# Does a router have to be connected to a pc?



## Charliesmomu (Jan 23, 2005)

Ok sorry i that is a 'moronic question of the day '

Scene... til yesterday I had my Xp(Main) computer with a belkin 54g wireless router attatched , and two Xp laptops and one vista pc happily communicating.

Then yesterday the Main computer died. Pow..in a moment it started frantically rebooting, couldn't access safe mode, system recovery ailed as windows corrupt. No friggin disc as its a compaq. Ok thats a big enough headache as it is as all my life was on it and I have to get it fixed and try to recover some stuff, BUT the bigger headache is loss of wireless in the house.

Now I left the pc attacthed and for a while the router still seemed to work..but then it went S-L-O-W. Then my laptop told me it had an IP conflict with another on the network..wierd.
in the end I unplugged the router and now have just one laptop plugged straight into the cable modem. This one works fine. When I tried the other laptop it still went slow so I suspect it ahs a problem of its own.

I would LIKE to have the router running. BUT..can I just plug the router into the cable modem without having it connected to a pc?? Or if I have to attatch it to a laptop, do I have to install all belkins software to get it to work?

Im very dense at this, total computer idiot and just seething with frustration..not to mention anguisg at the loss of all my data on the dead one!
Thansk for any advice anyone has!
Jules


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Plug the router into the cable modem. Quite frankly, I have no idea why you'd have the cable modem plugged into the pc in any event if you have a router  Unless I am misunderstanding something.


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## Charliesmomu (Jan 23, 2005)

The main pc had the router attached..and the router was attatched to the cable modem..
Now I have no pc and wondered if the router can act as a stand alone without any computer.


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

If the router is wireless and the other systems are wireless, then yes, that will work. The router still needs to be attached to the cable modem. Any future "hard wired" systems would need to plug into the router.

As to any IP conflicts, most often, you want the computers set to obtain an IP automatically....if you have them set up where you have, say, computer 1, ip 192.168.1.101, computer 2, ip 192.168.1.102, then you don't want to set up another computer that has a conflicting address....

I hope that answered your question


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

You need no software to run the router, and it runs stand-alone.

Try starting from scratch.

Turn everything off.

Connect the modem to the router's WAN/Internet port.

Connect the computer(s) to the router's LAN/Network port(s).

Turn on the modem, wait for a steady data (connect) light.

Turn on the router, wait a couple of minutes.

Boot up the computers.


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