Can't see networked computer or access net

[stroebs]

I am doing this on behalf of a friend as i have tried fixing the problem and have had no success. My friend has an on-board LAN controller and it was working perfectly and I formatted his PC and put Vista x64 on it and everything was working fine. When he came back from a two week holiday, his on-board LAN was not working at all. The device was there but he cannot access the internet or see other computer on a LAN or see any LAN games we've hosted etc. I have installed the right software, redid the BIOS, reinstalled XP, reinstalled Vista and still nothing.

Any ideas anybody?

 

[sn3rd]

Probably a blown controller.

But before jumping to conclusions...
1) Does the controller accept DHCP assigned addresses?
2) In an ad-hoc connection (crossover from NIC to NIC), does assigning correct addresses provide connectivity?
3) Does the onboard NIC have LED indicators? If so, what do they show? (i.e. green, orange, flashing lights?)

 

[bekdik]

Fro cmd prompt, run ipconfig /release followed by ipconfig /renew on the broken pc

 

[davemc]

From my experience with ethernet networking:
1. Is the light on at the switch/hub/router indicating which port his cable is plugged into?
2. Is the light on at the back of his computer indicating a connection (usually an orange light) ?

No to either of these = try a different port in the hub/switch/router.
If different port did not work, try a different cable, his cable may be damaged.
If different cable did not work, try installing a different network card in his computer.

The rest of these points assume that the lights on his computer's network card work and that the light on the hub/router/switch for his port shine brightly.

3. Does his computer have an ip address? (Command prompt : Type in ipconfig)

No : Try going into network settings -> network card -> properties -> tcpip and a assign his computer an ip address manually.

4. Is his ip address within range of the other computers on the network's ip address?

e.g. If your computer is 192.168.0.3, then his ip address must be 192.168.0.4 or 5 or 6 or 7 or ... 254.
or
e.g. If your computer is 10.0.0.3, then his ip address must be 10.0.0.4 or 5 or 6 or 7 or ... 254.

If it is not, then manually give his computer an ip address of the correct range.

5. Are all computers using the same TCPIP default gateway?

6. Are all computers allowing Netbios over TCP?

This setting will allow computer names to be identified a lot easier by other computers on the network in the absense of a domain controller.

7. Try disabling his firewall.

8. Try disabling your firewall at the same time as step 7.

If this does not help, well, I pretty much give up. Good luck though.

 

[gregmcc]

Try ping 127.0.0.1 - if you get a reply the tcpip stack is working. Then ping the ip address of the local machine. Next ping the IP of the router. If any of these fail it could be a NIC/cable problem - or you have a firewall enabled.

 

[Nameite]

If u say it was working before and then after the holiday it stopped working...only possibly be lightning.

Did anyone else use his pc while he was gone?

Software dont usually break when the pc is off

 

[ponder]

Did Vista do an update by any chance?

You could always test the LAN port (hardware) by using something like a Linux LiveCD.

 

[Snekko]

Yea firstly are there any lights ?? And was there any lighning in the area if the PC was connected to anything while he was on holiday ??

For the Internet - Are there any DNS setting you have not entered, does the router have DHCP enabled.

In a LAN do you have XP & he Vista ?? Sure there is some visibility issues with the two. It should work fine at least one way though. Have you shared any files ?? You may need to do this to get onto any type of network.....change both machine to be on the same network & are the IP addresses configured correctly ??