Should the lights on my wireless router be blinking or solid?

Question

Hi, I have a 108Mbps 802.11g Wireless Firewall Router(Trendnet) that was provided by our ISP when installing our rural highspeed internet (we live in the country and it's our only highspeed option). We only have a laptop hooked up, and it's been working great until recently. Now the internet is constantly disconnecting/reconnecting, which is especially annoying when downloading/uploading, or using MSN. IE can't open webpages without being refreshed 5-6 times. Our wireless card is fine, there doesn't seem to be any interference, and we tried re-setting the router. Signal strength reads as being excellent. When looking at the router (there are 7 LED lights) the first is blinking slowly(system), second is rapidly fluttering(WAN), third is blinking slowly(WLAN). I never paid attention to what they were doing before we had the errors, any suggestions? Thank you!

Answer 1

Here's what the WAN / WLAN / LAN lights mean:

off: not connected/not enabled

on steady: connected/enabled

flashing: communicating/working

The power light should always be steady unless there's a problem.

The "system" light could mean a number of things.  Some devices flash it when there's a problem with the connection while others flash it when it's communicating with the ISP.

As for your problem, do you have any 2.4GHz cordless phones?  They make wifi go crazy.  Also, make sure your raouter is up as high as you can get it and away from electric and metal devices.

If you stay connected steady (wireless doesn't disconnect) but the internet cuts out I'd suspect the connection between your modem and ISP.  I had this at my grandparents' house where the underground coax leaked and got wet causing the signal to degrade.  When they ran a new cable it fixed the problem.

Try calling your ISP and see if they can check the signal between your modem/router and their center.

Answer 2

I suspect the WAN light (Wide Area Network) is your connection to your ISP.  When mine blinks like that, it means it's going through a try-to-connect sequence.  When it's connected, the light stays on solidly.

So I think the blinking is indicative of your disconnecting/reconnecting problem.

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

okie this is what i got for you after googling

Dear TrendNet customer.

Please follow these instructions to configure your TEW-432BRP, with a DHCP connection.

1) Please, check, all physical connections. The High speed modem should be connected to the WAN port of the TEW-432BRP and your main computer to port 1, 2, 3 or 4.

2) Power up the TEW-432BRP

3) Verify lights on the router. Necessary lights Power or System / WLAN / WAN / Port (corresponding to main PC)

4) Open Internet Explorer. Type 192.168.1.1 in the Address bar. (Note: Internet Explorer is also used as a configuration tool, no internet access is required)

5) A log-in prompt will appear. Please fill in admin for USER and admin for PASSWORD

6) You will now see a configuration page and most likely a smaller wizard page. Please close the smaller wizard page.

7) In the configuration page you will see a series of buttons (MAIN, WIRELESS, STATUS, etc) on the left hand side. Click on Main.

8) In the main page you will see the following options:

a) LAN & DHCP Server

b) WAN

c) Password

d) Time

9) Please select WAN. Next to Connection type you will see a dropdown. Please select DHCP client or Fixed IP. Once this is done, you will be able to see a button on the bottom of this page that reads Clone MAC Address. Please press this button and press on APPLY.

10) You will see a screen saying “The device is restarting” after 20 seconds click on BACK.

11) You will be returned to the WAN screen.

12) Now select the option LAN & DHCP Server. Please change the IP address field from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.8.1. Complete the Start IP field with 192.168.8.100 and the End IP field with 192.168.8.199.

13) Verify that the DHCP Server field shows enabled.

14) Press on APPLY.

15) You will see a screen saying “The device is restarting” after 20 seconds click on BACK.

16) You will NOT be returned to the previous page. (Note: at this point the router log-in page will change to 192.168.8.1)

17) Close the Internet Explore and power down both Modem and Router.

18) Power Modem and Router sequentially. Make sure that your Modem is fully powered before you apply power to your Router.

19) Once both devices are fully powered before opening your Internet Explorer. At this time internet access should be available.

20) Congratulations!!! Your router is now configured to work with you ISP.

If you have any further question please feel free to contact our 24/7 Technical support at 1-866-845-3673.

Best Regards and thank you for contacting TrendNet technical support.

source:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.p...

hope this helps™

Answer 4

solid