using old laptop as email/Internet machine

[poisonthewell]

Hi all. Decided to "resurrect" an old Dell Latitude Cpx that originally came with Win95 (and a monstrous 3gb hdd at the time!).

Anyway, it currently has Win98SE and I want to use it around the house as a basic email/Internet machine. I am able to connect wirelessly to the modem via a usb adapter without trouble. However, I can then only connect to the Internet after going into DOS and typing "ipconfig /renew_all" - this must then be repeated each time the computer is restarted.

Anyone know how I can get around going into DOS each time the computer is restarted (other than keeping it on all the time)?

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[wpshooter]

Try going into control panel and go to network and dialup connections, go into properties of you network connection, go into properties of TPC/IP and check the automatically obtain IP address box(s).

 

[poisonthewell]

Actually it is set to auto detect. I might just specify the modem's address and see if that does it.

 

[Leros]

Set everything manually?

 

[spherrod]

You could create a batch file which loaded at startup for the ipconfig command?

 

[Slowlearner]

I am surprised that the ipconfig command works in Win98SE

 

[Satyrist]

go

start menu
run
winipcfg

This is the GUI version of IPConfig.

 

[poisonthewell]

Thanks for all the replies. I just want to update this in case anyone else tries to do the same thing . . . as doubtful as it may be.

I neglected to mention that I also had a PCMCIA network card on the machine. After trying a few different things I pulled the network card and rebooted. The wireless usb adapter now automatically detects the modem, like before, but now connects to the Internet without going into DOS or using any other trickery.

I guess having two possible network connections is too much for WIN98SE to handle.

 

[FeuerFrei]

Originally posted by: poisonthewell
Thanks for all the replies. I just want to update this in case anyone else tries to do the same thing . . . as doubtful as it may be.

I neglected to mention that I also had a PCMCIA network card on the machine. After trying a few different things I pulled the network card and rebooted. The wireless usb adapter now automatically detects the modem, like before, but now connects to the Internet without going into DOS or using any other trickery.

I guess having two possible network connections is too much for WIN98SE to handle.

That last sentence may be true.
I had a wireless network PCI card and an ethernet PCI card installed in my Win98SE desktop. I had to run winipcfg.exe every time after starting up to get an IP address from the wireless router/dsl modem.
I still have both network adapters installed, but I'm hardwired to the network now and have no problems.