SMC7004AWBR & Actiontec Dual PC Modem Wireless Setup

Question

I’ve purchased an SMC7004AWBR wireless router and an Actiontec Dual PC Modem. There are two computers in our network, my husband’s wired PC and my wireless Dell Inspiron 8600 laptop w/ a TrueMobile 1300 WLAN card. We’ve got his CAT5 Ethernet cable connect to the modem’s #1 port and a CAT5 patch cord coming out of the modem’s #2 port going into the router’s WAN port. Our IP config is set to automatic. I do have an assigned IP by the DHCP server via the default gateway (my husband’s PC). My wireless network connection status is enabled, with a strong signal, and the card is able to receive packets, but neither computer is able to talk to one another. What about the 1394 Net Adapter listed under Network Connections? Is this a wireless form of network card? I’ve disabled my Broadcom 10/100 NIC, but cannot seem to disable the 1394 Net Adapter. My husband can connect up to the Internet using the Dual PC Modem (which, by the way, is very fast!), but I’m unable to do anything. Do I need to update drivers? I’ve figured I can’t do much about my connection to the Internet until our two computers are talking to each other.

Dianne Aldridge · Answer

I forgot to mention that my husband is running WinME and I'm running XP - could this cause a possible upward compatability problem since he's my gateway?

volcano11 · Answer

The fact that different versions of Windows are running on each computer should not be a problem. Note that a router is designed to share a single internet connection and provide a switch to run a local network. The way you have things configured right now, you don't have a local network because both machines are not attached to the switch in the router. Despite the fact that you have a dual connect modem, it would probably work better if you connected both computers through the router and and connected the router to a single WAN port on the modem.

Steve

Dianne Aldridge · Answer

I removed the hub we were using  - perhaps I should replace it and add a connection from the hub to the modem.

johnallg · Answer

Wire the desktop to an SMC LAN port.  Wire your notebook to a LAN port, or connect wirelessly.  Wire the WAN port of the SMC to a LAN port on the Actiontec modem.  Set the SMC WAN to get an IP address automatically, and when either of you open your browser, the Actiontec should dial up your ISP.

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

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