Here's the setup...

It's an HP a642n with a fresh installation of XP.

There's a Belkin Wireless G router and a Webstar modem.

The modem and router both work fine.

Hardware listed is an NVdia NForce network controller. The driver seems fine. I even 
reinstalled the driver.

The computer won't recognise them.

I took the router out and plugged the modem in and it came up and was recognised 
correctly.

I tried to connect to the web and it would not play ball.

When I try to make a new connection, the NVDIA controller comes up as disconnected. 
It's very strange.

Any ideas what's going on? Sounds like I'd be better buying an ethernet card and 
abandoning the built-in card.

Tip: Run a free scan for common Windows errors ad

re: Modem/Router working fine. XP won't recognise them Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 8:43 pm Posted by Ari (1287 messages posted) Your message is totally incomprehensible. Can you be clearer so someone might have some hope of helping you? See below. On Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 7:25 pm, George Cowley wrote: >Here's the setup... > >It's an HP a642n with a fresh installation of XP. > >There's a Belkin Wireless G router and a Webstar modem. The Webstar is a DSL modem, is that right? And you have it connected to the WAN port of the Belkin router, is that right? Have you ever been able to connect to the net using this equipment previously, in this location? > >The modem and router both work fine. How do you know? Do you have other computers that are working, on the internet, through this router and this modem right now? > >Hardware listed is an NVdia NForce network controller. The driver seems fine. I even >reinstalled the driver. > >The computer won't recognise them. Won't recognize what? The network controller? The modem? The router? What do you mean, "recognize"? When you plug the computer's ethernet port into one of the LAN ports on the router, or into the modem, does the computer do ANYTHING? Can it tell that it's connected to something? How do you know? What, exactly, is it doing that tells you this? > >I took the router out and plugged the modem in and it came up and was recognised >correctly. What do you mean "recognized correctly"? > >I tried to connect to the web and it would not play ball. What do you mean "would not play ball"? Did you get an error message? What did it say? > >When I try to make a new connection, the NVDIA controller comes up as disconnected. What's that mean "comes up as disconnected"? What do you get when you do ipconfig /all? What do you get when you ping a numerical IP address? What do you get when you ping your router? Provide some actual information, and maybe someone will be able to help. >It's very strange. > >Any ideas what's going on? Sounds like I'd be better buying an ethernet card and >abandoning the built-in card. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Modem/Router working fine. XP won't recognise them Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 10:02 pm Posted by geek9pm (903 messages posted) You did not say just what kind of modem. Did the thing ever work for you? Does it work on another computer? If this is a wimpy DSL modem you got from the phone company, you are going to have a lot of fun getting it to work with Windows XP! You have to talk to the support people and have them walk you through it. Windows XP does not have all the details you need to set up certain cable and/or DSL modems. But one company I had did a great broadband with a system you just plug in and it works, but $30 a month! So, being cheap, I left it and got a cheap DSL for $10 a month and spent about three weeks getting it to work right. And I have to reset my connection two or three times a day! . And it was not the fault of Windows XP. The support people got a real workout. Turns out the local telco had not conditioned the copper wire! Plus the modem is is a real wimp! And don't get me started about how I got it to work with my wimpy router! Again, not really XPs fault! Does any of that that describe your problem? If so, before you post something here, make sure that it is a real XP problem and not something else! But do come back! Geek9pm [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Modem/Router working fine. XP won't recognise them Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 3:55 am Posted by Spexx (1951 messages posted) George. Your PC does not seem to have a wireless adapter installed. The on-board network controller is a wired connection 10/100Base-T standard. You need an Ethernet cable to go from the network port on the PC to a port on the router, or a wireless USB adapter to plug into a USB port on the PC for wireless operation. Cheers. Spexx. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Modem/Router working fine. XP won't recognise them Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 6:39 am Posted by George Cowley (154 messages posted) Ok. To clear up some confusion... The modem works as does the router. At the moment my sister-in-law is missing a cable but this is of no importance. As a test I plugged the modem via the Cat5 cable into my Macbook and had a connection and surfed the web. I plugged the modem with the Cat5 cable into the HP (avoiding the router) and the HP didn't recognise it. It did tell me I had a 400mbps connection but wouldn't let me use it. I tried again with a USB cable from the modem to the HP. It told me what modem I was using so it clearly has the drivers needed. Again, it would not let me use it. As far as the router is concerned. That's just plain bizarre. It works with my sister-in-law's windows laptop but I couldn't get it to do anything from my Macbook. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Modem/Router working fine. XP won't recognise them Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 6:48 am Posted by Ari (1287 messages posted) Still not very helpful. Can you ping the modem? Can you ping the router? What do you mean it "didn't recognize" the modem when you plugged in the ethernet cable? It's not supposed to "recognize" anything when you do that. It's not like the machine can tell what kind of modem you've connected it to when you plug in an ethernet cable. Again, what do you get from ipconfig /all? How do you have TCP/IP configured in your network connection applet for the ethernet card (under Properties)? On Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 6:39 am, George Cowley wrote: >Ok. To clear up some confusion... > >The modem works as does the router. At the moment my sister-in-law is missing a cable >but this is of no importance. > >As a test I plugged the modem via the Cat5 cable into my Macbook and had a connection >and surfed the web. > >I plugged the modem with the Cat5 cable into the HP (avoiding the router) and the >HP didn't recognise it. It did tell me I had a 400mbps connection but wouldn't let >me use it. > >I tried again with a USB cable from the modem to the HP. It told me what modem I >was using so it clearly has the drivers needed. Again, it would not let me use it. > >As far as the router is concerned. That's just plain bizarre. It works with my sister-in-law's >windows laptop but I couldn't get it to do anything from my Macbook. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Modem/Router working fine. XP won't recognise them Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 7:46 am Posted by George Cowley (154 messages posted) I tried pinging and did an ipconfig and the pings came back at 100% loss. Belkin's router pings at 192.168.1.2 but didn't return a ping. IPConfig didn't return anything helpful either. I did have that computer working on the internet when it was in my house. I'm wondering whether the Earthlink software has destroyed the internet connection. I'm also wondering whether simply putting a new ethernet card in would solve the problem. On Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 6:48 am, Ari wrote: >Still not very helpful. Can you ping the modem? Can you ping the router? What do >you mean it "didn't recognize" the modem when you plugged in the ethernet cable? > It's not supposed to "recognize" anything when you do that. It's not like the machine >can tell what kind of modem you've connected it to when you plug in an ethernet cable. > Again, what do you get from ipconfig /all? How do you have TCP/IP configured in >your network connection applet for the ethernet card (under Properties)? > > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Modem/Router working fine. XP won't recognise them Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 7:59 am Posted by Ari (5 messages posted) Asked for ipconfig output, and instead of providing it, you assume it's "not helpful". I hope someone else with more patience than I have is able to help you. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Modem/Router working fine. XP won't recognise them Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 9:06 am Posted by George Cowley (154 messages posted) I would have provided it but I am providing information from memory. My sister-in-law lives 15 miles away. It would appear that the external gear is working just fine. The PC is working just fine, the drivers should work as they came from the HP website. The problem is, I believe, some screwup within XP that is causing a non-communication between XP and the external kit. On Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 7:59 am, Ari wrote: >Asked for ipconfig output, and instead of providing it, you assume it's "not helpful". > I hope someone else with more patience than I have is able to help you. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Modem/Router working fine. XP won't recognise them Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 9:33 am Posted by Spexx (1951 messages posted) I think it probably has a lot to do with the TCP/IP settings on the ethernet controller in the PC, or indeed the Macbook which I know nothing about. They should be set to obtain an IP address automatically (from the router) using DHCP. It is also just possible that you have the wrong type of ethernet cable, since they come in crossover and non-crossover types. I thought that some Macs could automatically detect the type of cable and compensate for that anyway, but I doubt that the ethernet controller in the PC could cope with the wrong cable. Hope this helps. Cheers. Spexx. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Modem/Router working fine. XP won't recognise them Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 2:03 pm Posted by George Cowley (154 messages posted) My thoughts had been on TCP/IP settings but they all appear to be present and correct. In fact, every setting known to man is in the connection. I found at one point it was telling me the TCP/IP wasn't present and another point it said something else with another 3-letter acronym wasn't present. It didn't make sense to me. On Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 9:33 am, Spexx wrote: >I think it probably has a lot to do with the TCP/IP settings on the ethernet controller >in the PC, or indeed the Macbook which I know nothing about. They should be set to >obtain an IP address automatically (from the router) using DHCP. It is also just >possible that you have the wrong type of ethernet cable, since they come in crossover >and non-crossover types. I thought that some Macs could automatically detect the >type of cable and compensate for that anyway, but I doubt that the ethernet controller >in the PC could cope with the wrong cable. Hope this helps. Cheers. Spexx. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Modem/Router working fine. XP won't recognise them Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 2:11 pm Posted by Spexx (1951 messages posted) I am just wondering now if perhaps removing a bit of software at some time might have broken your LSP chain. I am clutching at straws a bit here, but it must be worth checking just to eliminate the possibility. Download LSPFix, run it and see what it says. Do not get it to "repair" anything unless you are sure that it has detected a problem. Cheers. Spexx. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Modem/Router working fine. XP won't recognise them Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 3:43 pm Posted by cogs (193 messages posted) i always have trouble with my router, and i have to get the computer to renew its address(with the router connected). i open a browser and put in what you gave me: 192.168.1.2 then it brings up this wizard and lets me enter all the admin info. then it gives me the option to reset the router. this usually fixes the ip address renewal problem. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Modem/Router working fine. XP won't recognise them Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 4:44 pm Posted by George Cowley (154 messages posted) Normally that should work but with the router plugged securely into the computer I get a 404 error. On Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 3:43 pm, cogs wrote: >i always have trouble with my router, and i have to get the computer to renew its >address(with the router connected). i open a browser and put in what you gave me: > >192.168.1.2 >then it brings up this wizard and lets me enter all the admin info. then it gives >me the option to reset the router. this usually fixes the ip address renewal problem. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Modem/Router working fine. XP won't recognise them Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 4:45 pm Posted by George Cowley (154 messages posted) I shall try this next time I am at my sister-in-laws (possibly tomorrow) On Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 2:11 pm, Spexx wrote: >I am just wondering now if perhaps removing a bit of software at some time might >have broken your LSP chain. I am clutching at straws a bit here, but it must be worth >checking just to eliminate the possibility. Download LSPFix, >run it and see what it says. Do not get it to "repair" anything unless you are sure >that it has detected a problem. Cheers. Spexx. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Modem/Router working fine. XP won't recognise them Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 7:12 pm Posted by cogs (193 messages posted) some things: the phone wire coming into the dsl... try changing it. make sure all your services are turned on for dns, etc. unplug your dsl, and plug it back in. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Modem/Router working fine. XP won't recognise them Tuesday, August 19, 2008 at 4:44 pm Posted by George Cowley (154 messages posted) I am at my sister-in-law's right now. It's an HP Pavilion A642N. I installed the network drivers several times over and the network connection icon is resolutely disabled. I know the cable is good - it works on my laptop. There's a red X on the connection icon and it says that a cable is unplugged. Looks to me as though it might be a duff connector on the PC but I'm not certain. I know the modem and router are good - I'm using them now to post this. XP claims the onboard ethernet is an NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller and shows connections for this and for a 1394 connection. I ran the lspfix and eliminated some junk. The thing now reports back as mswsock.dll, winrnr.dll and rsvpsp.dll - as on just about every other XP box we as a family own. We have tried a USB cable direct to the modem with no joy either. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Modem/Router working fine. XP won't recognise them Tuesday, August 19, 2008 at 5:28 pm Posted by George Cowley (154 messages posted) I forgot to say... I plugged the USB cable into the modem and the computer. It told me there was a 10mbps connection. It also told me: limited or no connectivity with: physical address: 00-11-e6-e3-c3-8d ip address 169.254.91.1 subnet mask 255.255.0.0 the other entries are blank A repair yielded no change On Tuesday, August 19, 2008 at 4:44 pm, George Cowley wrote: >I am at my sister-in-law's right now. > >It's an HP Pavilion A642N. > >I installed the network drivers several times over and the network connection icon >is resolutely disabled. I know the cable is good - it works on my laptop. There's >a red X on the connection icon and it says that a cable is unplugged. Looks to me >as though it might be a duff connector on the PC but I'm not certain. > >I know the modem and router are good - I'm using them now to post this. > >XP claims the onboard ethernet is an NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller and shows >connections for this and for a 1394 connection. > >I ran the lspfix and eliminated some junk. The thing now reports back as mswsock.dll, >winrnr.dll and rsvpsp.dll - as on just about every other XP box we as a family own. > >We have tried a USB cable direct to the modem with no joy either. > [Reply or follow-up to this message] Tip: Use one of the [Reply or follow-up to this message] links above to add a message to this thread Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows XP Discussion Forum