Well, it was nice while it lasted.

I am back to the same problem, only this time resetting to factory defaults and re-entering the data has not solved it.

Rather than make you read through the preceding 30 posts, here is a summary. I can connect to the internet if I connect my computer directly to the cable modem. I cannot connect to the internet if I try and connect through the router. If I have everything connected "normally" (that is, through the router), I can print through the router, I can access the router's setup menus through my browser, my OOMA VOIP telephone works just fine, and SWMBO's iMac can talk to the printer through the router, but there is no internet connectivity.

One thing is different this time around: the router's "Status" menu in the browser shows no DHCP. The attached picture shows what that screen should look like on the left, and on the right is what it actually looks like. As little as I know about gateways, subnets, and IP addresses (astonishingly little!), even I can see that I'm not likely to get a connection set up that way. I don't know what a MAC address is, either, but it is different now from what it was before. Is that significant? Why the OOMA phone still works is a mystery to me.

All other router setup menus (except the one with the MAC address) look exactly like the screenshots posted earlier in this thread.

I have re-loaded the firmware for the modem, and also reloaded the configuration file I saved after the last time this happened. Additionally, I have cleared all settings to factory defaults and re-entered them manually, one screen at a time. Nothing has worked. It is annoying to have to change my wiring around every time I want to print something or talk on the phone.

I am one click away from ordering a new WRT54GL from Amazon, but before I do that, is there some obvious thing I'm overlooking here? Like maybe a big red key on my keyboard that says "Toggle DHCP" or something?

tanstaafl.

Well, shit. I connected things back normally so I could use the phone, and just for the hell of it I tried the internet and it worked. A check of the router's status menu shows it has filled in all the DHCP stuff. Was this temporary DHCP failure a router problem, a computer problem, or just my problem from lack of patience? This is not the first time the router has failed and after fiddling with it suddenly began working again.

Now what?

db