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Inspiron 5100 Lan problem
Recieved my 5100 today and I am completely unable to make any kind of connection on my lan card. I first tried with a crossover cable to my desktop which is connected to a cable modem via usb. After some fiddling I was able to ping each computer, but could not see each other in the network neiborhood. I also could not get the 5100 to connect through to the internet. I then tried connecting the cable modem via the ethernet cable directly to my 5100 and this also did not work, it detected a plugged in cable, but that's about it. The only way that I am able to get internet onto the 5100 is by using the USB cable to the cable modem. While this is great news for the internet, I cannot share out the connection to my desktop because I am still unable to get it connected. I have the 5100 set to share the internet connection, and the two connected via the crossover rj45. But the same thing is happening as before. Only this time I cannot ping the 5100 from my desktop, it comes up with destination host unreachable. My PC is running W2K and the 5100 has XP home.
Also, I am not sure if this will have an impact on anything, but after receiving my 5100 this afternoon I uninstalled a lot of the dell software. -- Media experience, Jasc, Dell Picture Studio, AOL, and maybe a few other things. But I did not uninstall any hardware.
I tried reinstalling the nic card driver and that did not help.
Thanks for any help provided....
Update on current situation. By watching the Lan connection status I have noticed that my desktop is sending packets and the 5100 is receiving them, but my desktop is not recieving any packets that the 5100 is sending. I am still unable to ping either computer from one another. I tried exiting my firewall (Sygate personal) on the desktop, and setting it to allow all. But nothing changes.
Message Edited by nem3 on 01-13-2004 12:51 AM
Tried the test and it said the broadcom card passed. I also brought my 5100 over to my brothers house so I could use a real network to see if the cable was bad. But I still could not get the thing to work. I also am wondering, why does the LED stay on even when the network cable is unplugged. I also got a chance to try out the wireless and it worked perfectly. Had a 48mbps connection the whole time and was able to browse the web.
Any other ideas and help woudl greatly be appreciated.
Message Edited by nem3 on 01-13-2004 11:07 PM
Note to self, from now on, completely uninstall the hardware and then reinstall the drivers.
I got it to work, stupid me try taking the easy route the other day by only reinstalling the drivers. Instead of doing what I stated above. This worked. Then when I got home it only took a little fiddling with W2K and Sygate and I now have internet through my PC to my 5100.
DELL-BobT
3125 Posts
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Posted January 13th, 2004 20:00
nem3,
Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.
I suggest that you run the Dell diagnostic program on your computer to ensure that all of the components work properly. Place the System Software CD in your computer. Reset the machine and when the Dell logo appears on the screen, press and release [F2] several times until you are in the BIOS. Press the right arrow key to go to the BOOT menu or hold [Alt] and [P] simultaneously to progress to the second page. Change the boot sequence to CD/DVD drive, Floppy drive, Internal HDD. Now press [Esc] or [F10] to save and exit the BIOS.
The following knowledge base article can help you with this:
How to run the Dell diagnostic test knowledge base article.
The program should automatically load. Choose to run the test on the network card.