Help...no Ip Address Found

[CROKOS]

I'VE BEEN USING OPTIMUM ONLINE FOR 1 YEAR W/ NO PROBLEMS AND THEN...

OUT OF THE BLUE ALL MY PCs CANNOT REGISTER AN IP ADDRESS WHICH OF COURSE DOES NOT ALLOW ME TO GO ON THE INTERNET.

O-ONLINE TECH SUPPORT (VERY GOOD) CLAIMS ALL IS GOOD ON THEIR END AND 3COM'S (MY HARDWARE PROVIDER) TESTS SHOW NOW PROBLEMS W/THE EQUIPMENT.

2 1/2 DAYS LATER WITH ABOUT 50 OR SO TROUBLESHOOTING ATTEMPTS AND I STILL DONOT HAVE A SOLUTION.

MY 4 PC NETWORK SETUP IS SIMPLY A CABLE MODEM W/ A ROUTER.

LOOKING FOR SUGGESTIONS FROM THOSE WHO SUFFERED THE SAME AGONY I'M GOING THROUGH!!!

HELP???

[cyberskye]

List all of the hardware and OS involved - you haven't provided nearly enough info to troubleshoot.

Is it the router that cannot renew its lease or the pcs attached to the router?

Skye

[CROKOS]

WINDOWS 2K OS
3 COM ROUTER W/3 COM NICS

THE PROBLEM IS OCCURING WITHIN THE PCS AND NOT THE ROUTER.

[cyberskye]

Got it, so this has nothing at all to do with the ISP.

You get all zeros when you run ipconfig?

Are you using DHCP or manually assigning addresses to your machines? Check the router and the PCs - you want them to be the same static or DHCP.

If DHCP, open a command prompt and type: "ipconfig /release" without the quotes. Once it tells you that all is released type:"ipconfig /renew"

Skye

[CROKOS]

FOR EVERY T/SHOOT, I USED THE IPCONFIG /RELEASE-RENEW METHOD AND I WOULD STILL SEE ZEROS IN MY ISP ADDRESS.

HERE ARE SOME OF MY T/SHOOTING ATTEMPTS:

ISOLATED THE MODEM FROM THE ROUTER AND DIRECLTY INSERTED THE MODEM IN EACH PC (WHICH IS HARDWARE/SOFTWARE CONFIGURED THE SAME).

UN/REINSTALLED THE DRIVERS FOR THE NICS.

SWAPPED MY CURRENT MODEM W/ A SAME IDENTICAL BACKUP NEW MODEM AND OPTIMUM ONLINE WAS PROVISIONED W/THE NEW ETHERNET ADDRESS.

FURNISHED BRAND NEW CAT-5 CABLES FOR ALL.

REINSTALLED WIN 2K INCASE ANY FILES WERE CORRUPTED.

I'M HAVING A TECHINCIAN TO COME OUT 11-2PM TO SEE IF PROBLEM EXISTS IN ACTUAL CABLE WIRE???

AT THIS POINT...BEYOND FRUSTRATED

[cyberskye]

Can you access the router's admin page? I imagine not if you aren't getting an IP from the router's DHCP server.

I would reset the router and maybe assign static IPs to the machines on your LAN. Just make sure to use an addy on the same network as your router;s default settings.


Just a note - the DHCP SERVER that is built into any NAT router is not impacted at all by your ISP. You could have a LAN running off a 4 port router that has nothing on the WAN (modem) port. If the problem is the router-PC configuratiton I doubt that an ISP would try and troubleshoot your home network.

Do you see any activity on the LEDs between the router and modem?

SKye

[CROKOS]

I CAN ACCESS MY ROUTER'S ADMIN PAGE -- IT SHOWS NETWORK ETHERNET CONNECTION OK BUT INERNET CONNECTION N/A.

MY LEDS DO SHOW SOME ACTIVITY BTWN ETHERNET LINK LED AND THE ACTIVITY LED?

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

HOW WOULD I GO ABOUT SETTING STATIC IP ADDRESSES OR CAN YOU RECCOMEND A GOOD NETWORK PRIMER SOURCE ON THE WEB.

SKYE-- APPRECIATE YOUR HELP AND INPUT.

[cyberskye]

If you can get to your admin page on your router through your web browser, then you do indeed have an ip address assigned to that machine (unless you are using a serial console or the like)

Do you know the internal ip of your router (usually 192.168.x.x)?

MY LEDS DO SHOW SOME ACTIVITY BTWN ETHERNET LINK LED AND THE ACTIVITY LED?

Nothing on its own. If you see the activity light on the modem and the router's WAN port blinking together then there is some communication.

Check in the router config that it is set up as a DHCP server. If not, you need to either enable that feature or assign static ips to your PC.

What happens when you just type "ipconfig" on one of the machines - still all zeros?

Are you absolutely positive that you changed nothing in the router or the pcs that may have caused this? Installed any software, changed any network settings, etc?




Here (http://practicallynetworked.com/networking/mmr_netwk_setup.htm) is a decent primer. Compare this with your info from the router guide.

Skye

[CROKOS]

AFTER ALL THIS TROUBLE IT SEEMS THE ISSUE LIES WITH IN THE CURRENT FIRMWARE IN THE 3COM OFFICECONNECT MODEM. IT SIMPLY NEEDS TO BE UPDATED.

OPTIMUM ONLINE(CABLEVISION) NEEDS TO SEND IT DOWN TO ME AFTER I DEMANDED TO SPEAK ONLY TO THIER 3COM MODEM REP IN LEVEL 2 TECH SUPPORT. THAT INDIVIDUAL WILL BE CALLING ME BACK LATER THIS AFTERNOON.

3COM ASSURED ME THIS WILL SOLVE THE PROBLEM SINCE THEY HAD A SIMILAR CASE DAYS AGO. ALSO, THEY HELD A CONF. CALL W/OPTIMUM ONLINE REGARDING THIS FIRMWARE ISSUE AND AGREED TO IMPLEMENT THE UPDATES.

3COM IS ALSO DISCONTINUING THIS OFFICECONNECT MODEM. THEY DO STAND BY THIS MODEM FOR THE NEXT FEW YEARS OR SO AND SHOULD WORK FINE IF THESE FIRMWARE UPDATES, WHEN NEEDED, ARE CARRIED OUT PROPERLY.

IT SEEMS THAT OPTIMUM ONLINE IS NOW GETTING INTO THE MODEM BUSINESS AND IT IS ALMOST ADVANTAGEOUS FOR ME TO SUFFER AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE SO THAT THEY CAN READILY OFFER ME A DISCOUNT ON THEIR TROUBLE FREE MOTOROLA MODEMS--CLAIMED BY THE ONSITE TECHNICIAN.

WE SHALL SEE....

[CROKOS]

FIRMWARE UPDATE ON THE 3COM MODEM RESOLVED THE ISSUE.