Laptop networking

[drnkenmonkey]

My friend has a toshiba satellite A45 S250. I have just reformatted his computer and installed the necessary network drivers. However, the his internet connection still refuses to work. Packets are being sent and recieved. What can i do??

[Mutineer]

Re: Laptop networking

a) Does the network side of things work?
b) How does he connect to the internet? What kind of connection, hardware, etc..?
c) Can he connect from another PC?

[drnkenmonkey]

Re: Laptop networking

Im in a college dorm. Basicaly, the cat5 cable works when connected to another computer. So far, all i can get to work is his wireless connection. However, his dorm doesnt have wireless... thus, he needs to get the LAN to work.

[Mutineer]

Re: Laptop networking

Are IP addresses assigned automatically, or do you need to assign an address? Same goes with DNS addresses, possible proxy server addresses, etc.

[drnkenmonkey]

Re: Laptop networking

ip addresses are assigned automatically. His internet worked before we reformmated... but now...

[Yawgm0th]

Re: Laptop networking

Did you reinstall the chipset drivers, too? Are you sure you have the right network drivers?

[Mutineer]

Re: Laptop networking

Did you reinstall the chipset drivers, too? Are you sure you have the right network drivers?

If it worked when it connected to another PC, then I'd assume it works :)

Here's a list of things I'd go through to see if you can find where the problem is:

- Make sure you are being given a proper IP address. If the machine can't find an address, it'll usually default to 169.x.x.x or something like that. Not what we want.
- If you can get an address, then you should probably have a default gateway as well. Try ping that, or at least another machine that is on the network
- If pinging works, then find out if you can access anything on the network.
- If that works, then check with someone to see if you do need to set up anything else, like a proxy server or some other setting.

[Yawgm0th]

Re: Laptop networking

If it worked when it connected to another PC, then I'd assume it works :)

Missed that. If he's trying to use crossover to connect to the net, though, wouldn't that explain his problem? If he's using the same cable he did for connecting it directly to another computer...

[Mutineer]

Re: Laptop networking

Depends on the switching in the dorm. Chances are they'd have an autosensing switch. I was kinda giving the guy some credit and assuming it was the right cable, plus when he said it worked before the reformat, I assumed it was good :)

[drnkenmonkey]

Re: Laptop networking

Basically this is how the college system works. We have to register our mac address on resnet in order to connect to the internet. This has previously been completed by my friend before he reformatted. I'm pretty sure the drivers are correct. I used the Quick recovery disk and looked at the available drivers online. I even used the "restore default programs" on the recovery disk. Thus, the drivers must be installed. An ip address was "unavailable", so there is no default gateway. However, everytime i click on IE, packets will be sent and recieved. I'm really confused, considering that i have reformatted 3 other computers here in college, including my own, all that worked fine.

o yea... thx for all the input, greatly appreciated! ^^

[drnkenmonkey]

Re: Laptop networking

Sorry for the double post... but i just tried a different cat5 cable. obtained ip address: 128.120.189.205. Default Gateway: 128.120.189.254... So exactly how am i supposed to ping it? do i type the Default Gateway address in the address bar of IE?

[Yawgm0th]

Re: Laptop networking

Open up Command Prompt (start > run > CMD) and type "ping [ip address here]' without quotes.

[drnkenmonkey]

Re: Laptop networking

Well it seems llike packets were sent and recieved.

Ping statistics for 128.120.189.205:
Packets: SEnt = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 <0% loss>,
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0 ms, Average = 0ms

what is this supposed to tell me? Is the internet connection ok? Something wrong with the ethernet port?

[Yawgm0th]

Re: Laptop networking

Ping the Gateway's IP, not your own.

[drnkenmonkey]

Re: Laptop networking

it says the same thing when i ping the default gateway. Another thing, when i type ipconfig in the cmd prompt... there are two things that show up. "Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection" and "Ethernet adapter network bridge <network bridge> 2" Both have an ip address, subnet mask. but the network bridge doesnt have a dfault gateway. Is that something i should look into?