Home Net Probs - AGAIN!!

[Martin]

HELP CAREY!!!

I am about to bash the crap out of all these computers!!!

Recall the problems we recently fixed, well, it's back! I connected up the
third PC with 98SE in it, and followed your site instructions EXACTLY again,
but it still wouldn't network. A check of ipconfig confirmed that the
subnet mask was 255.0.0.0 as per the previous problem, so I reset the
router/modem again - now both 98SE machines are showing me a subnet mask of
255.0.0.0 and I'm back to the original problem!!!

In 98 Network Neighbourhood, both 98SE machines show up in each others NN,
but the XP machine doesn't. On XP machine I can map the shared folder of
the 98SE machine that we had working last, but I can't add the folders of
the new 98SE machine...

I see the problem is that subnet mask, but why does it keep going back to
255.0.0.0 on the 98SE machines?? In the router setting it is set to
255.255.255.0, and I have reset the modem/router several times with both a
standard reboot and default back to factory settings - no change.

Suggestions????????????

 

[Martin]

HELP CAREY!!!

I am about to bash the crap out of all these computers!!!

Recall the problems we recently fixed, well, it's back! I connected up
the third PC with 98SE in it, and followed your site instructions EXACTLY
again, but it still wouldn't network. A check of ipconfig confirmed that
the subnet mask was 255.0.0.0 as per the previous problem, so I reset the
router/modem again - now both 98SE machines are showing me a subnet mask
of 255.0.0.0 and I'm back to the original problem!!!

In 98 Network Neighbourhood, both 98SE machines show up in each others NN,
but the XP machine doesn't. On XP machine I can map the shared folder of
the 98SE machine that we had working last, but I can't add the folders of
the new 98SE machine...

I see the problem is that subnet mask, but why does it keep going back to
255.0.0.0 on the 98SE machines?? In the router setting it is set to
255.255.255.0, and I have reset the modem/router several times with both a
standard reboot and default back to factory settings - no change.

Suggestions????????????

Further to this - I disconnected the third PC (98SE), reset the router and
rebooted the first two computers, and the network came back to normal. I
then reconnected the third PC and rebooted it, and it came back as having
been assigned a subnet mask of 255.0.0.0 Why is this happening???? The
lease time was the time of the reboot so I presume it should have assigned
the same subnet mask as had already been assigned to the other two PC's??

The router is a NetComm NB1300 ADSL Modem/Router with firmware version
V6.109.2SD

All 3 PC's have been setup as per Careys network config pages, including
having ZA uninstalled during setup. If I try to manually assign a static IP
address to the 98SE machines they lose connection to the internet and
network, so that doesn't seem to be a solution unless someone can suggest
how this can be overcome?

 

[Carey Holzman]

Sounds like it's time to replace the router...

Further to this - I disconnected the third PC (98SE), reset the router and
rebooted the first two computers, and the network came back to normal. I
then reconnected the third PC and rebooted it, and it came back as having
been assigned a subnet mask of 255.0.0.0 Why is this happening???? The
lease time was the time of the reboot so I presume it should have assigned
the same subnet mask as had already been assigned to the other two PC's??

The router is a NetComm NB1300 ADSL Modem/Router with firmware version
V6.109.2SD

All 3 PC's have been setup as per Careys network config pages, including
having ZA uninstalled during setup. If I try to manually assign a static
IP address to the 98SE machines they lose connection to the internet and
network, so that doesn't seem to be a solution unless someone can suggest
how this can be overcome?

 

[Martin]

Sounds like it's time to replace the router...

The damn thing is only a few months old!!! Does that seem to be the
problem?? I'm not against hassling the manufacturer if I know what the hell
I'm saying to them!!!

Thanks for any information or advice you can offer - this is starting to
drive me bats!!!

 

[Carey Holzman]

I think it would be wise to contact the manufacturer and ask them to explain
this behavior to you. If they cannot, then they should provide a means to
repair or replace the unit.

Age has nothing to do with electronic failure. We've all experienced the
light bulb that burns out only days after we replaced it, while some other
bulb continues to work year after year.

Carey

 

[Martin]

I think it would be wise to contact the manufacturer and ask them to
explain this behavior to you. If they cannot, then they should provide a
means to repair or replace the unit.

Age has nothing to do with electronic failure. We've all experienced the
light bulb that burns out only days after we replaced it, while some other
bulb continues to work year after year.

Carey

Thanks Carey,

I mainly wanted to make sure that we had covered all logical steps of
problems other than the router before I started screaming at the
manufacturer! But as you seem to be sure that is the next logical step I
will contact them with the problem and see what they say. I will post a
reply here in case others have similar problems once I get some response!

Cheers, and thanks again.

 

[Martin]

Sounds like it's time to replace the router...

I'm still waiting to hear from either the manufacturer or someone on their
technical support forum, so in the meantime I have managed to overcome the
problem by assigning a fixed IP to each of the 3 computers. They now all
work with each other fine, but it would still be nice to know why the router
doesn't like assigning the same subnet mask!!!!!

 

[Carey Holzman]

I think that's a question you need to ask the manufacturer. But at least you
found a work-around in the mean time.

Carey

 

[Martin]

Just an update here for anyone interested. This was concerning a NetComm
NB1300 ADSL Modem/Router that would assign a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 to
two computers but then assign 255.0.0.0 to the third, effectively causing
problems on the network with the computers seeing each other!

I spoke to the Technical Support department about this problem and it seems
they agree it is most likely a corrupt software in the routers DHCP server
section. As per their suggestion I tried a firmware upgrade to the latest
release and that did not solve the problem, so the only solution is to
return the modem/router to them for warranty replacement (which they have
suggested).

So just in case anyone else out there has a similar problem with this
make/model, now you know what to do!!!

ALSO - anyone updating these to the latest firmware - v6.1021.2SD - I also
encountered a problem with that where after update the menu bar on the
configeration screen doesn't provide access to the 'advanced settings' menu
options. It seems there is a problem with one of the files in the firmware
download (file "TOCA.htz"), so again if you have problems here you will need
to contact NetComm Technical Support so they can e-mail you a new file!!

Cheers

Martin

PS - Thanks Carey for all your help with these ongoing probs! Until I get
the thing replaced I'm just going to keep using manually assigned IP
addresses on each computer..

 

[Carey Holzman]

Thanks for the update, Martin!

Carey

Just an update here for anyone interested. This was concerning a
NetComm NB1300 ADSL Modem/Router that would assign a subnet mask of
255.255.255.0 to two computers but then assign 255.0.0.0 to the third,
effectively causing problems on the network with the computers seeing each
other!

I spoke to the Technical Support department about this problem and it
seems they agree it is most likely a corrupt software in the routers DHCP
server section. As per their suggestion I tried a firmware upgrade to the
latest release and that did not solve the problem, so the only solution is
to return the modem/router to them for warranty replacement (which they
have suggested).

So just in case anyone else out there has a similar problem with this
make/model, now you know what to do!!!

ALSO - anyone updating these to the latest firmware - v6.1021.2SD - I also
encountered a problem with that where after update the menu bar on the
configeration screen doesn't provide access to the 'advanced settings'
menu options. It seems there is a problem with one of the files in the
firmware download (file "TOCA.htz"), so again if you have problems here
you will need to contact NetComm Technical Support so they can e-mail you
a new file!!

Cheers

Martin

PS - Thanks Carey for all your help with these ongoing probs! Until I get
the thing replaced I'm just going to keep using manually assigned IP
addresses on each computer..