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My boss's laptop won't recognize a wired internet connection. [SOLVED] Thank you!

Fig-DFig-D Tustin, CA, USRegistered User regular
edited August 2009 in Help / Advice Forum
I'm the most tech savvy person in the office (meaning I can send an email with an attachment), so I get asked to do a bit of light tech-support stuff. This one has me stumped though.

My boss's laptop is an old Toshiba Satellite running Windows XP Home Edition with SP2. It used to be set up on a wireless network in his home and worked just fine. Now its a part of a wired network at work and its having a problem. The router in the office is a D-Link DI-604. Three other computers are plugged into this router and have no issues (including the one I'm posting this from). The ethernet cable has been tested on another computer (again, this one) and also works just fine.

The light on the router associated with the outbound ethernet cable hooked up to the laptop is solid green, meaning everything *should* be working (I think, the other lights are solid too.). There are two lights on the back of the laptop where the ethernet cable is plugged in. One on the right which is solid green as long as the cable is plugged in and one on the right that flashes yellow but only for a few moments after the cable is plugged in.

The laptop doesn't seem to recognize the wired connection at all. Can connect to the internet, can't access the router settings address, nothing. Oddly enough it does detect an unsecured wireless network (that it can't actually connect to) called "dlink," so I can't help but wonder if its attempting to detect the wired connection as a wireless one. The router doesn't appear to have any software associated with it. (The CD just has the manual and some warranty information.)

Any ideas? Any other information that I could provided that would be helpful?

SteamID - Fig-D :: PSN - Fig-D
Fig-D on

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    ThanatosThanatos Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Start -> Control Panel -> Network connections.

    Right-click on the wired connection and select "enable."

    Thanatos on
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    Fig-DFig-D Tustin, CA, USRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I've got two wired connections under Network Connections. Both enabled, although one enable with the other disabled (and visa versa) didn't seem to work either.

    Fig-D on
    SteamID - Fig-D :: PSN - Fig-D
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    Hamster_styleHamster_style Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Turn off the wireless when you try to connect using a cable. I had a clunky old laptop for a while, and this sometimes was necessary. You wouldn't think it affects it, but sometimes they're quirky like that.

    Also, make sure that his TCP/IP configurations are set to what it needs to be - ie, is set to automatically obtain IP address (DHCP enabled) or a static IP thing? Make sure it's DHCP, because that's usually all that's required unless your network has some weird settings.

    Those are my suggestions, YMMV. Good luck!

    Hamster_style on
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    Fig-DFig-D Tustin, CA, USRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Yeah, I disabled the wireless connection earlier. I'll have to check the TCP/IP settings when I go back to work tomorrow morning. I'd imagine that its set to the default (which is "automatically obtain IP address" right?) but I don't know for sure.

    Fig-D on
    SteamID - Fig-D :: PSN - Fig-D
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    TL DRTL DR Not at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Try downloading the latest driver from Toshiba.

    TL DR on
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    RuckusRuckus Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    If all else fails, the onboard NIC could be dead, I've seen it a few times. You do have the option of a PCMCIA or USB network adapter.

    Ruckus on
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    urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Is it unplugged? I know a lot of laptops need to be plugged in for the NIC to work correctly.

    Also look in your device manager to see if there is anything listed under Network Connections as a (!).

    urahonky on
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    Fig-DFig-D Tustin, CA, USRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    The laptop is plugged into a power source and the network adapter does not have a (!) listed next to it or anything in the device manager.

    I tried going to Toshiba's website to get drivers but the model number of this particular latop isn't listed ( P25-S526 ). I figure that the P25 was probably based off of some other model but I don't know what.

    I really hope the onboard network adapter isn't borked.

    Fig-D on
    SteamID - Fig-D :: PSN - Fig-D
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    MrDelishMrDelish Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    My desktop showed two wired connections when there was only one and it wouldn't connect to anything on the internet. The problem was a program called mdnsresponder.exe, which I ended the process, deleted it, then restarted and my computer worked fine after that.

    Doubt that's your problem, though

    MrDelish on
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    JoeUserJoeUser Forum Santa Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Try going to Run, type "cmd"

    Then "ipconfig" in the console window. Does it give you anything?

    JoeUser on
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    JoeUserJoeUser Forum Santa Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Oh also, have you tried bypassing the router and connecting directly to the laptop?

    JoeUser on
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    Fig-DFig-D Tustin, CA, USRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    JoeUser wrote: »
    Try going to Run, type "cmd"

    Then "ipconfig" in the console window. Does it give you anything?

    Yes it does, it says "Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection" and then gives me 3 IP addresses.
    JoeUser wrote: »
    Oh also, have you tried bypassing the router and connecting directly to the laptop?

    Tried that. No dice, unfortunately.

    Fig-D on
    SteamID - Fig-D :: PSN - Fig-D
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    RuckusRuckus Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Fig-D wrote: »
    JoeUser wrote: »
    Try going to Run, type "cmd"

    Then "ipconfig" in the console window. Does it give you anything?

    Yes it does, it says "Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection" and then gives me 3 IP addresses.
    JoeUser wrote: »
    Oh also, have you tried bypassing the router and connecting directly to the laptop?

    Tried that. No dice, unfortunately.

    Are the IP's correct for your network or are they 169.x.x.x addresses?

    Ruckus on
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    JoeUserJoeUser Forum Santa Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Is "Connection-specific DNS suffix" showing up?

    Into the console, try tying "ping www.google.com"

    JoeUser on
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    Hamster_styleHamster_style Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Copy paste your ipconfig printout to this thread, I think that may be useful to some of us.

    Hamster_style on
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    Fig-DFig-D Tustin, CA, USRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Connection-specific DNS suffix is not showing up, [strike]the IPs are 169.x.x.x,[/strike] (EDIT: Nevermind.) and I'll type the whole thing out in a couples minutes (trying to do my job, the person-who-is-out-sick's job, and fix his computer all at the same time :P ) .

    Fig-D on
    SteamID - Fig-D :: PSN - Fig-D
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    urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    169.x.x.x huh? Type ipconfig /release then ipconfig /flushdns then ipconfig /renew

    urahonky on
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    Fig-DFig-D Tustin, CA, USRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Yeah, I was mistaken about the 169.x.x.x IPs, sorry about that.

    Okay, here's the stuff from ipconfig:
    Windows IP Configuration

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-Specific DNS Suffix . . . . . . : 
IP Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.15.2
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.15.254

    Fig-D on
    SteamID - Fig-D :: PSN - Fig-D
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    JoeUserJoeUser Forum Santa Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Can you try "ping www.google.com"?

    JoeUser on
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    Fig-DFig-D Tustin, CA, USRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    "Ping request could not find host www.google.com. Please check the name and try again."

    Fig-D on
    SteamID - Fig-D :: PSN - Fig-D
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    matt has a problemmatt has a problem Points to 'off' Points to 'on'Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Double click the enabled wired connection. In the window that pops up, down at the bottom, click "properties'. In the next window, find "Internet Protocol TCP/IP" on the list, click it, then click "properties" again. In the new window, make sure "Obtain an IP address automatically" and "Obtain DNS address automatically" are selected. Click "ok" on all the open windows to close them.

    matt has a problem on
    nibXTE7.png
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    Fig-DFig-D Tustin, CA, USRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    matthasaproblem wrote: »
    Double click the enabled wired connection. In the window that pops up, down at the bottom, click "properties'. In the next window, find "Internet Protocol TCP/IP" on the list, click it, then click "properties" again. In the new window, make sure "Obtain an IP address automatically" and "Obtain DNS address automatically" are selected. Click "ok" on all the open windows to close them.

    Oh. You mean do that thing that Hamster_style said yesterday but didn't because it A) slipped my mind and B) I'm a moron? Yeah.

    That totally worked. THANK YOU!

    A big thanks to everyone who helped out in this thread and I'm sorry for not checking those settings earlier.

    Fig-D on
    SteamID - Fig-D :: PSN - Fig-D
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