Member Avatar for Sunflowerstarr

My brother in law's hard drive went out on his Dell Dimension 4700. We ordered a new one and I installed that, the OS (windows xp home) and then used another system to download and install the dell drivers for the system. I have installed the ethernet controller, the modem, the chipset which is usually all thats needed to allow internet connection.

We have our internet through embarq using the 660 modem hooked up to a linksys wrt54g router. The wireless connection works and the laptops in the house can connect, however the desktop will not even if we plug the embarq modem directly into the desktop. It will say connected but will not pull up any webpages. If I disable then re-enable or repair the connection it tends to hang up on the part where it renews the ip address resulting in the limited or no connectivity error. The properties have it set to auto obtain ip and dns. The only thing that stands out to me as a possiblity is the packets sent and received are very low. Any idea how to fix this?

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Dani AI

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Brief summary and a focused diagnostic checklist tied to the thread: described a freshly imaged XP desktop that reports "connected" but cannot load pages and the GUI repair stalls at "renewing IP". 's modem power-cycle tip is a useful DHCP-angle. The problem space to isolate is: local TCP/IP stack, DHCP/DNS, drivers/config, or physical NIC/port.

Useful quick tests (run from an elevated Command Prompt):

ipconfig /all
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
ping 127.0.0.1
ping <default-gateway-IP>
ping 8.8.8.8
nslookup google.com
netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt
netsh winsock reset

Interpretation notes: failure of ping 127.0.0.1 indicates a corrupted TCP/IP stack; gateway unreachable with a valid IP points at a physical/link problem; gateway reachable but remote IP not reachable suggests upstream/ISP; remote IP reachable but DNS lookups fail points to DNS settings. Use ipconfig /all to confirm DHCP lease, gateway, and the NIC MAC.

Further checks and next steps: inspect Device Manager for driver errors and duplicate/ghost adapters; uninstall the NIC and reboot so Windows redetects it; try Safe Mode with Networking to rule out firewall/AV interference; test the same cable/port with a known-good laptop to verify the modem/router path; try an alternate adapter (PCI, USB or a different on-board port) to conclusively separate OS/config issues from a faulty NIC. If auto-negotiation fails, temporarily force 100 Mbps full-duplex in the adapter settings to test link stability.

Context note: threads with this symptom often end up being either a driver/configuration issue or a failing network interface. The above steps show the fastest way to locate which one it is and choose the appropriate repair or temporary workaround.

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Member Avatar for Suspishio

Possible fix is to disconnect the current lease on your embarq modem by turning it off for 10 minutes or whatever timeout period you think is enough (certainly some minutes).

When you tuen the embarq modem back on, connected directly to the PC, it MIGHT obtain the lease.

I offer this advice on a trick used in the UK for some cable issues like this.

Member Avatar for Sunflowerstarr

Thanks for the suggestion. After running a lot of tests it turned out to be something simple...the ethernet port was bad. I didnt suspect that simply because most of the time the DSL's ethernet light is off and ours was staying on. I simply bought a usb adapter and voila it worked! I would have tried to replace the actual ethernet port but ater all the work Ive done on it and stressed over I figured I'd be lazy.

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