So how are things now? As Mike said, you need to set your TCP/IP stack up
better. You should set a static IP address of 192.168.2.2 on the NIC with a
netmask of 255.255.255.0. After doing this (and having a cable connecting
the Ethernet card to the router so the Ethernet port has a link), what does
your routing table look like?
I've made some progress. Here's what the settings look like now:
==============================================================================
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>ipconfig
Windows IP Configuration
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 3:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.12
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>ping 192.168.2.1
Pinging 192.168.2.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Ping statistics for 192.168.2.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 3ms, Average = 0ms
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>route print
===========================================================================
Interface List
0x1 ........................... MS TCP Loopback interface
0x2 ...00 40 2b 6a 9b 8f ...... Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC -
Packet Scheduler Miniport
===========================================================================
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.2.1 192.168.2.12 20
127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1
192.168.2.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.2.12 192.168.2.12 20
192.168.2.12 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 20
192.168.2.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.2.12 192.168.2.12 20
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 192.168.2.12 192.168.2.12 20
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.2.12 192.168.2.12 1
Default Gateway: 192.168.2.1
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
None
===========================================================================
As you can see, I can now ping the router.
I can even fire up IE and access the router's built-in web page. It
asks me for my user name and password, "admin" and "admin", the defaults. It
chokes there with an error message that I can't remember right now, but at least
I'm talking to it. And there's no broadband modem in sight!
Thanks for all the hand-holding from everybody who responded to my
original post. That's not to say that I won't be back with a bunch more
questions though.
All in all, it's probably the best $1.98 toy I've ever bought!
Jim