How To Get The Zytel P600 Modem To Work With The Linksys Router

This problem was quite tricky: A client’s PC was able to get onto the internet using their Zytel P600 modem. However, when I connected a Linksys router to provide for wireless access, their internet access failed.

I tried swapping out a different router thinking that the router might be bad. Same results.

I then cloned the MAC address just in case the modem was looking for the specific ethernet card on the PC. Still no internet.

I finally figured out that the Zytel P600 was using the same 192.168.1.1 address as the Linksys router. So the first step was to change the Linksys DHCP to start at a different address. I used 192.168.1.254.

Second, the Zytel *really* wanted to be responsible for the DHCP so I disabled DHCP on the Linksys router.

Finally, instead of connecting the Zytel to the internet port on the Linksys I just connected it to port 1. So in a way, the Linksys was acting just as passthrough hub.

After that both hardwired and wireless internet access worked.