Linksys weirdness

[Craig White]

On Fri, 2008-03-28 at 20:03 -0700, Craig White wrote:
> I have a D-Link cable modem and I'm wondering if there's a problem with
> the cable modem or with my Linksys routers...
> 
> I came home and couldn't connect to Internet.
> 
> All indicator lights were good but I power cycled both cable modem and
> Linksys router...no go.
> 
> Called Cox, they said it all looks fine so I connected the cable modem
> to my Windows system, set the Windows system to DHCP and power cycled
> the cable modem and sure enough, the Windows system got an IP Address.
> 
> So I did the complete factory reset on the Linksys router but no go.
> 
> Turned out, I had another Linksys router in my garage (not wireless but
> what the hey).
> 
> Same issue...could not get an IP address from Cox with this second
> Linksys router (strange).
> 
> So I finally hooked the cable modem back to the Windows computer, got an
> IP Address from Cox, disconnected the Windows system, connected the
> Linksys router back up but set it up with the fixed IP Address I got
> with the Windows system and I'm working.
> 
> So I'm thinking...what are the odds that both Linksys routers after
> factory resets and multiple power cycles of cable modem and Linksys
> routers are incapable of getting an IP address from Cox when my Windows
> computer had no issues at all? Not the cable...I changed cables. D-Link
> cable modem?
> 
> Cox DHCP server all of a sudden putting the kabash on Linksys routers?
> 
> Theories? Similar craziness elsewhere?
----
ok...because I don't give up that easily I continued playing around
(even though Internet connection issues were mostly solved).

Linksys router in my garage was REALLY OLD - firmware dated 2000. I
downloaded last firmware for the model (and ultimately had to download
their TFTP utility to get it upgraded). Web software really changed from
2000 to 2004 and now, DHCP client was able to get an IP Address from
Cox.

So I continued by downloading firmware upgrade for my wireless
Linksys...installed that and after reconfiguring...it too now was able
to get an IP Address from Cox.

So I'm thinking that Cox did something with their routers or DHCP
servers that prevented older versions of the Linksys firmware either
from reaching their DHCP server or from getting an IP address from their
DHCP server. This happened at almost 5:00 today according to my
fetchmail log - I'm really thinking that this wasn't accidental.

And to think I almost ran out and bought a new router...

So if someone else runs into this problem, the solution is in this
e-mail.

Craig