How To Connect A Linksys Router To Your ISP Cable Service
Actually you did a nice job of getting to this point. Setting up a Wireless home network can be daunting for novices, but the benefits and learning experience is well worth it. The problem you are having is common when connecting another device (Router or Computer) to your ISP provider after you had established the initial connection because some cable ISPs use MAC Authentication to establish connections. All 
After much procrastination I finally went high tech and purchased a Linksys wireless router. I had no problems installing and configuring the router and wireless card in my computer and making the connection to the router. The problem I am having is with no connection to the Internet. If I disconnect and plug the cable modem back into my Computer, I can connect to the Internet. What am I doing wrong?
You can find the MAC address for the Network card in your Computer, by opening up a Command Prompt window and typing:
ipconfig /all
and look for the Physical Address value, similar to this:
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-18-BF-3E-48-40
At this point you can either contact your ISP provider or use a feature in Linksys known as MAC Cloning. MAC Cloning is a procedure which enables a router to copy the MAC Address of the Computer that’s registered with the ISP. I prefer to use MAC Cloning since it allows me use my Computer if my Router stops working.
To set-up your Linksys router with MAC Cloning, first make a backup of the Router configuration by connecting to the Router admin interface and selecting Administration \ Config Management from the menu and saving it to a location on your Computer.
NOTE: menus and screen shots may be different from your Linksys Wireless Router depending on the model you have.
After you have made a backup, select Setup \ Mac Address Clone from the menu.
Then select Enable and click Clone Your PC’s MAC and click on Save Settings (at bottom). Next click on Status from the menu and check to see if you have an IP Address, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway, etc.. If you do, you should be connected to the Internet.
If you have zero's for IP Address, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway, etc.. click the DHCP Release follow by the DHCP Renew buttons at the bottom of the screen
If you still have zero's, you will need to perform a power cycle to synchronize the router with the modem:
1 - Shutdown the computer.
2 - Unplug the router’s power cable.
3 - Unplug the Cable modem’s power cable and wait for 30 seconds.
4 - Plug in the Cable modem’s power cable and wait for its lights to appear stable.
5 - Plug in the router's power cable once the modem’s lights appear stable.
6 - Power on the computer on and test the Internet connection.
You should now be online and surfing the Internet!
Filed under Computer How-To by Watching The Net
Comments on How To Connect A Linksys Router To Your ISP Cable Service »
My problem is that when i connect to the router i cannot connect to the internet and when it is reversed it works ok how do i connect to the Router admin interface?
@Ian
Not sure what you mean by "and when it is reversed it works ok". Can you explain further.
To access Linksys admin interface, the default address is http://192.168.1.1 or
https://192.168.1.1 if you had enables HTTPS.
Thank you so much for this blog. I was able to finally get my internet working after trying to figure it out myself for several hours. Once again thank so much