im usualy quite well with computer and when i have a problem i try everything before i ask for help. but i cant seem to figure out my problem here. I have 2 computers mine and my fathers on a belkin router 4 port, and sometimes when he is away or whatever i use to plug my modem directly into my comp. But it seems now i cant do it no more i dont get a connection, i know to reset your computer and the router.....but my firends bring there comps to my house all the time and lan and they run straight modem so is there any way i can fix this? thx ron

You did not state what kind of ISP connection you have and the service you or your dad have using static IP or DHCP. It is very hard to figure out without those information. Please goto command promt (if you are in Windows) and type ipconfig -all or ifconfig -a in linux or non windows os. Please capture all output info and post it so we can help you figure out what is going on. It seem that your dad pc is seting to have IP and when you plug a new pc into it, your new pc could not establish and IP address from your ISP. Goodluck

i have windows xp hold up on rest of info

There's no reason NOT to go through the router to the modem but your problem may be that at some point your PC got set up with a "fixed" IP address and now you want to go back and forth between the router and the modem. The default setting in TCP/IP is "Assign IP Address Automatically" and "Use DHCP Server for WINS resolution". The server you connect to will assign all the information needed to talk back and forth to the client (your PC). If you have a fixed IP Address the client is looking for a specific gateway IP Address and using a pre-assigned IP address to label its packets to the server. This is Not A Good Thing when you're going to be moving your client around from server to server. Check your TCP/IP settings and make sure they're set at the default value and aren't fixed. That may clear up your problem.