Probably a really stupid question, but I'm stumped... question about ip addresses with laptop nic

[stonecold3169]

Hi all, sorry if this is an overly noob question, but it's been bugging me.

I'm a commuting university student, and I've got a notebook running win98 with a Linksys PCMPC100 10/100 NIC. The nic seems to be rather stubborn. Originally I had it hooked up to my Linksys router using DHCP and it worked great out of the box, no playing around with it. I needed to use it at school, so I brought it in and hooked it up and got nothing... after multiple times of releasing/renewing the ip address through winipcfg and telling it to obtain an IP address automaticly, it worked and grabed a valid one and worked.

So, I bring it home, and now it won't grab one here off my router. The link LEDs light up on both the card and the router, but no IP is assigned, and I can't figure out how to force it to accept one. I took it back to school, and as soon as I plugged it in (it was in a seperate lab from where I originally used it) it could connect. Is it not possible to do this?

Oh, by the way, I need to use tcp/ip for this...

Thanks in advance guys!

 

[GigaCluster]

Check to see if the router is configured as a DHCP server.
If not, then your NIC will not have an IP address to grab at home.

 

[JackMDS]

I doubt that your problem is a NIC PCMCIA problem,

The outside server has to be DHCP capable, and your Network setting has to correspond with it.

Here is a link that describes Win98 settings:

Setting Up, Windows 98 / 98-SE.

 

[stonecold3169]

Yes, the router is configured as a dhcp server... I have 2 other comps on the network and they both work fine. I've tried changing the starting range of the dhcp assignment and that does nothing either. It really bothers me that the LEDs both show that the other is there but they won't communicate. Pinging is useless as well.

 

[stonecold3169]

jackMDS: I've already got all of those settings set up... I'm a networking noob, but not THAT much of a noob

 

[GigaCluster]

So let me recap.

1) both LEDs light up -- on the router and on the NIC.
2) you are using a straight cable (I am not sure if not following this step would still allow LEDs to light up, but check just in case)
3) your router is DHCP-enabled
4) your network configuration for that NIC is configured to get stuff from DHCP
5) when you reboot Windows, your IP is 0.0.0.0 (no apparent contact with the DHCP server)

Right?

 

[stonecold3169]

All right except #5, I get the default ip address for a nic that can't find an ip, 169.whatever.... my router is set up for DHCP from 192.168.1.102 up for up to three comps, my main desktop gets 102, livingroom gets 103, and the laptop is in port three and should be getting 104, but it doesn't

 

[ScottMac]

This might sound a bit goofy, but it'll work for you, I can almost guarantee....

When using the system at home, use the top (or bottom) PCcard slot. Once the system gets an IP, you're all set. When you use the system at school, move the NIC to the bottom (or top, whichever you didn't use at home). Once you get an IP, you're all set.

As long as you use the NIC in the same slot for the location, all should be well. The laptop will see the same NIC in each location as a seperate NIC, each with its own parameters. Worse case, you'll have a "disconnected" icon in the tray for the "missing" NIC.

I use this system for wired and wireless NICs in my laptops and have never had a hitch (WINMe, 98SE, 2K, XPPro).


FWIW

Scott

 

[stonecold3169]

Scott:

I'm not where I can try it, but that sounds like it should work, I can't believe I didn't think of that... I was thinking about buying a cheap $25 pc card, never thought of just changing the slot, doh!

Thanks guy, all of you! If anyone has any other suggestions, let me know, and thanks and good night to all!

 

[astroview]

Look into a piece of software called Netswitcher I believe. It lets one card work on multiple LANs easily. I've never tried it myself, but several people I know do so successfully.

 

[stonecold3169]

Well, I restarted one last time and it just started working, and now it works alright with both connections, so it must have just had a timestamp problem or something... thanks for the help!

 

[Rhi]

If you have this problem again you may want to increase your router's DHCP scope, to maybe 10 clients. Linksys is goofy sometimes.

-Rhi