Earthlink Home Networking problems continue
I continue to have problems with my Earthlink Home Networking w/ Cable.
I am forced to unplug the router, plug it back in and repair (renew IP) at least once an hour. This makes the Earthlink Home Networking package worthless to me. It is entirely random, and I can be sure that if I step away from the computer for anywhere between 20 minutes and a few hours, I will have to unplug and repair the connection.
There are 2 machines, one running WinXP Pro SP2 and the other running Win2000 Server, both connected to the router which is connected to the cable modem.
IF I remove the router from the equation and only connect the WinXP machine directly to the cable modem, the connection is flawless. Therefore it would seem safe to say that the issue is with either the router itself or the way the system is set up and configured.
I also already tried upgrading the firmware of the router, did not make a difference at all. This problem has existed the same ever since the home network was set up. I went as far as to reformat both hard drives and reinstalled both OS's from scratch, then rebuilt the network. The symptoms remain precisely the same.
Chatted w/ Earthlink online, they fwd'd me to their phone support. They didn't know what to do either, so they fwd'd me to Linksys. They figured out that MAC Address Cloning Service on the router was disabled. It's enabled now.
So I thought, that was it, it's smooth sails from hereon.
Wrong.
In the time I've been writing this post, it's gone out twice. So commence au festival...
There are two computers, one running Windows XP Pro SP2 and one running Windows 2000 Server SP4. Each is connected to the Linksys Broadband Wireless-B Router, Model BEFW11S4, which then is connected to the cable modem, which looks like the generic kind with just a hoaky "Webstar" logo in the front.
Mind you, I'm just a novice when it comes to putting home networks together. Usually I get them working pretty much w/o hassles, but my overall knowledge of components and terminology is lacking, so... I will do the best I can in typing out how things are set up.
The router naturally provides the dhcp service for the 2 comps.. Starting address being 192.168.1.101 and it is set up to allow up to 2 addresses (since I've to computers). I've tried before allowing more than 2 IPs dished out but that was but a source of headaches. Client lease time is at max, 1 day. No static DNS addresses or WINS set up.
The router is set to obtain IP automatically. The connection doesn't use usernames or passwords.
This is what ipconfig /all reports on the XP computer:
Windows IP Configuration
Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : DELL
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : earthlink.net
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : earthlink.net
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Linksys LNE100TX(v5) Fast Ethernet Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : [omitted]
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.102
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 207.69.188.185
207.69.188.186
207.69.188.187
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, February 08, 2005 11:12:54 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, February 09, 2005 11:12:54 AM
Windows IP Configuration
Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : DELL
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : earthlink.net
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : earthlink.net
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Linksys LNE100TX(v5) Fast Ethernet Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : [omitted]
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.102
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 207.69.188.185
207.69.188.186
207.69.188.187
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, February 08, 2005 11:12:54 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, February 09, 2005 11:12:54 AM
--------------
The Linksys LNE100TX(v5) is using driver 2.10.402.2001.
And then ipconfig /all as reported by the second computer:
Windows 2000 IP Configuration
Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : compaq
Primary DNS Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : earthlink.net
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : earthlink.net
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/100+ Alert on LAN* Management Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-D0-B7-07-E7-37
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.101
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 207.69.188.185
207.69.188.186
207.69.188.187
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, February 08, 2005 11:10:46 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, February 09, 2005 11:10:46 AM
What else can I tell you? Please help.
If unplugging, replugging and selecting the LAN connection and Repair fixes this problem, then what is that "Repair" does? If I knew that, then maybe that could help figure out what was wrong in the first place. This is so frustrating.
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