I had fibre installed last month, and with it came a new TalkTalk router from DLink. It worked ok until I decided to tinker.

 

My daughter has hinted that her brother is mucking about on his iPod until 1am some nights, so I thought I'd be clever and cut his access via a filter based on his MAC address.

 

I was able to access the admin page of the router via the iPad, and found his MAC address for his iPod. I created a filter and saved it.

 

After that, I not only could I not get the router to respond to attempts to get back onto its IP address, but all internet access was off. This was the case wired and wireless, on all devices.

 

I tried turning it off, then back on again. I tried pressing the reset button on the back, but nothing.

 

In the end I replaced the DLink with a Huwei router I had hanging around. I gave it the same SSID and password as the DLink and everything was working again.

 

On the plus side, going back to the old router reinstated AirPrint which we'd lost with the DLink.

 

Internet access is back up and working again, so all is well, but my engineer's mind is curious as to a) what caused the router to disappear up its fundamental orifice and if it can be coaxed back to life.

 

Any thoughts?

Did you hold the reset button for 10 seconds or so, some routers require this to reset.

 

Can't understand how it stopped everything though, unless something went really t*ts up and inadvertantly changed something, that's the problem I find with doing things on the iPad, as I find it likes to jump between boxes sometimes! So you could have changed something by mistake and made everything fall over :(

Sounds like you set it to block everything BUT the ipod. It's easily done.

I'm with gadgetman on this one - I think, from the last time I looked at something like this, the filters tend to be "allow only this mac address" as opposed to "block only this mac address"

The router did have buttons for "block only this mac address" and "allow only this mac address" but I had thought I'd got the right option.

 

In any case, shouldn't the reset button on the back have restored it to factory defaults?

The reset button might only be rebooting it. There are manufacturer specific procedures to restore back to factory settings which is what you need, check the manufacturer website for this but it usually involves switching it off or unplugging it, then powering it back on whilst holding the reset button in for several (sometimes 30) seconds

Does this work for you?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XaijQe_2Qw

Sounds like you set it to block everything BUT the ipod. It's easily done.

 

I agree with you on this however that said I cant see a filter stopping access to the default gateway, being the routers management interface...

it blocks WIFI access to the router, so nothing can connect including to access the gateway. However if you have a laptop and Ethernet cable, then you should be able to gain access. We do similar at work to allow only known devices to connect via wifi.

If you're going to do ANY 'tinkering' with something like that again...its important to make ONE change at a time so if you mess up its easy to rectify.  

 

Good luck getting to Dlink back up and running.

it blocks WIFI access to the router, so nothing can connect including to access the gateway. However if you have a laptop and Ethernet cable, then you should be able to gain access. We do similar at work to allow only known devices to connect via wifi.

I couldn't even get access with an Ethernet cable connected. I could imagine the mac filtering blocking internet access, but access to its root IP address?

Some routers have a quick reset, and to hard reset you hold for a number of seconds or whilst you plug into the power.

A hard reset will wipe everything including any changes you've made.

Don't hold the reset button too long on boot up otherwise it will enter disaster recovery mode.

 

Our routers when reset show a light sequence when reset.

I couldn't even get access with an Ethernet cable connected. I could imagine the mac filtering blocking internet access, but access to its root IP address?

Mac filtering is a network level security feature designed to block unknown/untrusted hardware from connecting to your device. If you've inadvertently set it to block "all but one" then it sounds like it's doing it's job! It's not a web filtering tool, it will prevent you connecting to the router full stop - the router will not issue you an ip address and hence you cannot communicate on the network. Wireless/wired makes no difference - your Ethernet connection has a mac address as does your wireless chip and if they aren't on the allowed list, they ain't coming in.

Don't hold the reset button too long on boot up otherwise it will enter disaster recovery mode.

Our routers when reset show a light sequence when reset.

Sounds like recovering from a disaster is exactly what the OP is trying to achieve!!!

What model is this Dlink router?

Sounds like recovering from a disaster is exactly what the OP is trying to achieve!!!

Disaster recovery is normally required if the firmware get corrupted (or to be over written) rather than used for resetting to factory defaults.

What model is this Dlink router?

Will check later.