Computer techs - Need some help!

Courter44 · 10:57 PM

First off let me say that I know this is not a tech forum, but I'm not part of any and do not feel like joining any. But on to the problem here.

My girlfriend has a laptop that is running Windows Vista Home Premium. She is unable to get connected to the internet. I work for my local cable company, and I know the connection is good. I can connect two other computers to her cable modem. She only uses her laptop for school, so she has had it off all summer. When we tried to reconnect we were getting "limited or no connectivity" on her Local Area Connection.

Important information regarding the connection

1. The Ethernet connection is pulling a 169.x.x.x ip address. The x's are not 0's, but I can't remember what they are, but it wasn't your usual 169 ip.
2. After talking to Toshiba, who thought the Ethernet card was bad, I got a USB cable and installed the drivers. The USB connection pulls a 192.168.0.100.

Troubleshooting steps I have taken.

1. Bypassed router and have plugged straight into cable modem.
2. Uninstalled her out of date Norton Antivirus
3. Flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.
4. Tried both Ethernet and USB ports (as outlined above).
5. Attempted to use Safe Mode with Networking (in case something with the uninstalled Norton was causing issues.)
6. Used the command prompt to release/renew
7. Checked the routing table for any 0.0.0.0 (I saw this as a fix online, not too sure what I was looking for to be honest.)
8. Made sure my drivers were up to date.

The Windows Defender, and Microsoft Windows Updates are out of date (of course being 3 months off). I was wondering if this could be causing any issues, but I'm doubtful. If anyone has any ideas it would be appreciated, or if you need more info just post and I'll try to answer best I can being at work.

Update Edit: I've now tried to reset the winsock also through command prompt. That allowed me to pull a 192.168 from the router, but still got a 169 straight to the modem. The IP address also says preferred inside of () next to it. Don't know if that means anything.

Goodfoot · 08-07-2008, 10:53 PM

Your NIC is bad.

Courter44 · 08-07-2008, 10:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goodfoot

Your NIC is bad.

If that was the case why wouldn't I be able to connect using the USB cable?

thoughtsone · 08-07-2008, 10:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Courter44

If that was the case why wouldn't I be able to connect using the USB cable?

Because sometimes, not always though, the modem is not configured to connect via USB. I have a TW cable modem here and it works perfect through ethernet but if I plug it into USB I get a limited connectivity.

Also check the drivers, an incorrect driver could detect the NIC but still cause problems, lastly try a different cable.

Goodfoot · 08-07-2008, 10:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Courter44

If that was the case why wouldn't I be able to connect using the USB cable?

Your not able to connect you said so yourself. Plug that IP 192.168.0.100 into your browser and tell me what you get.

thoughtsone · 08-07-2008, 11:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goodfoot

Your not able to connect you said so yourself. Plug that IP 192.168.0.100 into your browser and tell me what you get.

Oh yes if you can't see the router or modem on that address its most likely a NIC or driver issue.

Courter44 · 08-07-2008, 11:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thoughtsone

Because sometimes, not always though, the modem is not configured to connect via USB. I have a TW cable modem here and it works perfect through ethernet but if I plug it into USB I get a limited connectivity.

Also check the drivers, an incorrect driver could detect the NIC but still cause problems, lastly try a different cable.

Our cable moden is configured to be able to USB and I installed the new drivers for it. I've tried multiple cables, but I'm not sure if that's where the problem lies. I work for the cable company, so I have a pretty good understanding how our network works, so I'm leaning more toward it being an issue with Vista. Oh by the way, I can use that cable to connect to other computers so it's not that. Thanks for the idea though.

Courter44 · 08-07-2008, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goodfoot

Your not able to connect you said so yourself. Plug that IP 192.168.0.100 into your browser and tell me what you get.

I'm not at home right now so I can't do that, but I understand that is an unroutable IP and I won't be able to get online with it. I was asking if the NIC affected the USB connection. I'm fairly good with networking, but I suck with hardware.

Courter44 · 08-07-2008, 11:09 PM

Btw for everyone. Looking online earlier I found a lot of users were having the same issue with Windows Vista Home Premium, but no one really seemed to have an answer. Not sure if that can make anyone remember anything else they know of.

GunnyHighway · 08-07-2008, 11:38 PM

How long is the cable connecting from modem to lap top?

If the card is fine and the cable from laptop to modem is fine, the only thing i can think of right now is a corrupted tcp/ip stack or winsock. Who is your cable provider, what kind of modem do you have? Make sure it's not something simple, like your connected up to dialup or that your connected to a network bridge in network connections. I never worked on Vista, only Xp and down