Troubleshooting NICs

[Social Enemy]

I'm troubleshooting a network connectivity issue right now (all this is over the phone, so I'm not actually in front of the computer) and I can't get this NIC to see an outside host. Customer has it connected to a cable modem. The cable modem was already proven working and good through their ISP. The system is a 98se system. I can ping the loopback, which doesn't give me much other than TCP/IP is installed. When trying to ping an outside host I get "request time out". I've tried all the basic stuff by removing NIC drivers, remove TCP/IP settings and reinstalling those, release and renew TCP/IP settings.. Still same thing. Is there another utility or test I can perform (short of a format) to see if this is possibly a configuration problem rather then a bad NIC (since we only cover hardware, not software). Thanks for any help.

[Matridom]

Originally posted by Social Enemy
I'm troubleshooting a network connectivity issue right now (all this is over the phone, so I'm not actually in front of the computer) and I can't get this NIC to see an outside host. Customer has it connected to a cable modem. The cable modem was already proven working and good through their ISP. The system is a 98se system. I can ping the loopback, which doesn't give me much other than TCP/IP is installed. When trying to ping an outside host I get "request time out". I've tried all the basic stuff by removing NIC drivers, remove TCP/IP settings and reinstalling those, release and renew TCP/IP settings.. Still same thing. Is there another utility or test I can perform (short of a format) to see if this is possibly a configuration problem rather then a bad NIC (since we only cover hardware, not software). Thanks for any help.

OK, there are a lot of things you need to check.

First, 2 computers connected... router or switch?

What IP addresses are they getting? Public? (from the ISP?) or private? (192.168.x.x)?

IF it's a router, does the router have an IP address from the ISP?

IF it's a switch, have you ordered more IPs?

What you need to realy determin is what device has the IP address from the service provider, from there, we work down the network and get everything working.

Answer those questions, and we'll see from there

[silencio]

I dont have any trouble shooting NICs. Just slap a big bullseye on the back of them and blast away!

Actually, there could be a diagnostic application from the NIC manufacturer. Intel has their own diagnostics that can be installed. 3Com probably has them too. Dollars to donuts the guy is using patch cable when it should be a crossover (or vice versa).

[Chris_MacMahon]

no have you done like a tracert, see if you are getting outside of the network...

an nslookup see if you are getting dns info

if you had a good nic w/ bad ip then you would recive destination host unreachable..

[Social Enemy]

Matridom: Well, the EU has the nic going to a cable modem.. From there I'm unsure where the cable modem goes. I'll try to get how the system gets the IP address and respond back with it.


silencio: It's a NIC that came pre installed in a compaq, so I'll check there web site out here in a minute to see what type of NIC is in there and see if they have any downloadable utilities I can request the customer to get (but since customer can't get out to internet, fat chance on that)


Chris_MacMahon: from tracert I get: "unable to resolve target system name XXXXXX" (from the address I tried to do); I doubt it's a crossover cable, since he's using 98, I can't use nslookup.


What about the winsock files being corrupted? Would that cause something like this? Also, I'm wonder if the customer has some screwed up setting on some firewall they downloaded and installed and just not telling me about. Well, I"ll try a few more times to fix it and if no go, then I guess I'll just do a restore. Thanks for all the replies.

[geoscomp]

While troubleshooting the cable modem, have him call the cable company and get the sas server id, then check and see if you can log onto that. If you can't, the trouble is either the nic or the cable connecting it..if you can then the trouble is at the isp end

[silencio]

Originally posted by Social Enemy


silencio: It's a NIC that came pre installed in a compaq, so I'll check there web site out here in a minute to see what type of NIC is in there and see if they have any downloadable utilities I can request the customer to get (but since customer can't get out to internet, fat chance on that)

The newer compaqs have intel 10/100 pro chipsets (I think i've got that name right..)

[Matridom]

Originally posted by Social Enemy
Matridom: Well, the EU has the nic going to a cable modem.. From there I'm unsure where the cable modem goes. I'll try to get how the system gets the IP address and respond back with it.

OK, so what's going on ( i think) is this...


1. only one computer will connect to the cable modem and get a public IP address. This computer will have no issues getting onto the internet

The other computers, unable to get a public IP address from the services provider will use APIPA (169.254.X.X IP address), these computers should be able to talk to each other. but since you only have two.. they won't communicate.

What your going to need to do is setup a proper home network. The easy way is to get a home gateway/router, otherwise, your going to have to get 2 nics on one computer, and use something like ICS to share the IP's. You could also of course order an additional IP from the ISP.