Years ago, one of my clients bought a Netgear router (not wi-fi) and within the week the ADSL modem failed, but the user interface and the 4-port switch was OK...

It was clear in that case that the ADSL part was faulty as the phone line was sounding 'engaged' if we dialled it, and clearly ADSL doesn't normally do that. The Netgear ended up as a slightly warm hub that my cat could curl up on.

Unfortunately, since we cannot 'see' wi-fi signals that's more difficult to check !

Back to your problem...

1. can you see the SSID for your router ?
   (might be worth changing it to be sure there's not another duplicating the name)

2. try disabling the MAC check, just in case the data in the router is corrupt and locking out your wi-fi devices

3. re-enter the pass phrase / key on the router, just in case it was corrupted

... can you see the SSID for your router ...

I meant, visible when scanning for networks to connect to, from a laptop, of course...

Thanks for answering. Was ds2's birthday yesterday so had a busy evening!

My network isn't showing up atall when I scan for it. I tried disabling the mac thing but no joy. (All the mac address' got wiped when we put the router back to default settings)I've just tried re-entering the pass key as you suggested but it's still the same.

At least I can still get online- would be hyperventilating into a paper bag if I couldn't The computer wired into the router is fine and I have my wee dongle thing It's a bit slow compared to my usual connection though.

Well, as a stop-gap you could use an ethernet cable (anything up to 100 metres would work) as it is probably cheaper and certainly faster than using Vodafone (keep that for emergency use). That's assuming the router has several ethernet ports on it, of course.

Keep the router for emergencies, but if you cannot see anything from it, you have a couple of options - (1) buy a wireless access point and plug into the existing router... that would provide wi-fi and would allow machines to connect via that box and the ethernet cable to your existing router
or (2) (preferable) get another wireless router.

If you check Ebay you may find one quite cheap and/or local so you could pick it up. I'm assuming yours is a router for connection to Virgin cable, rather than ADSL. If you don't really need the extra speed of "N" class wi-fi, you may be able to save a bit of cash - what speed does your cable connection offer ?

Another possibility, if some machines don't really need to be portable, just happen not to be near to the router, is to use data-over-mains. You'd need an adaptor at the router, and another for each PC. The adaptor plugs into the house mains power, and with a short ethernet cable you connect the PC.

Really depends on how many machines there are in the house, and whether a new router is just a simpler option. One benefit of the mains adaptors is that your networking is much more private (no neighbours get a wi-fi link to hack into) and if you wanted to you could enforce 'allowed' internet hours by putting the adaptor by the router into a timeswitch. If it's "off" then only the PC by the router would be able to be online...

WOOHOO!! It's working!

No idea how. Dh switched on his lappy and it just came back on.

Thanks so much for the all the help and advice.

Great news it is working again...