Setting Up Netgear or 2Wire Wireless Router for DSL Service

I had a dream of one day setting up a home wireless network. The main goal was to use the wireless to allow other computers in my home to access the Internet through the ATT Yahoo! DSL service that I subscribe to. Since I am a very technical person, and have been involved with computers for almost two decades now, I felt confident that I could accomplish the task.

The first problem occurred when I opened up the box to the refurbished Netgear wireless router that I purchased online. There was no installation CD or paper documentation. That can't be good. Hmmm ... went back to read the fine print on the product page, only to find that any information normally contained on the CD would need to be downloaded from the Netgear home site. Oh boy.

I was able to find the information at Netgear pretty easily, so I proceeded to set up the system. It's a fairly simple setup: DSL line into the DSL modem, Ethernet cable out from DSL modem into WAN port on the Netgear router, Ethernet cable out from the router into the main computer.

Next, I opened up my Firefox browser, and was instantly transported to the Netgear setup wizard. Here is where the next issue occurred. While the wizard picked up on everything necessary, and I filled in the appropriate information (ISP user name and password, which I had long forgotten), I still could not get online.

I went through the troubleshooting section of the manual, then I called tech support. Important note here: Netgear does not offer tech support for refurbished products. End of story. OK, so I sent off an e-mail to the place that I purchased the router from, since it was the weekend and their tech department was closed. It has been four days, as I write this, and I still haven't received a reply from them. So much for technical support.

So, what could I do? Go online and search Google for an answer, of course! Using my expert Internet prowess, I managed to find several answers, but nothing specific to my router and modem type. Seems that Netgear can be a bit difficult to work with, as can my DSL modem, which was provided by my ISP. It is manufactured by 2Wire, which, it seems, is also a highly proprietary brand.