Limited or No Connectivity

[3NF]

From time to time, I've encountered this "error" for a network interface, which was easily resolved (most of the time) by doing a repair. However, last night I ran into this issue and could not fix it, even when trying the many things listed below. In all cases, I kept getting assigned a 169.* address

Note - This was for the built in LAN interfaces on my ASUS P5N32-E SLI board.

1. Reboot cable modem and router. Reset router.
2. Reinstall network drivers
3. Uninstall network interfaces in device manager (disconnect network cable, and reboot)
4. Disable LAN in BIOS, reboot, shutdown, renable LAN, reboot.
5. Assign a static IP address. This worked, in that I was correctly assigned the address, but could not ping any other device on my LAN.
6. Brought in another computer to test the cable. That computer was immediately assigned an IP address through DHCP.

No matter what I did, I could not get back on the network. So I shutdown the computer, removed the network cable, turned off the PSU switch, and went to bed. This morning, booted everything back up and was back on the network.

So what magically happened in the middle of the night?

 

[TC10284]

Sounds like to me, those NICs are just flaky.

Did you try a different router?

 

[3NF]

Originally posted by: TC10284
Sounds like to me, those NICs are just flaky.

Did you try a different router?

No, I only have 1 router. The only thing I can think of is shutting it down, including turning off the power supply switch, reset something ... somewhere ... at sometime

 

[nweaver]

what that means is the NIC is not getting a DHCP request. If the obvious things don't fix it (rebooting PC/Router) then I usually bust out the sniffer to see if the DHCP server is working.

 

[JackMDS]

Get an inexpensive PCI card and try it instead of the onboard NIC.

 

[3NF]

The DHCP server in the router is working fine. Any other device/computer I have can connect to the same cable and get an IP address just fine. However, for some reason last night, the onboard NICs could not - at least not until this morning.

I may go the route of getting a PCI NIC card and using that instead.

 

[tweekah]

Force those NICs to 100FDx from auto negotiation...unless your router supports gigabit. Also make sure you disable any software firewalls which I doubt would be the problem. Check the event viewer also for any other clues why you are getting an autoconfiguration ip.

 

[nweaver]

forcing to 100FD can quickly and easily cause more problems. For a SOHO router/card, I would use auto. If you think that MIGHT be the issue, try 10/half, 100/half, 10/full, 100/full. I doubt that's the issue though, and can quickly mask the problem with other symptoms.

 

[Lemon law]

Ever occur to you that you had a bad OS boot---some driver just failed to install--you rebooted--the driver installed---no probs.

 

[3NF]

Originally posted by: Lemon law
Ever occur to you that you had a bad OS boot---some driver just failed to install--you rebooted--the driver installed---no probs.

I'm pretty sure that isn't it. I rebooted, uninstalled, reinstalled driver/device many times. At the time I went to bed, everything was installed. The only thing I did different when I shutdown was to turn off the power supply.

Anyway, it works now

 

[Lemon law]

You may well be correct 3NF,

My first guess might have been a bad winsock--but that would not cure in the manner described---so given what you say---I am also baffled.

 

[nweaver]

Sometimes our PC's have issues, and require power to be pulled for a minute or two to start working again. That is usually a PXE boot issue though. Could be the same thing, just pulling power caused the power to leak out of the caps and forget whatever was wrong...

 

[TC10284]

Originally posted by: JackMDS
Get an inexpensive PCI card and try it instead of the onboard NIC.

I second that.

You could also try leaving those two onboard NICs connected to see if the PCI NIC will work and the onboard will not to prove it is the onboard NICs.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

I'm running into this same issue. And I have a Asus P5N32-E SLI Plus... :|