Connection problems

[Darth Hades]

Ok, so I have two PC's that I like to run at the same time, two separate systems, one for gaming/projects and what not, and the other strictly business. I have both systems connected to the net through a router from a cable modem. While also from the wireless router I have a lap top using it.

 

Just recently my business PC has stopped connecting to the net altogether, as well my gaming PC stopped connecting.

 

So after some fiddling I found out that when connected directly to the modem without the router, my gaming PC connects fine, yet going through the router or trying to hook it up with my business PC will cause all connections to fail. Also when connecting my business PC directly to the modem it will not connect.

 

The cables are brand new, the modem just got replaced, I brought in my business PC and had it checked out by geek squad and they said it was fine and for all intents and purposes, I have done absolutely nothing to alter or change connection settings to the point that this issue should arise.

 

Yet I bring it home, try to connect them and again none of them work and only the gaming PC works when directly connected to the modem.

 

I would also note that every now and then over the past month or two, my connection would suddenly get dropped but only stay down for a minute or so and then it would be fine.

 

Would anyone at all have a clue as to what I could do to resolve this problem?

[Gfted1]

Ive had a similar problem before and this is what did it for me. Your router probably has four "outputs". In my case it turned out that specific outputs had died. For example, I originally had my PC connected to ouput #1. One day I simply couldnt connect to the intarweb. After much fiddling, rebooting and router power cycling I switched it to output #2 and it worked fine. Since then #2 and #3 have died levaing me only one functional output, #4.

 

So I guess the short answer would have been to try another output.

[Darth Hades]

Thanks for the reply, but that too is on my list of "tried but failed" methods.

 

I am having a geek squad person come out to fix it hopefully, on Sunday, but its going to cost $160, so with my one connected PC I will try to get it fixed before then.

[taks]

sheesh... just buy a new router. it took a dump. only $40 to replace.

 

taks

[Darth Hades]

Its not the router alone, if you had read what I typed, you would know that even the business PC connected directly to the modem will not work. Though I had my PC checked and it worked fine at the store.

[metadigital]

Sounds like a firewall issue with your business PC ... irrespective, $160 is a SIGNIFICANT amount of money and I would be careful before spending it.

[Darth Hades]

Exactly, being a self proclaimed Jew, I don't like spending that much money for something that could potentially be an easy fix.

 

I'll mess around with the settings some more, but this problem only became permanent 2 days ago, previous to it occuring, I had not changed any settings or activated any controls.

 

Effectively this problem came out of nowhere. My business PC is newer and it runs Vista (came with it), which I know has problems, but for a problem to occur 5 months after, with no problems since...is discerning.

[metadigital]

It might be disconcerting, but I'd back Vista's automatic update or something similar.

[taks]

Its not the router alone, if you had read what I typed, you would know that even the business PC connected directly to the modem will not work. Though I had my PC checked and it worked fine at the store.

i did read and ignored that part. the business pooter is having firewall/network issues that aren't difficult to repair. it is probably set up to get a specific IP from the router and cannot work from a cable modem which assigns dynamic (albeit usually fairly static) IPs. since the regular pooter works with the cable modem, it is probably configured to accept the IP the cable modem supplies.

 

taks

[taks]

btw, the router's issue could simply be that it got reset (power surge, perhaps) and no longer allows external accesses.

 

taks

[Darth Hades]

Ok, then thanks for helping identify the exact problem...now how might I go about fixing it?

 

I am not very computer friendly, I know basics of use but nothing of specific connections or how to fix them.

 

And no, the computers "help and support troubleshooting" techniques just bring me around in circle.

 

Now that I have an idea what the problem might be, basically what I suspected from the start, how can I fix it?

[taks]

couple things you can check first...

 

first, connect EVERYTHING up as you usally do. look at the cable modem, are there lights blinking? particularly send and receive. next, look at the router, there should be several lights, one called WAN or WLAN, which is the light for the cable modem connection. is it blinking? check each of the lights for your computer hookups on the router, probably all labeled LAN. is there any activity there?

 

if the WLAN light is not blinking, yet you can connect your regular PC to the modem w/out issue, it's probably a dead router input port. not much you can do but buy another.

 

if the WLAN light IS blinking, then it seems the router is at least talking to the modem.

 

if the LAN lights are NOT blinking, then the router LAN ports may be dead. probably time to buy another.

 

if the LAN lights are blinking, then it may simply be a router permission issue. go into your PC, start a command window and run ipconfig. you should get something like this:

 

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : xxxx.xx.xxxx.xxx (it'll be your cable provider)

IP Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.103 (IP address assigned by router to PC)

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 (just a mask that shows which section of the IP your addresses will occupy)

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1 (IP addy for the router configuration screen)

 

before i can go further, you'll need to report this screen to me unless you've already gotten to one of the "buy another router" dead-ends.

 

as for the business computer, i'm not familiar with vista but if it is anything like XP, it shouldn't be too tough. i'll have to poke around a bit before i can give you specifics.

 

taks

[Darth Hades]

I'll get on it.

Edited June 22, 2007 by Darth Hades

[Darth Hades]

There seems to be a resolution....both my systems are now connected and running fine.

 

Not quite sure how this finally decided to happen, but I would like to thank all for the advice and help.

[Gfted1]

w00t

[Tale]

There seems to be a resolution....both my systems are now connected and running fine.

 

Not quite sure how this finally decided to happen, but I would like to thank all for the advice and help.

You're welcome, glad I could help.

[metadigital]

Just send that $160 via Paypal.

[Darth Hades]

[metadigital]

Cheque?

[Darth Hades]

It's in the mail.

[taks]

new router, or did you go in and reconfigure the router?

 

taks

[Darth Hades]

It just kind of "started working again", I didn't really do much.

 

But I have another issue, I have had BF2 for a while and love it, but recently my PC started screwing up and eventually stopped functioning completely, so I used the partition to recovery it, so now when I install BF2 it installs fine, but when I click "Play" I get an error message saying "LaunchBFII is not responding - Send error report , etc."

 

I have latetst updates, I've unistalled an reinstalled it many times and it still will not play...anyone?

 

Likewise whenever I try to analyze my system, I get a similar message and have to close it.

[taks]

something in your registry is probably amiss. the problem with the way MS handles the registry is that the "uninstall" option is not always complete. there's always some stray key left around that causes havoc. very difficult problem to diagnose, and even more difficult to resolve other than rebuilding your system from scratch, and then reinstalling all of your requisite software. it sounds like you may want to do this anyway.

 

taks

[Darth Hades]

Well I am the kind of person who keeps all vital data and files on an external hard drive, so crashing my system and restoring it is nothing more than a loss of time.

 

Which I did that and the problem was fixed. I did it before and apparently it didn't go through because there was alot of programs still on my pc that should have been deleted.

 

Yet it works again...oh he fun. For the record, I traced it to something like MSsystem2 or something like that...can't remember.