trouble with my WRT54G and bellsouth DSL modem

[Ceeder]

i recently purchased a linksys wrt54g broadband router, as i have another computer in another room waiting to share the internet with this computer. when i got my DSL service, i went ahead and popped in the installation disk that came with it. internet to modem, modem to ethernet slot on my pc, and of course power to modem. everything worked fine and great, been using it for over a month now. last night i got the router in finally and started to set it up. i got to step one where it says 'make sure your pc is connected to the broadband modem, and you are connected to the internet', etc etc. ok no problem, internet connection was detected and all. now on step 2, it has you set up all the cables and the router with the modem, etc. as you may know: internet to modem, modem to router, computers 1-4 (2 in my case) to router, and of course power to modem and router. for now i only connected this computer to the router, just to finish up the installation, etc. after everything was connected, i hit next. sure enough everything was ok. the correct lights on the dsl modem and the router were all lit as they should be. everything hooked up right and detected correctly (the modem and the router, at least). now step 3-5 or so has you put in various info, such as a name, password, yada yada. at the end they finally go ahead and search for an established internet connection. on the router the internet light was on and solid green, the modem was all set also. for some reason i got a pop up window that they cannot find my internet connection, when sure enough, my little LAN icon in my taskbar says that i have an established internet connection. hmmm.. i hit reset on the modem and the router and wait 5 mins. still nothing. won't detect the internet. so i go in my room to the other computer, boot it up and stick in the wireless adapter (also linksys, its the portable usb kind). i install that and at the end, the little monitor shows that the wireless adapter is indeed receiving the wrt54g signal, but there is no internet connection going to the router. back to the first computer.. here's where it gets weird. after trying everything i could and giving up, i exit the setup for the router since it is not getting an internet connection. i unplug all the cables, routers, modems, etc and i put the router aside for now and put everything back to how it was for the last month (just the modem so i can hop online). now for some reason, my modem is plugged in, im not getting a "network cable has been unplugged" message, but i cant get back online even with the modem plugged in as it should be! i try to reboot, reset, everything. even AOL cannot sign on, no websites load, etc. so i get out the DSL setup cd and reinstall it all. after that's done, finally i get back online. i try a few more times setting up the router, but i still get stuck at that last spot. in fact, if i try to setup the router again without reinstalling my dsl modem, i cant get past step one in the router setup (where it searches for an internet connection.) it seems like the router is putting my modem to sleep as soon as it gets past step 1 or something, even though its on and working, yet i cannot get back online until i reinstall all the dsl crap. i tried everything from 3 different ethernet cables for the modem to router and router to computer, still nothing. i tinkered with all the settings i could find, still no go. can anyone help, this is driving me crazy. i figure i'll be calling linksys tech support eventually. i must have tried at least 7 times now to set up this damn router!

[cmillar6]

is it a Westell DSL modem?? if so you will need to set the modem to bridged mode, here is a link that provides instructions on how to do so.

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/6323

[Ceeder]

^ you're a genius sir. thank you. that and some other little mundane detail that someone else pointed out took care if it all. thanks again!!