Ethernet problems

[kiwibarguy]

Hi guys, i was wondering if you could help me out. My friend helped me on the day to set up my computer when i first bought 1 year ago. He connected it all up as i didn't know much about it.

So i found out last week that i actually have an ethernet cable which could produce the normal 100mbps and the computer had been running on only 12mbps on a usb connection.

So joyously i plugged in the ethernet cable from the comp to the router, it lit up green so that tells me the cables working. I removed the usb cable and connected to the net. At the bottom it said that i am connected at 100mbps. BUT when i clicked on explorer it doesn't show anything, just the same ol 'you are not connected to the net firewall blah blah. i called up i-hug, checked it out with them, yup connection is fine. I then turned off my firewalls just to see if there was a difference. no joy!

When my mate installed the computer he loaded in the driver for the usb connection. is there something that i have to change here. As i know it , with the ethernet you can just plug in and play.

So i'm lost as what to do. i was happy to realise last week the reason why my ping had been so high on games, and speed so slow on download, but as i speak i'm still puttering along on the slow lane and 12mbps.

Summary
IP address is fine.
Ethernet cable tower light indicator lights up and the router light so cable must be fine???
firewalls off when testing connection.
I have a D-link 520T router if that any help.

thanks guys appreciate any advice.

[victor_alpha_charlie]

I did something similar in the weekend, but I can't remember how I fixed it

It may be obvious, but have you tried going Start Control Panel Network/Internet Connections Network Connections (You may need to switch your Control Panel to 'Category View'- Option on the left hand side of the window), and then right-clicking on your Local Area Connection and clicking Repair? I think that's how I did it.

[kiwibarguy]

Yeah thanks VAC, i've already tried that, but thanks anyway.

[Alex]

I think you might have to tell your browser that you want to use the Ethernet card to provide your Internet, as opposed to the USB, although usually if you have this set to 'Find Connection Automatically' it works well. Seems like perhaps the browser would be the issue - at least to me.
Sometimes you have to change these things through IE (if you don't use it) for other web applications to work, as some programs seem to copy over it's [IE's] settings. It may also pay to have a quick look at 'My Network Places' (accessible through My Computer if nowhere else) to make sure that you've got the router set as your Internet Gateway, although if it's been working through USB there is probably something already there...

Try playing around with the settings there, see if that gets you anywhere.

Sorry for being so confusing, hopefully some of my ramble has been a bit useful.

A quick note though, unless you are on ADSL 2+ (or some other 'faster-than-ADSL' system) you won't see much difference unless you do a lot of LAN gaming. The bottleneck in the system would most likely still be the internet connection (unless you've got something faster than 12Mb/s), so you'd be changing to a 100Mb/s link through to the router, only to go down the phone lines at something like 6Mb/s...

So, it's unlikely that you'll have a wonderful fast experience if you change over to Ethernet, but if you want to do it, it's not a bad thing, USB connections can be a bit finicky at times (although Ethernet ones aren't perfect either).

Alex

[gojozoom]

Hello Kiwibarguy!


I've sent a private message with some help, please let me know if you didn't receive it.

Cheers

[kiwibarguy]

Thanks Alex and Daniel for your help, i appreciate it.
Will give it a go tonight. Do people who have ethernet often see other people's planes jumpy when they have it also?

[gojozoom]

I think that's pretty normal. The reason is the delay through the network. The computer tries to sync your display and the data from the server. :poo:

[Alex]

It also depends on the other users' internet connections. If I was to connect up and fly with my mobile (if it was possible) I'd appear to be really laggy to everyone else (and they'd appear laggy to me), because of a bad internet connection...

Alex

[HardCorePawn]

Hey mate... a lot of the basic info has been covered already... but you might find that the reason you cannot connect, is that the router may not be setup correctly...

in USB mode, it is acting in a similar way to a normal modem, so your computer is effectively directly connected to the net... when using in Ethernet mode as an actual router, the router itself is connected to the net and acts as a gateway for your comp.

Unless the router is configured to provide your comp with an IP address (and possibly DNS server addresses), you will probably not be able to connect to anything...

The easiest way to check is to open up a command prompt: Start Run Type in: 'cmd' (without quotes)...

Then at the command prompt type: 'ipconfig /all' (without quotes)

You should see something like:

Code: Select all

Windows IP Configuration

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

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-12-79-A9-76-1A
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.1.82
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.0.0.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.1.1
        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.1.1
        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.1.1
        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, 1 May 2008 9:45:09 a.m.
        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, 1 May 2008 10:45:09 a.m.

The important lines at the moment are:

Dhcp Enabled - this should be set to 'Yes'
Autoconfiguration Enabled - this should also be 'Yes'

IP Address - generally routers are configured to use ip addresses like 10.1.1.* or 192.168.*.*... if you have an address that starts something like 169.254.*.* you have problems...

Default Gateway: if your IP is 10.1.1.*, your gateway will most probably be 10.1.1.1.... if it is 192.168.*.*, your gateway will most probably be something like 192.168.1.1 (or possibly 192.168.0.1)

DHCP Server: should be the same as the Default Gateway

DNS Servers: This can be either the same as the default gateway (in which case the router is forwarding DNS requests), or it could be set to the DNS servers of your ISP (depending on how the router is setup)....


The most obvious indicator will be the IP address... if its the 169.254.*.*, then your router is not setup to automatically configure any PC's that connect to it... not necessarily a bad thing, but it means you either need to:

a. Setup the router so it will automatically configure any client PCs... (quickest, easiest solution)

or

b. Configure your PC with a static IP address, Default Gateway and DNS Servers etc... (will work, but is a bit fiddly and you will need to do it for every machine you want to add to the network)

If you have issues, post the output of your 'ipconfig /all' (screenshot or copy/paste) and we'll have a better idea of where the problem is.

[kiwibarguy]

Hey Thanks Hardcore! i'm reading this at work so i'll give a go tonight and let you know. Thanks for taking the time to help me out.

[kiwibarguy]

Hi there, yeah well this is what i have, yet still no ethernet access. Any suggestions?


Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : admin
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Mixed
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-18-F3-97-24-C7

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 7:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : D-Link USB Remote NDIS Network Devic
e
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-19-5B-18-87-86
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.1.2
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.0.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.1.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Friday, May 02, 2008 7:33:18 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Friday, May 02, 2008 8:33:18 PM

[gojozoom]

Ok, now we see what's the config of your ethernet card. Now we only need the IP's what you see in Start/Network Connetctions/LAN/Properties/TCP-IP window.
That'll tell us a lot.

Cheers

[HardCorePawn]

QUOTE (kiwibarguy @ May 2 2008, 07:56 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi there, yeah well this is what i have, yet still no ethernet access. Any suggestions?

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-18-F3-97-24-C7

This appears to be your problem.... as far as I can tell your Ethernet is not plugged in... perhaps the adapter is disabled in the hardware settings

QUOTE

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 7:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : D-Link USB Remote NDIS Network Devic
e
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-19-5B-18-87-86
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.1.2
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.0.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.1.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Friday, May 02, 2008 7:33:18 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Friday, May 02, 2008 8:33:18 PM[/quote]

This 'ethernet' adapter appears to be the USB connection to your modem... not the actual ethernet connection. You will probably need to disconnect the USB cable before the ethernet works properly... You should be seeing all that 10.1.1.2 stuff in the "NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller" section.