Problem with Internet Connection

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Author Message   strand Citizen Username: Strand Post Number: 1 Registered: 10-2003 Posted on Tuesday, February 3, 2004 - 9:44 pm:        I am having difficulty establishing an internet connection with my daughter’s laptop. I am a Comcast cable subscriber and have established a connection with two PCs via a LinkSys router and Motorola external modem. (Both PCs have Windows Me). But I have no luck when I try to establish a connection with a Sony Vaio laptop, which has Windows XP. I am able to get to a couple of pages on the web (e.g., Comcast homepage and Yahoo), so some connectivity exists, but there is no response when I try to navigate to other pages. I have tried bypassing the router, and removing the connections to the other PCs, but no luck. I called the modem manufacturer and tried some of their suggestions, but also no luck. I suspect there may be some incompatibility with Windows XP, but the Security and Connections settings in the Internet Options seem reasonable. Any suggestions would be appreciated, my daughter is getting impatient with me.   joy Citizen Username: Joy Post Number: 137 Registered: 5-2001 Posted on Wednesday, February 4, 2004 - 12:54 pm:        We had some issues with adding a new PC that was running XP - when the other PC were running 98SE and 2000. My husband for the life of him could not add the XP PC onto the LAN. I managed to - but it was trial and error. It is an XP issue, and has something to do with the set-up wizard for IE...and that's all I can remember.   Sylad Citizen Username: Sylad Post Number: 185 Registered: 6-2002 Posted on Wednesday, February 4, 2004 - 1:17 pm:        Open up the DOS prompt and try to ping a known network server, such as yahoo, if that works then you have net access, and it is probably an issue with IE. Call your internet service provider, they should be able to walk you through the process.   twig Citizen Username: Twig Post Number: 94 Registered: 5-2001 Posted on Wednesday, February 4, 2004 - 3:09 pm:        strand - I have Comcast broadband service through a Toshiba modem to a D-Link router that serves two PC's - a Compaq running 98SE and a SONY Vaio desktop with windows XP. Both systems work fine. Unless there's something different about your Vaio laptop, it seems as though you should be able to connect and run those units. At one point during my initial setup, I had to unplug the modem and the router and then restart each in sequence to get them to reset properly. Have you tried that? It seemed to work for me.   Brett Citizen Username: Bmalibashksa Post Number: 651 Registered: 7-2003 Posted on Wednesday, February 4, 2004 - 3:15 pm:        "I am able to get to a couple of pages on the web (e.g., Comcast homepage and Yahoo)" That's what don't get. Maybe it's the DNS?   wnb Citizen Username: Wnb Post Number: 76 Registered: 8-2001 Posted on Wednesday, February 4, 2004 - 4:31 pm:        Are you positive you're getting to those actual pages on the internet, or could they possibly be in local cache? Connecting to yahoo is one thing, do a search on that page, preferably some phrase you never searched for before, and verify you're getting a results page. Maybe you're not really getting through. Trying to ping a server directly from the command prompt window is a better test.   strand Citizen Username: Strand Post Number: 2 Registered: 10-2003 Posted on Thursday, February 5, 2004 - 7:59 am:        Sylad, I am not sure what you mean by "open up the DOS prompt?" Where/how does one do that? And wnb, I think I am getting the actual pages rather than old cached pages, because the headlines on the Yahoo page are current (e.g., Janet Jackson and Ricin), but when I put in a word or phrase to conduct a search there is no visible response when I press "search." Thanks all for your suggestions   Sylad Citizen Username: Sylad Post Number: 186 Registered: 6-2002 Posted on Thursday, February 5, 2004 - 8:23 am:        Strand----click start, click programs, click accessories, click Command Prompt, then type ping www.yahoo.com or any other network server, then hit enter, if you get a response you are on the net so your physical connection is fine. That will at least allow you to narrow down the search for the root cause of the problem.   steel Citizen Username: Steel Post Number: 407 Registered: 2-2002 Posted on Friday, February 6, 2004 - 4:16 pm:        I just successfully used a D-Link router (DI-604) to connect a Dell(running XP) and a Mac to the Internet via Comcast. After following the instructions exactly I could not get online, (although I already had been with the Dell before trying the router), and I had a few anxious moments before I noticed that the "WAN" indicater light on the router was not on which meant that although the router was talking to the computer , (the LAN light WAS on), the router was not hearing from the modem. Turned out that all I needed to do was unplug the power to the modem for a moment and replug and suddenly it connected to the router. I had to again go through the "wizard" intruction procedure,(short)and it worked. After that the Mac also worked immediately. -Whew   monster Citizen Username: Monster Post Number: 115 Registered: 7-2002 Posted on Friday, February 6, 2004 - 6:17 pm:        Most likely the reason it would not connect was because the cable was looking for the MAC address of the Dell you had hooked up to it. The reset cleared it of that info allowing it to see the MAC address of the router. Another way to get around this (some companies only allow the original computer that was hooked up to have access), is to look for the section on the routers setup pages that allows for cloning of the MAC address of that original computer. That way the original computer is still believed to be there.   steel Citizen Username: Steel Post Number: 409 Registered: 2-2002 Posted on Sunday, February 8, 2004 - 11:52 am:        -monster, I had done the "clone MAC address" thing as part of the D-Link's "wizard" set-up but it didn't kick-in, (or whatever) until I had unpluged and then re-pluged in the power to the modem, -go figure, -at least it is working now and all seems stable, (except for me).