Random network failures

[ArMs]

A friend of mine got a Dell Inspiron 2500 latptop. I set up the network at her house, a Linksys 4 port router to share the cable connection with the 3 computers in their house. Everything has been working great for the past couple months, but today, the Dell started getting... finicky. It randomly can't get an IP from the DHCP server, and setting one works, but it can't access anything on the network and no packets are sent at all. Then sometimes, everything works perfectly. All the other computers on the network are fine, and I've tried different ports on the router. My guess is the cable she's using or the ethernet card (PCMCIA). It's a Realtek 8139 chipset, don't recall the brand of the card itself though. I'd appreciate any thoughts on what might cause this.

 

[Saltin]

Sounds like you are on the right track to me.

If the Dell cant pull an IP while the others can, its got to be hardware related. Swap in a known good cable, and if that doesnt work, a known good NIC.

Try the NIC in different PCI slot (especially one that's not next to the AGP, if that's the case)

It could also be a bad port on the Router, so look into that as well....

 

[ArMs]

The Dell is a laptop, I don't have any spare PCMCIA NICs as I don't personally have a laptop. As for the router, I tried it in all the ports, the Dell is still the only one with troubles.

 

[Cooky]

If after trying alternate NIC (you gotta borrow one from someone else to make sure it's not the NIC) and cable, I guess hardware part is elimated, since you said all other PCs are fine.
Then try reinstall TCP/IP and see if it works and send email to Dell and see what they say.

 

[ArMs]

She bought a new network card, everything works fine now. Thanks guys.