IT Problem -help please

[9fingers]

Background, I have a home network set up with 4-5 PCs on it connected by a mixture of ethernet and wireless and all working well and has been stable for sometime. I use Win xp home and find no need to change.

Today I dug out an old Dell CPI laptop and reformatted the disc and did a clean install of win xp sp1a. So far I have not done the updates to SP3 as my problem is very basic.
The Laptop does not have an ethernet socket so I have put a PCMCIA ethernet10/100 card in (Xircom REM56G-100)
I have checked on the intel/Xircom site and it confirms the card is supported by drivers contained in XP.

When it boots up it finds the card and shows it under network connections. Despite the TCP/IP properties being set to find an IP address automatically, when connected to my router, it comes up with IP address wildly different from the range issued by my router. When I ask it to repair the connection, it says the hardware is working fine by fails to get an IP address at all.

Using the same port on the router and the same cable, another (newer, not PCMCIA socket but integral ethernet) laptop will connect properly.

SO router & cable seem fine. Old laptop is behaving as expected, Network card reports as OK but no connection is made.


Help!! I just can't think what I'm doing wrong...... or what to try next.

Bob

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

I'd try setting the IP details in on that system statically and see if you get a connection.

 

[Eric The Viking]

What address range are you using for the home network and what 'automatic' address does the laptop come up with? XP has a default range, used when it can't see the DHCP host, intended to make peer networking work 'no matter what'.

I'd try changing the cable anyway: some twisted pair hardware copes fine with crossover cables used accidentally, some doesn't. The Xircom, being relatively old, may not.

I'd also give the laptop a static address within your DHCP range (not otherwise in use, obviously), and a net mask of 255.255.0.0. Tell it manually what your gateway's address is, and the DHCP server (if it isn't the same).

I use a Win2k server for DNS, DHCP and as a Windows domain controller. quite often it messes up the DHCP service altogether. I had DHCP working fine (clients are a right old mix: XPpro, HP JetDirect print servers, other print servers, some routers, occasionally Linux, and a number of Macs of varying ages and OSes). It's become so iffy recently that I've taken to using static addresses.

It does sound like a stack problem - are you sure the Xircom is OK - can you peer network with another Windows machine using a crossover cable? At the CMD prompt, can you ping the router manually, and what do you see when you type ipconfig /all ?

 

[9fingers]

What address range are you using for the home network and what 'automatic' address does the laptop come up with? XP has a default range, used when it can't see the DHCP host, intended to make peer networking work 'no matter what'.

I'd try changing the cable anyway: some twisted pair hardware copes fine with crossover cables used accidentally, some doesn't. The Xircom, being relatively old, may not.

I'd also give the laptop a static address within your DHCP range (not otherwise in use, obviously), and a net mask of 255.255.0.0. Tell it manually what your gateway's address is, and the DHCP server (if it isn't the same).

I use a Win2k server for DNS, DHCP and as a Windows domain controller. quite often it messes up the DHCP service altogether. I had DHCP working fine (clients are a right old mix: XPpro, HP JetDirect print servers, other print servers, some routers, occasionally Linux, and a number of Macs of varying ages and OSes). It's become so iffy recently that I've taken to using static addresses.

It does sound like a stack problem - are you sure the Xircom is OK - can you peer network with another Windows machine using a crossover cable? At the CMD prompt, can you ping the router manually, and what do you see when you type ipconfig /all ?

Thanks for your reply Eric

some results so far

router address range is the usual 192.168.0.nnn possibly up to 255 not sure
The ip address of the network card is 169.254.32.136 , subnet 255.255.0.0
IPCONFIG /ALL also gives DHCP enabled =yes and Auto Config=yes
lights on the card and router indicate a connection.
Using a different cable makes no obvious difference.
Ping from the old laptop to router and another networked machine both fail.

Setting an unused IP address in router range does not work (but router is still set manage IP addresses automatically?)

getting XP to repair the connection after resetting back to automatic, give a message that IP addy could not be obtained and then it defaults back to 169.254.32.136.
Pinging that address from another machine (through the router) fails but I guess it would.
I've not knowingly got a crossover cable to try a direct link but will see what I do have squirrelled away when I look for the other card.

I'm unsure about changing to fixed ip addresses as I do not know enough about what I'm doing (yet) I'll try and find the router manual first before trying any of that class of solution.

I think I might have another PCMCIA card somewhere and will instigate a search.

I'd be interested in your thoughts on the above first though.

TIA

Bob

 

[knappers]

It's coming up with the 169.x.x.x address because it can't contact the DHCP server. Try a different card, or different drivers for the card. Playing with different cables and the router will be fruitless.

Simon.

 

[9fingers]

Thanks Simon.

Sounds like searching for the other card will be my best bet

Xircom website says they don't have any drivers for beyond W2000 but the inbuilt ones in XP should work - I'm guessing that this may well be the problem.

Cheers

Bob

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

To change to a fixed IP.

You need to know:
Subnet & IP of router.

If you goto control panel ->(classic view) Network Connections
Right click on local area network connection and choose properties
look for Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
select it and choose properties
On the Alternate Configuration Tab (this applies only if the machine cannot reach a dhcp server)

IP address: 192.168.0.200 (this is probably free though you can use any address you like between 192.168.0.1 - 192.168.0.254 that is not already used.
Subnet: 255.255.255.0 (you will have this unless you have been playing with advanced networking)
Default Gateway: 192.168.0.1/254 (generally one of those two unless you changed it)
Prefered DNS Server: Same as your default gateway
Alternate DNS Server: Same as your default gateway

 

[9fingers]

Thanks,

Do I need to do anything with the router set up to use a fixed IP addy

Cheers

Bob

 

[Eric The Viking]

IP address of the network card is 169.254.32.136 , subnet 255.255.0.0

That's Windows' "I can't find a DHCP server" default range. It picks the number for the last octet at random, the idea being that two machines can probably see each outer, per my last message.

IPCONFIG /ALL also gives DHCP enabled =yes and Auto Config=yes
lights on the card and router indicate a connection.

Using a different cable makes no obvious difference.

Ping from the old laptop to router and another networked machine both fail.

Setting an unused IP address in router range does not work (but router is still set manage IP addresses automatically?)

All that's to be expected, given the IP address it's setting. Windows can't see the router, but thinks the stack is working OK. IPCONFIG /ALL will give you the MAC address it thinks it's using. Double check that it's the one printed on the back of the Xircom card (if memory serves, it should be there!).

If you ping, make sure you've set the IP and subnet mask manually first, so that they should see each other, and ping by IP address, not via DNS (don't use the machine name).

Pinging that address [169...] from another machine (through the router) fails but I guess it would.

It has to: the router thinks it's on the internet, but it's actually your local cabling. The packets get mis-routed.

I've not knowingly got a crossover cable to try a direct link but will see what I do have squirrelled away when I look for the other card.

You can do it with two ordinary cables and a 'passive' hub instead. Bringing up the known-good machine when it's connected to just the hub alone should result in an address in the 169... range. If the stack is working on the Xircom-equipped machine they should then see each other via ping, but I suspect they won't.

I'm unsure about changing to fixed ip addresses as I do not know enough about what I'm doing (yet) I'll try and find the router manual first before trying any of that class of solution.

I wouldn't mess around with the router at this stage. The fact that it manages a certain address block shouldn't cause issues for this purpose. They almopst always fill up from the bottom of the list, so if you simply pick one for your laptop that's higher up, there is no reason for a conflict to occur, at least for testing purposes.

I think I might have another PCMCIA card somewhere and will instigate a search.

That's probably the best idea. I've never got on with Xircom cards.

Try 3Com if you can find one. If not I've a couple and can post one to you. The drivers are all in the usual Windows distribution.

Cheers,

S.

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

No you do not need to do anything on the router end.

Interestingly, I did have a similar issue recently with a machine, the problem was it was failing to negotiate the ethernet link speed so I set it on the network card to the max speed it could handle.
To try that look for the network card in device manger right click -> properties -> advanced -> speed & Duplex set to 100Mb Full

 

[9fingers]

I think searching for another card here first followed by your kind offer Eric is the best course of action.

It comes up with a mac address but the back of the Xircom is so full of approval data that there would be little room for anything else.

They print on a serial number so why don't manufacturers use the mac addy as the serial no??? Question for another day !

Bob

Off to hunt though boxes and boxes of stuff squirrelled away for a rainy day.

 

[9fingers]

Just to follow up on this one.

It turns out to be a problem with the host computer. Eric The Viking loaned me a known working card (Wot a Gent!!) and that did not function either.
I sorting through other old machines I ended up with three Dell lappies that both it and my Xircom would work fine with and one dodgy one that neither card liked to play with.

Not sure what the problem is as I moved the HDD from machine to machine the fault stayed with the one laptop. Maybe a bios issue?
The other machines now give me some options to carry on my project with.

Thanks to all who responded.

Bob

 

[cambournepete]

Maybe a bios issue?

It's probably worth checking the computer manufacturer's website to see if your BIOS is up to date.
Upgrading is usually straight forward - I've not had one fail on me yet...

 

[9fingers]

These machines are 10 years or more ancient - I've not looked on the Dell website but they usually want the service tag to identify the machine and mine are pre-owned and in some cases the Service tag has been deleted.
The machine in question always used to accept that card as it was my main surfing machine back in the days of dial-up and I'm pretty sure that when I first went broadband (128K!!) I used the same card for a wired LAN.
I suppose it could have been caused by a change from Win98 to XP on that machine. By then I had changed to WLAN and the card was retired to the cupboard.

Cheers

Bob

 

[Eric The Viking]

It is a completely different driver architecture. Win98 was, like all its predecessors, basically DOS with a GUI on top. All the NT-onwards OSes use a proper hardware abstraction layer, similar to UNIX (although UNIX doesn't call it that).

I still think it's a BIOS setting... but at least you've a workaround.