Can't assign IP to a new NIC card

[Tony Cristaldi]

Help!

I've been through 3 bouts with tech support (2@ Bright House, and the
latest with Linksys) with no luck so far.

My internet connection originally came into my PC (which runs Win2k)
through a USB port. After I got a second machine a week ago that runs
WinXP, I tried to set up a home LAN. I went out and bought a Linksys
wireless-G Router (4 ethernet ports) to network both PC's.

Well, to make a long story short, the Win2K PC won't communicate with
the router through the ethernet port on my new NIC card. In fact, that PC
won't communicate with the modem throught that port either. Although it's
possible, I really don't think the NIC card is bad, since I just bought it
to
replace the old one (RealTek) that was in there. I didn't think the old one
was working, since the LED lights didn't work, and I couldn't connect
using the ethernet port on that card either.

Through tech support, I've tried a whole boatload of things...
(apologies if I'm not accurately explaining what we've done so far)

Uninstalling/re-installing the NIC card...
Using both the Win2K-assigned driver and the one from the disk...
Resetting the TCP/IP connection...
Manually entering an IP address in the TCP/IP dialog box instead of
having it obtain one automatically...
A bunch of "ipconfig release/renew" commands...

They have come to the conclusion that everything SHOULD be configured
correctly, however for some odd reason the NIC card won't let itself be
assigned an IP address.

Maybe the NIC card is bad after all, but it's right out of the box and it
has
the correct driver (I think). One thing that may or may not be weird is that
the old NIC card was a Realtek and while the new one is a generic brand
(CompUSA) - the PC recongnizes it as a Realtek - I think the exact same
card as my old one. Could this be a problem, or is the NIC just a clone of
my old one?

Is there some other things I can/should try before trying a different NIC
card?

I know I probably haven't provided enough info to thoroughly explain my
problem and all the stuff I've tried to resolve it, but if anyone cares to
take this
on and help out a newbie, I'd be grateful.

thanks,
Tony

 

[Mahmood Ali]

If you cant even set a manual IP, it points towards a corruption in
software. But you seem to have tried everything to get through that. The
simplest way out would be to try a new card, whch you know works in another
PC. While you have the box open, see if installing the card in a different
PCI slot makes any difference.

Dont worry about the brand of the card, CompUSA just use the Realtek chip
and that is why it comes up as a Realtek card.

 

[Tony Cristaldi]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Well, I just got off the phone with the tech support for the
manufacturer of the NIC card, and they determined that the
card is fine by having me successfully ping some sort of
"loopback IP address".

So now it seems it's likely a software issue (which was your
original thinking) instead of the NIC card itself.

I'm open to any and all suggestions you or anyone else may
have in resolving this problem.

Thanks,
Tony
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[Mahmood Ali]

Ahh....I bet they made you ping 127.0.0.1. But the catch is that it doesnt
really test the network card itself. Only if you were able to ping a
completely different machine, would you know that the netcard is fine. I
wont go into an explanation of this behaviour now.

But, go ahead, try out another card and see what happens.

 

[Tony Cristaldi]

You are correct, sir! That is the IP addy that they
had me ping. I'll get a hold of another NIC card
and see if it works.

Thanks, and I'll let you know how it goes.

Tony

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