Convoluted Network Problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter Will in Bama
  • Start date Start date
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Will in Bama

Hi,

Please have patience with me for a moment, as my network
configuration is a bit convoluted.

Our small town has finally moved into the 21st century
and we now have broadband access via a cable modem.
Before the broadband, we used an 8-port hub to share our
dial-up Internet connection using the ICS in Win 98 SE.
The set up worked quite well. In anticipation of the
cable Internet's debut in our area, a friend gave me a 4-
port Cable/DSL router made by D-Link. Once the cable
Internet installation, I moved our mixed network onto the
Cable/DSL router without a hitch. Our network consists
of three desktop computers and three lap top computers.
The laptops all connect via wireless adapters, with the
wireless access point connected to one of the ports on
the router. The three desktops have their own port on
the router. Only one of the computers on the network has
XP Pro, the rest have Win 98 SE. Until today, that is.
Today we added a new XP Home system to the network;
except it did not connect. Everyone has done the math by
now and realizes that I am about one port short of a
network. (Go ahead, have a chuckle at my expense!)
Since the new computer came with a NIC integrated on the
motherboard, we chose not to invest in a wireless PCI
card for it. Instead, we used the Cat 5 cable running
into the same room as another of the desktops, and
connected it to the old 8-port hub's uplink port. Then
using Cat 5 cable, we connected the existing computer
back into the network. The existing computer immediately
recognized its new IP address and has no problems seeing
the other computers on the network. Once we ran another
Cat 5 cable to the new addition, things went sideways.
(I traded cables between the existing and the new
computer to ensure that the cables function properly.)
No matter how hard I try, or how loud I cuss, the IP
address sets up as 169.254.x.x. I have attempted to
repair it, manually set it, etc., etc., etc. After about
six hours of wishing I still had hair to pull, I shut the
new addition down for the day. I spent some time during
my attempts with my laptop beside me researching various
articles here and other places, in an attempt to find
the "easy" answer. So far, nothing has helped.
Ordinarily I do not have problems establishing a new
addition to an existing network, or even setting up a new
network for friends and family. For the most part is
usually a 1-2-3 type of operation, and just following the
basics provides me with the desired results. If anyone
has any suggestions, please feel free to shoot them my
way. If you do not mind, please email me with any
questions or suggestions you may have, as that will be
the most efficient method of communication for me. I
will, however, get back here a couple of times during the
day to try to keep up with all of the good answers I am
confident will be coming my way. My email address is
(e-mail address removed).

Thank you in advance for any help, or commiseration, with
this little problem. Everyone have a great weekend!

Will
 
Could the internal NIC be faulty?

I'd try a cross-cable and set up a "back-to-back" network
and see if that works first.

/Marc


PS: Is the LAN speed and/or duplex fixed perhaps?
(10/100/1000 Mbps)
 
Hi Marc,

Thanks for the response. I tried the computer to
computer w/crossover cable thing near the beginning. The
hub and the router are autosensing for speed. The
network part of the MB I don't want to give up on yet. I
will give up on it a little later today and install one
of my spare NIC's just to see. Oh, I downloaded the
updated drivers for the NIC near the beginning of all of
this as well.

I think my next move is going to be to tell the system to
remove the NIC and let it reinstall. After that I found
a registry fix that might help. After that, well, the
new NIC. If all of that fails, then I'll just have to
break down and spend the day on hold waiting on tech
support to tell me the problem is not theirs, someone
else is responsible. (Can you tell I've been the tech
support route before?) : /

:) Thanks again, if you have more thoughts, I'm happy to
hear them.

Will
 
The router by default is running DHCP and there can be only one running on a
network. Make sure the Win98se PC has the ICS disabled and running DCHP.
The way your setup should be is Cable Modem to Router to Hub. Cable Modem
is plugged into the WAN port. The Router Uplink is plugged into the hub
usually port1. If there is no uplink mode on the hub, then you'll need a
cross over Cat 5. For a XP PC, there is an occasion that the IP will not
reset so that will have to be manually by going to Start>Run and type cmd.
At the prompt type ipconfig/renew.

John Shelton
 
Hi John,

Thank you for the reply. ICS was disabled the day we got
the cable modem. DHCP is working, otherwise the first
computer that was in that room would not operate
correctly. At least the way I understand it, it would
not operate. As for uplinking the router into the hub,
that is what I have done. Port 4 on the router is uses a
straight through cable to the hub's uplink port. Then I
have the original computer for that room connected to
port 1, and that computer operates fine with both network
access and Internet browsing. The new addition cannot
see the network, nor can it connect to the Internet. I
tried the "ipconfig" method of releasing, renewing, etc.,
all to no avail. Each time I get a message telling me
that it cannot perform the task because there is no
device to which that command applies. Earlier I deleted
the network card in system manager, then allowed it to
install on its own. That did not help either. I got
busy, so I did not do the registry suggestions from some
other posts, but I will be getting to them soon.
Hopefully the next time I post it will be with me saying,
whew, it's done. Keep your fingers crossed!

Will
 
A couple of more thoughts. Plug the troublesome PC directly into the cable
modem and reboot. Also, can you ping yourself?

John
 
The symptoms you are seeing are exactly what happens when a DHCP server
doesn't respond with an address, and since another computer on the same hub
seems to work, I'd start with the DHCP server config. Some cable/DSL
routers can be set to limit the number of clients that they will give
addresses to. If you go into the configuration of the router, see if there
is a limit set on DHCP clients and increase it.
 
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