Zyxel modem reset query (exciting!)

Life Technology
1

I’m with So-Net for internet, with a Zyxel p883 DSL modem. Yesterday, we lost internet connectivity. It turned out after a phone call they’re down, but expected to be back yesterday evening.

Before I found that out, however, like a doofus and my head swirling from a mixture of a bad cold and medication, I thought it would be a really terrific idea to hit the Reset button on the modem, forgetting it would wipe out the custom Wifi name and password. Doh!

I hardly speak any Chinese, so my wife was on the phone to them - which is how we found out they were down. I have some experience from mucking about with modems from back in the UK when I spent most of a year, it felt, dealing with connectivity problems. With extensive use of Google Translate and my phone, I managed to plug the box into my Macbook with a cable, find the default username and password for my modem, get onto the modem interface page, and reset the Wifi name and password to the one we normally use.

Success! It shows up in the list of networks on my Macbook and I can connect to the wifi network. Failure! It still won’t connect to the damn internet. Network preferences shows a green light for Wi-fi --> ISP, but a yellow light for Internet --> server.

Either So-net are still down, or I’m missing something. The modem page (at 196.162.1.1) also has a section called ‘maintenance’, with a bit for changing the password that’s separate from the Wireless LAN section. I’m loathe to touch it, however, until I’m sure what it is.

Are So-Net still down, or have I screwed things up horribly?

2

Because your modem connects wireless to your notebook doesn’t mean it connects to the servers at So-Net. Did you put in your So-Net username and password to autoconnect, probably using PPPoE to the provider?

3

Not sure! I reset the wifi connection, as I say, to its original name and password. But as you point out, actually getting it to connect to So-Net’s servers is another thing altogether.

I reset the wifi options under ‘Wireless Lan’. I’ve been looking around the rest of the menus, trying to figure out from the Chinese where I might put in a username and password that would, I vaguely assume, allow me to log into So-net’s servers. When I log into the modem with a cable plugged in, I get the following menu, with various options.

System Status

  • Connection Setup
    – WAN
    – LAN
    –Wireless LAN
  • Firewall
    – WLAN MAC Filter
    – Port Forwarding
    – DMZ
    – UPnP
  • Maintenance
    – WLAN Association List
    – Password
    – Firmware Upload
  • Logout

After your message I thought perhaps WAN (under connection setup) might be the place to enter the login details (separate from the wifi log in details, right? (Or am I horribly wrong?)

4

WAN, yes that’s your connection to the provider, but as every good router/modem you should be able to change your language settings too.

5

…and…it worked! Hooray! And thanks. Also, thanks for the suggestion I can maybe see about changing the language option. I’ll check that out. Back online! Hooray!