Ethernet connection problem (cable modem).

[Dorza]

Ok ill get straight to it... earlier on down here in SWales we had quite a big thunderstorm and the electric went off for a bit and then came back on. The electric went off when my pc was running. Now the problem is, ever since the power came back on i havent been able to get on the net using the ethernet side of my modem (im with NTL). The front of the modem has a light to indicate weather the modem is communicating with the pc via the network cable. Initially i thought it was a problem with NTL so i waited. Then i thought id try the USB cabe connection instead, and hey presto it worked. So im now wondering if there is still a problem with NTL or weather my ethernet port on my modem has blown. Im guessing its with the modem because there would have been a problem with the POST if it was with my PC (i have onboard LAN). BTW ive waited for about 5 hours before i tried the USB cable.

So could somthing inside my modem have blown or gone wrong, or is it with NTL? I have changed the the ethernet cable to one i havent used, just to rule out any possibility of cable breakage.

[turkster]

Strange. It seems unlikely that the ethernet port in the modem would have blown leavin everything else intact.

I wouldnt have though just cutting the power would have caused problems. Unless it got some kind of spike .

[Dorza]

This is what I thought. If it was totally dead windows or the POST should have shown some sort of problem but it they dont and in any case the modem came before the ethernet port on my PC, so this should have gone first if anything.

In Network connections with WinXP it simply says "Limited or no connectivity" if i go into this further the explination it gives is:

"You might not be able to access the Internet or some network resources. This problem occurred because the network did not assign a network address to the computer"

Clicking on Repair simply results in failure:

"Windows could not finish repairing the problem because the following action cannot be completed:

Renewing you IP address

This is an odd one. Ive never come across somthing like this before. Ive smelt the area around the port and that all i get is fresh air. Is there any way i could test the port? I'm sure ive seen things you plug into the ports and they give them a good diagnostic.

I also have a PCI NIC and i plugged the lead into this and i get a response from this one atleast. The lights on the modem are correct and working but i still get the same error message as above, but with the onboard one its like its dead. There is utterly no life in it atall.

[turkster]

IS it the computers ethernet port you think is dead or were you just checking the PCI NIC to mak sure .

Are you running DHCP on the network and is your system connected directly to the modem?

It looks like Windows is expecting to be assigned a Dynamic IP.

[Dorza]

It could be the Ethernet port which has gone. The one in question is embedded onto the motherboard. The PCI NIC is used to network my 2PCs together but i did use this breifly to see if i could get a connection the result was no connection with both the ports. Yeh im using DHCP, everythings done automatically.

This is what the situation is right now:

Onboard LAN doesnt appear to have any life in it, no lights flash in the port or on the modem when this port is used.

PCI NIC - This appears to have life. The port lights up and the lights on the modem light up to to indicate theres a connection to the pc.

I can't see it being NTL problem here since i can get on the net using USB via the same modem. Although the IPs are different to that of the Ethernet ports


EDIT: Forogt to to say that its a direct connection: PC - Network Cable -Modem. Sorry for my bad explinations, its quite a complex situation to explain

[turkster]

Well did you try switching things around? Try the modem on ethernet connected to the other PC or try setting a static IP temporarily.

You should be able to see wether the port on the Modem is roughly working by plugging a cable direct from PC NIC/onboard LAN to the ethernet port on the modem, then opening network connections in Windows XP and see if that NIC says "connected".

Edit; After reading your posts again it does look like your onboard LAN is dead. You could just make sure it is enabled in BIOS although I doubt thats the problem.

Does your modem work with the PCI NIC then?

[bsodmike]

Yup, seems like your on-board LAN is fried....When you use the PCI NIC can you access the net just fine?

[Dorza]

No, but i do get the connection lights working on both the port and the modem, im guessing its just a matter of config before the net works. This is not the case with the suspected fried port. Normally all the indicator lights are on even before windows boots. Its just dead with the on-board LAN. Its a shame if it is fried (which btw i think it is), its such a convenient port to have built in

If it is fried how come the modem didnt get fried? Or anything else in the system?

[Fatboy]

I'm also getting the "limited connectivity message" with my on-board LAN when trying to connect my desktop and laptop via a crossover cable. The problem is linked to the installation of XP service pack 2 I think - or at least it was all working before I installed it. Might this be the case with you? Googling for "limited connectivity" brings up lots of similar problems.

Incase this helps, here's a link to a site with details on SP2 problems.

http://www.michna.com/kb/WxSP2.htm

Hopefully that should give you the solution.

Just to hijack the thread, with regard to my problems, I've run ipconfig and the IP is now 169.254.... which apparently indicates a winsock corruption. HOWEVER, using the "netsh winsock reset catalog" command nothing changed, I was still showing limited connectivity and unable to ping my laptop from desktop and vice-versa. Another possible fix I have seen is to assign static ip adresses, and when I did this the error message went away - but I am still unable to ping the other computer....but (which really leads me to think that my on-board LAN has died) on my desktop I cannnot ping the ip assigned to it. Could it just be a driver issue? I have got a wireless LAN at home, so it's not critical, just a pain in the arse when I'm trying to move lots of stuff between the computers. Any ideas?

[sophie2611]

Originally Posted by Dorza

Ok ill get straight to it... earlier on down here in SWales we had quite a big thunderstorm and the electric went off for a bit and then came back on. The electric went off when my pc was running. Now the problem is, ever since the power came back on i havent been able to get on the net using the ethernet side of my modem (im with NTL). The front of the modem has a light to indicate weather the modem is communicating with the pc via the network cable. Initially i thought it was a problem with NTL so i waited. Then i thought id try the USB cabe connection instead, and hey presto it worked. So im now wondering if there is still a problem with NTL or weather my ethernet port on my modem has blown. Im guessing its with the modem because there would have been a problem with the POST if it was with my PC (i have onboard LAN). BTW ive waited for about 5 hours before i tried the USB cable.

So could somthing inside my modem have blown or gone wrong, or is it with NTL? I have changed the the ethernet cable to one i havent used, just to rule out any possibility of cable breakage.

My husband has a similar problem at present. Turns out its the ethernet drivers that don't work anymore not the ethernet cable itself. The way to fix is apparantly to uninstall the drivers and reinstall from disc. Let us know how you get on

[Agent]

Thanks for the post sophie2611, but this thread is from 2004

I sure hope he's back online by now

[Jay]

lol

Time warp....