Broadband connection problem

[PhoenixAsh]

Okay I just brought my computer home from uni and am trying to connect to the internet with it at home. Other computers connect fine, but mine either says that a network cable is unplugged, that there is limited or no connectivity, or that it is connected but nothing works anyway. Quite often the light on the router flashes for my computer to show it isn't a steady connection.

I don't think its a hardware problem as it worked at uni, and the only thing I can think that changed was that I installed a program to allow connection to the uni network, I've since uninstalled that though. All settings seem fine, I'm really stumped... Any ideas?

Thanks a lot

[Spatvark]

Check to see your network card is properly inserted; it might have been knocked loose in transporting it back from uni.

If all the connections are fine, open up a DOS prompt and enter "ipconfig /all". If the IP address doesn't fit within the numbering scheme of the rest of the computers on the network (I'd expect it to be something akin to 192.168.x.xxx), then enter "ipconfig /release". Once that's done, do "ipconfig /renew". Provided everything is working fine, it should renew the DHCP in seconds, and everything will start working. Hopefully.

No guarantees any of this will work, but I've had a fair amount of fun with networks over the years XD

[crono_logical]

You could also remove the network cable from a working PC and plug that into yours to eliminate cable problems etc., or try your cable in a working computer

[PhoenixAsh]

Okay thanks a lot, I'll keep that in mind for future, but for now I've just got a spare network card stuck in which is working for now and I don't want to aggravate it

Thanks again

[o_O]

Failing that, it's probably Windows being a pain.

Do this (bits in red are specific to your router, but the ones I put are very common):

• Click start
• Click run
• Type "ncpa.cpl" and press Ok
• Right click local area connection and go to properties
• Double click "Internet Protocol TCP/IP"
• Switch the top dot over to "Use the following IP address"
• IP address: 192.168.1.64
• Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0 (Will probably appear automatically)
• Default gateway: 192.168.1.1
• You also need to specify DNS servers, so grab them from your ISP or find some good ones online
• Done

[Samuraid]

Default gateway: 192.168.1.1

Make sure that either your router or modem has the IP 192.168.1.1, or that you use the correct IP in case it doesn't. Your computer definitely won't be able to get online if it has an invalid gateway address.

[crono_logical]

Unless you're lucky enough to have a router with proxy arp enabled, in which case it may work depending on what incorrect default gateway you gave it

[Samuraid]

So it will catch ARPs for an invalid address in the subnet and will return the gateway/router's real MAC address instead?

[crono_logical]

Kind of, yes It's always interesting at work when we put IP addresses on some devices but forget to fill out the default gateway, but it can still connect to other subnets for some reason, until we remember that it's enabled by default on the equipment we use