Getting connected

A few years ago I had a new system built with 98 SE on it, in the shop they had it connected to the Internet via DSL to download drivers, etc. When I got it home and hooked it to my cable modem, it wouldn't get out on the Internet. It was able to get an IP and gateway using DCHP but that was it. I took it back to the shop, the tech took it home and hooked it up to his cable modem, it worked, I took it back home and it worked. Never did find out why. Now I have upgraded the OS to 2000 and the same thing has happened so the tech is taking it home tonight. Any ideas?

 

One idea that you'd need to confirm with your ISP.

I'm assuming from the fact you have a cable modem and haven't blown it up that it hasn't been sitting around for a year or two waiting for a PC. So you probably have a working PC that does connect thru your cable modem.

Some ISPs (and I suspect this includes yours) make a note of the MAC address of the first NIC you connect from. Every NIC has a unique MAC that is burned into a chip by the maker. They ISP then only allows a connection from your site via that one NIC. This particular annoyance is a security feature of some high-end devices.

You'd simply have to get in touch with their tech support and tell them you needed them to allow your new MAC. But that would leave you unable to connect via your original PC.

However, if you want to let all the PCs at your place connect via the cable modem, there are several easy and inexpensive ways to do it. Just post back describing your setup (how many PCs, what networking equipment you have - if any, etc.).

 

This isn't the case, I've been using a notebook in the PC's place and it's been working fine.

By the way, I forgot to mention that the PC is able to get an IP using DHCP but nothing after that.

 

Stranger and stranger.

USB or ethernet NIC for the connection?

Could you set up ICS on a PC that can get to the net and use that as a gateway for the problem machine to see if it can get out that way?

Can you ping servers at your ISP by address - by name? If so, how about sites on the internet?