Hello,

I am not able to connect to the internet using Belkin N150 Router. I have been able to connect in the past. The router light is solid orange color instead of blue. In the system tray pop up says Wireless hardware cannot be detected on your computer and may have been turned off. Click to learn how to turn your wireless radio on. I have never had wireless radio.
I have pressed the reset button on the router numerous times. When I do so the light turns blue for a few seconds then turns orange. I have also unplugged and replugged in the router but that does not solve the issue.
I am able to connect to the internet without the router.
I do not know the age of the router it was given to me as a gift.
I also do not know the router user name and password if I need to reinstall the software.
Seems when I have installed firewalls I have connection issues. I am not sure if that has to do with the router or if that is a different issue.
Please tell me how to resolve this issue. Is the router no longer any good or is this another issue?

Ok, first things first.

Go to the bottom right of the screen and look for the Connect to a Wireless Network icon down in bottom right.

What operating system are you running?

Does it say that it cannot find any signals or networks
OR
Does it say that there is no wireless hardware detected?

If your system is saying no wireless hardware detected, the problem is not with your router. You would need to first install the driver for your wireless card. You have to be able to get to the Connect to a Wireless Network screen. Or, there may be a program that gets installed with your wireless card that will do this.

The router user name and password would be used to login to the router. It has nothing to do with the software that comes with it. The software being uninstalled/reinstalled is not going to change your router user name or password.

Most routers have a default user name and password they use, for instance admin admin, admin and password is a common one. Try googling your router to look up the default username/password and login to it. Resetting the router by factory defaults should erase any set usernames/passwords and allow you to login with the default.

I would recommend holding down the factory reset button for however many seconds the instructions says to clear the memory. Generally it would be 3, 5 or even sometimes 10 seconds. Once the memory is clear login to the router using defaults and see if router getting a WAN IP. If you have DSL you might need to enter PPPoE settings into the router once you are logged in. If you are on cable you don't need to do anything - the router will automatically pickup the WAN IP.

You want to be wired to the router when you are attempting to login and configure the router.

This is basic networking; you can Google search to find other articles which will describe similar steps to configuring a router or resetting to defaults.

Mark