Windows Vista unable to connect to the internet

[arock]

Hi.
I brought a laptop of mine over to my gfs today and connected it to an existing network that her roommate has setup. I have not had any luck getting it to connect either by wireless connection, connecting to an ethernet cable to a wireless router which goes to the modem, or connection to the ethernet cable which goes directly to the modem.
I had no problems with this laptop at my place connecting to wireless or wired and both places use comcast cable for internet.

I've been searching forums all day looking for clues. I have seen a lot of talk of MAC addresses, unable to contact your DHCP server, ip renewing etc. But nothing seems to work. It defaults to a 169.254.** ip which I believe means it cannot connect to the DHCP server.

Maybe its stuck on my settings that are from my place? I am really stumped

 

[Madxgraphics]

Hi.
I brought a laptop of mine over to my gfs today and connected it to an existing network that her roommate has setup. I have not had any luck getting it to connect either by wireless connection, connecting to an ethernet cable to a wireless router which goes to the modem, or connection to the ethernet cable which goes directly to the modem.
I had no problems with this laptop at my place connecting to wireless or wired and both places use comcast cable for internet.

I've been searching forums all day looking for clues. I have seen a lot of talk of MAC addresses, unable to contact your DHCP server, ip renewing etc. But nothing seems to work. It defaults to a 169.254.** ip which I believe means it cannot connect to the DHCP server.

Maybe its stuck on my settings that are from my place? I am really stumped

Hi Arock

Does the Network you are trying to connect to belong to your girlfriend or to her r'mate..?You might find that when it has been set up he has set the firewall not to allow other computers to connect to it..Ask him how its been set up..

Excuse my manners..Welcometo the forum....

 

[arock]

Hey thanks for the welcome.

Ok I went to work at it again today for a couple of hours with no luck.
I first reset the modem by pressing the reset button until the lights flashed and everything reset. This of course immediately broke her roommates internet connection (which did work). After repeatedly restarting the computer and power cycling the modem it finally started to work again. I still have not managed to get any changes on my computer and have not had any sort of changes in the internet connection. I have tried restarted, power cycling the modem (while slowly connecting the cables one by one).
The modem is from comcast and is model DCM425C and made by RCA.
So it appears to be a cable modem problem (less sure of this now), my laptop is stuck on existing settings some how or just the gods are conspiring against me.
When I try ipconfig /renew I get this: An error occurred while renewing interface Local Area Connection : unable to contact your DHCP server. Request has timed out.