kelticvixen
Thread Starter
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2003
- Messages
- 74
Hello! After struggling for several hours on my own, I've decided to seek help on my networking problem. I will run down what caused the problem (aside from my own cluelessness) and the order of events. I have several screenshots I will post for the sake of clarity. My system specs are listed in my signature below. Dxdiag attachment is included if needed.
Current Problem:
a) My computer can only get online now if I input a static IP. Switching back to Dynamic IP setting gives me the Vista "unidentified network" error (I am still not very familiar with Vista as my computer is new).
b) My other two computers cannot get online at all now (much to my husband and daughter's discontent), whereas before I changed my ip to a static address they connected just fine.
_______________________________________________________________________
Sequence of events:
Initially I had only two computers on my home internet network: one connected directly to my Linksys router via ethernet cable, and one connected via wireless ethernet card.
When I got my new computer, I hooked it up to the router also, with an ethernet cable. For a short, glorious time, all three computers co-habited in peaceful DSL connectivity.
To shorten the story at this point, I decided to change my IP address to a static IP so as to port forward for a program. When I ran cmd and entered ipconfig /all to write down my ip info (current ip address, subnet mask, default gateway and DNS servers) I happened to note that even with all of the musical chairs my computers went through when I switched out network cards and such the ip info was the same as I remembered it from times before when I had done port forwarding and switched to static ip addresses.
Next I proceeded to follow online instructions to change ip to static address in Vista: Manage Network Connections ->right click to get to properties of my connection ->then properties of TCP/IPv4 ->change to static IP in the usual manner. I tested my connection and found that it worked perfectly.
Sadly, after this my other computers suddenly were unable to access the internet. My laptop from work, which had previously connected wirelessly with ease to my network, now showed an error which said something to the effect of "Unable to connect/Limited Connection". The other two computers with older OS's just refused to connect.
I figured right away that somehow in changing my ip to a static address I had changed "something", or caused some conflict that I didn't understand being a total Vista noob. I went back in and changed my settings back to autoconfigure. THIS caused my own computer not to connect at all now. I received my very first look the now dreaded "Unidentified Network" error message (see below for screenshot). This has perplexed me because obviously before I changed my ip to static, it had been dynamic and I connected great, and so did all of my other pet computers. So at this point no one could connect. I ran cmd again, and ipconfig /all and noticed that my dynamic settings were totally different from what I remember. A different dynamic ip, a different subnet mask, and no default gateway at all (see below for screenshot). Prior to this even with my ip set to autoconfigure it always used to be the same one.
Needing to connect to the internet to surf for solutions, I again set my ip to a static address and viola instant connection. But I am still left unable to figure out how to reconnect my other computers to the network, as they no longer seem to see the network, even though the signal is there. Also it seems that I should be able to choose to set my ip to autoconfigure for a dynamic ip address AND still be able to connect to the internet. I am extremely perplexed.
Here are some screenshots... I tried to sort of eliminate actual ip info, while still showing the different settings. Please let me know if I scratched out something that needs to be shown.
After switching back to a dynamic ip setting I get this error:
This is what the dynamic autoconfigure setting looks like when you run cmd and ipconfig /all:
This shows where I set it to static ip and ran cmd prompt and ipconfig /all:
Sorry this is so long...I wanted to be as clear as possible in my explanation and request for help. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.
Current Problem:
a) My computer can only get online now if I input a static IP. Switching back to Dynamic IP setting gives me the Vista "unidentified network" error (I am still not very familiar with Vista as my computer is new).
b) My other two computers cannot get online at all now (much to my husband and daughter's discontent), whereas before I changed my ip to a static address they connected just fine.
_______________________________________________________________________
Sequence of events:
Initially I had only two computers on my home internet network: one connected directly to my Linksys router via ethernet cable, and one connected via wireless ethernet card.
When I got my new computer, I hooked it up to the router also, with an ethernet cable. For a short, glorious time, all three computers co-habited in peaceful DSL connectivity.
To shorten the story at this point, I decided to change my IP address to a static IP so as to port forward for a program. When I ran cmd and entered ipconfig /all to write down my ip info (current ip address, subnet mask, default gateway and DNS servers) I happened to note that even with all of the musical chairs my computers went through when I switched out network cards and such the ip info was the same as I remembered it from times before when I had done port forwarding and switched to static ip addresses.
Next I proceeded to follow online instructions to change ip to static address in Vista: Manage Network Connections ->right click to get to properties of my connection ->then properties of TCP/IPv4 ->change to static IP in the usual manner. I tested my connection and found that it worked perfectly.
Sadly, after this my other computers suddenly were unable to access the internet. My laptop from work, which had previously connected wirelessly with ease to my network, now showed an error which said something to the effect of "Unable to connect/Limited Connection". The other two computers with older OS's just refused to connect.
I figured right away that somehow in changing my ip to a static address I had changed "something", or caused some conflict that I didn't understand being a total Vista noob. I went back in and changed my settings back to autoconfigure. THIS caused my own computer not to connect at all now. I received my very first look the now dreaded "Unidentified Network" error message (see below for screenshot). This has perplexed me because obviously before I changed my ip to static, it had been dynamic and I connected great, and so did all of my other pet computers. So at this point no one could connect. I ran cmd again, and ipconfig /all and noticed that my dynamic settings were totally different from what I remember. A different dynamic ip, a different subnet mask, and no default gateway at all (see below for screenshot). Prior to this even with my ip set to autoconfigure it always used to be the same one.
Needing to connect to the internet to surf for solutions, I again set my ip to a static address and viola instant connection. But I am still left unable to figure out how to reconnect my other computers to the network, as they no longer seem to see the network, even though the signal is there. Also it seems that I should be able to choose to set my ip to autoconfigure for a dynamic ip address AND still be able to connect to the internet. I am extremely perplexed.
Here are some screenshots... I tried to sort of eliminate actual ip info, while still showing the different settings. Please let me know if I scratched out something that needs to be shown.
After switching back to a dynamic ip setting I get this error:

This is what the dynamic autoconfigure setting looks like when you run cmd and ipconfig /all:

This shows where I set it to static ip and ran cmd prompt and ipconfig /all:

Sorry this is so long...I wanted to be as clear as possible in my explanation and request for help. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.
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