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Oops... a BIG part of the reason that it came out "greek" was because I used angle brackets in the text...

Let me try that again

For the troubleshooting, first determine if any workstations are able to "talk" to the router itself. Start by shutting down all the computers. Then boot one, and only one computer. Once it's running (assuming that it's a Windows computer) determine the IP address and the default gateway. On Windows, click on the [START] button, go to RUN and type "CMD" (without the quotes) and hit enter. This will open a black command prompt screen. Type in "IPCONFIG" (without the quotes) and hit the enter key. You will get a bunch of text. Make a note of the IP Address and the Default Gateway. On a Linksys router, it should be something like 192.168.1.x, where the "x" is some number. The default gateway should be 192.168.1.1.

If the IP Address starts with the number 169, that means that your computer isn't able to get an IP address from the router.

Next, type in "ping 192.168.1.1 [ENTER]" what you're looking for are four "reply from 192.168.1.1" lines. If you get "Request timed out" messages, this means that your computer is not able to talk to the Linksys router, which means that the problem is between the computer and the Linksys router

However it's all a moot point, because the new "Thingie" won't respond like a router would. Pretty much all the instructions I gave you will fail at this point because the "thingie" you're using is a switch, not a router. However, you might try plugging in the old "thingie."

Be very careful when you plug in the cables... On a switch, where they plug in doesn't matter, but it DOES matter for a router. If you look carefully at the old "thingie," you should see that 4 of the ports are numbered 1 through 4, and another is labeled either WAN or Internet. However, in some cases, they're not labeled at all, and you'll see that 1 port is sort of set aside from the other 4. Anyway, that 1 port, is what should be connected to the cable modem. Power down the cable modem and the linksys for at least 5 minutes (no I'm not kidding), and then power them back on. Then try following the instructions above.

Mark

If her old router is the Linksys BEFSR41 as claimed above, then it looks like this

In that case, the WAN port to the left goes to the cable modem. Since this is an older router, it might not have autosensing ethenet ports, so one needs to be sure the link lights (WAN's being the right column on the front panel) are lit, and consider getting the opposite wired ethernet cable if it isn't.

More Geek talk . . . it is times like this that I wish I was bilingual.