Lee's DSL Troubleshooting Page

UPDATE: I am using an SMC 7004VBR router now with a Westell Model 6100F DSL

Modem with Verizon DSL as of December 2008.  On December 2, 2008, I had

to select the connection type in the SMC administration screen as 

"Dynamic IP" (instead of "PPPoE") in order to get the Verizon DSL

service to work.  (I also have an alarm system at my house and the

DSL service was not working because the alarm company had wired "too

much" to the phone line, thus causing the DSL to only reach a low

speed and so the DSL modem was not able to "sync up."  A Verizon

DSL technician "hard-wired" things so that I could only have one

particular phone jack that is "hard wired" for DSL.  He said that

that particular jack would need a phone filter, but no other phone

lines in the house needed filtered after his "adjustment."  It

turns out that the DSL filter which I had "ordered" from my alarm

company was not necessary after all.)

NEW: March 8, 2003: Verizon does an upgrade on its FTP server software.

Problem: My webpage, <http://members.bellatlantic.net/~lkim> is gone --

I get a 404 Not Found Error.  Plus, I cannot log into the FTP server.

Solution: Verizon technical support told me to reset my password using

the http://support.verizon.net account tool to change my password and

to reboot my machine.  Because I have an SMC Barricade router, I had

to also change the password (by going into the Toolbox option to change

the password).  Anyway, I rebooted the machine and I could then connect

to the FTP site just fine.

But wait: I uploaded my HTML files but I still get a 404 not found error.

Solution: Once logged into the ftp server (see the <http://support.verizon.net>

home page for details -- I'm not giving this out for security reasons),

I typed into the DOS FTP command line "mkdir public_html" -- essentially,

even if you use a visual FTP program like WS-FTP, you must create a

subdirectory that branches from your root directory (where you are

when you log into the FTP server) that's called public_html.

Then, I uploaded all of my files to the FTP server.  Now, my web page

is back to normal.  (I now have to really make sure I make a ZIPed

copy of my web files at least once a week!)

Verizon e-mail problems:

Problem: You are sending out e-mail using a non-Verizon e-mail account, but through the

Verizon network and the server is rejecting your e-mail.

Solution:

(This following solution I designed by trial and error, using my NEC

MobilePro 880 and the Pocket Outlook software that comes with it.  For alternative platforms, see the Verizon help page, hyperlinked below.)

 

Change the "Reply to" field in your e-mail properties / preferences to:
xxx@verizon.net (whatever your user ID is at verizon.net (or bellatlantic.net if you're an old Bell Atlantic customer like me)).

 

More information can be found at Verizon's help page.

Application: 

This enables me to send e-mail from my university account to 
someone else on the Internet {while using Verizon DSL and having a Verizon 
IP}.

---

Setting up SMC Barricade 7004 DSL router:

Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, XP & 2000 setup for SMC Barricade 7004 DSL router:

First, go to Settings --> Control Panel --> Network

TCP/IP protocol for Ethernet adapter:
- First, remove ALL entries from your gateway entry for your Network
setting [via control panel]
- Have the IP address automatically pulled via DHCP (the default for the 
7400BR is 192.168.123.254) -- this is the default setting for your TCP/IP 
protocol for your NIC (network interface) card (the Ethernet card). 
[Alternatively, you can type in your own internal IP address for the SMC 
router if you wish; make sure its subnet mask is 255.255.255.0.]

Second, go to settings --> control panel --> system

Select your Ethernet card from the system components listing by 
clicking on the + sign next to network adapters and then highlighting your 
network card.  Double-click on the network card selection and it will open 
up a new window with the "General" tab displayed.  Make sure that under 
the subsection called "Usage" that the device is *NOT* disabled.  If it is 
checked disabled, uncheck the box.  Windows will prompt you for a system 
reboot; reboot your system to re-enable the network card so that it is 
working properly.

From the DOS prompt:
ping the DEFAULT address of the DSL router [found in your user's manual]

From Internet Explorer or Netscape:
http://[default IP address of DSL router]

From the main menu of your DSL administration screen, LOGIN using your
administrator password.  (Change this password if it's your first time
using it!)

Select TOOLBOX from the administrator's menu on the web page.
At the bottom of the page, you will see CLONE MAC ADDRESS -- select this
-- this clones the MAC address of the Ethernet adapter that is registered
with your DSL ISP.

Click on the REBOOT button to reset your DSL router so that it echoes the
MAC address of your Ethernet adapter.

Click on PRIMARY set-up at the main level of the administrator's menu.
Your LAN IP address should not be changed -- this will be set to the
default IP address of your DSL router.
For WAN type, especially if you have Verizon DSL, click CHANGE to change
this selection to PPPoE -- PPP Over the Ethernet
In this PPPoE Menu, enter your PPPoE account (your userid), your PPPoE
password, and your PPPoE Service name (Verizon DSL technical support guy
told me to set this to my Bell Atlantic userid)
For the MAXIMUM IDLE TIME in the PPPoE menu, you may want to set this to 0
in case your computer may idle and you do NOT want to be automatically
disconnected from your provider.

Select DHCP server from the main administrator menu and press the ENABLE
radio button so that any devices you connect to your SMC Barricade wil
AUTOMATICALLY be assigned an IP address.


Reboot your DSL router after SAVING these changes.

LOGOUT of the administrator mode.

And then....:
From Windows:
Start --> Run --> winipcfg [it's good to make a short-cut of this].

Select your Ethernet card type from the pull-down menu inside winipcfg and
then press RELEASE to erase any old junk in there and press RENEW to pull
a new IP address by way of your DSL router sending the appropriate
commands to your DSL modem to connect to your DSL ISP and authenticate
yourself.

TESTING your DSL connection:
Take note of the IP address in winipcfg [after pressing RENEW].

ping the NEW IP address in DOS:
Example: ping xxx.xxx.xx.xx

Also, ping the default IP address of the router

You should get a 0% packet loss (or close to it) and both pings should be
successful.

Finally, to verify that you are connected:
ping www.yahoo.com (or your favorite Internet site) to make sure that you
are properly connected to the Internet.

Special note:
Unlike Bell Atlantic's (or Verizon DSL's) special dialer using the dial-up
networking utility in Windows or through the special DSL connection icon
that's set up via installation of Verizon DSL, you won't see a special
icon on your task tray at the bottom of your screen saying that you are
connected.  The only way you know you are connected is when your computer
has pulled the appropriate DNS and IP addresses from the ISP provider --
and that happens when you RELEASE and RENEW using WINIPCFG.

Although there are other ways of connecting to your DSL service, I
recommend for brevity to do it using the above method.

For more information on SMC products or the SMC Barricade, visit
http://www.smc.com

Special note #2:

The alternative way to CONNECT your Barricade (SMC) router to your ISP is
via the web interface.  Type in http://[your default IP router address
here].  Then, type in the administrator's password.  It will show you your
connection status and if you are not connected, you can press the CONNECT
button -- it will pass through the userid and password , etc. that you
already entered during your configuration of the DSL router.

** This works even for Windows CE devices, and for Windows CE or any other
standard Windows computer (and probably any Mac or Unix box), you can
always try the method under special note #3.

Similarly, to disconnect from your ISP, you can click on the DISCONNECT
button.

Special note #3:

But, if you are starting your computer with your DSL router and everything
else properly configured hardware-wise, as soon as your computer boots up,
you should see your DSL modem connecting to the DSL service.  This is true
if you have DHCP enabled so that your computer automatically pulls the IP
address.

---

SHARING SINGLE IP ADDRESS WITH MULTIPLE COMPUTERS:
Want the quickest way to share one IP address with multiple computers
using DSL or, for that matter, any other broadband network connection such
as a cable modem?
	1) Purchase a DSL router, preferably with a firewall and NAT
[network address translation protocol built in];
	2) Purchase an Ethernet card for the computer you wish to hook up
to the Internet if you don't already have one.
	3) Connect the Ethernet cable(s) to the router; connect the WAN
hookup on your DSL router to your DSL modem [or cable modem].
	* If your DSL router has NAT for instance, it will automatically
assign "internal" IP addresses to any of the Ethernet devices hooked up to
those ports and to the external world use the one IP address assigned by
your ISP (either statically or dynamically via PPPoE).