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Judging by the label in the Wi-Fi menu at the right of the top bar, my MacBook is connected just fine to the Siemens Gigaset SE567, which I'd like to use as a wireless router.

Judging by the lights on both the router and the cable modem (Motorola SB5101 Surfboard), that connection is also good.

But I am unable to ping anything outside. I'm also unable to ping the modem (if I connect to the cable modem directly by ethernet, pointing a browser to http://192.168.100.1 is all that's needed).

What's a good way to debug this problem? I "can't open the application TELUS High Speed Install Wizard" (the one that came with the modem) "because PowerPC applications are no longer supported" on Lion.

Edit

According to http://www.networkoverload.com/forum/networking/turn_your_gigaset_se567_modem_wireless_switch_bridge_mode one can indeed configure the SE567 as a wireless router, though I don't understand whether more than one computer could then connect to the network.

After resetting the router, I was able to connect to its configuration at http://192.168.1.254/ (strangely, resetting did not wipe out the previous SSID name).

As the page above suggested, one needs to switch to the "bridge mode", but after doing so, I can no longer connect to http://192.168.1.254/

Since this is looking more and more like something that can be resolved by accessing the web servers on the two devices rather than by tinkering through System Preferences \ Network, it is not quite the right thing to ask on this forum. I will delete the question if it turns out the mac is incidental to the setup.

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It sounds like your router's just not configured properly. You shouldn't need to run a configuration wizard; most routers are configurable through a web interface. – NReilingh Sep 25 '11 at 2:00
Oh. The SE567 is a DSL wifi router with one LAN port. You're connecting a WAN to your router's LAN port. That's probably not going to work no matter how you configure it. – NReilingh Sep 25 '11 at 2:11
Actually according to gigaset.com/hq/en/product/GIGASETSE567WLANDSL.html?tab=data (and the label on the device), the SE567 has 1 WAN connector. "(LAN port can be used as WAN port)" – Calaf Sep 25 '11 at 3:58
Welcome to Ask Different! This isn't a question about your Mac, it's a question about configuring your third-party router to work with your third party modem. Questions about non-Apple hardware are off-topic for this site. Thanks. – Nathan Greenstein♦ Sep 25 '11 at 18:32
@Nathan: Please read the last paragraph of my post. Thanks. – Calaf Sep 25 '11 at 18:54
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closed as off topic by Nathan Greenstein♦ Sep 25 '11 at 18:32

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2 Answers

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It may be possible to set the Gigaset router up as a generic router, but I am not sure. The Gigaset website states: WAN connectors: 1 (LAN port can be used as WAN port). So it should be possible to use it as a plain old router, ignoring the built-in ADSL modem. However, you will have to determine how to do this.

What you will need to do is connect to the routers built-in configuration web-server.

Describing the process of setting up your router is a bit beyond this forum, but your router's manual should be a good place to start. Gigaset has them online here.

Also, the TELUS configuration utility will do nothing in this situation. Unless they supplied you with an DSL router, the silly automatic setup wizard will have no clue what to do.

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According to the manual I should be able to access the router's web server through gigaset, but even though the mac's wifi is indeed connecting to the correct SSID (presumably saved on some flash memory in the Siemens router), I cannot connect to gigaset. MacIdeas? – Calaf Sep 25 '11 at 15:17
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Most cable modems need to be reset after connecting a different device, as they only accept one computer host with a single MAC (Media Access Control) address. So try pulling the power plug.

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I have now tried various permutations of switching on the two devices and the mac's wi-fi. No luck. – Calaf Sep 25 '11 at 15:11

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