Very strange internet connection problem

Factual Questions
1

I’m hoping some of the geniuses here can at least point me in the right direction.

Background: I have a cable modem, two laptops, and a brand spankin’ new Dell desktop. I’m trying to get the Dell desktop working correctly with the internet connection. The other two computers work fine. I have a cable modem. The computers are connected to the cable modem through a switch. I have two IP addresses - one fixed for Mr. Athena, one dynamic, which is the one I’ve been using to try to connect with.

The desktop kind of works. I can get to the internet and get my mail. However, this was purchased as a gaming machine, and the one thing I can’t do is connect to Everquest. Seeing as my old laptop connects just fine through the same connection (ie, I remove the wire from the desktop and plug it into the laptop), I believe it’s a problem with the new desktop.

I talked to EQ tech support, and they narrowed it down to something interfearing with my computer connecting to their servers. I got three addresses from them - two are urls, one is an IP address. I put 'em in a batch file that goes through and pings each one of them.

Most of the time (not always) two of the three ping fine, but one give me ‘Destination net unreachable’. I say ‘most of the time’ because it’s not always. For example, five minutes ago 2 worked, one gave me the unreachable error. Right now, they all work.

If I go to Mr. Athena’s computer, I get through to all 3 addresses, all the time, no problems. If I turn off my new machine and connect up my old machine, it also works. It’s only with the new machine that this happens. I’d say that about 90% of the time, one or more of the pings doesn’t work.

Dell has been very little help, but supposedly some hot tech person is going to try to call me tonight. In the meantime, can anyone else give me any hints as to what to look at? There are no firewalls or anything like that running on this machine. It’s running WinXP.

2

More details please:

You say you have one fixed IP and one dynamic, but you have three computers. Who’s assigning the dynamic I.P.'s?

Is it possible you have the same ip assigned for both the new Dell and the laptop you were switching cables with? I have seen (here at my house) very funny things happen when two machines have the same IP. XP notices it, and complains, LINUX notices it and complains, I don’t know about other O/S’s however.

If you turn off the laptop(s), does the Dell work ok?

Do a Start/Run Command and execute the following at the C: prompt on all your computers:

ipconfig

This will list what the IP address of you network adapter is as well as the default gateway and network mask. Check these with the other computers. Also check for correct DNS configuration under the network control panel. It should be the same as the other Dynamic-IP machine.

One last question: One machine has a fixed IP, do the other two machines belong to the same network (similar looking IP and identical network masks, e.g.: 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.02 with a netmask of 255.255.255.0 belong to the same class C network).

3

Maybe it’s the ICS (internet connection sharing). Or if you’re behind a router. That’s been known to mess EQ (and Direct Connet) servers.

Oh, and everything that is Win9x is winipcfg

4

I’m not a windows geek and you don’t mention what OS you’re using so I’m just throwing this out for consideration.
My folks had a similar issue with a recently purchased a computer that was preloaded with XP. Turns out there was some kind of Norton firewall stuff that was interfering with their net connection. If you loaded the OS yourself than I don’t know what else to check. I only do unix.

5

The new desktop will replace one of the laptops, therefore at any one time there are only 2 computers connected to my internet account.

Basically, I can run my laptop and get through to EQ. I then turn off the laptop and physically move the cable from the laptop to the new desktop. I also turn the cable modem on and off because it gets very, very confused if you change machines without cycling the cable modem’s power. I then turn the desktop on, and I can’t ping the same servers that the laptop pinged just fine.

This is WinXP. I’ve turned off every norton thing I can find, as well as turning off XPs built-in firewall. I’ve gone so far as to find each of these in the Service dialog and disabled them there as well.

Still no go.
I’m not behind a router.

6

It could be a routing issue. The XP system doesn’t know where to sent packets that aren’t bound for the local network?
is the XP system getting all its’ routing info from the dhcp server ?
If you go into the network settings for the card, what is it using for the WINS /DNS ?
do an ipconfig /all on both the XP system and the laptop and compare.

7

OK, I did an ipconfig /all on both machines. It’s hard to do a direct comparison, but here’s what I can see is different:

Node Types: The one that works is set to Broadcast. The other is Hybrid.

The physical addresses are different.

Both have DHCP Enabled

Different IP addresses, subnet masks, gateways. Same DHCP server.

What’s the node type thing mean?

8

Another interesting tidbit: I get through various parts of the login process differently depending on which slot (and thus which IRQ) the network card is installed in. Interestingly enough, I get furthest along when it’s sharing an IRQ with the video card - a configuration EQ says should cause problems.

Weird.

9

The only time I’ve seen the node type referenced is when configuring a wireless network. Are you using a wireless card and router? If not, it looks like your XP box is trying to configure one. Wireless network cards have to be told what kind of network they’re on. Standard ethernet uses broadcast and this is probably what your card should be set to. The subnet masks isn’t that important but it’s simplest to have them match. The gateways should match. They should be specifying your cable modem’s private IP as the gateway.

10

No wireless network. How do I change the node type?

11

Ever thought about buying a router and cancelling your second IP address? With a router you can hook up as many PCs as you want (within reason) and never have to move a cable or reset your cable modem again. The router becomes the static or DCHp address for your cable modem and the router then sets up DCHP addresses with all the PCs in your house.

Since most routers come with a build-in switch, you can also benefit from sharing data and printer(s) among all your PCs.

12

Yes, I’ve thought of buying a router - probably wireless - but until I get the #!!@# thing working with a switch and wires, I ain’t changing the setup at all.

One problem at a time!

13

I’m not sure what the steps are in XP but try clicking on your network card and go to properties -> configure -> advanced. The really strange thing is that the node type shouldn’t even apply if the network card is not a wireless device. The node type isn’t your biggest problem though. Make sure they are using the same gateway. go into the network card properties, highlight tcpip click on properties and make sure both ip and dns are set by dhcp and go into advanced settings and make sure the dns/wins stuff is empty. then try run the commands ipconfig /release and then ipconfig /renew and check the settings again.

14

OK I decided to check my own settings and my laptop has a node type hybrid and the desktop has broadcast so it shouldn’t be an issue with your setup either.

15

OK, I checked all that. I also set up the default gateway to be identical to the one that my old machine uses. Still no luck.

Maybe we should take this from a different stance. Given that we know the problem is not in the internet connection, switch, or cable modem, what would cause one particular computer to repeatedly not be able to connect to certain IP addresses, but work fine with others?

16

I appear to have it fixed. Thanks to everyone who helped. Interestingly enough, it appears to be the network card. I went out and bought a new network card, installed it, and everything now works perfectly. Same exact settings as the old one.

No thanks to Dell, of course. I’m still waiting on a callback from them. They continually gave me the “it’s not OUR problem” thing until I told them that they had two choices - fix this problem, or give me an RA number so I can return the machine.

You’d think that something like a fault network card would not be beyond their abilities to diagnose and fix, but I guess it is.

17

Network problems can be extremely thorny. If it fails to work completely, fine. What give people headaches are these intermittent problems.