IP Address

Smoggy

Hi,

I have a home network , which use to have 4 machines on it :

3 win xp professional
and an xbox 360
also a wireless access point

Recently I have been messing around with :

Computer user account names, passwords and login methods.
I also flashed the firmware on my router

The problem is that now when I add one of my machines onto the network it cant acquire an IP address. How do I begin to solve this issue ?

Thanks

bringitdown

Assuming the router is where its at is the router configured for DHCP?

DHCP auto-magically assigns network elements an IP address when requested.

The PC must also be configured to use DHCP as a method of aquiring its IP address. Start->Settings->Network Connections

Right click the relevant 'Local Area Connection' and select properties.
In the dialog box click TCP/IP then the properties button.
Select 'Obtain an IP address automatically'

This methodology can change for Wireless Connections ... depending on your card etc. but applies for Wired conncections to the router.

It is possible flashing the router changed the DHCP settings.

Plenty of other things too but this is a start.

Smoggy

The router is working fine, as its assigns IP's to all other machines on the network. So I think the error is localised to the server itself...

'Obtain an IP address automatically' is checked

And the Server is hardwired into the switch

"It is possible flashing the router changed the DHCP settings." - Im not so sure about this, as it works fine for all other machines, there is just one machine it fails on.

As I test I entered my own IP address 192.168.0.50 and subnet mask and it said it connected , but I had no access to the internet etc, so I dont know what it really did.

Foxwood

Smoggy wrote:

The router is working fine, as its assigns IP's to all other machines on the network. So I think the error is localised to the server itself.

Or to the port on the router that it's connected to, or that ethernet cable. Have you plugged the server into a different port on the router? (preferably with a different cable too).

If you have verified that the port and cable are not the problem, try uninstalling the ethernet card in XP (right click on My Computer, select Propertes/Hardware/Device Manager. Right click on the ethernet card and uninstall it. When you reboot, it should reinstall).

Smoggy

will try now fox !

Edit : Took the cable out the back of the WAP device and placed it in the server and the same happened , acquirring ip... then failed.

So I uninstalled the NIC Card and re tested it. Same again.

I stuck the router cable direct into the back of it and it wook straight off.

Via a process of analysis :

The NIC card is fine.
The Switch ports / cables are fine.

What does that leave me with ?

Foxwood

Smoggy wrote:

will try now fox !

Edit : Took the cable out the back of the WAP device and placed it in the server and the same happened , acquirring ip... then failed.

So I uninstalled the NIC Card and re tested it. Same again.

I stuck the router cable direct into the back of it and it wook straight off.

Via a process of analysis :

The NIC card is fine.
The Switch ports / cables are fine.

What does that leave me with ?

You've lost me somewhere. "I stuck the router cable direct into the back of it and it wook straight off". If the server is not normally plugged into the router, what is it plugged into?

Smoggy

Sorry , Should have explained the hardware layout :

All pc's are hooked into a switch and the ADSL router is also in this switch as well.

Foxwood

Smoggy wrote:

Sorry , Should have explained the hardware layout :

All pc's are hooked into a switch and the ADSL router is also in this switch as well.

The only thing that I can think of is that there is not suffcient power in the switch to drive the ethernet signal. If the server doesn't work when it's the only thing plugged in to the switch, see if you can borrow a switch from a friend, and verify that it works that way.

Jaden

I've seen this happen with certain kinds of network cards, particularly in Laptops. The card cannot properly auto negociate the speed of LAN connection. Try setting it manually to 100Mbps, Full duplex.

Foxwood

Jaden wrote:

I've seen this happen with certain kinds of network cards, particularly in Laptops. The card cannot properly auto negociate the speed of LAN connection. Try setting it manually to 100Mbps, Full duplex.

Good point. I used to have a machine at the end of a long cable that used to have to be manually set to 10Mbps/Half Duplex to get it to work.