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If you have a Sonicwall and are having problems getting it set up, or are considering
getting one and want to find out more about what's involved in getting it going, read on.
If you're having trouble pinging a machine on
your LAN behind the Sonicwall, read this.
SonicWall installation
This information is courtesy of MediaOne user Cynthia Morgan, who
was kind enough to share it!
Installation can be tricky--it doesn't follow the manual's
instructions exactly and will require you obtain some information from your existing cable
connection before you disconnect. The problem is that you must bind your MediaOne
connection to a specific Ethernet MAC address, so you'll need to note the address of your
new SonicWall (it's actually the serial number), call MediaOne and have it changed.
BUT...once you do that, you'll no longer be able to
see the Internet at all until you've successfully connected, which can be a problem if
you're trying to obtain online tech support for the thing.
Here are the steps I followed:
Before you start, turn on the computer your cable
modem is attached to and make sure the cable modem is working.
Go to the Start menu, click on "Run..." and
type "winipcfg" (don't type the quotes) and click
"ok." Your IP configuration will come up on the screen. Click on the "More
info..." button and select your Ethernet card in the drop-down box in the middle of
the screen.
Now write down the following things:
--Host Name
--DNS Servers (clicking on the button marked
"..." will bring up more than one.)
--Ethernet Adapter Address (again, make sure your
Ethernet card is selected)
Click OK to close the box, and start setting up your SonicWall.
The SonicWall has two Ethernet ports, one for the LAN
connection and one for the WAN (cable modem). It also comes with a standard (patch) cable
and a not-so-standard crossover cable (they're different colors and the crossover is
clearly marked). The manual will tell you to use the standard cable on the LAN connection
and the crossover on the WAN. That didn't work for me. I needed a patch cable for
both connections or the device couldn't see the cable modem. (The way you tell if you've
got the wrong cable is you get absolutely no lights at all on the SonicWall's connection
LEDs when you power up. If you use the correct cable, you'll get a light at each
port where you plug in the cable.)
Plug in the SonicWall and make sure you're getting
power. Then plug the first patch cable into your hub and the LAN port. Plug the second
into the cable modem and the WAN port. The SonicWall will go through a test phase (the
yellow light next to the power LED will turn on for about 90 seconds) and then you should
get steady green LEDs on both the WAN and LAN connection.
Now follow the manual's instructions for accessing
the SonicWall through your Web browser. (Remember, the SonicWall uses a 192.168.168.xxx
address, so you'll need to reset your computer's TCP/IP address to an address in that
range. Set the Subnet Mask at 255.255.255.0)
If everything is setup correctly, you should see the browser screen immediately go dark
blue, then a login will appear.
Log in as instructed and pretty much follow the setup as described,
but configure the following settings as described below:
--DNS server:
enter at least one of the DNS addresses you collected above
--Host Name:
as collected from winipcfg
--Network Addressing Mode:
select "NAT with DHCP client"
The SonicWall won't resolve names, so you'll need to use actual IP
addresses to configure mail and news (but I'd wait to do this until after you made sure
the connection works at all):
(It actually comes with a DNS resolution utility, so once your
connection is live you can also obtain these by going to the correct page in the setup and
typing in the URLs.)
Now call MediaOne and have them reset to the MAC
address of your SonicWall.
Make sure you reset both cable modem and SonicWall
(you can unplug both of them, let them sit for a minute and plug them back in). Once the
SonicWall completes its test phase, you should see transmission and reception lights start
blinking on the WAN connection.
Now you can test it by going to the SonicWall setup
in your browser and logging in. If it worked, the General/Network page should now have
filled-in blanks for the "WAN/DMZ" settings on the General/Network page and you
should be able to ping known live addresses (or by resolving IP addresses of URLs).
Once you've done that, check your browser settings to
make sure the proxy is turned off and you're connecting to the Internet through a LAN.
Then launch the browser and give it a spin.
Here is some more information from Cynthia, this time on setting your Client computers
to work with the SonicWall.
1) You'll want to make sure you turn off any proxy settings you may
have had in Internet Explorer or Navigator.
2) Go to the desktop and right-click on "Network
Neighborhood." Make sure you don't have any open applications.
3) Scroll down the network components list until you see
"TCP/IP ->" for your Ethernet card. Select it and click on the Properties
button. You should see a second box pop up that says "TCP/IP Properties" with
the IP Address tab showing.
4) Click on "Specify an IP address" and enter the address
you want to give this client in the IP address space. Remember, it must match the first
three number groups of your SonicWall's address or the SonicWall won't be able to find it.
And it's easiest if it's a private network number in the 192.168.xxx.xxx range.
5) Enter 255.255.255.0 for the Subnet Mask.
6) Click the "WINS Configuration" tab and make sure
"Disable WINS Resolution" is selected.
7) Click the "Gateway" tab and enter your SonicWall's IP
address in the "New gateway" blank. Click the "Add" button (and make
sure the new address shows up in the "Installed Gateways" window).
8) Click the "DNS Configuration" tab and click the
"Enable DNS" radio button. Enter your user name (your account name, not
necessarily your e-mail name (in my case they were different, anyway--your winipcfg,
installation paperwork, etc. should show the name, or MediaOne can tell you if you don't
have it). The Domain is mediaone.net or ne.mediaone.net; either work for me.
9) Enter the MediaOne DNS server address(es) into the "DNS
Server Search Order" section, then click the "Add" button.
10) Leave the NETBIOS and Advanced tabs alone or restore them to
default settings. Click the OK buttons to back out, then restart your computer and re-log
in.
If you've done this correctly the client should now be able to
communicate with the Internet. Mail and News server settings are made as I previously
described.
If you're having trouble pinging a machine on
your LAN behind the Sonicwall, 