Can't get 3rd to Internet

I can’t get all 3 of my computers on the Internet at the same time. Everything is hooked up correctly and everything is in working order. Here is what happens. I power down all of the computers, the router and the cable modem. I add power to the cable modem and then the router. I power up computer # 1 and it connects to the Internet just fine. Computer # 2 connects just fine. But computer # 3 will not connect to the Internet. If I power down the router and the cable modem, wait, then power up again, but power up the computers in a different order ( say #3, #1, #2) then the 3rd one won’t connect to the internet. The only way to change which 2 computers will reach the Internet is to power down the router and modem and start the process all over again. I hope that I explained this clearly enough. I sure hope that someone here can help me out. Linksys tech and Roadrunner Tech have been no help. Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Computer #1—Dell Dimension 8100—Windows ME
Computer #2—PowerMac G3—OS 9.2.2
Computer #3—Dell Inspiron Notebook—Windows XP Home
Linksys BEFSR41 Router
Toshiba Cable Modem (Roadrunner)

Gary

 

Interesting problem. Let me say up front that I know somewhat less than nothing about the Mac so I may ask a silly question.

Are you letting the linksys device assign values via DHCP? If so, connect to it and make sure the scope is at least three addresses and doesn't include the gateway address in the scope.

Since you've spoken to the Linksys tech support folks, I would assume they had you check your firmware version and update if needed. But if not, you should. May not solve this issue but can't hurt and may help on other things.

When you have all three PCs running, can they ping the others by name? By IP?

 

Hi Newt,
Thanks for getting back to me. I hope that I understand you correctly as most of this is new to me. I, like you can’t say what the Mac is doing. All I know is that everything worked well before I added the Laptop.
You Asked, Are you letting the linksys device assign values via DHCP? If so, connect to it and make sure the scope is at least three addresses and doesn't include the gateway address in the scope." On both of the PC’s, I go to the Control Panel>Network>Configuration Tab> TCP-IP>Properties and the only thing checked there is "Obtain an IP Address Automatically." I’m not sure if that answers your question.
The Linksys Tech didn’t mention anything about the firmware, but I did indeed update it. Since, I still have the same problems. I think that the old firmware that I had was the same as I updated with.
As far as pinging each computer, I don’t think that I know how to do that.
Again thanks for your time and help. I really appreciate it.

Gary

 

garran - the "obtain ... automatically" does mean that you are letting an applet (mini-application) on the router assign all the values to your network cards. That's fine and on a large network is necessary to keep the network admin from going nuts. With a small network, it's almost easier to do it manually but it would require some networking knowledge above what most folks have.

DHCP Scope is simply the range of addresses DHCP has been set up to use. You'd have to connect to the router administrative software to see what scope you had. But since you only have 3 PCs, I suggest setting each up with a static address assigned by you. As follows:

The router will probably have taken 192.168.1.1 since that model of Linksys device likes that address. So you need to go into the network setting, TCP/IP section of each network card and give it an address that will play nice with the router.

But to make sure, do this
start~run~cmd and when you get the ugly black screen with the strange white writing, do ping 192.168.1.1. You should get a response similar to the below. If not, from any PC, do the same ping to another PC but by name and post back with the IP address it gave you.

Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms


If so, three things you will need to set. The IP address will be different on each machine. The subnet mask and gateway will be the same.

IP addresses (and it doesn't matter which PC gets what address)

192.168.1.10
192.168.1.20
192.168.1.30

Subnet mask 255.255.255.0

Gateway address 192.168.1.1

Try this and see if all three can connect.

 

Hi Newt,

 

Hi Newt,
Thanks again for the reply and all of the great information. I'm going to sit down with your step by step directions and get this thing to work. I really appreciate you taking your time to try to help me. I'll let you know how it turns out. Thanks again.

Gary

 

Hi Newt,
I just wanted to let you know that by following your GREAT instructions, I have all 3 computers connected to the internet. I think the problem was that I had assigned the same IP address to 2 of the computers. Now with 3 different addresses, all seems to work. Thanks again for your help and assistance.

Gary

 

Glad it worked for you and thanks for posting back.