Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Need Internet connection help.

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Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 02-02-2012, 11:02 AM:

Here's the situation. My computer is hard wired to the router. When I try to connect via Opera or IE I get a massage (not from a Chinese girl) that says "Could Not Locate Remote Server". The other computers in the house which are all wireless (same router) connect just fine. On my computer nothing has been changed or installed, no wires moved. It worked at 3 a.m., then when I woke up at 6 a.m. no connection. I turned everything off and restarted, system restore to a few days ago, same result. The only thing I haven't done is hard wire the computer directly to the modem. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Rick

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 02-02-2012, 01:47 PM:

1) Reboot the router (especially if your IP address is something like 169.254.x.x as that tells you that DHCP is failing).
2) Try running "ping 127.0.0.1" from the command-line. If it fails, your network adapter is broken and needs replacing.
3) Try running "ping gentoo.org" and if it fails run "ping 89.16.167.134". If the latter works, while the former fails, then your DNS server is bad. A common solution is to change your DNS server to manual and put in "8.8.8.8" and "8.8.4.4" in its place (these servers are google's public DNS). Of course, you'd also want to bitch and moan to your ISP that their not giving you a working DNS server...
3) Might be that the port you attached it to on the router has gone bad. Hook it up to a different one.
4) Also could be a problem with the wire. Try swapping it out.
5) Could also be a problem with having malware of some sort installed, although that's less likely with having done a system restore but if your IP addresses are correct and you can ping sites, you'd want to look into it.

And there's the possibility that the site you're going to is down...

Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 02-03-2012, 06:48 AM:

One other suggestion is run "ipconfig" from the "cmd" window when the computer is in the failed mode. Whether or not you have an IP address will point you in the right direction.

Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 02-06-2012, 01:42 PM:

o.k. nothing has worked. I hooked up the laptop directly to the modem which I know is working because my blu ray and the other computers work. I changed ethernet cables. The wireless works from the router on the other computers, I can't seem to turn on my wireless on my computer (I'm not sure where to look). I tried Pinging it like Chris said, just got the instant "could not locate server"

Rick, can you please explain more? I am running XP Home Edition 2002
Service Pack 3.3

Since my computer is the one hardwired to the router, could another computer send it a virus ( from home). My Mom uses AOL and always has about 5000 emails, I have received a few from her but I delete them right away and ask her why she is sending me mail when I am 100 feet away, she says she didn't. She constantly sits at her computer and checks out sites she sees on FOX NEWS and then clicks on all the links on every page.

For now, I'm down and out. Just getting online when I can find an open computer.

Check back Later, Rick

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 02-06-2012, 02:29 PM:

Are you online at all? Open a temrminal window (run - cmd)

STEP ONE
--------
Type this:

ping 8.8.8.8

Does it give you a ping time that looks something like this:

quote:
PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=52 time=64.7 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=2 ttl=52 time=65.1 ms

If so, then you're actually online.

STEP TWO
--------
If Step One worked, type this:

ping google.com

You should see an output that looks something like this:

quote:
PING google.com (173.194.33.50) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from sea09s02-in-f18.1e100.net (173.194.33.50): icmp_seq=1 ttl=55 time=93.2 ms
64 bytes from sea09s02-in-f18.1e100.net (173.194.33.50): icmp_seq=2 ttl=55 time=92.6 ms
64 bytes from sea09s02-in-f18.1e100.net (173.194.33.50): icmp_seq=3 ttl=55 time=93.3 ms

If Step One didn't work, type this:

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

Go back to Step One.

If Step One still doesn't work, type this:

netsh winsock reset catalog

Then do

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

again.

Go back to Step One
-----------------------
If Step One works but Step Two doesn't work, go to Control Panel>Network Connections and select your local network. Click Properties, then select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Click Properties. Select "Use the following DNS server addresses" and enter the following numbers into the space provided:

Preferred DNS server 8.8.8.8
Aternate DNS Server 8.8.4.4

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 02-06-2012, 03:19 PM:

quote: Richard Hamilton
I tried Pinging it like Chris said, just got the instant "could not locate server"

Rick, can you please explain more? I am running XP Home Edition 2002
Service Pack 3.3

??? The ping command doesn't give the output you are saying it did. Did you actually run the ping from the command-line or did you instead open up a browser?

Posted by David Buckley (Member # 2600) on 02-06-2012, 09:00 PM:

First off, click Start, Control Panel, and double click network connections. Locate the "Local Area Connection" icon, and right click on it. Click repair.

When its done, try your PC again. If it works, great. if not...

Rick's suggestion is the best one - open a command window.

On Xp, click Start, Run..., and then type in cmd and click OK. Window will open, which will have a command prompt ending in a >

Type in ipconfig and hit enter.

After a bit some text will appear. You noted you are hard wired, not wireless, so you should get something like this:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\David>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

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

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : something
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : some numbers
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : X.X.X.X
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : X.X.X.X
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : X.X.X.X
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : X.X.X.X
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : Y.Y.Y.Y
Y.Y.Y.Y
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : date
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : date

C:\Documents and Settings\David></i>

You may have more than one of these sections if you have multiple ethernet ports or wireless networking.

Now if you just get a line that says media disconnected or soemthing then you have a cabling, hardware or driver problem.

For your system to work, you need to have an IP address, a subnet mask (which if the IP address starts 192.168, the subnet mask will probably be 255.255.255.0) and one or more DNS server entries.

If the print looks like the page above, then look what your default router is, note its address (say its 192.168.43.1), then try this:

ping 192.168.43.1

and hit enter. You should get

C:\Documents and Settings\David>ping 192.168.43.1

Pinging 192.168.43.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.43.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.43.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.43.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.43.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=255

Ping statistics for 192.168.43.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 2ms, Average = 0ms

C:\Documents and Settings\David>

SO thats all good, you can get as far as your router. If you get

C:\Documents and Settings\David>ping 192.168.43.1

Pinging 192.168.43.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 192.168.43.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

C:\Documents and Settings\David>

Then either the address of your router is wrong, or something is busted in connectivity terms.

Come back with what happened.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 02-06-2012, 09:06 PM:

Everyone is missing the simplest potental issue:

Is the physical connection to the desktop computer working? this means that you need to confirm that the link indicator light on both the network card and the hub/switch/router is on and/or blinking; if not, then nothing will work until the cable/card/switch port is fixed. If this is the case, then the likely culprit is a bad cable or connector.

A related possibility (which could cause the link to fail) is that automatic speed negotiation has failed or is misconfigured; to troubleshoot this, you can force both the switch port and network card to the lowest common speed and duplex (e.g. 10Mbps/half) and see if the link indicator lights.

If the physical and link-layer status is good, then the next step is to verify the IP configuration, which others have indicated above.

The next step is to verify that DNS is operating correctly, as discussed above.

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 02-06-2012, 09:24 PM:

Even simpler is to make sure the network card hasn't been disabled. Start>Settings>Network Connections. Right click on the LAN connection and make sure it says "Disable" in the menu and not "Enable".

If your router has more than one wired LAN ports, have you tried moving the cord to a different port?

Open a command window (Start > Run >type "CMD" in the box). Try ipconfig /release. Followed by ipconfig /renew.

It might also be worthwhile to hard code the IP address for your computer. Start>Settings>Network Connections. Right click on the LAN connection and select properties. Select "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" from the list and then click properties. Select "Use the following IP Address" and then enter something in the range of your router - often something like 192.168.0.2 or 192.168.1.2 will be fine (the first three octets should be the same as your router/gateway). The subnet mask should automatically select to 255.255.255.0. Set the default gateway to the same address as your router (ie 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1).

Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 02-13-2012, 11:03 AM:

Sorry for the delayed response. I've pretty much given up and will do without until I can get the local guy who set it up come and look at it. I don't want to mess up the other computers. He set all 3 computers up about 3 or 4 months ago and made changes to all of the settings on all computers.

When I do an IPCONFIG I get this
ip address 192.168.1.117
subnetmask 255.255.255.0
default gateway 192.168.1.1

When I ping Google, It is not recognized.

When I ping 8.8.8.8 I get something similar to what Frank posted.

Changed cables and hooked directly to the modem, no luck.

It's actually kind of relaxing being out of the "loop". I canceled my cell phone last year.

Later,
Rick

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 02-13-2012, 11:15 AM:

If you can ping that IP address and get a response, then your computer is actually online. The problem is that your DNS settings are either missing or wrong.

DNS is the service that matches a URL (like www.film-tech.com) to an IP address (like 71.164.246.103).

Follow the instructions that I posted earlier to set your computer to use Google's public DNS server and you should be up and running.

Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 02-13-2012, 12:34 PM:

Thanks, I will try it tonight and hopefully post results from my own computer.

Rick

Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 02-14-2012, 09:46 AM:

OK. I'm back online. Confused, but onlin. I spent aver an hour on the phone with the intenet/cable provider. She was running tests and said I have a very good cable connection, she reset set it over the phone. She agreed it was a computer problem. I unplugged everything while I was on the phone with her and waited a few minutes and plugged everything back in. No luck. She talked me through a bunch of changes on my laptop, but nothing worked.

A few hours later I found out we lost all wireless connections in the house. I tried to redo everything, no luck. I did a couple system restores to different dates, no luck. I finally gave up out of frustration and turned everything off. This morning when I power up, still no luck, I do a system restore to the last one I did yesterday and everything works, including my computer.

I rarely turn my computer off and always leave the modem and router on.

Thanks for all the advice,
Rick

Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 02-14-2012, 03:58 PM:

Glad you are back online.

"Changed cables and hooked directly to the modem, no luck."

Next time (hopefully there won't be a next time) be sure to do "ipconfig/release" followed by "ipconfig/renew" when you move the PC cable from the router to the modem.

You need to do that because the PC had an IP address supplied by the router. Since the PC is now connected to the modem it needs to be refreshed with an IP address supplied from your ISP.

Modems in this service do not cache the IP address. The IP address supplied by the ISP is given the device that is connected to the modem.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 02-14-2012, 04:37 PM:

Some ISP's (particularly cable service providers, DSL modems work a bit differently) will provide only a set number of different IP addresses to any individual modem. Therefore, if you attach Device X to your modem, followed by Device Y, followed by Device Z, you can run out of available IP addresses. The fix for this is to call your ISP and ask them to reset your modem.

If you require a static IP address (sometimes that's included with your service, sometimes it's an extra-cost item) then you must call your cable ISP after changing the device that's plugged into the modem and provide them with the new device's MAC address so it can be assigned your IP address.

I have Internet services in my building from two ISP's, one cable and one DSL. The cable service provides a static IP address as part of their standard service (but you have ask for it); the DSL provider charges $15/month for two static addresses.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 02-14-2012, 04:56 PM:

I have problems connecting to the internet every three to four months, like clockwork. Every time I call in, I have to go through the same song and dance: Reset the modem, check the connections, check the settings, reboot the computer... blah, blah, blah... Then they try to blame it on my inside wiring. They try to tell me that I don't have my DSL filter installed properly. They try to dream up all sorts of bullshit that it COULD be but I tell them it's not.

I rewired all of the phone lines in the house with CAT-5 shortly after we moved in. Everything comes to a punch-down block in the basement. All the wires are sound and connected correctly.

I don't use DSL filters in my house. I have a signal splitter. The voice side of the splitter's output goes to the punch block then all the phones branch from there. The data side of the splitter's output goes directly to the DSL modem with no intervening connectors.

I live less than 1,000 feet BY WIRE from the central office. Not a branch exchange. The CENTRAL office that feeds a whole section of the city. I get as perfect a signal as can be had via consumer grade DSL.

My computer works correctly. I know it. It rarely screws up. On the rare occasions when it does, a simple reset solves it.

I know exactly what the problem is. It's the equipment at the central office. It has failed time and time again. The problem is known. My service starts to slow down and drop intermittently, some time on Friday evening. By Saturday, it's completely dead. I spend most of Saturday screaming at their "customer service agents" on the phone. They give me all sorts of crap and run all sorts of "tests" on my line. They never find the problem.

Then, on Monday morning, some time around 10:00 a.m., my service "magically" restores itself. I occasionally get a "robo call" that says my problem should have been solved but, other than that, I never get any acknowledgement that there even was a problem in the first place.

Everything works beautifully for another three months or so. Then, the whole thing starts over again. I could almost set my watch by it!

I don't have cable TV so getting cable internet is not an option unless I want to pay the exorbitant cost of installing cable and all the bullshit that goes with it.

Even if you discount all that, I would still be stuck with a choice between Time Warner Cable and Verizon Communications, two of the worst corporations on the planet.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 02-14-2012, 05:51 PM:

See if you can persuade them to plug your service line into a different port on the DSLAM.

I had my DSL service disappear once and discovered that since I don't have phone service through the phone company (I have phone service from the cable company) one of the techs, needing a port, figured that my connection was unused so he unplugged it at the switching office and hooked someone else up. I asked them to put a tag on my service line stating that it really is in use. They did, and I've never had that problem again.

Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 02-15-2012, 01:30 PM:

If you are using a passive splitter you need to install a DSL filter between the splitter and the punchdown block. If your splitter has a built in filter there is no need. All of the phones in your house can be served with one filter and as long as the data side remains separate there is no issue.

If you are still having issues then asking to have the DSLAM port changed is not unreasonable. They can also verify if that port or the card itself is taking errors.

If the problems persist then insist they escalate to Tier 2 tech support. And, get a ticket number!

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 02-15-2012, 04:54 PM:

This is the device I use:

http://www.wilcominc.com/Item.cfm?ProdID=35

Yes, it has a built-in filter.

When Verizon isn't screwing up, my service works perfectly.
I don't use any of Verizon's crapware. I simply plug my DSL modem into the line, plug my ethernet cable into the modem, turn it on and wait for it to connect and it just works.

All I want to do is stick an ethernet cable up Verizon's ass and have them send me data. No more. No less.

They try to sell me on all this "value added" crap all the time. I don't want any diagnostics software or online searching and diagnostics or movie download crap.

I just want to pay my bill every month and, as long as my computer works the way I want it to, I don't even want to know that Verizon exists.

Except for one weekend every three months, that's the way things work.

Why does this always happen on a Friday afternoon?

It seems to me that somebody at the central office is doing a half-assed job then leaving work at 4:59 p.m. and not returning to work until 9:01 a.m. on Monday.

I remember the days when the mandate was "The telephone just works." It didn't matter whether it was on a Monday or a Saturday. If it was during a snowstorm in January or a warm day in June it didn't matter. The phone company guy just fixed the problem. Plain and simple.

Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 02-18-2012, 11:25 AM:

Randy --- I sent you a PM.

Rick

Posted by Jeff Kane (Member # 6372) on 03-05-2012, 03:08 PM:

Late to the party but should this ever happen again you may need to reset the TCP/IP stack. Sounds scarier than it is. I've had it happen maybe half a dozen times on XP and it's exactly as described. You can ping IP addresses but DNS won't resolve. This link will tell you what to do.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299357