Myk

Hi all

I'm having major problems connecting up to broadband.

I have a Netgear DG834 ADSL Modem/firewall/router blah blah

I'm trying to connect a Mac (OS9.x) and three PC's (winxp pro + Me)

The router has a setting IP address of 192.168.0.1

The mac can access this and adjust settings etc, unfortuantely none of the PC's can access this page.

I believe the reason for this is the router is acting as a DHCP server, but the PC's wont / cant recognise this??

I've tried to ping the router...nothing
I've manually set the IP address of the PC so it should talk to the router (192.168.0.2/3/4/5etc) but to no avail

The router has the option to turn off DHCP (So it doesnt act as it) but it requires a MAC address for each computer. This is ok for the MAC but when I request the MAC address (WINXP) using the getmac command it comes up with a list of zeros??

Can somebody please help, I'm currently paying for bb that I cant access..
Oh and the Mac can access the bb but it is stupidly slow (makes dial up look impressive) I've tried talking to the Netgear help line, but seeing as it is in India, there is a bit of a language barrier, although they did try their best.

My ISP has been helpful to a point, but arent Mac friendly.

Any ideas??



Mike

ozzy

first off just enable DHCP on your PC. If it's WinXP, then it's in the Network settings under TCP/IP. It's referred to as "Obtain an IP address automatically" - DHCP in laymans terms.

Use "ipconfig /release" and then "ipconfig /renew" from a command prompt on the XP machine to check it's be assigned an IP address.

Stefan

P.S. On a 192.168.0.0 network, you should be using the same subnet mask (255.255.255.0) on all the devices (pc, mac and router).

Myk

I've done the enable DHCP thing (First thing the instructions tell you to do)

It usually assigns an IP address of 169.254.x.x, which I gather means Windows was unable to successfully get an IP address from the server so it creates its own.

ozzy

That's correct. Is it doing the same thing on all the Windows PC's??

Do all the PC's have link lights on the back on the NIC to show it's physically connected to the router?

No difference between a Mac using DHCP and a PC. Do you have a software firewall on the PC's that could be blocking DHCP requests? The built-in XP one shouldn't disable this, but you could turn on the logging to see if it'll show you any errors.

If you assign a static IP address then set one as 192.168.0.x (pick an unused host number), subnet 255.255.255.0 and gateway as 192.168.0.1. That alone should allow you to ping the router (assumming you can ping from the Mac).

All you'd need after that is DNS. Either set this to your ISP's servers or the router if it does DNS lookups for you.

Stefan

Myk

Thanks for your help so far Stefan

No firewalls.

The lights are lit at noth ends (router + pc)

I've assigned a static ip address on the pc as you described, but was still unable to ping the router. it timed out.

The Mac can access the router, and can access the net, albeit v v slowly.

I've tried to ping the pc from the mac, again times out.

Any ideas??

ozzy

Do you have another hub/switch to try (or even a x-over cable)??

If the Mac can connect and it's slow, it doesn't sound right. If you set static IP on two pc's they should talk to each other without any problems. Having all 3 workstations faulty or having a dodgy network install is a bit unlikely.

If you type ipconfig on the XP machines, do you get something like this:-

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>ipconfig
Windows IP Configuration
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.10
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>

Also, have you tried the Mac and PC's in different ports on the router?
When you run a ping, use the -t switch to run it continuously. Have a look at the NIC and router to see if you see any activity on the ports.

Things that would normally fail a ping test are corrupt TCP/IP settings, incorrect host and network settings in the IP addressing (e.g. two pc's on the same physical LAN, but setup with different IP network addresses), dodgy hardware (duff NIC, cable or hub/switch) or firewall software that blocks ICMP ping packets.

How about resetting the router to it's factory defaults? That would rule out any corruption in it's software config.

Do you know if the NICs in the PCs are the same make? I know some manufacturers used to supply some test software. You could boot them from a DOS diskette, run the utility and do ping testing without having to load and configure a bloated Operating System.

Stefan

markr1963

Have you tried pinging 127.0.0.1 from each of the PCs? As Ozzy says 3 duff PCs is a bit unlikely but at least this would comfirm if TCP/IP was working.


HTH
Mark

jowl

What type of network cables are you using...ie...ones you purchased or one you made up? Are they Cat 5? Straight cables?

Myk

I've pinged 127.xxxxxxx thats fine.

The cables are all cat 5 purchased from a reputable shop.

Ipconfig shows exactly what ozzy says it should, as long as I have manually specified the details.

Router has been reset on a number of occations.

If I just plug the pc in, the router then wont let the mac talk to it at all. I have to reset the router and put the mac in first.

I'm beginning to think the router is duff.........

jowl

Think you could be right.

Sounds like your computers are setup ok so could bethe router? Can you connect to router using a PC at all? I was thinking of upgrading the router firmware....but Ii'm not sure of you can do it using a mac? Might be worth a try though

Myk

Pc wont talk to it at all

currently waiting to speak to simply computers to confirm duff router.....25 min waiting to talk to a techie!!!!!

Soulgirl

I had same problem with networking on my unit within our home network... I got it sorted in the end so will tell you what I did... now, I am no expert, especially where macs are concerned as I have never owned one, but anyway, here is what I did.

On each computer, get the properties for the LAN connection, then properties for TCP/IP, click Advanced, then the WINS tab. Select "Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP." Restart.

Then go to Computer Management > Services. Verify that TCP/IP NetBIOS helper service is allowed to start. If it's not started, start it. Try net view \\othercomputer again on each machine (where othercomputer is the name of the machine you're not sitting at).

If it still doesn't work, do ipconfig /all and see what your node type is. If they still say "unknown" and "peer-peer", then fire up regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Netbt\Parameters. If you have a "DCHPNodeType" key on the right, modify it to hold the value 8. If you don't have that key, right click on the right, choose New > DWORD. Name the key "NodeType" and give it the value 8. Reboot. Try again.

[EDIT] Damn, sorry.... I re read you message and its the actual internet you cant get isnt it.. not communication between your network. Sorry

Mind you, yesterday I installed a netgear router for my Son and had the same trouble about connecting... I retrieved the mac address from the machine that last accessed the internet and spoofed it into the netgear set up and it worked straight off.

God, don't I waffle crap LOL

Lum

There are two kinds of cat5, straight and crossover. Get one cable, look at both ends and check that all the colours are in the same sequence, if so they are straight which is what you want. Crossover is only for connecting two computers together, not for use with a hub, switch or router.

So why does the mac work? Some Macs, espcially newer ones have autosensing ethernet ports than can detect when the cable is incorrectly crossed over, and cross the port over to match. This allows you to use a straight cat5 to connect two Macs and is a great idea, especially for laptops as you only have to carry one cable with you. (Not a mac owner, just jealous)

Is one of the ports on your router labelled with an X or MDI-X or similar. This port is wired so that a crossover cable becomes straight and vice versa, if the Mac is plugged into this it could be why it works even if it doesn't have the fancy ports.

Myk

Thanks for all the advice.

I spent over two hours on the phone last night!! I spent half an hour waiting to speak to simply computers.....then spent an hour talking through all the steps that I had already tried, and a few I hadnt. By the end of the telephone call the router and PC were talking .....but the router wouldnt allow me on the net

We finally decided the router was fcuked.

Then spent half an hour on the phone to Netgear (India) trying to convince the guy that my name is Mike Shepherd and the serial no is .....etc etc
Finally got him to give me a ref no. (for simply computers) so I can send the router back

He spent 5 min trying to tell me I needed to upgrade the firmware on the router!! How do I do this when I need the router to connect to the internet

So I am now back to square one...I have broadband but no router/modem.

Any suggestions on a good one or have I just been unlucky with this one (Netgear DG834) and get another??

Mike