nic problem - all lights BUT no activity

[yoyojoe]

hi folks,
as a newbie here I'd just like to say I'm impressed by the site design and its content, seems to be a popular place for posting queries and getting helpful responses so I thought I'd add my query; I'll try to keep it concise.

Overview
I have 4 cable networked pc's in the home, 2 running XPSP1, 2 running W2KSP4; RJ45 interconnections are via a self powered hub (no router); 1 broadband internet connection (not shared) via USB adapter on one XP machine.

Network goal
to get the 'other/second/webbox' XP machine 'active' on the home network.

Problem
the 'webbox' XP machine is showing that there is not any activity (packets sent/received = 0) on the installed nic.

Background info
1 - the network icon appears in the task bar,
2 - ALL status lights are lit on the nic and the hub,
3 - the device manager shows a 'clean' status
4 - the attached doc shows 'system report' details for my LAN connection from this 'webbox' XP machine
5 - in the command window using ping 127.0.0.1 gets me 4 packets sent and received
6 - I'm not bothered about realising a shared internet connection at this stage but just getting the 'webbox' pc to communicate with the other 3 pc's on my home network
7 - 'webbox' is running up-to-date AVG Plus 7.1 anti-virus software and firewall
8 - Windows ICS and ICF are disabled
9 - OS was a 'clean install' just after Christmas 05 onto a 'wiped' hard disk drive
10 - I've even had a local pc techie in to try and resolve this, cost me 70 quid and still no closer to a working result
11 - I've surfed the web, read articles and 'tinkered' with settings
12 - this post is something of a last resort.

any ideas, thoughts, suggestions, remedies, links, kindred experiences all gratefully received.

kind regards, joe

[JamesO]

If I followed you on this, this is my take.

The 169.x.x.x address means you did not get an address assigned by a DHCP server. Here is the problem, you indicate you have no router, which usually support DHCP and supply addresses, so you will need to manually configure all your IP addresses, subnet masks and default gateway addresses.

I assume the link light is active on your Webbox? but you are showing no activity? This is probably normal as this machine has nothing to talk to.

My suggestion is to get a router, then you can get all machines networked and on your Internet connection. The money you spent for a local computer tech would have probably gotten you a router?

The only hook is if you modem only supports USB, then this drives the router cost way up and the choices are very limited. It would make more since to get a modem with an Ethernet connection or a combined modem and router, which I do not suggest.

JamesO

[yoyojoe]

hi james0, my word that was a quick response, thanx for your i/p.

if i seem to be talking gobble-de-gook at times then that's because I'm still trying to get my head around these networking terms and concepts.

just to be clear on your point regarding a router - 3 of my pc's can 'see and talk' to each other via a simple hub interconnect i.e without a router. their ip addresses are set to 'auto' i.e. NOT manually configured ( i just followed the sequence indicated by the wizard(s) and presumed the system took care of the relevant details).

i've acheived success with 3 of the networked pc's simply following the 'usual' home-network setup procedure with wizards (and a little tinkering along the way), this fourth one (webbox) being the exception.

the link light is active (and steady) on the webbox, the interconnect (straight through type) cable is known to be good {this was checked out on another pc}, the port on the hub is known to be good [it works when connected to another pc].

the webbox is connected to my homenet while other pc's are also connected, powered up and active i.e. the networked pc's are not 'seeing or talking' to the webbox nor the webbox to the other pc's.

trying to ping any of the other pc's (using their relevant ip address details obtained via the ipconfig command) from the webbox yields the result 4 packets sent, 4 packets lost.

btw - the BB modem is USB only

kind regards, yyjoe

[philg56]

What is the workgroup name? I don't think you need an IP address anything other than an automatic one if all you want to do is cruise your lan. But the workgroups must be the same.

[johnwill]

Actually, the autoconfiguration IP addresses frequently cause issues when trying to connect two machines. If you just want to connect two machines, it's far better to actually assign them IP addresses in the same class C subnet.

PC1:
IP Address 192.168.0.2
Subnet: 255.255.255.0

PC2:
IP Address 192.168.0.3
Subnet: 255.255.255.0

PC3:
IP Address 192.168.0.4
Subnet: 255.255.255.0

... etc

[yoyojoe]

hi folks, its taken me awhile to get back to this; any way here's an update to reply to both the above posts:-

item 1 - "What is the workgroup name? . . . . . "

response 1 - workgroup name is DAVES_NET on all four pc's (and double checked).


item 2 - "Actually, the autoconfiguration IP addresses . . . ."

response 2 - although all four pc's are set to - autoconfig IP Address - it is one of the pc's running XPSP1 that 'does not want to play'

Thanks for the input folks; at your suggestion johnwill I'll try the manual assignment method over the w/e and report back any ?progress?, well, status anyway .

regards, yoyojoe
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remember Grasshopper, a fool can ask more questions than a wise man can answer!

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[yoyojoe]

hi folks, . . . so, . . . now back on the case after some life interruptions (no, I've not given up on this BUT i am still struggling with it).

workgroup name is Daves_net for all pc's.

as suggested by johnwill i've manually assigned IP addresses (169.254.241.**) to all pc's; result? Webbox still not 'joined' the network.

now on Webbox when i use ping 127.0.0.1 i get sent 4, received 4, lost 0.

also on Webbox when i use ping 169.254.241.** i get request timed out.

i strongly suspect a config issue somewhere on Webbox (XPproSP1) but i'm not sure where to look/go next, any suggestions, comments, ideas, suspicions, thoughts, questions, all gratefully received.

perhaps i should try setting the ip addresses to 192.168.0.*; would that make any difference tho' ???

kind regards,

yoyojoe

[johnwill]

John did not suggest 169.254.*.* addresses, if you look back. John suggested assigning all the machines in the 192.168.0.x subnet with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, see post #5.

[yoyojoe]

John, thank you for your feedback and correction ;

all pc's here now have manually assigned IP addresses in the 192.168.0.* subnet with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 - same result, Webbox does not want to 'join up', i.e. four pc's (out of 5) see and share data except Webbox.

fyi - I had noted your first input when i was doing my last post (but couldn't recall the details), i just used an auto assigned ip address from one of the 'connecting' pc's, adapted it to suit the other pc's and 'went with the flow' to get back on track with this effort.

i've now ping'd each pc in turn but Webbox still remains 'unavailable/hidden.

question - will the action of 'logging on' to some pc's but not others have any bearing on this issue at all?

regards, yoyojoe

[johnwill]

You have a firewall of some sort on Webbox, that's the only thing that makes sense from the description of the issue. When using W98/ME, you must logon and not bypass the login to use any networking. If you can see one machine on the network, it's not a login issue from that machine.

[yoyojoe]

it's been a while but i'm still with one so here's the update.

WEBBOX has a new nic installed (a Netgear FA311v.2) with latest driver and is set for autoassign IP address (ipconfig /all reports 169.254.7.192).

WEBBOX activity 'packets sent' is non-zero BUT 'packets received' remains zero.

WEBBOX continues to run XPSP1 (as the other pc's) and has the AVG7.1 antivirus and firewall packages.

Johnwill - fyi - i've disabled the firewalls on all the pc's and still had the same result as above.

QUESTION- does anyone know of any configuration settings i have NOT tried to resolve this matter?

kind regards,

yoyojoe

[johnwill]

With no DHCP server, you can't use autoconfiguration and hope to get networked reliably. Why not just use a router, this whole problem will go away?

[yoyojoe]

Originally Posted by johnwill

Why not just use a router, this whole problem will go away?

*********************************************************************
john will said:-
Why not just use a router, this whole problem will go away?
*********************************************************************

IF ONLY life was that simple; I did get a router (a new Netgear DG384GT) AND a new Netgear n.i.c. (FA311v2). The problem didn't/hasn't/won't go away for some reason unbeknownst to me.

Keeping things simple, and to reassure myself that I can network some pc's, I took three pc's (BLACKBOX, COMPAQ, LAPTOP) and cable networked them with the Netgear router. I successfully configured/shared/accessed any elected/chosen/desired resources from any of the three pc's. I did it twice (just to be sure); first I used autoconfig and everything was good THEN I did it using a manual config for all three pc's; SWEET.

everything A-OK so far.

S-S-S-O-O-O-O using that experience and knowledge I figured that networking two pc's (a 'good' pc - BLACKBOX and a 'wonky' pc - WEBBOX) should now be a doddle.
I knew the cables were good, as was the router and also BLACKBOX.

with BLACKBOX and WEBBOX (both running XP Pro + SP1) cable networked and the router powered up both nic's were active and busy sending packets of data BUT neither was 'seeing' the other. The workgroup name is DAVESNET on both; autoconfig and manual config both yielded the same result - NO SHARING of resources.

now I'm going round in circles; I conjecture that there must be a WEBBOX 'BIOS/OS/SYSTEM/NETWORKING config setting' that I'm missing ?somewhere?, but what it is or where it is I've no idea.

m-a-y-b-e Netgear can throw some light on the matter ?!?!?!?

will keep you posted.

yo!

[johnwill]

Try resetting the TCP/IP stack.

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

For these commands, Start, Run, CMD to open a command prompt.

Reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults: netsh winsock reset catalog

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

[yoyojoe]

thank you johnwill for your kind response.

firstly I do not have sp2 running on either pc.

as my experience/knowledge of the command prompt is limited to
'monkey see, monkey do' I did try using your reset command (netsh winsock reset catalog) in XP Pro SP1.

I started with the command prompt showing/reading:-
C:\Documents and Setting\dave>

using the whole string (netsh winsock reset catalog) yielded:-
The following command was not found: winsock reset catalog.
N.B. the ( and ) were NOT typed into the command line

then using the command (netsh) yielded:-
netsh>

then using (winsock) yielded:-
The following command was not found: winsock

so I tried using (winsock reset catalog) which yielded:-
The following command was not found: winsock reset catalog

Similarly when I tried using the command
(netsch int ip reset reset.log) and variants
I obtained a similar system response.

M-A-Y-B-E something did change BUT I'm assuming that when the system prompt reports a (. . . command was not found:) then changes were not effected.

regards,

yoyojoe

[johnwill]

I'd install SP2, it fixes a lot of network issues.