PC Guru's - A problem

[Rev Den]

OK..here is the deal.

Got a laptop that when connected to the LAN at most hotels will not give me a "link" light, so I cannot connect. I can take the same cable, unplug it from the problem laptop and plug it into another laptop and it works just fine. The problem machine will work just fine at home off my router there, and works great with wireless. At first I thought it may be a NIC card problem so I picked up a USB-LAN adapter and see the same problem on that.
This is a newer machine and is still under warrenty, but I was hoping one of you may have a simple answer, before I take it back.

Details:
Compaq/HP Presario V5000
Windows XP
Realtek 8139 on-board NIC
Linksys 200M USB NIC

Ideas?

Rev

 

[87manche]

did you try another cable anyway?

 

[muduck18]

... long shot ...
if for some reason your NIC or NIC's were set to force full or half duplex. or require a certian speed. Many hotels are still running a 10 meg full or some olders even have 10 meg half on the wire still...
even so, if your NIC is set to require 100MB full duplex the "link" light will never come on because it can not communicate. The same would happen if your NIC(s) were set to require 1000MB Full or Half. on a 100MB network.
RealTek is one cheepest NIC's and I would guess that the driver software is not the smartest.

just my $0.25... damn inflation

 

[Rev Den]

Yes...I tried another cable.
The NIC is set to auto, however, I did try the different settings wiht no luck. Keep in mind that this is happing with the Realtek and the Linksys. Is it possable that there is a setting "somewhere" that would prevent the NIC from autosensing, independent of the NIC properties?

Thanks


Rev

 

[mdl]

... long shot ...
if for some reason your NIC or NIC's were set to force full or half duplex. or require a certian speed. Many hotels are still running a 10 meg full or some olders even have 10 meg half on the wire still...
even so, if your NIC is set to require 100MB full duplex the "link" light will never come on because it can not communicate. The same would happen if your NIC(s) were set to require 1000MB Full or Half. on a 100MB network.
RealTek is one cheepest NIC's and I would guess that the driver software is not the smartest.

just my $0.25... damn inflation

Shoulden't matter.

Did you try releasing and renewing you're IP address?

 

[Rev Den]

You cannot release and renew with no link light on the NIC, there is no IP at that point.

Thanks

Rev

 

[87manche]

Yes...I tried another cable.
The NIC is set to auto, however, I did try the different settings wiht no luck. Keep in mind that this is happing with the Realtek and the Linksys. Is it possable that there is a setting "somewhere" that would prevent the NIC from autosensing, independent of the NIC properties?

Thanks


Rev

yes.
The link light is really nothing more than a continuity check, but it won't come on if Windows has not powered up the device. USB nics you can watch and see, they don't get a link light until Windows installs the driver. PCI NIC's like your RT should be on all the time.
Have you tried removing and reinstalling the realtek NIC?
You can get updated drivers here:
www.realtek.com.tw
The 8139 drivers will be one of the first things you see in support.
Do you have any sort of firewall software installed?
What kind of equipment do you have at the office and at home that works?

 

[mdl]

You cannot release and renew with no link light on the NIC, there is no IP at that point.

Thanks

Rev

Oops I misread you're post.

hmm not too sure.. I'll keep thinking and let you know.

 

[RichP]

Did you tell the front desk that you want to hookup ? your room may not be turned on, plugged in at their switch. Some places charge, some don't. I'm sitting here in orleans ma hooked up wireless but then the whole town has a town run wifi thats free. I could even walkin to the library across the parking lot and plug in but then I'd be too far from the goodies at the chocolate sparrow coffee/million calorie munchie shop


The link light like said above is a link/cont indicator, if the power is not there from being plugged into the hotel switch it is the same as not being plugged in.
Well, gotta go, tides coming in so time to go catch some 20lb baits, blues, for the real fishing later on..

 

[anodyne33]

You cannot release and renew with no link light on the NIC, there is no IP at that point.

Thanks

Rev

I beg to differ there. Your computer should still be seeing it's last IP and default gateway cached. If you're hooked up at a hotel and have this issue again do ipconfig /release then ipconfig/flushdns then try ipconfig /renew. I'm assuming your NIC is set to DHCP right?
shane

 

[DaJudge]

Sometimes the power management will disable the NIC. I have had this problem a bunch of times with the users I support. Even when you plug it in (meaning the power) the NIC will not automatically enable. Check the power settings and see if it is being disabled. The settings maybe in the software for the NIC as well as the NIC properties in Device Manager.

 

[87manche]

I beg to differ there. Your computer should still be seeing it's last IP and default gateway cached. If you're hooked up at a hotel and have this issue again do ipconfig /release then ipconfig/flushdns then try ipconfig /renew. I'm assuming your NIC is set to DHCP right?
shane

not if it's been powered down and restarted.
Doesn't matter anyway, without a link light he won't get an IP.
Link light is hardware

 

[JeepFreak21]

Link light is hardware

And therefore, I'm going to go with "Hardware Issue for $100, Alex". You can try reinstalling the drivers for the NIC, but I don't think it'll work.
Billy

 

[Ralph]

Things to check:

Device manager to see if nic is detected and working normally.

Network settings, tcp/ip properties to see if you have both ip address and dns servers set to obtain.

command prompt, run ipconfig and see if you are getting an autoconfigured ip address. It will be a 169.x.x.x address. If so, make sure the patch cable is connected and run ipconfig/renew to try and obtain a new ip from the hotel dhcp server.

command prompt, ping 127.0.0.1. That's loopback and will test tcp/ip and the nic.

If all this is good, then there is something hinky with the hotel network, your patch cable or the network port of your pc.

 

[87manche]

And therefore, I'm going to go with "Hardware Issue for $100, Alex". You can try reinstalling the drivers for the NIC, but I don't think it'll work.
Billy

By reinstalling the drivers I'm hoping it resets the power management settings.
The point brought up by judge is valid, a windows disabled NIC will act as though it's totally powered down.
One thing to check would be to boot up to a live cd and see if it worked, then you could narrow it down to a Windows software problem.
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html
the RT 8139 is a pretty basic NIC, so drivers are included on the CD for it by default.

 

[JeepFreak21]

By reinstalling the drivers I'm hoping it resets the power management settings.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure this is the case.
Billy

 

[mdl]

I just remembered (as I looked through old paperwork) I ran into a similar problem last year. Double check and make sure you don't have an IRQ conflict. Solved that little issue last time which was similar to you'rs.

 

[muduck18]

Shoulden't matter.

Did you try releasing and renewing you're IP address?

Thanks JR. Not that my four years of networking experience is worth anything to you bright kids...but... note.

it works on the lynksys.
doesn't work on the hotel...
Not dhcp... because link light (that's been covered)
no link light... (that means... csmacd isn't working... "carrier sense multi access / collision detction" for those who might wonder)

could it be a driver issue? yes.. but there again works with lynksys

IRQ conflict.. Not likely. if it works with linksys then it will work with any as long as there are no new devices added that take over the device irq. and XP is very good at manageing the IRQ...

the puzzleing thing is the usb ethernet... assumeing the drivers for the usb were installed correctly... it should not affect both...

Power saving would only be an issue if the laptop was comming back from sleep. yes its possible that windows will turn the power off, but a reboot with the wire in will automatically enable it.

truth is it could be somthing as simple as a driver setting, or it could be that the NIC is on the fritz.

My advice.. mess with it for a while, then call in on the warranty..
Still sounds like a duplex or speed issue to me where were you checking when you looked at the properties? under the driver properties or is there a utility? The device could be disabled in as many as 3 or 4 different places...

 

[muduck18]

1 more thing...
Has it ever worked correctly for you???

And is this computer on a Domain of any type? say a work domain or anything that an admin might control this type of connection? Just a thought, For my company I enable every security I can for when my users are off my network...

 

[mdl]

Thanks JR. Not that my four years of networking experience is worth anything to you bright kids...but... note.

it works on the lynksys.
doesn't work on the hotel...
Not dhcp... because link light (that's been covered)
no link light... (that means... csmacd isn't working... "carrier sense multi access / collision detction" for those who might wonder)

could it be a driver issue? yes.. but there again works with lynksys

IRQ conflict.. Not likely. if it works with linksys then it will work with any as long as there are no new devices added that take over the device irq. and XP is very good at manageing the IRQ...

the puzzleing thing is the usb ethernet... assumeing the drivers for the usb were installed correctly... it should not affect both...

Power saving would only be an issue if the laptop was comming back from sleep. yes its possible that windows will turn the power off, but a reboot with the wire in will automatically enable it.

truth is it could be somthing as simple as a driver setting, or it could be that the NIC is on the fritz.

My advice.. mess with it for a while, then call in on the warranty..
Still sounds like a duplex or speed issue to me where were you checking when you looked at the properties? under the driver properties or is there a utility? The device could be disabled in as many as 3 or 4 different places...

Hmm.. Ok well since you started it fine.

I'm not some "Kid" I'm an industry professional who has CCNA and CCNP, N+, A+, and BIXY. Actually currently working toward MCSA. 4 Years? I've been working the industry for 6 now. First 2 through a non paying internship through Sun Microsystems and the other 4 through payed work release. Don't give me this crap just because of my age. Do you have any idea how hard it is for employers or customers to trust my skills because of my age? Age has absolutly nothing to do with knoledge.

I'm not going to start a pissing war here, but age dude is off limits. Good example, in the last election people were giving randy shit about his age. That was lame. But you obviously don't understand, because to you were all "JR's".

I don't agree how you said XP handles IRQ's correctly. As I said, there was a completely relevent issue that I have perfectly documented showing as the IRQ at fault for an entirely similar issue.


...And dude. You're only 25...