Re: Strange PC networking problem

In article <XvOdnfmF7aGWDpjbnZ2dnUVZ_veinZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxx>,
"PC Guy" <pcguy@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

"David Fritzinger" <dfritzin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:dfritzin-933B35.10583024032007@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <9gg9035qe3mc2d9gig2fueav0mkra758ip@xxxxxxx>,
Mayor of R'lyeh <mayor.of.rlyeh@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 23 Mar 2007 23:04:52 -0700, "Dave Fritzinger"
<dfritzin@xxxxxxxxxxx> chose to bless us with the following wisdom:

On Mar 23, 4:34 pm, Steve de Mena <ste...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Dave Fritzinger wrote:
On Mar 20, 10:57 am, "PC Guy" <p...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Tim Murray" <no-s...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:0001HW.C224C9C50001C5DDF0488648@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I think a key item is this:
I could use her computer to log in to the router,
and make configuration changes.
I would not bet a lung on it, but I think in order to do that, the
computer
must have had an IP issued to it. Thus, we can rule out things
like
running
over your max IP limit. But the question is whether you can make
config
changes with a self-assigned IP of the form 127.x.x.x.
The result of the ipconfig /all is important.
I see this from time to time but usually on wireless. The times
I've
seen
it
the fix was to (a) completely delete the connection from the
Networks
control
panel and reboot, and if that was not sufficient, then (b) remove
the
network
hardware adapters and reboot. The drivers are already there, so
Windows
should have no problem reloading them when it boots up again.
It's no wonder you Mac advocates despise Windows. It's obvious you
are
completely clueless about it. There is nothing wrong with the
cable,
port,
PC interface, or IP address. We know this because he said:

"Finally, I could use her computer to log in to the router, and
make
configuration changes."

If there were a problem with any of these he would not be able to
log
into
the router. Thus any suggestions to removenetworkhardware adapters,
drivers, replace the cable are completely useless. Even statically
assigning
IP addresses is very unlikely to solve the problem. The fact that
he
can
connect to the router indicates that he is having issues getting
off of
the
localnetwork. The likely causes of the problem are incorrect DNS
entries,
missing default router, or a bad subnet mask. Also "self-assigned"
IP
addresses do not fall within the 127.0.0.0/8network. Thatnetworkis
reserved for loopback addresses. What you are thining of are
private IP
addresses (PIPs, otherwise known as RFC-1918 addresses) which
fallen
within
one of the following networks:

10.0.0.0/8
127.16.0.0/12
192.168.0.0/16

Dave, before performing any of the suggestions please post the
output
of the
commands I, and a few others, have given you. The two most useful
ones
are
the nslookup and ipconfig commands.

OK, I finally got a chance to look at my wife's computer this
afternoon (She usually packs it away to take to work before I get
home). The problem was really simple, and something I suspected a
couple of days ago. The router address that the computer was looking
for was wrong (192.168.0.1 instead of 192.168.1.1, which is how the
router was set up). This brings up a rather naive question about
Windows. Can the networking be set up to automatically find the
router
address?

No, absolutely not. It has to get it from DHCP,
or be entered in manually.

Yet, on the nework preference pane on my laptop, there are no entries
in the DNS server box, until I plug my laptop in, either at work or at
home, and it finds the router. Also, if what you say is the case, how
would you conncect to networks when you are traveling, or when you go
to Starbucks (or whatever)?

Those places use DHCP. Was your Windows networking setup to use DHCP
or a fixed address?

It was setup to use DHCP. However, and this was the problem, it had been
set up to only look for a router with the address of 192.168.0.1. My
router has the address of 192.168.1.1, so the computer didn't see it.
[snip]

This can't be true. If you configure Windows to use DHCP you have no option
to specify a different gaetway. The default gateway is always assigned along
with the IP address and netmask when DHCP is used. If the default gateway
was set to 192.168.0.1 then you had it configured wrong on the DHCP server
(most likely the router in this case). In the end this wasn't a Windows
issue but merely a user error...as I suspect is the case with many of the
Mac advocates issues in this forum. Not to single you out Dave but had you
not written "BTW, this is a request for help, not a "Macs are better" post."
we would have had a lot of Mac advocates whining about how bad Windows is
even though it was user error.

While I am typing on my MBP, I have my wife's Lenovo notebook next to
me, and I have the Network Connections control panel open (Windows XP
Home). In the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)Properties dialog box, on the
general tab, there are several options. First is "Obtain IP address
automatically". This is a radio button, and the other choice is "Use the
following IP address", with several text fields used to enter IP
address, Subnet mask, and Default gateway. The next choice is between
"Obtain DNS server address automatically" or "Use the following DNS
server addresses:", with fields for preferred DNS server and alternate
DNS server. Originally, the "Use following DNS server addresses" was
checked, and the Preferred address was 192.168.0.1, with nothing in the
alternate DNS server. Since the IP address of my router was, by default,
192,168,1,1, the computer didn't see the router.

What I am saying is that, if I am reading your post correctly, you are
wrong. I am able to configure the computer to automatically obtain the
address of the DNS server, and it is thusly configured now. And, it is
possible to specify the ip address of the DNS server (that is, to
specify the i.p. address that the computer will look for), which is how
it had been set up previously. And, yes, it was user error, and I never
claimed otherwise.

--
Dave Fritzinger
Honolulu, HI
.

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