now-and-then limited/no connectivity

[mitcheroo]

Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop, connects via Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated
Controller (a kind of internal modem?) to my Comcast broadband internet
modem at home. Works fine.

BUT: works only occasionally, and mostly not at all, on the LAN
connection at office.

LAN at office is part of the AT&T corporate network. No special
software, corporate usernames or passwords are needed to connect there
-- all security is handled by the two AT&T proprietary resident
programs installed in my laptop, basically work-order
receiving/managing programs.

This same office connection works fine on my associate's laptop. (He's
AT&T, I'm contractor.)

But I keep getting a "Limited or no connectivity" message. Sometimes,
if I leave the laptop connected for an hour or so, the connection
clears up and I have full connectivity, and I can finally get work done
on my own.

I've tried everything -- disabled other connections, disabled the
firewalls, disabled my anti-virus software (McAfee and AVG). Nada.
Tried rebooting/restarting the computer with the LAN connected, or
before plugging in the LAN. Still nada. Still the Comcast LAN at home
works fine.

I thought I had it figured out last week. I disabled my "1394
Connection" in my control panel's network connections window, and
instantly the LAN cleared up. But the next time I tried that, it
didn't do any good, and still doesn't. Maybe that one time was just a
coincidence.

What's going on here?

 

[Malke]

Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop, connects via Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated
Controller (a kind of internal modem?) to my Comcast broadband internet
modem at home. Works fine.

BUT: works only occasionally, and mostly not at all, on the LAN
connection at office.

LAN at office is part of the AT&T corporate network. No special
software, corporate usernames or passwords are needed to connect there
-- all security is handled by the two AT&T proprietary resident
programs installed in my laptop, basically work-order
receiving/managing programs.

This same office connection works fine on my associate's laptop. (He's
AT&T, I'm contractor.)

But I keep getting a "Limited or no connectivity" message. Sometimes,
if I leave the laptop connected for an hour or so, the connection
clears up and I have full connectivity, and I can finally get work done
on my own.

I've tried everything -- disabled other connections, disabled the
firewalls, disabled my anti-virus software (McAfee and AVG). Nada.
Tried rebooting/restarting the computer with the LAN connected, or
before plugging in the LAN. Still nada. Still the Comcast LAN at home
works fine.

I thought I had it figured out last week. I disabled my "1394
Connection" in my control panel's network connections window, and
instantly the LAN cleared up. But the next time I tried that, it
didn't do any good, and still doesn't. Maybe that one time was just a
coincidence.

What's going on here?

It sounds like the laptop isn't getting an IP address from the DHCP server
at work. Ask your IT Dept. to assign you a static IP and manually input the
DNS. You can either use the Alternate Configuration or a third-party
multinetwork manager for this so you can keep different DHCP/DNS settings
for the machine while it is at home.

http://www.netswitcher.com - NetSwitcher
http://www.globesoft.com/mnm_home.html - MultiNetwork Manager
http://www.mobilenetswitch.com - Mobile Net Switch

Malke