Router Conquest...

[dragons310]

A humourous AAR concerning connection issues between myself and my netgear router...

Ok, so I hear about this global conquest game called SR2020...and decide to give it a try. I go online to gamersgate, buy they core and expansion and wait patiently for them to download. Once installed, I play for a few months to get the hang of things then I decided to try the online aspect of the game out. Once gameranger is downloaded and installed, I promptly hop on and start hunting down games. I eventually find someone hosting, hop in, and YAY! Or so I thought. As soon as the start button is pressed, I get a pretty black screen for about 10 seconds, then I get returned to the game room. And this is where the trouble begins...

After hunting through forum after forum, I come to realize that my connection problems are due to router issues. So begins the first battle with my router. I find a few mutual friends online to try some things with, I forward my ports, enable UPnP, enable dmz server, disable SPI filtering, and anything else I can find. Once more, I try to connect to no avail. At this point, I'm screaming profanities at my router, and the battle intensity steps up to a more physical level as I begin to hurl projectiles in its direction, hoping it will succomb and allow the simple connection I'm trying to make. Needless to say, the router is undaunted by my efforts and continues to hold it's ground.

At this point, I decided too bad if everyone else in my house needs internet. I politely disconnect the ethernet cable from my router and connect it directly to my modem. Voila! After a few successful tests it seems everything is working magically! Well, for me anyway. I can play Supreme Ruler, albiet under the hateful glares of my roommates who have no working internet anymore. We have a small victory, but the battle rages on.

I happened across a different ISP promising a 'wireless home networking' package that promises to deliver great connectivity. So, in my ignorance I call them up and set up a new service connection. Their swarthy technician shows up 2 hours later than expected, running 4 hours behind his own schedule, so he promptly plugs a few things up and says have a nice day. I notice that the 'wireless router/modem' the ISP provides happens to be the exact same one I had before, only with a built-in cable modem. Yay. But, I try to be a good sport and give it a shot, but alas, I'm welcomed once again to the pretty black screen that does nothing. So it seems, once again, the router has won the battle. Unfortunately, I noticed that unlike the connection I had before, I now have no way to connect directly to a modem, as it's neatly packaged in the same unit as the router. Such a strong victory for the router, as it has actually gained some ground on this one! I contact the ISP tech support, and try as they might, the best option they have is to take the router that came with the package, trade it in for a plain cable modem. A couple days later I wander into my local store where I am informed that I already have a modem, powering the phone lines in my home. Wow, now I feel like a complete idiot, chalk one more up for the router. Back on the home front, I find the modem, plug in my trusty ethernet cable, which basically does nothing for my computer except flash a couple pretty lights from the ethernet port. After a 4 hour conversation with someone who has a very limited command of the english language, he finally understands that I would like to talk to someone who knows what they are talking about, and I get redirected to a 'tier 3 support specialist'. another 40 minutes on hold and I reach someone who can actually tell the modem to allow internet connections. After a long, lengthy battle, chalk one up for me, gameranger now functions. Once again a physical battle ensues in which I am victorious, ending with a router flying across the room and landing in a heap in some corner.

At this point, however, my fellow inhabitants still have no internet acccess, so begins the search for ways around this problem. I thought perhaps I could supply an internet connection wirelessly to the router. So a few hours spent playing with configurations and different devices leads me to another tech support guru, who informs me that they do not care whether or not I need a connection provided one way, they refuse to allow it. Yay, go router. A few more searches online reveal what is called an 'ad-hoc' network....and I'm thinking, huh? But at this poin t I'm willing to try just about anything so I give it a shot. Sure enough, although configuring wireless security between vista and xp is a daunting task to say the least, Everything suddenly clicks and I have internet wirelessly, with the router scowling at me from the corner where I threw it earlier. After many furious battles where it seemed all was lost, I claim victory!



Dragon, the Router Agressor.

[Hullu Hevonen]

Lol, I bought a new router to day, no problems exept the port thingy for Gameragner

[tkobo]

Yes, very funny, and very informative.