Why my computer is going to kill me.

[ABT]

Taking a deep breath... I can't believe this. I previously posted about my invisible NIC, but now the situation has changed somewhat. I have tried everything short of reformatting my HD and starting fresh with Win98. I just did that Friday though, so I can't have very much on my system that is completely ruining my TCP/IP configuration. The basic problem is that I can only get one NIC in my system to work at a time. Both show up in Device Manager, as well as Network Settings, but only one of them works, always the one that was installed before the other. Using WinIPcfg shows only one NIC, always the one that was installed first, being either my Linksys or the Asix. None of my NICs are defective, as I have swapped all of them in and out of different systems. I can get either my cable modem working with one NIC, if configured for it in TCP/IP, or I can get the network to work with the same NIC, if so configured in TCP/IP. The main issue is that one NIC (the one first installed) works with either the cable modem or the network, but the second can not use TCP/IP. If I install the second NIC, it is able to use NetBEUI for File and Print Sharing, but not TCP/IP. Should I try to find a new TCP/IP stack somewhere? That might help, because it seems that TCP/IP is only allowing one NIC at a time to be supported, as shown by the fact that WinIPcfg only displays one NIC at a time. That covers about all of the options I can think of, if someone else can give me some advice that would be great. I really need to have this working. Thanks a lot for your time.

My system is as follows:
Intel Celeron 366
128 MB PC100 RAM
ABIT ZM6
HP CD-Writer Plus 9110
Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 30 GB Hard Drive
S3 Savage 4 AGP Video Card
Sound Blaster Live!
Linksys 10/100 Etherfast NIC
Asix 10/100 NIC

Maybe that info. can help remedy my situation.

ABT.

 

[Rich]

It seems to me that all is working as it should. If you are using TCP/IP for the one connected to the cable modem, you can't use it for the network... as far as I know. I just use NetBEUI for the network. If there is a way around it, I have know idea what it is. It works fine for me, and I believe NetBEUI is more secure anyway, since it is not routable.

Rich

 

[ABT]

Do you actually have an ICS setup? Because I believe that Win98 SE ICS requires you to use TCP/IP. Also, on Practically Networked (www.tomhiggins.com) it instructs to use TCP/IP on both network adapters. I am trying to connect a network through a Linksys switch to my server computer into my cable modem. Thanks for the tip though. I'll have to try out NetBEUI.

ABT.

 

[AL77]

What are the IP addresses of these two nics - did you assign a private IP address to your network nic, i.e. 192.168.0.1? I assume you're trying to set up Internet Connection Sharing (Win98 or otherwise), did you install the ICS software?

 

[ABT]

Yes I am trying to set up Win98 SE ICS. I did use private IP's for the LAN. I am assuming that the LAN and the cable modem should both be working simultaneously, albeit seperately before I install ICS. Please notify me if I'm wrong.

ABT.

 

[Rich]

I used to have the network set up like AL77 with one as 192.168.0.1, and one as 192.168.0.2 until I got a cable modem and added the other NIC. I didn't have a hub at the time and had to lose the assigned IPs for TCP/IP and use NetBEUI for the regular network. I was using Sygate for a proxy server. Worked OK for the 30 day trail period, then went to a hub, since RR gives me 3 IPs. Using just TCP/IP never worked for me once I added 2 NICs.

Rich

PS: If you have a switch, why not just plug the cable modem into the uplink port of the switch? I thought that was the whole idea of buying a switch.

 

[sov05]

I use my PC as a router too.

I got 2 SMC 1211 Series 10/100 PCI NIC's.

1 goes to the cable modem, and the other to another PC.

I have TCP/IP and Netbeiu installed on both NIC's. I make sure my Comp Name is the @HOME thing, CCblahblah. And for one TCP/IP I use DHCP for IP. And for the 2nd I use a private ip, 192.168.0.1.

It works fine.

I use Analogx Proxy, I found Win98SE ICS unreliable. I like Win2k ICS, very reliable but I'm not fully ready for 2k. So with 98, I high recommend Analogx proxy. It is free and under 300KB.

Analogx has one shortcoming. No Internet Explorer FTP and no Socks.
It does HTTP normal. You go to the browser, connection, use proxy, then 192.168.0.1 and port 6588 for HTTP. However, FTP within the browser is somehow not possible. You have to use GoZILLA or CuteFTP, something that supports user@domain.com requests to the Proxy Server. IE apparently can't be configured as such. Also, a interesting system for SMPT and Pop3. On the proxy you setup the e-mail addy's and servers. So if u have a mail account u wanna use on ur PC within the private lan, u have to configure it from the Proxy. You put in the addy, pop3 server, and smp5 server. Now on the Client PC, when setting up ur e-mail you type in the Proxy Server's IP as the pop3 mail server and as the smpt mail server for all accounts. It just sees the e-mail username and does its business. Asides the FTP thing it is great. It is still only version 4.

So more good to come. Hopefully full socks and ftp support will come.
And the option for a easier mail setup.


TCPIP can be used for BOTH Nic's. I do it

 

[Rich]

So... sov05. you can nuke the NetBEUI protocol and your home network works fine? Then why is it there?

Rich

 

[ABT]

I know that TCP/IP can work with both NICs ideally... Unfortunately it is not happening in my situation, and that is all I really need to remedy. There must be some method. I know it isn't a hardware problem, because any combination of my NICs does the same thing, and even trying it in a different system does the same thing. Do you think it might be an issue with the Linksys drivers? And in response to your P.S. Rich: I don't use the uplink port because if I did my options would be to either spend $10 more monthly on my @Home service or get de-provisioned. Neither sounds very fun.

ABT.

 

[Rich]

I wish I could help you with that, but I was never able to get it to work with just TCP/IP. I didn't try really hard either. I just installed NetBEUI and everything was fine as far as I'm concerned. Maybe someone in the Networking forun can help you. If you haven't tried already. I find it weird that @home would charge you more, since you aren't getting an extra IP. I set up my Dad and brother's network with a Linksys Etherfast Cable/DSL Router in conjunction with DSL, the GTE page even showed you how to do it.


Rich

 

[Rich]

I just had a thought after reading your thread in the other forum... I noticed that in that thread, you listed TCP/IP showing up in network properties on both NICs. Have you tried clicking on the one that connects the computers and going to properties\bindings and enabling File and Print Sharing?

Rich

 

[ABT]

Just want to say thanks for all of the help guys. I did finally get everything worked out. Almost... I took one of the NICs out of my primary system and put it in what is now the server, and amazingly enough it worked. The Linksys NIC in my Celeron system still didn't want to work, so I yanked it out and threw it in the 3rd system I have and it worked just fine. OK. So I got back on my Celeron and formatted the HD, clean installed 98 SE, installed the NIC and sure enough WinIPcfg showed it just fine. I now have everything configured, except for ICS. For some reason, when my workstation tries to connect to 192.168.0.1 (my server) to get on the net it goes nowhere. File and printer sharing works great though. I am assuming that a port that needs to be open is closed or something. Now if anyone can help me with that, I would be forever indebted to the Anandtech forums and the users on them. Thanks again for all of the help.

ABT.

 

[AL77]

Glad to hear that you got the network configured. Read your other posts regarding this and it didn't make sense why it wasn't working. Maybe those two nics just don't work together...

For Win98 ICS, when you installed the software and ran the ICS wizard(only on the host - the sharing computer hooked up to your cable modem in this case), did you specify which nic would be the home (i.e. network) and which nic would be the sharing (i.e. connected to the cable modem)? When running the ICS wizard, did you create the client disk and install this in the client machines (I had IE 5 on a client set up to 'connect through LAN' already on a network I set up, so I don't know what this disk did, but you should install it anyway)?

Is your server configured as a proxy, if not, make sure that 'automatically detect settings' or 'use proxy' is not selected under your browser connection settings.

Edit: if you are using static IP's on your client machines, don't forget to enter in the gateway and DNS information (the private IP of your host machine) in the TCP/IP property box of your client machines. Alternatively, just choose 'obtain IP address automatically'. Let us know if it worked.

 

[Spearfodder]

Just as an fyi with ICS, when you go to install ics, you can't have any machine on the internal network (the ics server adapter) set to 192.168.0.1. If you do it won't work. You need the adapter set up with another ip, so that ICS can CHANGE it to 192.168.0.1. Strange but documented in the ms knowledge base.

I have ics running on my home network fine (for now). Two adapters, on plugged into my dsl modem, one to the hub. What I did to make it easier was use to different type of nics. One's a 10mb combo card, the other a 10/100. Makes it easy to assign them their proper roles in ICS.

 

[AL77]

<< You need the adapter set up with another ip, so that ICS can CHANGE it to 192.168.0.1 >>


That's strange Spearfodder, I didn't have that problem when I installed an ICS network (I already had the private nic of the host/sharing computer set up as 192.168.0.1 before running the ICS wizard)

 

[Need4Speed]

make sure that the machine that has the 2 NICs in has TWO DIFFERENT BRAND NICS. They should not be the same brand and type, as the TCP/IP will not bind correctly to both cards. Try a different brand NIC and everything will be fine.