sundance-communications.com/forum Forums VOIP Phones & IP PBX Networking Network Connection

Hey guys, I normally work as a telephone technician, but I have a networking question. I included setting up a small office network with wiring and a new system installation. Managed to get the wiring and phones taken care of. But when I was doing the PC stuff I ran into a glitch. I installed a router and got all of the eight computers online except for one. I know the cabling is good as I can get on with my laptop from the jack.

I have the computer set up to automatically grab an IP address. I have rebooted, turned the fire wall on and off, and visually inspected the network card. I am geting a yellow/gold light but no green. I was thinking about changing out the network card but wanted to see if anyone had any other suggestions first.

Hope I am not showing my lack of expertise too much, any help would be appreciated.

J

Check your wires again, I had a simular problem once and found my laptop is only half duplex so it only used 2 pair and PC was a full duplex that needed all 4 pair.

Have you tried a patch cord right into the switch or router from the computer in question. Did you scan the cables that would rule out the cabling too.

You could try a USB network adapter too.

NIC cards are really cheap, and some of those old drivers were a royal pain. Changing the card might be the shortest path, but before you do you might go check the Device Manager and see what it says about the card. You should also try a ping command to see if you can get to the router. The TCP stack is made up of many layers that load in order. Ping is a very low level test and therefore loads early in the stack.

Where is the device manager? I cannot find it.

Right click on My Computer, then select Properties, Hardware, Device Manager.

Thanks I will give it a try!!!

What type of PC? Many Dell PCs use gold/amber LEDs to indicate a 100Mb link, and you'll only see green on a 10Mb connection. They also use a blinking yellow to indicate activity. Seem strange to me. I always thought of green as being the "Everything is OK" color!

Does the PC get an IP address? Enter "ipconfig" at the command prompt to see what the current settings are.

Lastly, was that PC working fine in its last location? If it has a network card and not a built-in NIC on the motherboard, it may be worth your while to pull the card and reseat it. May have been bumped good during transit.

They were using AOL with dial up before the move so the network card was not being used before the move. I will check the IP config also. It is a Compaq PC. I am going to go out there with another card just in case, but I will reseat the current card first.

Going out there tomorrow I will let you guys know. Thanks Again!

I had one about an hour ago. Drove me nuts. It could see the card, I could remove and reinstall drivers, but could only get a 0.0.0.0 address. I really thought it was a DoS attack. It was working fine the day before, with no configuration changes. Finally decided to crack the case, remove and reseat the card and poof. Everything worked fine.

Go figure. :shrug:

It was a fluke and may not work for you, but if you do remove the card you might take a pink pencil eraser and rub it across both sides of the contacts on the card before reseating it.