need some computer help

[kajunlady]

So ATM my sister in law has movedin with me and she has her a laptop and needed to hook up a router to my mess of junk already hooked up well it has been working for the last few days until this morning We had a really bad storm out here and it blew power to my house ( woo hoo for shuting down the computer at the right time ) well I called my internet/phone people and they keep telling me i have to call the router people and well it came from a store like wal mart and dont have the box to call custermer support or anything

So my question is How do I get the router hooked up and have my modem still work?


ATM to even post this i have unhooked the router and have everything pluged into my modem..

[Kothnok]

Every router is different.  Every cable company's modem is different.  Every cable company has different policies regarding how to connect you to the internet.  I recently had multiple hardware failures (which is why I was offline all weekend) including the router I was using.  Turns out my replacement router would not work with my cable service until I copied the MAC address that the previous one was using.  You may have to copy your computer's MAC address into the router in order to get it to work since the cable modem was working fine with your computer prior to your getting a router (please read your manual on how to do that, it's usually a simple button to click somewhere on the routers admin pages).

If you're talking more basic instructions of how....
1. Ethernet cable from the Cable Modem that used to go to your computer now goes into the Internet or WAN port on the router.
2. Ethernet cables in ports 1 through 4 of the router go to computer you want to hook to the internet (doesn't matter which of the 4 you use, just use any of the 4).  I'm assuming you have 4 computer ports on your router as this is typical.
3. Plug it into a surge protector power strip.  A lot of headache can be avoided by avoiding wall plugs whenever possible.

[Avelandra]

Be sure if your router has a wireless option, please make sure that its either disabled or secured. If you don't know how to secure it, they are usually built in guides on the router to help you do it. If not, I can walk you through it if you just let me know the make of router.

Many a Load-in with interwebs because of people not securing their routers.

If you are still having problems, let us know, though Kothnok's steps should work with DSL or Cable.