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General discussion

Sudden Internet Problem on Network

by Odin1321 Nov 24, 2004 7:14AM PST

I've shared the net with my brother's computer for quite a while now, and just recently set our two computers up on a network, with his computer being the host.

Last night a small thunderstorm knocked out my internet connection (TimeWarner's legendary "stability" -_-). My brother turned his computer (the host) off, but I was still using mine, so I left it on. When the cable modem showed activity again after about an hour, I attempted to get back on the Internet, but had no connection. My brother's computer, on the other hand, worked perfectly (once I started it up).

I've checked almost everything I could think of since then, from a simple restart, to reinstalling my ethernet drivers, and I'm still unable to connect. All devices are working, the modem works, the router works, my brother is accessing the net just fine, but my computer can't get a connection at all. Any suggestions?

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7 Posts
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Re: Sudden Internet Problem on Network
by Yew Nov 24, 2004 7:46AM PST

It is possible for power surges to go over Cat5 cable. In fact, in there's Power over Ethernet, which does pretty much just that. So it's possible your NIC got zapped and will need to be replaced.

But to test this, try setting up a simple share on your bother's system, and see if you can connect to it over the LAN and transfer some test file. If you can, then you would seem to have some other problem, but you've at least shown that your NIC is functioning properly.

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Re: Sudden Internet Problem on Network
by David Chan Nov 24, 2004 7:47AM PST

If your NIC drivers are installed you can try the following:

1. First connect the cable modem directly to your PC and see if it can connect.

2. Power cycle your Cable Modem + Router + PC.
To do that unplug the power supply from the Cable Modem + Router and shut down your PC.
After 1 Minute connect the power to the Cable modem first, followed by that to the Router & finally your PC.

3. Or you can use the Command Prompt and type: IPCONFIG /ALL and see if you get a proper IP address.
With a Router the correct IP address should be something like 192.168.1.100 (Linksys) or 192.168.0.2 (Netgear) etc. If you see an IP address like 169.xxx.x.x then your PC is not getting an IP address from the router.
You can then try the following commands: IPCONFIG /RELEASE followed by IPCONFIG /RENEW and see if the router assigns a correct IP address to your PC.

4. You could also try System Restore back to when it worked?

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Re: Sudden Internet Problem on Network
by Papa Echo Nov 24, 2004 7:55AM PST

Are you able to share files with your brother's computer ?

Try another "access point" on the router.

Try disconnecting the network and use your computer to access the Internet directly by itself - are you able to ?

What, if any, error message ?

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Re: Sudden Internet Problem on Network
by Odin1321 Nov 24, 2004 8:20AM PST

[yewanchors]
Is it possible for a power surge to fry my computer, but not my brother's? The internet cable connects to the modem, which connects to the router. The first slot of the router goes to my brother's cpu, and the second goes to mine. Everything except the internet cable itself (the ***** in our armor) is on surge protectors. Could a surge skip his cpu and hit mine?

[David Chan]
I've got the 169.blah.blah.blah stuff. The cable is plugged in and all (need to check the cable and see if it works too...), but there's nothing coming through it.
I tried to release and renew, but that didn't work either.
And thanks for reminding me about System Restore...I was going to do it earlier, but forgot.

[Papa Echo]
If by "access points" you mean port, or slot, or whatever you call it, then I've tried that. I moved my cable around, but didn't try it on my brother's slot (which obviously works) because I can't get him off FFXI long enough to do it (*-_-).
And there are no error messages. That's what is most confusing. How do you fix it if there is no error?

[Everyone]
Thanks for your responses. Hopefully when I get off work, I'll be able to fix this.

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Re: Sudden Internet Problem on Network
by David Chan Nov 24, 2004 8:53AM PST

The IP address 169.xxx.x.x shows that the Router is not issuing an IP address to your PC.

If the release + renew commands do not work it could be the following:

1. The Ethernet card is defective. Try another NIC.
2. The Ethernet card driver is not installed. Try moving it to another slot? Check (in Device Manager) that the NIC adapter is not disabled?
3. The patch cable is not working. Try another.

Don't forget to try direct connection from the cable modem to your PC.
If that works on your brother's PC and not yours then it points to your NIC or the Router.

Do you see a network cable unplugged message?

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Re: Sudden Internet Problem on Network
by caster Nov 25, 2004 1:09AM PST

With IP address 169.xxx.x.x, shouldn't an error message, either "cable disconnected" or "limited or no connectivity", appear in the system tray, assuming SP2 is installed and the error reporting isn't turned off?

I'm having a similar problem at work with two computers, both XP SP2, networked through a router and sharing a high speed internet connection. After a brief power outage, both computers were restarted but one lost its network connection and gets either the "cable disconnected" or "limited or no connectivity" errors. (The error varies each time I try a fix and reboot.)

I've changed cables, cards and connections. I've rebooted everything in the proper sequence. I've reinstalled drivers. I've restored the system to a date prior to the power outage when everything was working. I've manually assigned the correct IP address (ipconfig showed the correct IP info, the error report was gone, but pinging the router was about 50% successful and I couldn't connect to the internet or the other computer).

After all this, I'm 99.99% sure the problem is not hardware related.

At home yesterday, I googled "limited or no connectivity". WOW! Who would have thought: an SP2 problem!

Anyway, it might be worth checking out. Unfortunately there seems to be no simple or single solution. I'll be uninstalling SP2 next Monday and I let you know how it goes.

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Re: Sudden Internet Problem on Network
by David Chan Nov 25, 2004 11:56AM PST

When all else fail it's time for a clean install?

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