home network problems

Lampwick · #1 Sep 4, 2006, 05:35 AM

I can not get my two home computers to link up since i have returned from a 2 month holiday. I have a computer downstairs hooked up to broadband and an ethernet cable running upstairs which links the two and usually works fine. Now all i can get is the little computers with a yellow exclamation mark saying "limited or no connectivity" I've tried everything on windows helpdesk and have run network wizard but no luck yet. something about failing to renew my ip address. i'm no wizard at computers so i don't even know what this means!

please help!

Curlyben · Sep 4, 2006, 05:46 AM

Check all you cables, by removing them and reseating.
Make sure all of your networking gear is correctly plugged in and has power.
make sure you modem is corretcly connected both to the computer and to the phone line.

This sounds like a physical network issue rather than a software problem.

cajalat · Sep 4, 2006, 06:05 AM

If you have the two computers connected directly to each other via an ethernet cable then I would expect the yellow exclamation mark to appear. This is normal as neither of your PC's is acting as a DHCP server. Your two computers are probably talking to each other already but on a different set of "default" IP's. See if you can do this at least:

Start a command window on each of the computers and type the following:
ipconfig /all

I'm assuming you're running Windows XP/2000. If you're running other versions of Windows then click start, run, WINIPCFG and hit enter. Please report back those settings.

Lampwick · Sep 4, 2006, 06:23 AM

thanks for th suggestions but no luck with either

cajalat · Sep 4, 2006, 06:25 AM

Can you post the result of the IPCONFIG /ALL commands?

Lampwick · Sep 4, 2006, 06:25 AM

on the command screen for host computer is says no ip routing enabled and no default gateway if that means anything

cajalat · Sep 4, 2006, 06:37 AM

ok, I'm trying to help you out by troubleshooting the problem with you. I'm asking for the output of both computer's IPCONFIG /ALL for a reason.

Go to each computer and issue the IPCONFIG /ALL command. You can issue that command by clicking on the START menu, choose RUN, type CMD and hit enter. This will display a new window for you with a command prompt. Then type IPCONFIG /ALL at that prompt and hit enter. There should be some output information there. If you can cut/paste that information here or retype here then that's a great start.

Lampwick · Sep 4, 2006, 07:00 AM

Here is the Host computer

C:\DOCUME~1\TERRY>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : terry-home
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : SiS 900-Based PCI Fast Ethernet Adap
ter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0D-87-96-7C-E8
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.24.254
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

PPP adapter Wanadoo Broadband:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-53-45-00-00-00
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 84.65.172.118
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 84.65.172.118
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 195.92.195.95
195.92.195.94

and the upstairs computer

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : pullen upstairs
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : mixed
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : realtek rtl8139 810x family fast ethernet nic
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-E0-4D-07-CE-10
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.180.250
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :192.168.0.1

its all greek to me mate but hopefully it should explain something.

thanks for your time

cajalat · Sep 4, 2006, 07:10 AM

Excellent. This helps get us to the next step. Now do this and tell me what kind of response you get:

On the "terry-home" computer do this:
Start a command window again (i.e. START, RUN, CMD) and type this:
PING 169.254.180.250

Tell me what you get? If the connection between the two computers is physically ok then you should see something like this:

Reply from 169.254.180.250: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 169.254.180.250: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64

Pinging 169.254.180.250 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 169.254.180.250: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 169.254.180.250: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 169.254.180.250: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 169.254.180.250: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 169.254.180.250:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

Curlyben · Sep 4, 2006, 07:11 AM

OK it looks like your internet connection sharing (ICS) has been disabled on Terry-Home.
Double click the network icon in the system tray > Properties button > advanced tab.
Here's a pic for you:

Make sure ICS is enabled

[Cajalat: Don't forget 169.254.x.x addresses are unroutable, windows default IP setup]



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