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smokinjoesid
2 Posts
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9256
July 11th, 2004 21:00
System/network card setting IP Address????
I recently (about 6 months ago) bought my son a Dimension 2400. A few weeks ago lightening came through the cable modem and did some damage (to several computers). With this one it seemed to damage the built-in ethernet interface. I had a network card sitting around, a 3COM Ethernet XL 10/100 PCI TX, at least that what the OS installs it as when I booted up. Now, the card seems to be half working - my router, that sits between the computer and the modem, indicates network activity. However, I can't get anything over the network to work - like a browser. The strange thing is that when I do a netstat -r from a command prompt, the IP address is not what I know my router is creating - my other computers in the house are 192.168.0.x, x = 2 through 4. The address that the netstat returns is 169.254.87.190. I got no idea where this comes from, and I think it is at the source of my problem. I have the TCP properties set to let the DHCP assign the address, but it just isn't working. I've tried removing the card via Device Manager and rebooting. The system finds the card and installs all drivers. I do a netstat -r and all I see is the loopback address - 127.0.0.1, and the mask - 255.255.255.0. Then I reboot and the 169.254.87.190 address returns. I'm really stumped. Any ideas?
smokinjoesid
2 Posts
481
0
Posted July 12th, 2004 11:00
Thanks Jimw. Now I know where the address comes from. I'll switch cables (it might help, I can see from the lights on my router that there's some kind of connection - the light goes out when I disconnect the computer from the network.) but I'll give it a try. I'll also disable the onboard ethernet from the bios - I assume you do that via the setup option at boot. I'll post the results.
- Yes, the BIOS is the place to disable the onboard Ethernet controller. Another thought would be to try using a different connector on the router, in case the current that apparently flowed down the cable also damaged the electronics for the router connector involved.
Jim
jwatt
4446 Posts
481
0
Posted July 12th, 2004 02:00
The 169.254 network is reserved for "autoassigned" IP addresses. If an interface is configured to "receive an IP address automatically" via DHCP, and it cannot contact a DHCP server, an IP address in the 169.254 network will be assigned by the operating system itself.
So yes, that's good evidence of a problem with either the adapter or the cable. Try replacing the Ethernet cable to the router and hopefully that will resolve the problem. Does the 3COM card work correctly in other machines? Are the drivers for it current?
If you haven't already disabled the onboard Ethernet interface in the BIOS, you probably should - just to avoid confusing the operating system.
Jim