ASUS P5N-E SLI internet connection problem

[Nebula17]

ASUS P5N-E SLI internet connection problem

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I recently built a new computer and i am using the ASUS P5N-E SLI motherboard. I installed windows XP and everything was fine. The only problem is I cannot connect to the internet.

All the drivers were installed, and still nothing. The driver that was installed was an Nvidia Network adapter. This is the onboard NIC card "NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller", when you try to connect it says limited or no connectivity, it nevers acquires network address for some reason.

I was trying to find the problem, and was trouble shooting for hours now and i am totally stuck and dont know what to do. One thing i can tell you for sure is that within TCP/IP configuration -> properties everything is set up the way its supposed ie. obtain IP automatically & obtain DNS server address automatically.

i did ipconfig /all in my dos prompt and here is some results:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : matrix
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1E-8C-33-48-FC
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.117.33
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :


This clearly shows that it cant find LAN adapter for some reason and hence cant even find the default gateway of my ISP.
My network lights have blinking orange and solid red.
Hope someone seen this before or at least point in the right direction cause i dont know how to fix this.
Thanks

[johnwill]

Actually, this shows that you have a cable connected and the machine can't find a DHCP server.

TCP/IP stack repair options for use with Windows XP with SP2.

Start, Run, CMD to open a command prompt:

Reset TCP/IP stack to installation defaults. netsh int ip reset reset.log

Reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults: netsh winsock reset catalog

Reboot the machine.

[Nebula17]

Hi John

Thanks for helping out, i figured out what was wrong but i am not sure the reason behind it. I was wondering if you could help me out with figuring out why it was acting up.

The problem was in my network architecture that i had to make due to construction going on in my house. This is how it looked like:

-------------------> My PC #1 ( the one that didnt find DHCP)
Modem -> Switch -> My router -> PC#2 (works fine)
-----------------------------------> PC#3 (works fine)

( -> represents the port of a netowork device )
Hope that makes sense

Since i wasnt going through the router i couldnt get an IP... could it be because i dont have DSL but cable? and i am allowed only 1 IP and the router was getting it?

Funny thing is i had my old computer connected in this same architecture and it was working just fine. So i am confused as to why that sort of set up wouldnt work.

Thanks for help in advance.

[johnwill]

Yep, that's exactly the issue. Most ISP's only give you one public IP address, which is why we all run routers.

Sometimes with a new account, they don't get the DHCP restrictions setup right away and people are fooled into believing they're going to get multiple public IP addresses.