Networking old ThinkPad

[Georgeben]

I have an old 380ED IBM ThinkPad on which I am having Home Networking problems. Before installing XP I formatted the hard drive to give me a clean start so there are no "old" settings upsetting the system.

I also have a desk PC and a recent Toshiba laptop both networked via a Belkin DSL Wireless Router. The PC is hard wired to the local router and the Toshiba has a Belkin wireless PCMCIA card. Both these machines work fine on the Internet and with file sharing. All computers run Windows XP/SP1

When I auto configure TCP/IP properties on the Thinkpad I get no recognition from the router (PING timed out) When I manually config. I get an IP address in properties nothing like the one I entered and still no PING

Believe me, I’ve been sleeping with this problem for weeks and I’m certain all is OK with the settings. This is not a “routine problem and I need some expert help please.

To help establish the causes I purchased a wired PCMCIA network card which is now cabled up to my router. The wireless card being eliminated as it is not in circuit. With no positive result I also considered the new card may be faulty and the store gave me a replacement

I have learned considerably about networking from this exercise and with help from a knowledgeable friend (by email) I've exhausted all the options on network and TCP/IP settings (notably not the one which will provide a solution) and am now at the count of nine and almost ready to throw in the towel.

With the new card the LAN LED on the router panel is lit as are the two LED's on the PCMCIA card dongle. When I Ping the router with the IP address it always times out and will not connect.

I feel now that there is something odd about this Thinkpad. This is not a regular problem and I may be able to last another few rounds if I can find a genius to help sort it out.

Please can someone out there help?

Georgeben

[bentkey]

When I auto configure TCP/IP properties on the Thinkpad I get no recognition from the router (PING timed out) When I manually config. I get an IP address in properties nothing like the one I entered and still no PING

Hmmm...try setting your ip address to automatic and restart your machine while plugged into the network. When it comes up, do an IPCONFIG /all at the dos prompt and let me know what is says exactly. You do ipconfig /all > C:\ipconfig.txt to send the output to a text file you won't see anything when you do it. Then try resetting your ip address manually and do the same. Go to the device manager and have a look at the adaptor status there, is it ok?

[Georgeben]

Sorry for delay:

Rebouted after auto config.
IPCONFIG said
Connection specific DNS suffix : (no data – Blank)
Autoconfiguration IP Address : 169.254.195.134
Subnet Mask : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway : (no data – Blank)

And after manual config:
Connection specific DNS suffix : (no data – Blank)
Autoconfiguration IP Address : 192.168.2.4
Subnet Mask : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway : 192.168.2.1

Device manager
Belkin F5D5020 PCMCIA Card/Notebook network adapter
Device enabled
Working properly.

LED’s on Router and card dongle are lit.
Laptop not showing on DHCP client list on Router setup utility.

Georgeben

[bentkey]

These are exactly the responses you should get if you are having a layer 1 (hardware) connectivity problem. The fact that you tried different adaptors does make this seem weird. Can you ping your own ip address? Also, I suggest you check the event log and see if you are getting any tcpip or adaptor errors.

[Georgeben]

Yes I can sucessfully ping the thinkpad (192.168.2.5)
Nothing on Events Viewer (system folder) except recent errors with...... source "W32Time"
Just a thought: I gave it an IP address well clear of the other two machines which are '2' for the wireless Toshiba Notebook and '3' for the desk PC with wired LAN (both auto configured). Is this OK or should it be in sequence? (ie 4)
Also could a TC/IP problem with either of the working machines be the cause although they are networking OK?
I've always been a little confused about the settings on the Toshiba but it's been working months so I've left it alone.

Georgeben

[bentkey]

Just a thought: I gave it an IP address well clear of the other two machines which are '2' for the wireless Toshiba Notebook and '3' for the desk PC with wired LAN (both auto configured). Is this OK or should it be in sequence? (ie 4)

The only only thing that is important is that it be in the same network as your router and that it is an address that is not already in use by another machine. I.E. If your router's internal LAN address is 192.168.2.1 then you must assign an address that starts out with "192.168.2." and the last number must be at or between 2 and 254 and not already in use. A couple of things you might try are: 1: Exchange the cable with the one that is working on the other machine.
2: If your network adaptor driver software allows it, change the linkspeed/duplex setting from auto detect to half duplex then try it at full duplex.(some switches don't auto detect well). This is usually in the advanced adaptor settings.
3: If you have a crossover cable, you could set your pc to auto configure ip address then use it to connect your 2 hardwired machines and see if they can ping each other. They will automatically assign themselfs IP addresses in the 169.254 range.

If none of that works, you could try removing all the adaptors and the tcpip protocol completely. Then reinstall.

If that fails, I don't know what to tell you except to wipe and reinstall windows with the new adaptor already installed so the windows installer can see it. Something in the tcpip protocol stack could be so corrupted that you'll never fix it.

The other machines could not affect this one unless you had given out a duplicate address. But that would not explain you're not being able to be assigned an IP address automatically.
Let me know how it goes.

[Georgeben]

Tried swopping the cables from PC to Thinkpad but no luck.
When you say the TC/IP stack corruption do you mean on the Thikpad or the Router?
Is it a possibility that the Router can be faulty?

New development:
My wife tells me (she uses the Toshiba notebook) that she has been getting a "balloon" note saying there is an IP address conflict with another machine on the network. Only happens occaisionally when she's on the net.
How can this be, she is 168.192.2.2 (auto configured) and her presence is has always been listed in the DHCP list? I can't see this is significant to my problem as I have in the past tried the Thinkpad with a 5 or 6 address without success.
Seems to me that we're almost at the end of the line without a result. I was very hopeful when you came on the scene as I've tried other forums with no luck. Do you really think it's as drastic as a windows re-install? I could try a "System Restore" to the post XP installallation to clear out all the settings we've tried.

Georgben.

[bentkey]

I meant protocol stack corruption on the PC. Anything on the router would affect all your PCs. Address conflicts can happen when one PC is turned off for a while and another PC comes online and is assigned the same IP by the router. When the first PC comes back online it trys to use the IP it had the last time or there is a fixed IP somewhere on the network and the router is assigning the same address. Still, that's not your problem, because you're not even able to be assigned an IP. Did you try setting the duplex value?
It wouldn't hurt to try going back as you suggest.

Drastic? I guess I assumed since this was newly installed it wouldn't be that drastic. Regretably, there are times when there is simply no other way.

[Georgeben]

Re-installed XP OS with formatted drive option but no changes I'm afraid.
One last suggestion on size of RAM.
MS site says min. of 65mb for XP and I have 80 on this machine. Do you think that this "low" RAM could be the cause?

Georgeben

I meant protocol stack corruption on the PC. Anything on the router would affect all your PCs. Address conflicts can happen when one PC is turned off for a while and another PC comes online and is assigned the same IP by the router. When the first PC comes back online it trys to use the IP it had the last time or there is a fixed IP somewhere on the network and the router is assigning the same address. Still, that's not your problem, because you're not even able to be assigned an IP. Did you try setting the duplex value?
It wouldn't hurt to try going back as you suggest.

Drastic? I guess I assumed since this was newly installed it wouldn't be that drastic. Regretably, there are times when there is simply no other way.

[bentkey]

I can't think of any reason why the minimal RAM would cause this. It's woefully low for XP, but I have had to work with this on a number of machines that didn't have any trouble networking. I will think on this a little more but tonight I have to go.

[Georgeben]

I can't think of any reason why the minimal RAM would cause this. It's woefully low for XP, but I have had to work with this on a number of machines that didn't have any trouble networking. I will think on this a little more but tonight I have to go.

Thank you for your help and you might be iterested to know that I have solved my problem.
In the Belkin router set-up utility there's a function called 'MAC Address Filtering' about which I was oblivious until in desperation one day I looked it up on a PC Dictionary site. (There was nothing in the Belkin help file) It's all about Media Access Control which is another American acronim meaning internet access. Well, mine was disabled by default which was of course preventing the Laptop suiccessfully pinging the router. It would let me ping the two other PC's on the network but not the internet. I just don't know how it was set-up and worked initially. I disabled it and up it came as good as gold.
What amazes me is that I made four very long calls to Belkin help who never came close to the subject, not to mention several other Forum posts. I've been on and off this problem for about six weeks now on the assumption that one day it will hit me in the face!! One good thing came out of it....I've learned quite a lot about networking.

I havn't spotted any other Posts on Daniweb about similar problems but I hope my experience will be a guide and perhaps a solution to others.

PS Have you seen my post on Microsoft Fax in Windows Software?
Can you help please?

[bentkey]

It doesn't surprise me that Belkin couldn't help you. I had a similar experience with them and I will never buy another Belkin network product. Only in my case I'm sure it was a deliberate act to leave certain information out of their product documentation and from their website. The tech knew instantly what the problem was, and my recourse was to return the product to Belkin and wait for a refund, of course that didn't get me back all the hours I spent fooling with it. The reason it was left off the package was simple, almost no one would buy the product if they knew in advance.