Cannot connect to the internet after a reformat...

Download the latest drivers for your network adapter from the following site:

 

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R64645&SystemID=DIM_PNT_P4_CEL_2400&servicetag=&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=3597&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=2&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=5&fileid=84196

 

Move the downloaded file to the problem computer.

 

Then, go into Device Manager, expand the listing for network adapters, select your ethernet adapter and uninstall it.  Reboot, cancel the "New Hardware Wizard", if it runs, then run the file you downloaded to install the new drivers.

 

See if that works.  If you can get on the internet, but the speed is slow, go to the following site and run the Tweak test.  Follow the advice given, and, if necessary download the DrTCP applet to change the necessary setting:

 

http://www.dslreports.com/tools

 

Steve

I installed the drivers, with no improvement. 

 

Also, I'm not able to get on the internet at all (the replys are 0) so I can't go to the website (although I'm going to use it for my other computer, thanks!) 

 

I appreciate your help by the way.

I uninstalled the device, and when I did, it gave me an error message saying that I was uninstalling a crucial device and did I want to continue.  I clicked yes and it uninstalled it, and rebooted the computer.  But when I got back to windows, it didn't give me the new hardware wizard; in the device manager it said everything was a-ok and the device was still there (no yellow exclaimations).  I installed the new driver (which asked me to overwrite the other driver files because they had the same names) and it didn't help.  I uninstalled the device a few more times, and went into the add/remove programs list and removed the drivers from there, but everytime I rebooted it still didn't have any yellow exclaimaitons.  I installed the driver again and it had no improvement (DHCP is still not able to obtain an IP address).

Have you tried a different network cable?

 

Steve

I'm actually switching all the cables between the computer that I'm using now and the dimension 2400.  The internet works perfectly on this computer.  Also, I took it to a friends house and used his cables and the same result happened. 

I'm running out of ideas here.  Are you sure you installed the chipset drivers before trying to install any other device drivers?

 

Steve

Shore did.  I made sure of it by reformating a few more times. 

Go to Start > Run and type cmd then click OK. In the command prompt window that opens, type ipconfig /all then hit the enter key. Write down the output from this command or select it and save it to a txt file, then copy this output into a reply to this message.

 

Steve

Go to Start > Run and type services.msc.  Find the DHCP client service in the list double click it and make sure it is started and is set to start automatically. 

 

Steve

Here ya go brother.  I hope it helps.

 

Windows IP Configuration

 

        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : lenore

        Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :

        Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown

        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

 

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 5:

 

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :

        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller

        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0D-56-6B-29-65

        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

        Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.4.192

        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0

        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

 

I actually have purchased a PCI lan card, and slaved it in, but I think that perhaps I didn't disable the pre-existing network card before I installed the new one.  Is there any special way that I should take the Broadcom out of the loop?

The only thing I can think of at this point is that the network adpater has failed.  The fact that you saw a decreas in speed over time is also consistent with this.  A relatively cheap troubleshooting step to confirm this would be to purchase and install a PCI network adapter (you should be able to find one for about $10) and see if your network connection works with that.

 

Steve

DHCP is set to start automatically as I suppose it should be.  I went ahead and checked DNS as well and that looked alright, under login it had NT authority and some kind of password.  I checked all settings against this computer (known good) and they match.