Local Access Only Issues

[ardypilot]

In our house, we have two modems- one upstairs which plugs directly into the wall and then straight into the back of the family PC- then one downstairs, which is actually a router, but has been used to supply a wireless signal around the house for my laptop.

Yesterday, I plugged a ethernet cable into the back of the router, so I could get my FS pc online also, then all of a sudden, I can only achieve 'local access only' on both my laptop and FS comp... the signal strength is still excellent, and the PC reconises the cable connection, and lets me share data between itself and the laptop, although I've lost internet connectivity on both of them!

I've tried a multitude of different cable setups, removing my PC from the network and just trying the wireless on my laptop again, resetting the system umpteen times, yet it fails to get out to the www.

I don't know if it makes any difference that my laptop runs Vista, and that my PC runs XP, but I don't see how just adding an extra PC into the loop has lost internet access to both of them... can anyone help me or point me in the right direction? I've tried browsing through solutions on google with no avail, and am hoping there’s a simple quick fix out there that somebody knows!

Cheers

[HardCorePawn]

Why 2 modems? are they connected to different phone lines or something? or do you have the wireless one connected to the upstairs one?

Quick trouble shooting:

1. On the XP and/or Vista machine, goto Start Run
2. Type 'cmd' (without quotes) and press enter, you should get a 'command prompt' window pop-up
3. At the command prompt, type 'ipconfig' (without quotes) and press enter

You should get something that says IP Address (will say IPv4 Address in Vista), Subnet Mask, Default Gateway etc...

The IP Address should hopefully be something like 10.x.x.x or 192.168.x.x... But let me know what your results are (copy/paste the whole lot) and we can continue...

[Chairman]

Have a look at the router config and see if it's trying to use the FS pc as a gateway maybe ?

Gary

[Adamski]

QUOTE (Trolly @ Nov 18 2008, 11:54 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

In our house, we have two modems- one upstairs which plugs directly into the wall and then straight into the back of the family PC- then one downstairs, which is actually a router, but has been used to supply a wireless signal around the house for my laptop.

Yesterday, I plugged a ethernet cable into the back of the router, so I could get my FS pc online also, then all of a sudden, I can only achieve 'local access only' on both my laptop and FS comp... the signal strength is still excellent, and the PC reconises the cable connection, and lets me share data between itself and the laptop, although I've lost internet connectivity on both of them!

I've tried a multitude of different cable setups, removing my PC from the network and just trying the wireless on my laptop again, resetting the system umpteen times, yet it fails to get out to the www.

I don't know if it makes any difference that my laptop runs Vista, and that my PC runs XP, but I don't see how just adding an extra PC into the loop has lost internet access to both of them... can anyone help me or point me in the right direction? I've tried browsing through solutions on google with no avail, and am hoping there’s a simple quick fix out there that somebody knows!

Cheers

I've had *exactly* this. It's that pile of doggy-do's ... VISTA. I spent nearly 2 weeks solid trying to sort it ... and couldn't. Had to junk my wi-fi and go back to LAN cables. It's something to do with low-level drivers for your router (is it a D-Link, BTW?). I mean, we're already talking about the NEXT version of Vista and manufacturers still haven't got their act together for a version they would have had beta access to nearly TWO years ago.

I Googled around and saw hundreds of posts about network discovery etc etc. I just *haven't got the time for all this*. It's only an O/S fer chrissake ... something you use *minimally* to step through to whatever you ought to be doing .. ie. FLYING!

IMHO, Vista is even worse than that other P.O.S. ... WinMe (gasp!!).

For my non-games machines, I now run Ubuntu Linux.

[pilotgallagher01]

Is your Router connected to the wall,as a router only tranfers the signal but needs to plugged into the ADSl still,Check to see if your router is plugged into the wall or Modem.

[ardypilot]

Sorry for the late response- I ended up ringing up the DSE tech support, who told me my router was faulty and I was entitled to a replacement. Went down the shop, got my new one, however, it's still acting up- I can only get a internet connection through the ethernet cable directly to my laptop, as the wireless is only broadcasting local only:



???

QUOTE

The IP Address should hopefully be something like 10.x.x.x or 192.168.x.x... But let me know what your results are (copy/paste the whole lot) and we can continue...[/quote]
I'm hoping this is where the problem lies- I can't copy and paste it, but heres a screenie:



Not correct? Do I need to change some settings??

[Chairman]

Your ethernet adapter has a 192.168 address with a 255.255.255.0 subnet, while your wireless has a 169.254 address with a 255.255.0.0 subnet. Could that be something to do with it ? Regardless of anything else I don't think the two parts of the network with the different subnets would be able to see each other ?

Gary

[HardCorePawn]

I'm still not sure I understand the topology of your network... any chance you can crank up 'paint' and draw me a quick schematic of your network setup...

Is it something like this:

[pilotgallagher01]

You don't have Modem/Router in one located in your house as these are way easier to use and much more simple??

[NZ255]

We had trouble with our router.

Have you set up the router though the setup? Usually accessed by typing in the IP address of the router in the internet explorer. Once that has all you details...IP ads and etc then it might work....also you need to set the LAN settings to detect automaticly when going through a router.

Might be telling you how to suck eggs but not sure if you've done this.

Also can you download emails on your laptop going through the wireless..even though you can't get onto the internet?

[ardypilot]

QUOTE

any chance you can crank up 'paint' and draw me a quick schematic of your network setup...[/quote]
For some reason, the upstairs PC that I'm on now doesn't have paint, however your own diagram is about half right.

Upstairs is a separate circuit, Phoneline > Modem > Computer

Downstairs goes like this: Phoneline > Wireless Router > Splits to one ethernet cable to my FS PC, and wireless signal to my laptop

The wireless router doubles as a modem like pilotgallagher01 described, (I think, as the phoneline from the wall plugs straight into the back of it, and I was able to get online and post this topic with it this morning) but right now it is acting odd- the power light only sometimes lights up, and none of the other indication lights come on at all unless the ethernet cable is plugged in. After resetting it, I can't even get internet through the ethernet cable, yet the local access only connection still shows up. Help!

[HardCorePawn]

Oh... so you have 2 separate phone lines in the house then?? or is the computer upstairs on dialup?

[ardypilot]

Hmm, never really thought about that. I think both computers share the phoneline, and we've always had the two of them on broadband at the same time- the speed never deteriorates or anything, so maybe we've got two lines?

[HardCorePawn]

I'd say you'd have to have 2 lines... as you cannot run 2 ADSL devices on the same phoneline at the same time...

What are the make/models of the 2 ADSL devices that you have?

[ardypilot]

Ahh that makes sense- I've just remembered the old setup we had before involved a cable running from the modem upstairs, outside my house down to my room which we removed when my computer got bought upstairs earlier in the year.

What I'll have to do is get rid of the current modem on the upstairs pc- replace it with the wireless router, then rerun a cable back to my FS PC downstairs so that all three computers are hooked up with net access.

However, right now I think at the risk of making myself look like a douchbag, I'm going to have to go back to DSE and ask them to replace my replacement modem as it clearly isn't functioning correctly.

Fingers crossed that the third one works out!

[ardypilot]

Well well, I'm back up and running now using a new router with my laptop once again, although it didn't work straight off the bat. I was able to connect to the wireless signal right away, ran through the setup, then for about four minutes, it just showed up as local access only in my network connections.

I continued to stare aimlessly at my screen with great disappointment, when all of a sudden, the two little screens that indicate the connection strength flicked over to two little screens with a globe in front of them, and I was able to get online- not sure how it fixed itself, but I'm not going to question it now that its working!

However, on the upstairs computer, the ethernet cable is plugged in but it won't reconise it. I cant even get into the 'local' backend setup that you can usually see through entering 192.168.1.2 into the URL box in IE. Any ideas?

[HardCorePawn]

You will need to check the 'ipconfig' on the upstairs comp... if you do not have a 192.x.x.x address then chances are it is not getting the IP address automatically allocated from the router (ie. via DHCP) and you end up with a 'default' Microsoft private network address (something like 169.x.x.x)

<insert long complicated discussion on IP Address, Subnets and Subnet Masks>, so you are effectively on a different subnet which would explain why you cannot get into the backend setup...

As for why it did not work initially... the ADSL modem was probably starting up... they are effectively little linux 'computers' and take a while to boot up and then connect to the ADSL network

[ardypilot]

QUOTE

You will need to check the 'ipconfig' on the upstairs comp... if you do not have a 192.x.x.x address then chances are it is not getting the IP address automatically allocated from the router (ie. via DHCP) and you end up with a 'default' Microsoft private network address (something like 169.x.x.x)[/quote]
I checked through that in the property's, and it has been set to automatically assign- is this correct?

Whilst checking that though, I realised the Ethernet icon in the Network Connections box says Not Active in brakets after its name, and in device manager, it has a little yellow exclamation mark next to the adapter- so I'm guessing this is the probelm. The last modem was connected to that computer via a USB cable, but it doesn't fit in this new router- how can I fix this one? Do I just need to install a new driver for the adapter, and if so, how can I find the name of it so I know what to search for in google?

Many thanks for your help so far!

[HardCorePawn]

Ahhhhhh ok... right that explains a lot!!

Yeah, sounds like you need to install the driver for the ethernet adapter... I assume it is onboard ethernet?? Or is it an actual add-on card?

Either way, you should be able to just go into device manager, open the properties for the network adapter and click on 'update driver' (maybe install driver?) and it will search for the best driver... oh wait... its not connected!!

ummm if it doesnt give you any clues as to the manufacturer in the device manager properties... you'll need to do one (maybe more) of the following:

1. Install something like 'Everest', which might be able to determine the adapter type
2. If it is onboard, you should be able to find the adapter type (and most probably drivers) from the mobo manufacturers website
3. Open up the case and have a look

[ardypilot]

Installed the driver off the mobo CD and everythings worked out fine- cheers for the help HCP!