Networking help please (1 Viewer)

[Steve Weeks]

I am reloading Windows XP pro on my Father-in-law’s computer. The OS is installed, but I cannot get the computer on my network. I have set the network settings, the workgroup is correct, and the computer is named. Yet when I plug into the router, I cannot access the internet, nor can I see my computer. The windows troubleshooter was no help. Does anyone have anything I can check?

 

[Vivek_IVB]

Does your router have MAC filtering on, thereby rejecting the connection from your PC?

Also, Pull up the router admin page [i'll bet it's either 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.2.1], use whatever you set the admin p/w to [or use the default as per the manual], see if the router gave that PC an IP address.

If that's ok, post back with the results and we'll go from there.

 

[David Norman]

Couple simple things:

Go to Network Connections/Control Panel and right click to the Repair function on whatever. May be a quicker way to get there, but that works for me most of the time.

Power your router off and then on and let it re-engage the connections.

More complicated -- does the network card need a driver maybe from the initial setup disk?

 

[Mike Fassler]

go to command line and type ipconfig too see if your getting an ip address, run the network setup wizard and tell it that your connecting through a gateway. Also make sure the drivers are installed for the network card as said above and that the green light comes on so you know you have an active connection.

 

[Tekara]

I'm with Mike, first thing to do is run "ipconfig" in the command prompt to see if your getting an IP address to begin with. compare this ip address with the other computers on the network they should both have the same first three sets of numbers (common ones are 192.168.0.xxx and 192.168.1.xxx).

 

[Steve Weeks]

1. The computer I am having trouble with is on a wired connection. THe only reference to MAC filtering I saw in my router (Linksys WRT54G) was "wireless MAC filtering" and that was off.

2. I tried the repair function/ router powerdown without luck. The device manager says the network card (integrated into the motherboard) does have it's driver installed.

3. Network setup wizard was run, ipconfig comes up with 0.0.0.0 for both the IP address and the subnet mask. The green light is on at the network connection.

 

[Tekara]

Okay 0.0.0.0 typically indicates a bad driver, if the card were working but unable to communicate with the router/DHCP sever, windows would assign it home networking ip.

Check the manufacturers website, if your unable to find something there, a good site with lots of drivers is driverguide.com you can still use user:drivers pass:all to get in but their fixing that to force you to create an account which kinda sucks because they will spam the email account you give to no end. So if you do sign up there grab a temporary spamhole.com account or the like.

 

[Steve Weeks]

I put in a spare network card that I have, and got no IP address (with the driver that XP used,) but when I loaded the driver that came with the card, I got an address, but not a good one (it was not in the 192.168.1.x series that the rest of the network is.) I switched to the integrated network connection on the motherboard and ran ipconfig there, and got no IP address. When I switched back to the other network card, there was no longer an IP address there either. I also updated the driver for the onboard network connection, and still no IP address.

I have also tried both cards in two ports in the router, with two cables, all with no joy.

 

[David Norman]

I guess a couple other things.

I think I have the same Linksys Router -- is it set up to assign DHCP automatically? Inside the Router Status section you could try DHCP Release and then Renew. When I've had my Wireless connection come up 0.0.0.0 that usually works.

You could also run the "ipconfig /renew" command from the run line your Dad's computer and see if that might force the issue.

 

[Steve Weeks]

I knew you guys could come through for me. The "ipconfig /renew" command worked for me. Thanks a bunch Dave.

 

[David Norman]

Cool. Glad to help. I seem to screw up my home computers at least every other month.