BleepingComputer.com: Will Not Connect To Internet (pls Advise)

Hi guys,

Sorry if I sound like a noob with a post count of 1. Forgotten my previous account's password. I trawled through the net for a solutions that wouldn't work and therefore have to ask for opinion.

I got a Dell Inspiron 530s last night and tried to set it up for internet with my 2Wire 2700hg router. However, I cannot even access my router startup page (192.168.1.254) and also any webpage. The Network and Sharing Centre shows the Vista PC as being connected to the router and the router to the internet.

I have tried both IE7 and FF2.0 and both gave the same results; the page would either appear as timed out, connecting, or sometimes some text of the google site will load (but not the images).

Pinging yahoo.com yields variable results: I would sometimes get 0% loss or it would go up to 75% loss. Pinging my router gives more consistency: it would be a 100% loss most of the time. Diagnosing the network using Vista's built-in tool sometimes raises the error of being unable to obtain a response from the DNS server 192.168.1.254 as well. In its words, "Network diagnostics pinged the remote host but did not receive a response."

I went through this with Dell Support for more than 3 hours but he couldn't troubleshoot the problem. Singtel support denied that the problem lies with their side as my laptop is able to connect to the same router. By the way, my laptop is running on Win XP wirelessly. Also, connecting the same laptop with the same ethernet cable (which is how the Dell Vista PC is connected) works.

I hope someone can help me with this as it's getting extremely annoying having spent so many hours on troubleshooting it but not getting any results.

Vista PC is using Intel 82562V-2 10/100 Network Connection by the way. I have also tried disabling IPv6 and both Link Layer Topologies.

If you go to Device Manager and look under network adapters, what do you see there? Is there anything besides Intel 82562V-2 10/100? Does anything have a yellow or red icon?

Does your router has a MAC filter enabled ? Do you have static IP or DHCP configured on the router?

This post has been edited by mand0: 23 August 2007 - 09:44 AM

Hi mand0,

Thanks for reading. Listed under network adapters is only the NIC card itself, no red or yellow icon whatsover. I have also updated the driver to 04/07 version but to no avail.

The router 2wire 2700HG is not Mac filter-enabled; and I think it's DHCP configured as my IP address is never static.

Use the laptop to log in to the router and check the DHCP settings and write down the numbers used.

Go to the desktop's TCP/IP settings and try manually setting the IP address, DNS settings, etc.

Thanks. I'll try it once I get back home from classes!

Make sure that you see what the starting and ending IP addresses the DHCP settings are set to. So if the laptop is 192.168.0.100, make your laptop 192.168.0.101. Everything else (DNS, subnet mask, default gateway) should be the same as your laptop.

Wireless?

Try going to the device manager to uninstall the Wireless driver, to install it again from your Dell driver manager. Disable the Ethernet adapter trough the "Manage Network Connections" in the left side of "Network and Sharing Center". Also go into properties of Wireless and uncheck the TCP/IPv6, configure IP and DNS's to automatic in TCP/IPv4. Go to internet options and make sure your "LAN settings" are in automatically detect setting and you don't have a Dialup or virtual network. Rebot...
Try again to see if you see any network

Can you see other networks that aren't yours?

Can you connect to them?

Put your NB 3ft away from the router.

When you go to CMD and type ipconfig, do you get a valid IP (192.) or you get a invalid one (169.), or a Media disconnected message?

If you get a 169 IP, try "ipconfig/release" and "ipconfig/renew" to see if this changes.

Also, if nothing of this work try "Netsh WinSock Reset" in CMD to build the network settings from scratch.

Check if you have a Firewall (Norton, McAffe, etc...), if you have try booting the nb in safe mode with networking to see if you have connectivity.

Make sure the DCHP service is started in "services.msc"


I get lots of issues in this matter and doing this seems to fix the issues.

Hope it helps...




Mav

Have you tried to reset the router to default settings? Most routers have a button to press to reset them to factory default settings.

Several posts suggest that the address for your router is: 192.168.0.1

There are many different models of this router - could you give us the exact model number and the name of your ISP so we can research it further?

Actually I haven't tried resetting it to its factory state yet but after you listen to this new development, I guess I should. To answer all of the questions:

1. The Dell Inspiron Desktop is connected to the 2wire 2700HG by a 10m ethernet cable (5m<Distance of PC to router<10m)

2. I have already disabled IPv6 and the two other Link Protocol (can't remember their names) but it doesn't work.

3. I get a perfectly logical (and assigned IP by my router): 192.

4. I have compared both IPCONFIG /ALL logs of the "unable to connect" and "able to" states; unfortunately both are the same.

5. The PC doesn't have a wireless card so I cannot see other networks. Sorry for not making it clear in the beginning.

6. Firewall is disabled and Norton Internet Security (which comes with the PC) uninstalled, with no results. AVG Antivirus however, is installed.

7. The wireless gateway (2wire 2700HG) is a souped-down version that is bundled along by my ISP, Singnet (http://www.singnet.com.sg). I couldn't find the absolute technical specs online but this is the closest I could get: User Guide

Sorry to put you guys through the long post but now for the good story!

The Dell engineer came down this evening (1930hours; +8GMT) to have a look-see at my PC. Anyway, to facilitate inspection , I had moved out the desktop from my bedroom to the living room's desk, right beside the router. I switched on the PC before the guy came, just for stand-by's sake and to my surprise, the internet connection was WORKING!

Logically, the Dell guy was surprised (and so was the person whom he reported to). After running some checks and seeing that nothing was wrong, he left. So I shifted the PC happily back into my room and started it up again.

Guess what? The internet stopped working again. Just by changing distance alone? I'm befuddled.

The only variables were:
1. the distance of the PC to router by ethernet cable
2. different ethernet cables

Yet 2. doesn't make such a difference anymore after I used distance as a variable and kept the cable a constant. The results I get was the same:

further distance (<10m) = fail. network shows connected to internet and local but takes forever to load
shorter dist. (side by side) = pass.

Enlighten me pls!

What did you do when you moved the PC? Did you unplug the connection?
To confirm - you did use different cables? If so, try moving it back and using the working cable again - does that fix it?

Could be:
1) Loose NIC card on the motherboard
2) Defective plug on the NIC card
3) Defective cable
4) Defective plug on the 2Wire router

Most likely it's a bum cable - but moving the PC between locations and testing should isolate it as the cause.

Everything was switched off when I moved the PC, including the router. Connection was unplugged and replugged. I made sure to use the No.1 port (if that's what you call it) all the time during the testing.

1. Placed router outside the living room and PC in bedroom = failed internet connection (same cables all the time). So the answer is nope, using the same cable and separating router and PC in different rooms does not cut it.

Don't see how it could be a defective plug on the NIC; neither could it be a defective plug on the 2wire as I made sure to use no.1 all the time. Defective cable is also ruled out unless length becomes a factor for deciding whether it's defective.

Bought a new cable to try again. Have tried 2 other cables which made no difference when location is made variable with the same cable but what the heck, I'm grasping at loose straws.

Thanks for your help again.

There is a "chain" from your CPU to the internet. In your case, that chain is broken when you increase the distance between the PC and the router. It's our job to figger out what's wrong with the "chain". The only variables seem to be the distance, the movement of the PC, and the reinsertion or movement of the cable (this is my take on it, there may be even more variables)

Ethernet cable is good for about 100 yards (300 feet) without the need for any assistance. My wife's office has several 100+ foot lines that function without any problems.

Looking back at your original post - I don't think it's necessary to disable the Link Layer Topologies and it may adversely affect your QoS. Have you disabled the DHCP Broadcast Flag? ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233 ) - this is a common problem with network devices that aren't Vista compatible.

Does the Dell have wireless capability (and does the modem also have it)? Could it be that it's connecting wirelessly rather than using the wired connection? Check the network devices to be sure.

And, since I'm also grasping at straws here - what happens if you move the router and the PC into the bedroom?

Another variable is that you are probably plugged into a different socket whilst in the bedroom.

So, here's another straw-grasp:

The plug in the bedroom may not be properly grounded. When the computer is plugged into the bedroom electrical socket, could the static buildup interfere with the signal between the PC and the router? Try this as a simple test:
1) Make sure all equipment is on some sort of surge-protector.
2) Power down the laptop, and leave it off for the remainder of this test.
3) Unplug the computer, disconnect all cables (including monitor). Move it to the bedroom. Do not plug anything in yet.
4) Turn off and unplug everything from the router and modem, including phone wires. Unplug all phone wires in the house. Wait at least 5 minutes. Connect your phone lines again. Plug the router & modem in, connect phone line. Do not turn any computer related equipment on, yet.
5) Go back to the bedroom, connect ethernet cable as usual. Connect the monitor, keyboard, mouse as per usual. But, have the monitor and PC plugged into a surge-protected line from the socket where the router is (the one where the PC worked when the repair guy showed up). Do not turn anything on, yet.
6) Startup modem, then router (unless they are part of the same piece of equimpment, if so just turn that on). Wait untill a positive internet signal is given.
7) Turn on monitor and PC. See if you can get internet service yet.

Hope it helps a little. I've had quirky router issues before, and removing static charge has helped me 4 out of 5 times. And its possible that the bedroom electrical socket is the source of the static.

Hello guys, sorry for the short disappearance.

I went out and bought another a bit more expensive ethernet cable. And it worked. It's the most bizzare thing ever, I tell you. I had switched three cables (which didn't work) before resorting to this measure. And when I went back to the shop, that uncle told me the cable has 2 more wires than the standard ones. I don't really understand why 2 additional wires in a cable would make Vista run since both non-working and working cables are Cat5e...but since everything is working, i should just keep quiet hahaha...

usasma:well, distance-wise i'm sure the ethernet cable is still functional. it's only less than 10 meters away from router to pc.

and would i still have to disable Link Topologies if my connection works fine with it disabled? How about the DHCP Broadcast Flag then? Or should we just stick to "don't fix what's not broken". Everything seems to be working fine for now.

[jhsmurray]Well, I have to say that I'm a bit sorry I couldn't try out your suggestion but thanks for it anway! The problem has been magically solved by another straw-grasp solution.

Many thanks for everyone's advice again!

This post has been edited by Gonzopoet: 30 August 2007 - 02:24 PM

Good to hear you're up and running again.