Home Network Woes :\

As of two days ago both computers in the house were connected to the net just fine. Both were connected to the router and we had no network setup at the time. Well, I guess I got greedy and wanted to start sharing documents between computers. This is when the trouble started.

I went ahead and went to the windows tool to setup a home network. It worked just fine for the downstairs PC... which is hardwired to the router. As I continued to setup the network on the upstairs computer (wireless connection) everything bonked! The netgear connection manager shows me as having a strong connection but I am unable to connect to anything that requires the internet. Even more weird is the fact that on the "connection status" for my adapter, it shows tons of bits being sent but nothing being received. WTF m8? I try to repair the connection but it gives some malarkey about how the ip address could not be found, or something like that.

So here I am on the downstairs computer which is, again, hardwired to the router. Any tips? Internet matters are my weak spot.

/bump

This is ridiculous. I really can't find any remedy to my problem. I have tried absolutely everything. Please help.

When I try to renew my adapter in cmd, it says that there was an error. It claims the DHCP server cannot be reached.


???

I'll take a stab at this since no one else has. Consider reinstalling the drivers for your network adapter in the problem computer.

I don't know if this is a driver problem, but it is a bit unclear. What model of Router do you have? Whats your setup?

And how was it configured before? I would ensure that the DHCP server is up on the router, and then set both network cards to look for an IP. If you check your current IP now, it should be something like 169.x.x.x (if I remember apipa addresses right). That would mean that Windows isn't finding the DHCP server, and assinging a random, arbitrary IP address in the hopes that it just might work.

Have you tried looking at what IP address you have on the hard wired comp and then hard coding the IP Addy and Subnet Mask in the wireless one? Might also need to hard code a DNS server.

For basic filesharing you wouldn't need DNS, only a unique IP, a subnet and the gateway (address of the router). IF you want internet, you need to find out the IPs of the DNS servers on your ISP and use those.

Cheator
His first sentence stated that both computers were on the "net".

As of two days ago both computers in the house were connected to the net just fine.

Click to expand...

That's why I suggested he put in a DNS server.

Check the router settings and make sure "obtain DHCP auto" is checked. IF not, it's waiting for you to assign the addresses.

Also, always set a restore point before fooling around so you can roll it back if it doesn't work as desired.

Also, windows SP2 has a nifty wireless conection set up wizard (please read the implied sacarsm in the preceding) that HAS to be done now in order for the wireless to work correctly.

mrgreenjeans said:

Also, windows SP2 has a nifty wireless conection set up wizard (please read the implied sacarsm in the preceding) that HAS to be done now in order for the wireless to work correctly.

Click to expand...

It is quite nifty indeed . But you don't HAVE to use it. I took a class in WNetworking. We used CISCO Aironet products and they came with a utility that could monitor it and help you set it up. Just go to your WNic properties, click "Wireless Networks" and uncheck the "Use Windows to configure my wireless network settings". Then just use whatever other utility to have, but if you don't have one, I'd suggest using the Windows one, it gets the job done, at least.

sounds like the windows "wizard" screwed you up.

all you need to do is have both pc's set for DHCP, and make sure your router is acting as a DHCP server. when the router hands out the ip addresses to your two pcs, they will at this point be on the same subnet. this is all that is required to share files between the two(that and authentication between the two)

what operating systems are you running on these two machines?

what is your current ip configuration for each of these machines?

give us the entire layout of your network and we can help you fix the problem

Well, the problem is fixed... for now. I went ahead and did a release and renew on the router. I also went ahead with disabling the WEP security. I am not sure if that is wise, but I am getting almost no dropped signals atm The only thing id liked to do now is how to enable file sharing

Oh yea, ty for all your help in the previous posts. I was running on empty.

Hokay, here is the layout of my "network". One comp upstairs connects wirelessly to the router. Another comp is downstairs and it is connected to the router via ethernet cable. Those are the only two PCs in the house. When I try to setup the home network on the upstairs comp, it is pretty easy. I select all the correct options (this computer connects through a router or hub to get internet) and boom, bam, boom, it's done. The downstairs one is a bit of a pain, however. The downstairs comp has two ethernet ports. I guess the purpose of this is if you have two comps fairly close together. I used it when they were both in the same room. Now, however, the two ethernet ports seem to complicate things in the network setup. It always mentions something like "There is an existing shared connection" or "Want to bridge this connection?" I am sure it is just a matter of sorting out technical terms and making sense of them. With that being said, I'll go ahead and give it a couple more whacks. Thx guys.