I am trying resolve a problem on a friends router (Linksys WRT54G). It works perfectly as an ADSL modem/router/wireless access point except that I can not get the wired connection to work. The LAN link lights never turn on, and a physically connected computer shows no activity either (lights on the NIC or otherwise).
I do not want to do a factory reset as I may not then be able to get a wireless connection (I think you have to have a wired connection to initially configure the router). Has anyone seen this type of problem before?
I suspect that it is a hardware fault (from a power spike or something). My only other thought is that it had some weird settings in the config (i.e. lots of incoming ports open, default admin user/password set), which may have been set by a virus(es) on a connected PC. However, the router may have been set up in this way intentionally a long time ago.
Any thoughts? Do viruses try to reconfigure gateways from the 'inside'?
Just to summarise, everything is now working OK, but there is no wired LAN connection.