XP Pro & Router

[MrBreeze]

Hi all,

I have 2 pc's running xp pro and one with 98SE. My problem is with one of the XP's. If I set it to automatically get the ip address, it won't talk to any of the others. If I manually enter the info, I can talk on the network with no trouble, but it will not connect to the cable modem. I'm using a Network Everywhere router.

Under Network Connections, I have a Lan or High Speed Internet connection called Local Area Connection. I put in the ip address, subnet, and default gateway. I also put in the dns server numbers.

I'm using tcp/ip

Any ideas?

-=Rob

 

[bcastner]

MrBreeze,

So when you clone in the router the MAC address for PC#3, PC#3 will not go online.

When you clone in the router the MAC address for PC#1, PC#3 will go online, but now PC#1 will not.

Then what we want to do is NOT to clone a MAC address, place all zeros there. This will provide the modem with a MAC address of the router itself. Now, very important, we need to turn off the modem and router for at least 30 seconds, preferably 1 full minute. Modem on first, wait 30 seconds. Now router on. Wait 30 seconds. Now reboot all the PCs or ipconfig /release and /renew.

Now this last step is very important: You need to call your cable company and tell them that you have a new PC and need to register a new MAC address for your account. Some cable services even have online web pages to do this. No matter, the new MAC address of your "new PC" is the MAC address of the router, which can be found on its setup pages.

 

[MrBreeze]

OK, let me clarify:

All I did was try to clone using the mac address for #1. When I did that, neither pc would go online. I didn't try the address for #3.



"Then what we want to do is NOT to clone a MAC address, place all zeros there."

Where? In the MAC area in the router setup program?

I just want to be sure here.

I'm at work, so this'll be tried when I get home tonight.

Again, thanks for the help.

-=Rob

 

[bcastner]

Many cable systems make the assumption for the purposes of authentication of the user that there will be only 1 computer in use. When you initially began the service it read the MAC address of the computer you used and stored it in a database.

Now you go out and buy a router because you want to share the internet connection among three computers. The router has a MAC address, but obviously it is not the same one as the computer you first used. Result: you cannot authenticate and the cable system will not allow you internet access. The workaround, built into the router firmware, is to "clone" the MAC address of that first PC. Then when the cable system tries to authenticate it "sees" what appears to be that first machine and is happy as a clam.

Which leads to some obvious questions/problems:

1. Won't it screw up switching if I have two devices with the same MAC address? Answer: No, as one MAC address sits on the public or non-switched WAN side of the router, and the other sits happily on the switched private LAN side.

2. What if I type in the MAC of a different computer than the first one I used to start cable service, or what if I mistype the MAC address in the router? Answer: You will not have cable service.

3. MAC cloning sounds like a kludgy hack, isen't there a better way to do this? Answer: Actually it is an elegant hack. But the best way to handle the problem is to call the cable company, tell them you have a new computer, and give them the MAC address of the router.

In your case MrBreeze the MAC cloning is obviously important, and the best approach would be in the router to put all zeros, i.e. tell the router to display its native MAC address, and then write it down and call the cable company to register that address. While on hold write down the DNS entries that show on the router status page or something like that.

But I would like to ask you to do one other thing for poor computer #3. Under Network Connection, Properties, DNS I want you to put the DNS entries you found from your router. If there are only one or two, thats fine, make them the first and seond entries under DNS. Make the final entry the gateway port of the router, 192.168.1.1. Do an ipconfig release/renew sequence.

The reason for this is that the router provides a mini-DNS proxy server on its Gateway, but I have seen NIC adapters that just would not be happy without a physical DNS server made as the primary DNS entries.

 

[MrBreeze]

OK, I tried setting it to all 0's. The MAC address it came up with after that is the same one it had before.

I also put in the addresses where you said on that pc and still no go. It'll talk to the others but not on the web. The other 2 work just fine. I can ping a website using the ip address, but not the name (

http://www.yahoo.com).

I spent an hour on the phone with network everywhere (maker of the router) and they gave up as well.

On a whim I tried Netscape just to be sure, same result.

Now I'm confusing people cross country LOL

-=Rob

 

[vickero007]

Have you tried uninstalling that "Internet Gateway" on PC1? What about going back to DHCP and setting up all of the computers to receive IP's dynamically?

Do you have McAfee Personal Firewall or Norton Internet Security?

Happy Hunting

-Volkoff007

 

[MrBreeze]

Yeah, I tried uninstalling the gateway, had no effect.

If I set all pc's to receive dynamically, #1 & #2 still work fine, but #3 then does not talk to web OR network.

I uninstalled Norton to keep that from being an issue

-=Rob

 

[mccarn]

I am having a similar problem. Except I am using the router for internet connection sharing. The internet comes through a Starband Satellite Modem. The Network (file sharing) works great, but I cannot surf. I will keep an eye on this thread and let you know what I come up with.

 

[vickero007]

I don't understand why you computer won't work when hooked directly to the cable modem. Before you hook 1 computer to the cable modem you would of course reset TCP/IP settings to DHCP dynamically. Then the modem has to be rebooted and ipconfig/release ipconfig/renew has to be done. At that point if you can't connect to web pages check your ipconfig /all settings and see what's there. Then ping 1 of the DNS servers listed and see what happens. What's the model# of your router and what ports are each computer hooked to?

Mccarn feel free to post your troubles.

-Volkof007

 

[allteltec]

Your DNS Server info dose not look good.
That should be you ISP DNS ip address not your routers.
If you ping 66.218.71.91 and it works and you ping

http://www.yahoo.com

and it fails that would be a DNS problem.

 

[MrBreeze]

I connected the pc that isn't working directly to the cable modem. When I typed ipconfig/release, it went though fine. But when I typed ipconfig/renew, I got this:

An error occurred while renewing interface Local Area Connection 10: An operation was attempted on something that is not a socket.


A clue?

-=Rob

 

[MrBreeze]

IT IS ALIVE!

A little research on the above error told me that my problem was corrupted winsock settings in the registry. I found a little program a gentleman wrote online and voila! all set.


Thank you to everyone here who pitched in, you guys are awesome!

-=Rob

 

[bcastner]

1. Triple check that the XP or other firewall is disabled.
2. Use this utility to reset the Winsock stacks:

http://members.shaw.ca/techcd/WinsockXPFix.exe

 

[Mikerscope]

Good thread - good to get a solution one way or another.
For others coming to this thread in the future I would just like to add:

1. The UTP cable between cable modem and router/hub/switch is usually a crossover cable (partly depends on whether you connect to an uplink or ordinary port on the router/hub/switch). Bear that in mind if, for testing, you connect a PC directly to the cable modem.

2. ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) can also be an area causing problems. ARP is what translates between MAC and IP addresses. ARP data is gleaned from the network behind the scenes on each machine, and kept in a cache; but that data can become invalid, eg. if you change the IP address of a machine. ...which can lead to non- or mis-communication. So you might have to ditch the arp cache. The command is 'arp'; do an arp /? to read all about its options...

Mike