Argh! Internet connection not working

Right, let me explain.

Have just switched ISP from BT to Telewest, when on BT i had everything set up fine, networking my PC to a few others through a Netgear DG834 with individual IPs on each computer for port forwarding etc... Now plan on using the supplied Motorola surfboard 5100 from telewest to supply the net connection to both PCs for the time being (by simply swapping the network cable over on the back of the modem for whichever PC needs the net at the time) until i can get hold of a new cable router (see thread in connection forum) I ran through the set up process with inserting the blueyonder disc on this PC (sod's law, it's not mine) and everything has set up fine. The IP details have reverted back to obtaining IP/DNS addresses automatically. and all is working.

But the problem is that on my PC this isn't working, when it's going through the blueyonder installer set up and trying to do a DHCP renew it encounters a connection error saying "blueyonder installer could not renew the IP address for your network adaptor (DHCP)....check your cables....blah de blah blah" The only way i've manage to get around this is to go into the internet protocol properties for my connection and manually change the IP details and DNS server details from search automatically to the same details as this PC so that it knows exactly where to look for the cable modem. Once i've done this the Blueyonder installer doesn't kick up the connection error message and goes onto asking me to restart my PC, i click ok, the PC restarts and then the installer kicks back in to carry on where it left off, but everytime the internet protocol properties have gone back to obtain automatically and the installer kicks up the same connection error as before, unless i change the properties back again to manual and put in the details. In which case the installer then asks to restart the PC again and i'm in a damn circle. :mad:


I'm out of ideas here.
Please anyone, any ideas?


Bres

You don't say which OS on the machine, but is the DHCP Client service running?

Any firewall running on this PC that could be dropping UDP packets on port 67 or 68?

(If BY Cable modems are as they were two years ago)

You need to register each MAC address with BY, though their self-care site. You also need to reset the modem in between changes (which used to mean turning it off for 30mins for the firmware to forget its settings) so it can obtain a new MAC. This does really suck for sharing purposes. You're right to have the machine set to DHCP, it'll get that (and other traffic) once the machines MAC is registered. Your new router should let you spoof the MAC too, once it comes to setting that up.

Good point, running XP pro, DHCP is set to enabled, and i've tried running it with and without the firewalls on but still no joy. I'm just about to check out the self-care site now.

cheers,
Bres

:edit: Couldn't find anything on the self care site but did find this, http://www.blueyonder.co.uk/blueyond...odem#question1 which kind of explains why i didn't find anything there.

Just tried it and it didn't work, but i may not have given it long enough when powered off for it to reset, i'll try again later after work.

You don't need the install disc at all.

Telewest did away with registering the mac address of the nic or the modem (if using usb) some time ago, but the modem locks to the mac address of the network card in your pc until you reboot the cable modem.

All you need to do is power off your pc and the modem. Connect the network cable to the pc. Power on the cable modem. Wait a couple of minutes for it to boot up. Then boot your pc. By default Windows should be set to dhcp unless you've changed it. If you have specified an ip change it back to 'obtain an IP address automatically' and 'obtain dns automatically'. From there it should work. To change pcs, repeat as above.

I see you're using an adsl modem/router, and as you said it won't work with cable connections, but a basic switch will.

When you get your switch do the following: Switch everything off. Connect the cable modem to the switch's wan port. Connect your pcs to the lan ports. Power up the cable modem. Wait. Power up the switch. Wait. Power up the pcs, and it should all work (assuming the switch is set to dhcp on the lan side too). If you've specified ips on your pcs, simply add them to your switch first)

This is how my switch and pcs are setup.
Cable modem wan IP (your modem's external ip): Doesn't matter
Switch's lan ip is 192.168.0.1
Pc's ips are 192.168.02 (03/04 etc, depending on how many pcs you have), subnet 255.255.255.0, default gateway (the switch's lan ip) 192.168.0.1), DNS (same as default gateway) 192.168.0.1) That's it.

Good luck.

Oh, and don't install PC Guard if they've sent it to you.

PPS Telewest hardly ever change your ip, I've had the same external ip for months, which has it's advantages. :)

Damn it, it's still not working, even reset the thing for an hour whilst watching top gear and it still didnt work. Think i'm going to give up and just order a router/switch tonight and be done with it. Any suggestions for something decent? tempted to go with Netgear again as have had no problems with my current one. Feel free to leave suggestions, i'm going to have a search around later when i get back from work.


Cheers for all the help by the way guys.

Bres

Hmmm, if the DHCP Client service is running, the interface is set to auto-configure TCP/IP settings, TCP/IP is bound to the interface and there is no firewall on the machine... try taking a network trace on the interface when it is attempting to obtain IP settings.

http://www.ethereal.com/distribution/win32/
Install this, including PCap and take a capture of the traffic - what you are interested in is UDP port 67 and 68 traffic.

When viewing the log, set the filter to "bootp" and it should show you what is going on.
If you need to know what it should look like, repeat the same on the working PC.

Hmmm, not quite sure how exactly but i've got it working at last. I'd gone through a few things i'd found via google with no joy, and i don't think any of them really had anything to do with it eventually working. It was when i was going through what Paul suggested above with ethereal etc.. i downloaded it on the pc that was working and ran it as suggested, all worked fine. As the pc that is getting internet connection is a rather old 800mhz P3 with just a cd-rom drive i had no way of getting the program from the pc i'd downloaded it with and onto my pc without reconnecting the network back up with the DG834 (was easier than directly connecting them). So i set it back up with file sharing and each pc was assigned an Ip by the router, got the file and installed it. All this time i had had the motorola modem turned off at the mains (thought i might aswell try, wasn't using it at the time) turned the modem on, let it get ready, started ethereal capturing and plugged in the network cable. Low and behold, the bloody thing actually connected to the dhcp server and was assigned an IP that works. Praise the Lord!!!


Just looking at a new router now. As i said before, i'm happy with netgear. Also all the PCs are already wired so don't really need wireless, which kind of limits my options down to just the RP614 which to me just looks the same as my old DG834 but without the Adsl modem built in. Would you guys agree with that or have i missed something? Likewise would it be that the WGR614 is just the wireless version of the RP614. The reason i mention it is that the WGR614 is actually cheaper on Ebuyer than the RP614

Just click the links to see more

:edit: been doing some more looking into available routers and i may be going with something like this asus

p.s. sorry about any grammar, spelling or punctuation issues, i should be asleep.


cheers guys

Bres