Only 1 computer on my LAN can get online

Okay, this is my first time on here so I'll try to explain this as best I can. Let's see here, I have a cable modem, a 3COM router, and four computers on my network (3 PC's: 2 running WIN 98, and one running WIN ME, and a macintosh running OS 9.1.) The other night my link light on my cable modem went off and I had no activity light. Thinking it was the ISP, I shrugged it off until the next day. The next day I got up and played around with things trying to get them to work. With no luck, I decided to call the ISP to see if the server might be down. The tech support guy told me all my settings were correct and that he thought the ethernet card in my computer was bad. Well since I was hooked through the router and none of the other computers on the LAN worked I knew it wasn't that. I continued to play around trying to figure out what was wrong, and things just kept getting weirder. To make a long, frustrating story short, here's where I'm at right now. I have ruled out that the cable modem is fine. I'm thinking it might be the router, but this is why I'm not sure. There is one cable that works, it gives me a link light on the back of the cable modem, and it gives me a light on the router no matter which port I plug it into. So, I thought by some odd chance that all the rest of my cables had somehow all the sudden gone bad and they all went bad at the same exact time...except for this one cable. So thinking it was all bad cables (except for the one) I went out and got some cables that I knew were good and decided to try those. I plugged those into the back of the cable modem and into the router and still no link light or no light on the router. I am really baffled. I'm really not sure why only this one cable works when I know the rest work. Is it possible that my router is shorting out my cables and this one that works just hasn't gotten shorted yet? Any help on the matter would be appreciated, I'm about ready to give up the whole LAN.

 

There is no way that I can see for a router to short out a cable. It would take one heck of a voltage to burn and short out those cables and ends.


I am thinking that something has happened inside the router.

Have you tried that working cable with the other computers? Have you tried one of those cables with the computer that was working?

Have you checked the settings inside the router? I have never used the 3com, but all the others that I have seen usually have some sort of web based tool so you can configure the router. And I suspect that 3com would also, since other networking components of thiers allow this.

 

I did try the working cable with my computer and it didn't work. However, I did also try the working cable from the cable modem to the router at which point it no longer worked for me. Thank you for all your help, I have pretty much decided it is the router, now I just have to call 3com and see what they say.....