I'm in "local only" hell (ethernet, static IP, Vista)

[fendel]

Does anyone know how to fix this...

Suddenly today on my Vista machine, my internet connectivity vanished -- it's now "local only." This happened in the midst of a lot of fumbling around trying to set up a new router, but I don't think it's a router problem because my other devices can connect to it now -- my ipod wirelessly, and my Macbook wirelessly or via Ethernet. I'm pretty sure it's not related to Vista's DHCP quirk because I'm using static IPs on my LAN. I've seen postings suggesting that having multiple network cards causes this problem, but I just have the one onboard NIC. I'm not getting the "unidentified network" symptom, as far as I can tell.

After searching for answers, I tried a bunch of things recommended in forum posts about this problem... I've tried resetting the TCP/IP stack, flushing DNS, disabling and re-enabling the connection, uninstalling the NIC drivers and rebooting, triple- and quadruple-checking my IPv4 settings, disabling IPv6 both in the Properties dialog and via Regedit... I've done "diagnose and repair" eleventy zillion times and rebooted almost as many times. I've tried fiddling with the speed settings (auto, gigabit, 10/100, half/full duplex). I've power-cycled the router and cable modem a bunch of times. I've upgraded the router firmware and then downgraded it back when I saw postings suggesting the newest version is buggy. I've disabled the setting that lets the computer turn off the NIC to save power. Logging in to my administrator account doesn't make a difference. "Safe mode with networking," no dice. I am totally out of ideas.

Help?

(edited to add a few more things I tried)

 

[seepy83]

Can you post your IPConfig output? (Want to confirm you have a Default Gateway, DNS, etc. defined)

Have you tried multiple ports on the new Router?

Have you tried a known-good patch cable?

I'm not that familiar with Vista, so when you say "local only", I'm not sure if that is something the OS is telling you and what exactly it means...are you able to communicate with other Local Devices (i.e. your Macbook), and not the Internet?

Any chance you can try your Laptop on another Router?

You've already ruled out a lot of things, and if none of this works, I would probably be on the phone with the manufacturer looking for a replacement part (hopefully you're under warrenty)...what is the make/model?

 

[fendel]

Hi seepy,

Thanks for your reply... I've tried multiple ports on the router and have tried different patch cables... I will try hooking the old router back up to see if that changes anything...

IPConfig:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix :
IPv4 Address: 192.168.5.100
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.5.1

Should I have a DNS suffix there? (My networking knowledge is very spotty.)

Ipconfig /all shows DHCP enabled = no, autoconfig enabled = yes, NetBIOS over Tcpip = enabled, and the correct DNS servers for my ISP.

"Local only" meaning I can communicate with other local devices like my MacBook but not the internet. But now even the local connection seems dodgy. Normally I stream media from my PC to my Macbook, and right now that is failing.

I wonder if installing a new NIC card would help?

Warranty-wise, I think I'm out of luck... the NIC is onboard on the mobo (Asus M2A-VM) which is out of warranty. The new router is Asus RT-N15 and I just got it from Newegg yesterday, so I can RMA if the router is the problem, but since the Macbook and iPod can access the internet without problems, I'm guessing it's not the router.

 

[spidey07]

Can you ping your default gateway? Do you have an arp entry for your gateway "arp -g" will show you.

 

[fendel]

Hi guys -- I can't believe it; I took out the new router, set up the old one again, and now I can connect to the internet. Since the problem was confined to one device out of three, I assumed it wasn't a router problem, but apparently it was...

If the problem surfaces again I'm sure I'll come back -- otherwise I think it's fixed.

Thanks for your help!

fendel

 

[seepy83]

I'm not completely convinced that the Router is bad.

Maybe Spidey or someone else can weigh in on this theory...

If the OP was using the same IP for both routers, could the PC have that IP tied to an old entry in the ARP table (i.e. the MAC address for the old router instead of the new one)?

 

[spidey07]

Arp could do it, but the reboot of the client would flush the table. Proxy arp could be to blame if there is another router somewhere running it. Or the new router had a different address and the other clients were locating it via plug and play or router discovery. That's why I asked if he could ping gateway and had a good arp entry for it - check layer1, check layer2, check layer3 and move on up the OSI model.

Or you had duplicate 192.168.5.1 addresses, that would be hair pulling and again the reason to check arp.

Only a packet trace would tell you definitively.

 

[fendel]

I don't know if this sheds any light on it, but the reason I finally swapped the old router back in was that another Windows PC on our network suddenly couldn't connect to the internet either (and when Spouse can't check email, ain't nobody happy!) ... and as soon as I swapped routers, both PCs could connect again.

The new router was a PITA for other reasons too (had trouble with my ISP's DHCP and gave a ridiculously unhelpful error message), so I'm inclined to RMA it and pick a different router. Until then, I'll see if the problem recurs with the old router -- so far so good.

Thanks!
fendel

 

[dman]

the NIC is onboard on the mobo (Asus M2A-VM) which is out of warranty

Thus it's an Atheros / Attansic onboard nic... seems to be some problems with them and bios / firmware issues.

If I'm right (and it happens again)--do an IPConfig /ALL next time there's a problem and post what the first few parts of the Network/MAC Address are. If they are 00:13:74:xx:xx:xx or similar it's not what I'm thinking, however, if you have something like ED:9F:E97:F7:F7 then you have a fairly common problem with no fix (short of RMA), but a decent workaround:

The workaround is one of two options:

1) Enable boot-on-lan in the bios and let the system fail to boot from lan before booting your OS or
2) In the network adapter driver settings, go do the Advanced tab and set the "Network Address" manually.

Anyway, since it's fixed for now, it could be something else... but I suspect you'll have issues again.

 

[ReggieDunlap]

I'd be curious to know the ipconfig /all output of the devices that CAN access the internet on the new router. Were ALL devices static coded IPs? Did you try DHCP from the new router just as a check?