need help getting arduino with ethernet shield to work.

Hello I just recently bought an arduino ethernet shield. But I can't get it to work.

Now because of the stupidity of the makers of the wireless router we are using, it will refuse any ip address that it did not address. Making the use of static ip address, useless. Believe me I tried, took me a long while to figure that out. I don't have access to the router password, so setting a static ip address via router side is out. And no one knows the password and default does not work.

So a dynamic dhcp obtained address is a must.

Now because of the location of the arduino and the router, I need it to be connected to one of my computers to get its internet from. I have an ubuntu 11.10 laptop, windows xp, and ubuntu 12.04 with no gui on it.

Both the board and shield are v3, and it does use wiztech. PS, my parents will not get a different router, their new 'wireless b' router they got from time warner works just fine.

Now because of the stupidity of the makers of the wireless router we are using

You forgot the password, so that makes the router manufacturer stupid. I don't see that.

Have you considered mentioning the router make/model? Maybe there is a fix for you. The router may not like static ips assigned in the dhcp issue range. The user manual for that router may indicate how to avoid that without the password.

Its a motorola smb 1000, I can't find the router user manual online for the life of me.

I did lose the password as I made the admin password too complex for me to remember. I have considered resetting the router to factor settings, however what concerns me is that when the when time warner first set up the router. I found there were already entries in the routing table that I did not enter.
What are they, I don't know. If I reset to factory settings, and those entrees are erased, I am concerned about what may happen to the internet connection. Last thing we need is paying for a tech to come to our house to fix the modem.

I have toyed around with this exact router model before, back before I moved 2 years ago. I know from experience that a dhcp licensed ip address is a must, there is a way to make a 'static' ip address by mapping a mac address to an ip address in the dhcp settings, but that is currently inaccessible and since I want the arduino to use my laptop or desktop's Ethernet plug to connect to the router via wifi, would not work because of the mac address changing in-route.

Also the router's firmware is not user-changeable. Going to the upgrade firmware will just lead to a message that says the firmware can only be modified by the ISP.

but that is currently inaccessible and since I want the arduino to use my laptop or desktop's Ethernet plug to connect to the router via wifi, would not work because of the mac address changing in-route.

Then you want to use internet connection sharing. The router can stay exactly like it is. The laptop or desktop ethernet connector will need to be set up for a localnet. That will determine the ip on the ethernet shield. It needs to be a different subnet than the wireless device.

Windows XP would be my choice to try first. Here is how:

The ethernet port on your laptop/desktop computer will be assigned 192.168.0.1. The challenge is the wireless device may also have a 192.168.0.x network address. If that is the case, you will need to change the laptop/desktop ethernet port ip to 192.168.1.1, and use 192.168.1.2 for the ethernet shield.

edit: Hopefully, the Windows XP internet connection sharing program will not assign duplicate ip subnets to the ethernet port. I have not tried it with that setup. None of my wireless APs use 192.168.0.x or 192.168.1.x network addresses for this reason.

I did lose the password as I made the admin password too complex for me to remember. I have considered resetting the router to factor settings, however what concerns me is that when the when time warner first set up the router. I found there were already entries in the routing table that I did not enter.
What are they, I don't know. If I reset to factory settings, and those entrees are erased, I am concerned about what may happen to the internet connection. Last thing we need is paying for a tech to come to our house to fix the modem.

So why don't you pick up the telephone and call time warner tech support? They should be able to tell you what you need to know over the phone. They may be able to remotely log into the router once it is reset and add any special setting you may need if you can't do it.