Little or No connectivity

[shelbyGT]

So the cable guy came yesterday to give me Roadrunner. He gets here, gets everything set up outside, comes in, calls in the modem, and then turns on the computer. Little or no connectivity. He calls all the people he can think of, messes with the computer some more, TWO more guys come to my house and try to get it going.
little or no connectivity
They leave and say that a service tech guy will be out Friday after work (only time they had available) to look at it but as for now they don't know what's wrong. They say that the modem is fine (they tried 3 different ones) and that it's just not renewing/acquiring an IP address. They were baffled.
So I do some research, find I'm not the only one with the problem and that it might be SP2 related. I go home, install a few patches/fixes that do absolutely nothing. I even uninstall SP2 and nothing....

so I'm baffled. Short of either getting an ethernet card or something or making them use USB, I have no clue what to do....

God that sucks, no internet at home for over a week!

[bazooka]

Were you using a usb to ethernet converter?

[shelbyGT]

nope, just straight ethernet from the modem

before I had a wireless USB adapter that worked fine, but didn't have it set up that way at my new place.

[bazooka]

It really sounds like a nic card issue, but I am just guessing.

[Soopafresh]

Can you borrow a laptop from someone so you can rule out/in the workstation ?

[shelbyGT]

I'd have to borrow my dad's, and I don't know if he's got an ethernet hookup or not, I'd have to look.

And the two ethernet hookups are part of the motherboard, if that means anything.

It's annoying to say the least.

[Soopafresh]

You can buy a $10 Ethernet card at Best Buy and try that out.

[shelbyGT]

would that mess up the ethernet ports that are on the MB though? I'm not a huge internal working component computer guy, and am weary of opening up and doing surgery on it!

[Jayhawk]

No, adding an ethernet card will not cause problems with the internal ports. By the way, it's unusual to have 2 built-in ethernet ports, are you sure one isn't a modem port.

Assuming the cable guys are correct about the modem being fine, it would narrow it down to the ethernet cable (hopefully they tried a couple), the built-in NIC on the motherboard (are the connectivity lights on ??), or the software (operating system). At a minimum make sure the built-in ethernet port shows a green light when you are connected to the cable modem.

If it's on, go to Network Connections in Control Panel and verifiy that IP Protocol is set for automatic DHCP and DNS. Another possibility is the built-in NIC drivers. I have had some luck deleting the hardware NIC from the MY Computer (System) device list and letting Windows "find it" again.

Let us know what happens,

[Xylob the Destroyer]

...By the way, it's unusual to have 2 built-in ethernet ports...

not so anymore
more and more MOBO's are coming with a standard 10b/100 port and another GigabitLAN port
my newest from ASUS has this set-up & i'm seeing it more and more when i browse for parts

Shelby, did you try both of the ports on your MOBO?
perhaps you have to enable &/or disable one of them in either the BIOS or your Device Manager

[Cobra]

Now, I don't know what I'm on about here and this might be completely off the mark but you could try:

Start --> Run... --> Type "cmd" --> Type "ipconfig /release" --> Type "ipconfig /renew"

As I say, might do something or it might mess things up even more. I think it makes your PC think again about the network.

I suggest it because I think that is what one of my housemates did to get my PC up and running on the network. It was having an IP clash with another machine - same IP or something.

Hope it helps,

Cobra

[Marty2003]

Do your Ethernet ports show up under "Network connections". They might be disabled in the BIOS. When the Modem is connected to the port and the computer is on does the Ethernet light on the modem light up (if it even has an ethernet light). I'd do what Jayhawk suggested and check the DHCP settings. If all seems good it's quite possible the problem's on their side.

When I first got DSL I hooked up everything perfectly but the DSL light on my modem would never light up. After what seemed like hours on the phone troubleshooting they finally decided to send over a tech guy and they realized they needed to install some kind of DSL equipment at the end of my road because there was no DSL service in my neighborhood yet.

[shelbyGT]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I have tried disabling/enabling release/renew and multiple cables... I just don't know where the problem is! I have not deleted the driver (I'm assuming I do this under device manager?).

As for now nothing I have done has worked. I will just sit and wait for the techinician guy to come out on Friday and see what he makes of it. At the very least I'll just go with a wireless router and a USB adapter. Short of that I'm lost!

Once again, thanks for all the input!

[Jayhawk]

not so anymore
more and more MOBO's are coming with a standard 10b/100 port and another GigabitLAN port
my newest from ASUS has this set-up & i'm seeing it more and more when i browse for parts

Thanks Xylob, I've been so happy with my two AOPEN MB's from 2-3 years ago I haven't been looking lately. I've worked on a 100 machines in the last 6 months (mostly older) and haven't run across double ports yet. I am wondering what the thinking is though. Gigabit is backward compatible so you still wouldn't need more than one port. It would give you some flexibility if you were using one machine as a router / server in a setup. Maybe that's the reason.

[Jayhawk]

ShelbyGT, I'm curious as to whether your "link light" comes on at the port you're plugged into (at your machine end, not the cable modem). I know you have other options but for what Roadrunner charges here in KC you should get the MAXIMUM connection available (direct ethernet) and not have to go wireless unless you want to. I know it can't be SP2. I have SP2 on two of my machines and have upgraded a number of people in KC to SP2 with Roadrunner. No problems.

I still suspect a port driver or DHCP / DNS problem. It would be interesting to know what the RR people say on Friday. Let us know.

[shelbyGT]

The green light does come on for both ports when the cable is plugged in, yes. Like I said, it seems to recognize the modem is there, but will never acquire an IP address.

And at this point, I just want internet! I'm willing to cut a few corners if need be. But I will also be wondering what the lad on Friday has to say.

[Jayhawk]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I have tried disabling/enabling release/renew and multiple cables... I just don't know where the problem is! I have not deleted the driver (I'm assuming I do this under device manager?).

Yes, you would do it under Control Panel-System-Hardware-Device Manager-Network Adapters. You should see your two adapters there. Probably Realtek. Just highlight the one your using and delete. XP should "re-find" it when you reboot.

You might also check Control Panel-Network Connections before you do that. It will list your network connections (I guess you have two) and the one you're plugged into should say "Connected". You can right click and do properties. It will list Client for Windows, QOS (worthless and should be unchecked), and TCP-IP protocol. The TCP-IP properties should have Aquire IP address and DNS boxes checked. You can also delete the whole connection and reboot and it will set it up again as the default which is correct for RR.

Other than that, I'm out of ideas.

[shelbyGT]

Jayhawk how bout I just have you come over, you can ignore all the KState stuff when you walk in

And last night I had company so I removed all the cabling from the house (they had just left it going from the TV room ALL THE WAY into my bedroom, it was about 20 yards of cable strewn throughout my apartment). So right now the modem is not hooked in. I might still try and tweak a thing or two, but looks like I'll hopefully be able to tell you waht happened Friday when I get on the internet! fingers crossed!

[HatchetMan]

Sounds like a registry problem. Much easier to fix w/ SP2 installed. Can't remember the command off the top of my head to reinstall the catalog, but I'll check when I get home tonight. Same thing happened to my laptop when I was messing around with it trying to secure it for wireless (first timer, I know - RTFM). Ended up doing more harm than good.

[Jayhawk]

Jayhawk how bout I just have you come over, you can ignore all the KState stuff when you walk in

Actually I would do that for you ShelbyGT but I'm tied up until Friday. If the cable guy can't fix it just send me an email.

KC State is not a problem. They're my second favorite Big 12 team.

[Jayhawk]

Sorry, unintentional typo. K State is not a problem.

[shelbyGT]

I'll definitely keep it in mind. I'm going to bring in a friend's laptop while the tech guys is here, so that will let us rule out/in if it's solely on my computer's end.

Stay tuned...

[HatchetMan]

Sounds like a registry problem. Much easier to fix w/ SP2 installed. Can't remember the command off the top of my head to reinstall the catalog, but I'll check when I get home tonight. Same thing happened to my laptop when I was messing around with it trying to secure it for wireless (first timer, I know - RTFM). Ended up doing more harm than good.

In the RUN field from the START menu, try typing the command:

netsh winsock reset catalog

[shelbyGT]

already tried that one hatcheman! problem still persists...

[HatchetMan]

already tried that one hatcheman! problem still persists...

Ok, only saw the other command up there for-

Start --> Run... --> Type "cmd" --> Type "ipconfig /release" --> Type "ipconfig /renew"

That happens automatically when restarting the computer everytime. It is just handy without restarting the computer of course.

The command I gave only works with SP2. If anything else, then more complicated, more steps involved. Hope you get it fixed soon.

[Soopafresh]

Well, Shelby? What was the cause of the problem ?

[shelbyGT]

welp, I just have to think it has GOT to do something with my MB and my onboard ethernet jacks. The guy spnt another 3 hours on it today (that brings it to a total of 6) and he couldnt get it to work. Right now I am on an "anonymous" neigbor donor (don't people know how to password protrect their networks? geeze)

so basically, usb and cat5 don't work, but wireless does, weird. Tomorrow I'll go buy a new NIC card, if that don't work I'll got for a wireless router. At least I'm getting somewhere!

[shelbyGT]

Okay, so USB works now. After the Time Warner guys messed with it for a total of 6 hours over all, they couldn't get anything to work.

Well, I wake up Saturday morning with a hangover after 4 hours of sleep, see that my "Automatically detect network settings" was unchecked. Checked that box, hit restart.... and ever since the internet's been working like a champ. Download speeds average in the 300's. AWESOME!

I just find it funny that it took a hungover moderate-computer knowledge person less than a minute to get it working after the TWC guys worked on it feverishly for over 6 hours total.

[Soopafresh]

It's possible they fixed something on their side and just didn't tell you. Those companies hate to admit fault. Regardless, congrats for the fast connection

[shelbyGT]

It's possible they fixed something on their side and just didn't tell you. Those companies hate to admit fault. Regardless, congrats for the fast connection

stop raining on my parade, it was me... all ME! :P