Q: cannot connect ATV to actiontec router with wired ethernet.  router does not see ATV.  is there a way to test the  ATV ethernet port on the back?

I'm a little confused here.  How does one connect to the AppleTV via Coax?  The connection between your Router and the AppleTV should be an ethernet cable.

You should be able to log into your Router and see the AppleTV.  Have you tried configuring the connection in the AppleTV Setup Screen?  You should be able to see it's IP address there.

̂          Check the IP address Apple TV is using. If it starts with 169.x.x.x, the router or

base station may not be configured properly. Check to see if DHCP access is

available, or configure Apple TV with a manual IP address.

I assume that you have a computer also connected on the LAN.  Can you ping the ATV from that machine?  What IP address does the router give the ATV?  It should be something like 192.168.1.5 (192.168.x.y).

In a terminal type

> ping 192.168.x.y

(CTRL-c will stop it)

You also need to configure the Router to supply DNS Server information for the AppleTV.

Steve,

I think the isssue is clearly that your router is not acting as a DNS Server.  You will need to contact Verizon to see how to configure it so that it does supply the DNS addresses.  If you can configure it in your Router try using 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as the DNS Server addresses.  These point it to Google's Public Domain DNS Servers.  There are others (opendns.org).  But for now these will hopefully get you up and running.

I'm glad it got resolved.