Technical help with computers

[Marc]

Any body know the technical ins and outs with computers.

I\'m using a router to connect three computers to a surfboard 1 meg telewest broadband modem but keep loosing the connection. Sometimes it will connect and at others it wont at all. Telewest will not help as they say they dont support networking. The router has been changed twice so i dont think its that.

If anyone can come and sort this out I dont mind paying.

Cheers, Marc.

[KeithB]

Hi Marc,

I got the same waffle off Telewest, but the lad pointed me here

http://www.networklab.co.uk/cmodem/ics.html

I\'ve got a similar set up, except I put two network cards in the main pc, one to the surfbaord, and the other to a normal hub (not a router) All this means is the main pc needs to be on for the other two to see the net.



I did set my brother in law\'s house up with a router, he got a Belkin router from pc world, cost about £50 and seems ok.

I\'m not an expert, but if you need me to look up any settings on my set up, just gimme a shout!

Just a thought, have you connected the surfboard to the Wan connection on the router?






[Edited on 2/12/2003 by KeithB]

[Chris_Hughes]

Marc,

I had a similar problem with my BTInternet ADSL broadband. The always on connection wasn\'t always on, on one day I lost the connection about 10 times and logged a help desk call each time. After these persistent calls to the help desk my fault got escalated to the highest level. Eventually the wiring within the house was replaced (their engineer gave me a roll of wire which I installed and they connected up). They also replaced a card at the exchange and replaced the Alcatel fish modem. They did all three fixes simultaneously so we never found out what the actual problem was, but I got a reliable internet connection out of it.

I also had a need for a SOHO network and used MS ICS (internet connection sharing) with various levels of success (sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn\'t !). My setup was an internet connection via the Alcatel fish USB modem to the main PC and networking via 8 port hub with ICS running on the main PC. However, as mentioned ICS was not always reliable, so once I had established a reliable ADSL connection, I upgraded the modem to a D-Link 504 Router (this is an ADSL modem with a built in 4 port hub, all configurable through a browser interface), this does exactly what is says on the box, is very reliable and any connection problems I have had, are due to BT\'s servers. I have also piggy backed an 8 port hub to the router to extend the network past 4 connections.

So in your case, I would connect the Telewest modem to the main PC and establish a reliable connection - make a nuisance of your self with their help desk until it is sorted. As regard the networking side, it is not their responsibility (why should it be), so if in the interim period, you need to run a SOHO network, connect a hub to the main PC (you may need a second network card) and use ICS for connecting the networked PCs to the internet. Once you have established a reliable internet connection, get yourself an all in one broadband modem/router (in my case, the D-Link is very good, but there are others available) and then connect all PCs via the modem/router. Once it is all working, you can get rid of the second network card and ICS, and connection to the internet does not depend on the main PC being switched on.

You may also be able to connect your existing modem to your router/hub, I have no experience of that type of setup, so I can\'t help you there.

[Marc]

Keith and Chris, Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post but most of it went straight over ny head, I was hoping you\'s might have said just uncheck the box saying such and such and hey presto sorted!!!!!!!!!!!.

Its looking like the routers the problem and I need to change to a hub, am I right in thinking this.

Cheers lads,

Marc.

[KeithB]

Marc,

I\'m not too sure, you could change to a hub and still have the same problem. Apart from loosing the net connection can the pc\'s see each other?? type \"ping hostname\" in a command prompt (dos) window, where the hostname is whatever you called the other pc. If you get a reply at least you know the pc\'s are talking to each other.





[Edited on 3/12/2003 by KeithB]

[Marc]

Keith, whenever I try to ping anything, Yahoo, Google, 4.2.2.2 some times I get replys other time host not reachable or request timed out, saying packets lost?.

Seems to be an intermittent fault, its took about half a dozen times to reply to each message tonight. Could it be a cabeling problem?.

thanks,

Marc.

I can ping the 2 other computers no problem.


[Edited on 3/12/2003 by Marc]

[mark]

after you\'ve pinged externally (sounds painful) and had a failure, try pinging yourself (!) Instead of hostnames though, which rely on dns entries for the hostname or the local machines being resolved to their hostnames, try 127.0.0.1 or 0.0.0.1 every machine in the world gets these IP addresses built in, so theoretically shouldn\'t fail. If they do there are issues with your machine -firewall possibly being a bit over protective, sharing with your network not working, or windows is failing to broadcast IP\'s correctly.

How is you machine networked??? have you give static IP addresses to all the machines on the netowrk or are they getting them automatically from the router??

If at some point you have entered a static IP address to any of the machines, there is a possibility of a collision with the router. the router might want to issue an IP to one machine, and later on you turn another machine on that happens to have that IP, the router will fall over.

I\'m not a huge TCP/IP, but I suspect your problems will lurk somewhere in the TCP/IP configuration of your machines

[KeithB]

What firewall do you use Marc? I\'ve got Norton and had a nightmare
setting it up so the other pc\'s could see each other. Have you tried disabling it temporarily.

[Chris_Hughes]

I still think first you need to get a clean/uncluttered setup running OK.
That is, the modem (as supplied by Telewest) connected to your main PC - take the hub/router and networking out of the equation for the time being.

Check out the connection with ping/traceroute etc. There is a link on
http://visualroute.visualware.co.uk/ to ping your machine from the internet, keep on at your ISP until it comes good, once you have a reliable internet connection then start fitting the network.

[Marc]

I think I\'ve sorted it. I noted down all the settings on the router and computers then removed all cables, network cards and software. Tried to connect my computer directley to the telewest modem and could not get a connection.!!!!.

Turns out my machine has the same IP address as the router and when the network card of my machine was registered with telewest one of the digits was inncorrect. In normal circumstances I should never have been able to get a connection as the card wasn\'t registered but by going in through the router the network card was semi bypassed.

I\'m guessing that the router was spoofing one of the other computers network card addresses and/or IP address and sometimes giving me a connection, Anyway, re registed the network card, installed all the computers, connected them up, checked all IP addresses were different and hey presto!!, been working all morning. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

Thanks for all the advice lads,

Marc.

[KeithB]

Nice one Marc, sound advice there from Chris to start from scratch

[Ell]

Exactly the same advice I would have given

[Chris_Hughes]

Marc,

My invoice is in the post ;-).

One of the most important pieces of the IT intellectual toolkit, is get a simple system working i.e. set the system up in its simplest form (as supported by the ISP in this particular case). Get it working OK and then move on from that solution. If it brakes as you expand the system, then you have a good idea where the problem lies.

[Marc]

Bloody thing lasted about two days and went of again. After more pulling out of hair and speaking to an indian call centre for hours on end my problem was escallated to senior tech services in the UK. Ten minutes on phone and they have sent me a brand new replacement unit at no cost to myself!. They have even arranged to pick the old unit up free of charge.

I told them my old router was nearly 3 years old but they said it didn\'t matter.

After the initial hassel of getting through to a UK helpdesk, their service was excellent.

Sorry the company is Netgear, and I just want to thank them for me new router.