Earthlink DSL and router

Some friends of mine just bought a 2nd PC and a router. But because they're using EarthLink (perhaps the 2nd worst ISP behind AOL) the cannot surf through the router. At best, the home page will open to Earthlink but that's it. If each PC is plugged directly in to the modem (bypassing the router), everything works fine. Earthlink tech "support" says "we cannot offer tech support on 3rd party routers not provided by Earthlink". This is a travesty. So, according to them, if you want more than one PC online in your home, you must get a router from them. I'm thinking it's just a matter of setting up the IP addresses on each PC and perhaps configuring the router. Can anyone offer some insight on this?

Thanks.

 

Hows it a traversty for them to support every possible random router a perrson could buy? I worked at many isps and it was a common rule. Now for actual problem, your setup should be pcs to router, router to modem. Now if its a dsl connection you want to make your router do ppoe with a username and password given by the isp and leave there dsl modem as a bridged connection. If cable just setup your router to do dhcp from the cable modem.

 

They should at least offer to help.... Since I first posted, I went online (at home 'cuz my friends still can't get online at their house) and found out that PPPoE is the basic problem because they are using DSL. Now, all the Earthlink people need to do is say:

But they refused to do that.

So, Thanks for the info. I'm not to sure how to "leave the modem as a bridged connection" but I'll find out!

 

Eah If you give that advice and they break something then its all of a sudden the isps fault. I see your point but see more the isp side, but thats where i come from. To bridge the modem, there should either be an option inside the admin interface, or just a reset modem to default, thus removing the saved username and password.