The joys of setting up a network:-( Help!

six-h

six-h

Distinguished Member
And I was having such a good day!
One laptop (XP Home)
One PC (Vista Ultimate)
One Router (Speedtouch 585v6)
One Printer (Canon i865 wired to PC)

Somehow with zilch knowledge I've managd to allow each to see other, share specified and public folders and share the printer...wow!!

The only down side was that I had to forgo password protection to achieve all this...a small price I think!

Then it happened.
On the Vista PC I had a screen showing with three Icons each showing a pair of monitors labeled: - Local Area Connection: Local Area Connection 2: and Wireless Internet connection.
Both Local Area Icons had big red crosses on them, and the wireless connection showed a healthy green bar type indicator.
I wasn't too worried about the red crosses since the lappy was booting at the time and I hought they would disappear once it had established it's connection.
They didn't, so I refreshed the screen, no change, double clicked each in turn also to no avail.
Tried DOS IP Config /release and /renew, only to receive this message : -

"No operation can be performed on local area network connection 2 whilst it has it's media disconnected"
Same message for "local area connection"

Also a list comprising, ethernet adapters 1 & 2, Tunnel Adapters 6,7,9,10 & 13 saying against each "Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix"

Can anyone undo the mischief I have done!!
Hoping to hear from someone who understands what I've related sorry it's a long one!!
 
Hello six-h.
Are you sure you've connected the ethernet cable...? :wink:
Other reasons I can think of why you can't connect via "Local Network Connection" or "Local Network Connection 2" is mis-configured network settings, and/or the correct driver not being installed.
 
Coolname007
I have no ethernet connections to either PC or lappy.
Both have always been wirelessly connected via the router.
Prior to setting up the network, both connections were stable.
The lappy is unaffected by the disaster that has befallen my PC, and as related above, I have done nothing obvious to invoke what ever has changed in the PC's connection.
Since I know nothing about networking, yesterday's sight of the screen I described (I think it was called Network connections) was the first, and the only thing I had done was to double click on each icon in turn...this imparted little as I couldn't understand what was presented!
As I understand it, something has caused the "Media Connections" to become disabled, and the DHCP (what ever that is) is also disabled!
Should it not be possible just to "re-connect" or "re-enable" them, or is that too simple? lol

Just deleted this post, trying to get it in larger font size!
 
Whats the ip address on the laptop? Is it 192.168.x.x or 169.254.x.x? Do both laptops have the same address? You can find out using ipconfig /all at the command prompt.
 
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This is the dos report for the laptop (wifi is via a Linksys WPC54G PCIMA card.
My Vista machine is in fact a PC, and that is the machine with the connection problem.
At least, it's the one that can't connect!

Do you want the same detail from that one?

Addendum:

Hmmm...try again!
Lappyipconfigdetail.jpg

Success!
 
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Ok, your DHCP appears to be working. Open a web browser and in the address bar type 192.168.1.254. Go through each settings page carefully. If you can find a release/renew DHCP client option try that. On the laptop itself you should try disabling and reabling the adapter.
 
Here's the DOS reports from the PC: -

For "ipconfig /all

PCipconfigdetail3.jpg


This is the report for "ipconfig /release & renew"

ipconfig_release-renewresponsePC.jpg


hope this is helpful!

Addendum:

Kairozamorro
Don't understand why everyone is focusing on my laptop.
that machine is connected without problems and is performing well.
The problem is with my PC, which cannot connect to the net.
It is of neccessity connected by wireless, since the router is a long way away.
The wireless card announces that it is currently connected to an unidentified network, (although it names mine in brackets) and has "Limited Connectivity".
This means I cannot communicate with my router's home page.

Addendum:

This will show how little I understand about Wireless Technology, or should that be the "Black Art of Wireless Technology!"

If when I address the Router from either my laptop, or my PC, do I see the same information on both,or is the screen different depending on which of my machines is viewing it?
I suppose what I'm saying, is can I alter the details of one machine's settings in the Router from the other machine, or is there only one lot of Router settings for both machines?

If the latter is true, and there is only one lot of settings, and the laptop is performing normally, then the reason for the failure of my PC's connection must eminate from within the PC.

Finally, I have found a backup of my Router settings made on July 9th, but feel that to restore this would make no difference for the reasons given above.

If you can follow my simple logic, can you say if I'm right!?
 
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All IPs must be different on each of the machines you have hooked up to your router (including any wired computers as well). You may need to use a hardwired connection (you can use your laptops for this) to the router to acccess the router interface. You can't use ipconfig /release with ipconfig /renew. /release disconnects from network, /renew is like a reset, where it disconnects and than reconnects to the network. You can do this using the GUI if you perfer by opening "Network Connections" in the control panel and disabling/re-enabling the adapter. You should go ahead and disable your LAN cards too since you're not using them.

If your laptops are working fine, than you do not need to worry about them. Concentrate on the desktop then. Make sure its got the latest drivers available, and not have the same IP address of any other computer on your network.

Once you get into the router interface there should be a page where it'll allow you to reboot the router itself, which may be all that is needed.
 
HEY! kairozamorro,

You are "The Man!!
Not a clue what I was doing, but followed your instructions in GUI, and also "Windows Help" (which was a bit vague!)

I don't understand what I'm saying here, but maybe you will find it reveals some information as to why this happened, I don't know.
Under "Properties" in wireless connection, in "This connection uses the following items", everything was ticked.
"Windows Help" implies that only one or other of the choices (TCP/IPv4 or v6) should be used. Mine has both!
Double clicking each in turn brings up their own respective properties boxes.
I think that "v6" was already set to obtain both IP, and DNS Server automatically.
Whilst "v4" was set to "Use IP 192.168.0.1 (That seems close to the address of my router!), with a subnet mask of 225.225.225.0
DNS Server was blank.

I tried to connect with v6, disabling v4, no joy.
Then tried v4 with v6 disabled, (having changed the options for both IP and DNS to "Auto") and we were back in business!!!

Should I go back and re-enable v6 also?
Do I need to remember the IP address 192.168.0.1 and the subnet mask 225.225.225.0 for any reason?

Finally, any idea why this might have happened?

I'm so glad that you have got me back on line with my PC, this lappy is ok for convenience, but I think long term, I'd need a chiropractor to re-align my spine!
 
Hey thats great! In the future checking for IP address automation in the connections properties should be your first step. At this time you don't need ip6 enabled (your router assigns ip4 addresses). You also don't need to memorize anything, as long as its working.
 
Thanks kairozamorro,
I was really loosing my mind over this!
How I hate Networks, they scare me but I never expected it to cut me off from the internet.
The big test will be tomorow when I boot up my machines and see if it's all still functioning! lol
Good news that I don't have to remember anything, 'cos my brain is stuffed full and it ain't what it used to be!
 
Thanks kairozamorro
I think that despite my ineptitude for configuring networks, and my spurning the assistance offered by the set-up wizard, I have managed with the magnificent help you've all given me , to establish what seems to be a stable network!!
I feel quite proud of the achievement, though it's really you guys that did it for me!
Thanks!

Mahmoud,
Thanks for that, but who needs luck when you have such knowledgeable folk on your forum!
I bless the day I found you, but feel sad that I'm not sufficiently knowledgeable to be able to be able to contribute to the wisdom offered.
 
Hey six-h,

We here at NeoSmart work hard to hear the success stories of the users we support. I'm glad I was able to help you get your network up and working. It indeed is a scary thing when you're dong something for the first time, but at least now with everything working you have perhaps learned a step or two to along the way.
 
You do all work hard kairozamorro, and I am most grateful to benefit from your knowledge.
I can't promise that all that I learn here will "Stick", but a lot of it does, lol and with luck, I'll be able to re-visit these pages to refresh my memory if I get into a mess again rather than repeat the same questions!
 
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