XP Newbie can't get on internet

[joycee]

We just built a new PC using these parts from Newegg.com:

~Shuttle "AN35N-Ultra" nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL
~POWERCOLOR ATI RADEON 9800PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "XF98-C3L" -RETAIL
~AMD Athlon XP 3000+ "Barton", 333 FSB, 512K Cache Processor - Retail
~Kingston 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 - Retail
~ASPIRE X-Alien Silver Steel Server Case with 420W Power Supply, Model "ATXA1AW/420" -RETAIL
~Mitsumi 1.44MB 3.5Inch Floppy Disk Drive, Model D359M3, OEM
~Western Digital Special Edition 120GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model WD1200JB, OEM Drive Only
~Lite-On DVD-RW/+RW Drive, Model LDW-811S/ 851S, Retail
~Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 PCI Sound Card, Model "SB0226" -OEM
~Microsoft Windows XP Professional with Service Pack SP1a - OEM

This is a complete newbie question, but is there more to getting online than plugging the ethernet cable running from the Netgear MR814 router (which is connected to the cable modem) into the ethernet port on the PC and doing some XP configuring?

I'm wondering if we also need some sort of network card or something? I've only used Macs before (which were all pretty much plug-n-play right out of the box), so I'm not sure if there is another piece of hardware that we are missing here. Can you tell me if the motherboard we have has whatever we need, or if we need to get a card?

Here is a link to the motherboard's product description:Shuttle "AN35N-Ultra"

I tried to follow the networking directions here: Beginners Networking Guide, but I've begun to suspect we are missing some key piece of the puzzle.

 

[spherrod]

The motherboard has an onboard network card so you should be able to connect an Ethernet cable between the PC and router. By default XP is set to get a Dynamic IP address, so if your router is also configured for this it should be a case of plug and play...

 

[joycee]

Thanks for the mobo info, spherrod. Ethernet cable is connected between PC and router, but still no go on getting an internet connection. We plug that same cable into the Mac, bingo, online. Unplug cable from Mac, plug into PC, nada. Argh.

 

[spherrod]

Is XP set up correctly to get an IP address from the router? One other thought, is the Network card correctly installed in XP? If you right-click My Computer-->Properties-->Hardware-->Device Manager you should see any items still not installed - it might be that you need to add the driver for the onboard network card.

 

[joycee]

Originally posted by: spherrod
Is XP set up correctly to get an IP address from the router? One other thought, is the Network card correctly installed in XP? If you right-click My Computer-->Properties-->Hardware-->Device Manager you should see any items still not installed - it might be that you need to add the driver for the onboard network card.

Ahh, excellent tips, spherrod. We just got the PC last night after a friend put it together for us. I'll check the things you suggested when I get home later today.

 

[spherrod]

Originally posted by: joycee

Originally posted by: spherrod
Is XP set up correctly to get an IP address from the router? One other thought, is the Network card correctly installed in XP? If you right-click My Computer-->Properties-->Hardware-->Device Manager you should see any items still not installed - it might be that you need to add the driver for the onboard network card.

Ahh, excellent tips, spherrod. We just got the PC last night after a friend put it together for us. I'll check the things you suggested when I get home later today.

Cool - should hopefully be something fairly simple

 

[joycee]

spherrod, YOU ROCK! Woo hoo! It was something fairly simple. We followed your suggestion to check on the driver installation for the onboard ethernet and found that it hadn't been installed yet. (Along with four other drivers, which we installed while we were at it.)

After installing the drivers, we did a restart, launched IE, and were instantly online without any further hassle. Yay!

Thanks again! :thumbsup:

 

[spherrod]

:beer: Woo-hoo! Now you're online, make sure you've got some active Anti-Virus software and a Firewall running.

Also, if you use IE for browsing, you might want to get something like Spywareblaster

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

 

[joycee]

Ack, thanks for the reminder. The router works as a firewall, so we're good there. And being a Mac person, I've never had to worry about the virus and spyware stuff before! Thanks for the link - I'd better get busy before my PC gaming kid gets into trouble with his new rig.

 

[spherrod]

If you're stuck for an anti-virus program, there's AVG (Google should find it) which is free and gets updates as well. I can't emphasise enough the importance of keeping this up to date (or whatever anti-virus package you get).

The same applies to Windows, you should regularly visit Windows Update (in the Tools menu of Internet Explorer) to get security patches and hotfixes

Other than that, time for a :beer:

 

[joycee]

Thanks for the info, spherrod! I will definitely follow your advice. Much appreciated! :thumbsup: