My brother built me a new computer.
Freshly installed Windows XP Pro w/ SP2. Gigabyte GA-MA790X-DS4 motherboard with built in Realtek RTL8168/8111 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC.
Comcast cable internet.
When I connect the network cable, the green and amber lights at the connection light up. Windows attempts to establish a connection, but gets no response. I attempted to repair the connection but it didn’t work and it told me to contact my system administrator. I Unistalled and re-installed the driver, but still no luck. After sitting on hold with Comcast for an hour, I gave up and hoped someone here, with all the computer knowledge much greater than mine, could help. So what can I try next?
Did you get any instructions from Comcast, or were you on hold the whole time? The first thing to do is reboot your cable modem. Power the computer down first, then unplug the power from the cable modem for at least 30 seconds. Plug it back in and wait for it to come up completely. Then restart the computer.
What model of cable modem are you using?
Are you getting any sort of IP address? Open a command prompt window (Start, Run, cmd) and enter ipconfig.
If the IP starts 169.xxx.xxx.xxx, you have a completely useless “APIPA” adress that Windows will self-assign if it can’t get a real address. This could be anything from a bad network driver on down to a bad Cat-5 cable.
If the IP starts 192.168.xxx.xxx, you’ve got a good address from your router, and the issue’s probably between the router and the cable modem.
Pretty much anything else, and probably having the first digit be a 2, as in 2xx.xxx.xxx.xxx probably means you got an IP from Comcast.
I don’t think the OP is using a router - sounds like he/she is connected directly to the modem.
Did you pay your bill? Seriously, this happened to me not to long ago. BTW, a quick way to get to tech support is to act like you’re paying a bill. I hardly ever need comcast support, but if I do, they seem to pick up quickly if they think you’re going to give them money.
YMMV
I came in to ask the same question. Make sure you have valid internet service!
Restarting the cable modem fixed the problem. Apparently the specific modem I have need to be unplugged for 30 sec to reboot. Thanks for the info everyone!
And yes, I was on hold with Comcast for the better part of 2 hours without talking to anyone. I hate Comcast, but they are the only option for cable/internet in my area. I should have been more specific in my original question. I have a laptop that I was using as my primary computer, but now I’ve replaced it. I didn’t know that I had to reset the cable modem when switching the computers. Thanks again for the assistance everyone!