[SOLVED] Re: System not connecting to network

[BufferOverflow]

I've got a similar problem: I installed a RealTek 8139(D) Card to a friend's pc.
So nice up to here: The machine is some years old and running Win98. After the first start, the device was recognized correctly, drivers installed successfully and everything was waiting to be configured. I use it in a LAN with the addresses in 192.168.2.x and Subnet 255.255.255.0. DHCP seemed not to work, what should have been. No problem, I gave it an IP manually. Namely 192.168.2.11 (which IS free!) - the machine is reacting on its own pings to this address, everything should be set up (Bindings,TCP/IP,Client for MS Networks and so on) but: It cannot ping ANY other machine beside itself and no other machine can ping it. The mysterious thing is: The diagnostics LED is blinking and the LED for this machine on the router is blinking too, when I am pinging. But Windows tells me about 100% Packet Loss. Okay - I damned Windows for this fact and booted up Knoppix. Similar results. Card is up and running - again without DHCP and ping tells me of "Destination host unreachable". It is NOT the IP, because I tried many and I know, that those are free. IPConfig on the win98 machine (and ifconfig on Knoppix) looks okay. But what I was wondering about was, that ifconfig told me about an astronomically high number of dropped Rx Packets. So the physical connection cannot be the problem - but what then??
P.S.: The Win98's ARP-Cache is empty, but it doesn't matter if I add the routers-mac statically. :(

I would be thankful for every reply or idea regarding this issue.
Thanks in advance,

BufferOverflow

[johnwill]

Even though it appears you're having the same problem, please start a new thread when you have a new issue. It's very difficult to keep two problems straight and who's working on what in a single thread.

I've created a new thread for your issue here.

Note: You will need to post complete details of your configuration and your specific issue in this new thread for us to help you.

Thanks for your cooperation.

[johnwill]

If you have a lot of lost packets, are you sure you don't have a cable, router port, or NIC hardware issue? I'm not sure why you dismissed the physical connection so quickly.

[BufferOverflow]

Okay - the computer I've the problems with is from a co-worker and is old and some of the no-name-office-pcs I think. Its got an 800 MHz Pentium III, 128 MB RAM, 8 GB HDD, Win98 SE. I was asked to install a RealTek RTL 8139. The chip on that cartridge is an 8139D, if that matters.
After installing the card, Windows found drivers on the CD and installed the device properly. I can configure it - so I gave it a matching IP,Subnet and Gateway. For my example the Router is 192.168.2.1, the other PCs start at 192.168.2.30 and I selected 192.168.2.10 (and others, just to ensure, if there is no weird problem with that). The Diagnosis-LEDs of the router and the card are on (which shows me, that there is a physical link. If I remove the cable, they went off and on again, when reconnecting). They are also blinking, if I am sending pings for example. But: Neither the router nor the pc is displaying the response. The router tells: "Pinging host failed.", Windows tells:"Timeout" and Knoppix tells "Destination Host unreachable". What I've seen last time booting Win98 was, that the ARP-Cache was empty. So I linked statically to the router - no effect. I switched the PCI-Slot, the Cable and reinstalled the device. It can't be a real Windows-Problem, because its existing when booting Knoppix,too. I think I am gonna change the card...or does anybody have an idea?

[BufferOverflow]

Okay - just mark it as solved. The damn card was to blame. I tried it using another card (RealTek RTL 8029AS) and everything is fine. Win98 booted, installed the driver and found its way to the net quietly by using DHCP. Same with Knoppix. Gosh.

[johnwill]

Bad hardware? Kinda what I expected.