Strange Ethernet Issues

[Darthmonkey]

I recently went to a friends house to mess around on some computer games on the internet. Upon arriving there with my tower i plugged into his hub that he had recently purchased. After booting up my computer i discoverd that i had ethernet but i had no ip address assigned. So i rebooted and changed cables just to be sure. That didnt work so i messed around trying to find a way to fix it discovering none. I also tryed putting in a alternate ethernet card then the one built in one and hooked up to the same hub. I eventully fixed it by re-installing the software on my built in ethernet card and by passing the hub it self. A few days later the hub was used again and another computer had the same issue and ended up having to re-install the drivers like i did. Does anyone know what could have caused this? I was thinking that the hub we are using has a port with some serious issues or the whole thing it self or we just have about 10 bad ethernet cables which would be news to me.

BTW my computer is:
AMD athalon x 2100 + running windows XP home
Radeon 9700 vid card
Gigabyte 7VAX mother board with built in ethernet card
512 DDR memeory

 

[mikesgroovin]

What is acting as your DHCP server? Is it another server or maybe a gateway/router? Did you try releasing your IP address and ten renewing it once you plugged into the hub?

-Mike

 

[preet2u]

Are u using the same UTP cable for both options ...i.e ..using the Hub aswell as when u connect the 2 systems dirctly

'Coz ..u neet the cable to be wired differently for each option

If it is 1 to 1 ..then u need a cross patched cable ...
Else u need a straught cable

 

[Darthmonkey]

To start out with we plugged in a cable from the my friends cable router into the hub. there were 4 other computers on the hub besides my own who all worked. i strated out in the last port and never got it working through the hub. after that i tried different ports including trying to directly plug the cable from the router into my computer with nothing going. The other ethernet card didnt work either but to mention that is kind of dumb now because the one i used i recently found out it broken. . So that wouldnt work anyways. But after installing the drivers again and connectting straight to the cable router it worked fine. Then i plugged into the hub again in a different port and that also worked. Later on the last port was used again and had similar issues. I wasnt sure if a hub could have serious issues with one port or not but the fact that if you use that port it screws up your drivers is not fun. I should also mention that this hub and the last port have been used a few times before in proper working order. So it hppened recently. This may sound really dumb cause it does to me. I dont know how this could happen through a router so i posted here to see if anyone knew.

 

[Datazing]

Im with Mike. There's gotta be something distributing DHCP.. ie a router. Chances are that your friends computer is using the ISP assingned IP address.

When you add a router, the router uses the ISP's assigned IP address and creates new addresses for all the computers attached to it. most are something like 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.111.1 by default.

 

[office politics]

check to make sure your port isn't set to uplink, should be a black on/off button. If you see link lights on the hub then you can rule out the cable.

 

[zilantyas]

That's what I believe is the problem...that your port is set to uplink!
Also check for firmware updates for your router, hub, and modem

 

[gruntwerk]

Few thoughts from the backwoods...
I concur with the uplink port idea - probably a switch on the modem... another way to check this is to use the crossover cable on the uplink port--- which would in fact give you a straight thru connection and verify that this is the problem...

Could it be that that particular port on the hub is brokenand wont work with 100M enet and it really wants to talk at 10M - hence the driver reinstall - maybe the card isn't correctly autosensing...

You never did mention the DHCP server - but since the computer would work on the other ports.. that probably isnt it...

 

[Darthmonkey]

DHCP

Yeah all the people around me on the hub were using DHCP just fine. No issues there. I am not even sure if my friends hub can have the ports turned off. It is a rather cheap like 5 computer hub. I'll ask him if he wouldt mind going through and checking ports on the hub to see if any are broken.