Adapter wire troubleshooting

Cable modems often don't work with a router unless you do something called cloning your MAC address. The MAC address is a unique number assigned to each device's network connection. Unless the cable modem sees the MAC address of the computer originally used to set up service it often won't connect. Cloning the MAC address in the router gives it the same address as your computer, and that usually gets the connection going.

You'll find the link for cloning the MAC address in the router setup screens. Rather than go through the steps here, I suggest you download the manual for your version from Belkin or look at the copy on the CD that came with the router. I don't know which version of the router you have, so the manual I was looking at may not be exactly the same as yours.

Make sure you have the computer originally used to set up your cable Internet service connected to one of the router's wired ports. Follow the steps in the Alternate Setup section to move through the various screens until you reach the link to change the MAC address, and that's where you'll copy the address from your computer to the router. Once that's done your modem and the router should play nice together, and you'll be back online.

Hope this helps, and thanks for using Fixya!