[Simplicity50]

I'm connecting two computers together. Mine is the Host and am connecting to Cable Modem. I have had these two puters connected before, but when the cable company made an upgrade to their internet system suddenly I was unable to connect my second PC. The message that I get when I hard boot is first, Icon on task bar with the horrible Red X's over PC icons, and a msg stating that a cable is not connected. I went and bought new Cat 5 Ethernet cables reconnected and am still getting this same msg. My puter runs XP Home Edition and the other is Win98. My other puter is ancient. In fact it's a 400mhz! Would this be the problem. Additionally, I am using a Router..not wireless. Help~~~Simplicity50

[Bob Cerelli]

Why not connect your cable modem to the WAN port on the router. Then connect your workstations to the Ethernet ports on the router.

[Simplicity50]

Thank you for responding Bob. I appreciate you for that. Actually, I have connected the cable modem to the wan on the router and also connected with the Cat 5 my PC and the 2nd PC to the router. So from the back view of my router I have a cable from the Cable Modem connected to the Wan port on the router, a cable connected to my PC in one of the Lan ports and another cable connected to a 2nd Lan port for the 2nd PC. Is this correct?

[Bob Cerelli]

That is correct. But I am not sure why you refer to one computer as the HOST.

[JohnWill]

I can't imagine how the one can connect and not the other. This sounds like either the NIC in the second machine has died, or the port on the router may have gone bad. Since you've tried a new cable, try a new port on the router.

Another possibility is the drivers are corrupted, please do the following in the second computer.

Open a DOS window and type:

IPCONFIG /ALL >C:RESULT.TXT

Open C:\RESULT.TXT with Notepad and copy/paste the entire results here.

[Simplicity50]

Well, I suppose I call the PC Host because I just don't know what I'm talking about. :-)
John...thank you for your assistance. I will get back to you with the info you asked me to get.~~Simplicity50

[Simplicity50]

John,

The message I got was:

C:\Windows>IPCONFIG/A.C;Result.Txt
Windows 98 IP Configuration
Command line options.
/ALL - Display detailed information.
/Batch [file] - Write to file or./Winipefg.out
/renew_all -Renew all adapters.
/release_all -Release all adapters.
/renew N - Renew adapter N.
/release N - Release adapter N.

[Bob Cerelli]

I think the command you want to run is:

IPCONFIG /ALL

Sometimes people don't have things wired correctly as you do and actually have one computer as a Host, directly connected to the Internet. The other computer connects through this one.

Once you figure out the IP addresses of each computer, from the one that is not connecting to the Internet, try to ping the Gatewway's IP address. To do this, open up a dos window and run "ping Ip_address". It would more look like:
ping 192.168.0.1
but replace the number with the gateway from running IPCONFIG.

You need to get this working before you can get to the Internet.

If this fails, make sure you are using a known working network card, cable and port on the router. Since you have another computer that is working, it is easy to swap the cable and port.

[JohnWill]

That was the command that I asked for.

[Simplicity50]

Hi John,
After typing in IPCONFIG/ALL this is what I got:

DHCP Enabled Yes
IP Address 0.0.0.0.
Subnt Mask 0.0.0.0.
Defult Gateway
DHCP Server 255.255.255.255
Primary WINS server
Lease Obtained
Lease Expires

1 Ethernet adapter:
Description Microsoft MN130-50 NDIS5 Driver
Physical Address 00-50-F2-7A-93-34
DHCP Enabled Yes
IP Address 169.254.135.19
Subnet Mask 255.255.0.0
DHCP Server 255.255.255.255
Primary WINS Server
Lease Obtained 04 08 05 6: 58:56 AM
Lease Exprires


Was this what you wanted?..Liz (Simplicity50)

[Bob Cerelli]

For whatever reason, you are not getting a valid IP address assigned for that computer.

So you can see the difference, try running it on the computer that is working.

Also, if you have a known working network card, you might try using that as well.

[Simplicity50]

Hi Bob,

When I did the IPCONFIG/ALL on my computer (the one that works when I put the cable modem directly to my computer)I get information on my Ethernet Card:
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Et
rnet NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-E0-4C-90-9A-4D
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 69.92.214.187
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 69.92.214.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 69.92.214.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 24.116.0.154
24.116.0.202
24.116.200.232
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, April 24, 2005 2:22:25 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, May 07, 2005 6:36:55 AM

Can you tell me what it is I'm looking at and compared to my other computer where it is I would look to indicate it's not a valid IP address. I have to admit that I honestly know Nothing about Networking and just enough about computers well, to process claims for BCBS :-)...Sorry for my ignorance. What I don't understand is why is it that my other computer is not able to be connected like it was before the Cableone upgrade that was done here.
I'm still at a loss as to what to do to try to network the two computers.

[Bob Cerelli]

You are changing two things which makes it harder to troubleshoot.

All you needed to do was try running IPCONFIG on the computer that is working.

There was no need to do anything with the cable modem connection.

[Simplicity50]

Okay Bob,

Thanks for your help. I'm just gonna guess that there's something wrong with the router that I was using. Most likely the NIC which was previously suggested by John Will. Quite simple really. Before the attempt to make an upgrade by my cable company my network was fine. No problems. Now I can not connect to the second computer without getting a msg that a cable is not connected. Everything I've tried indicates that the router is what is bad and most likely that happened with the cable company attempted their change.
I misunderstood and gave the IPCONFIG info for the second PC. Mine seems to be fine.

Thanks..Liz