Cable Forum - View Single Post - [Merged] Connection problem

Moominpappa · 15-07-2004, 22:17

Long story but bear with me - I need help!

Have had NTL broadband for a year via a set top box. The wall socket was in a separate room, linked by RJ45 cable plugged into the LAN Ethernet port on our Mesh computer running XP. Oldest son took the Mesh to University, and we replaced it with an Evesham (XP again)- it just plugged and played straight away on the ethernet NIC. Son came home and tried to install a Netgear DSL router to share the broadband connection.
For reasons of his own, he decides that he doesn't read\need router install instructions, doesn't keep a note of the MAC or IP address and sets up everything, (router and two PC's) while the set-top box is still switched on. He also decides to set up his PC as the administator. Later he tells me that when tried to plug the broad-band connection into his PC it didn't work then, so he just plugged it back into ours.
Anyway router fails to initialise and the set-up wizard aborts. Son then decides to manually configure everything, and plays with settings, (but keeps no record of what). By the time I get home, the only option appears to be get everything back to the pre-install state. Neither machines has the router software as the wizard was aborted and the manual config never achieved anything. So I turn off the Evesham, turn off the set-top box, unplug the cables that came with the router and re-attach the RJ-45 to the wall socket and the LAN port. Fire her up and hey presto.... private IP address and no broadband connection. Same on the Mesh. Okay,go for a system restore point some three weeks earlier, (oh, did I mention he didn't take a system restore point). Nothing. Ring NTL technical support line, go into multiple checks, - ipconfig release, ipconfig renew, turn off DHCP, turn off DNS, turn them on, disable the network card drivers, re-enable them, all with re-boots of PC and set-top box. The NTL people assure me they can ping all the way to the network card. Then NTL want me to re-install XP (I haven't yet) but then they say both network cards must be dead\faulty.
So I set up peer to peer network, using the RJ45 cable and the LAN ports on both PC's. The Mesh accesses the printer via the Evesham. The Evesham accesses the re-instated dial-up on the Mesh. I use internet sharing and the Microsoft small network facility in XP. NTL get me to try some DOS command that will restore everything to the original factory settings for the Evesham after I've removed the ICS\network. Still no joy. I phone up customer services - can the PC (Evesham)be plugged directly into the set-top box. Plug in, hooray, a welcome to NTL world screen, and then nothing, it hangs for forty minutes while I sit in NTL's call centre queue. I give them an ultimatum, mend it or take it away. They'll get an engineer out.
Engineer arrives and he can't get an IP address or connection. Eventually replaces much of the wiring and all of the leads until signal obtained. Plug new RJ45 cable into the back of the Evesham, power up set-top box, power up PC and....private IP address. I'm referred back to the Technical help-desk.
Meanwhile, I discover that installing a Netgear router on NTL broadband is not for the computer novice. I get referred to Robin Walkers web-pages on NTL BB problems, but the router has gone back to the supplier, and as it never installed properly, so a lot of the other stuff there doesn't seem to apply. Is it a virus or some form of denial of service. Well - we haven't got a virus checker, (son has Norton on his MESH),as knew we were getting the router, and I'd heard that both Norton & McAfee can cause problems with router installation, plus routers usually come with a firewall that is every bit as good. Using dial up I've been to both the Symantec and McAfee web-sites and used their free scanners, but neither found anything. Spybot and WinPatrol are installed on the Evesham.
All subsequent system restores to earlier points have failed since that first restore. I've tried to write our files to CD's, but both the DVD\CD writer, and the ordinary CD writer aren't working.I've not had cause to use them before for this purpose, so both may never have worked as writers.
Any suggestions - I'd love to go to another broadband supplier but if its a PC config or Denial of Service then we could still have the same problem.

15-07-2004, 22:17	#14
Moominpappa Inactive Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 4	Re: [Merged] Connection problem - IP address 169. Long story but bear with me - I need help! Have had NTL broadband for a year via a set top box. The wall socket was in a separate room, linked by RJ45 cable plugged into the LAN Ethernet port on our Mesh computer running XP. Oldest son took the Mesh to University, and we replaced it with an Evesham (XP again)- it just plugged and played straight away on the ethernet NIC. Son came home and tried to install a Netgear DSL router to share the broadband connection. For reasons of his own, he decides that he doesn't read\need router install instructions, doesn't keep a note of the MAC or IP address and sets up everything, (router and two PC's) while the set-top box is still switched on. He also decides to set up his PC as the administator. Later he tells me that when tried to plug the broad-band connection into his PC it didn't work then, so he just plugged it back into ours. Anyway router fails to initialise and the set-up wizard aborts. Son then decides to manually configure everything, and plays with settings, (but keeps no record of what). By the time I get home, the only option appears to be get everything back to the pre-install state. Neither machines has the router software as the wizard was aborted and the manual config never achieved anything. So I turn off the Evesham, turn off the set-top box, unplug the cables that came with the router and re-attach the RJ-45 to the wall socket and the LAN port. Fire her up and hey presto.... private IP address and no broadband connection. Same on the Mesh. Okay,go for a system restore point some three weeks earlier, (oh, did I mention he didn't take a system restore point). Nothing. Ring NTL technical support line, go into multiple checks, - ipconfig release, ipconfig renew, turn off DHCP, turn off DNS, turn them on, disable the network card drivers, re-enable them, all with re-boots of PC and set-top box. The NTL people assure me they can ping all the way to the network card. Then NTL want me to re-install XP (I haven't yet) but then they say both network cards must be dead\faulty. So I set up peer to peer network, using the RJ45 cable and the LAN ports on both PC's. The Mesh accesses the printer via the Evesham. The Evesham accesses the re-instated dial-up on the Mesh. I use internet sharing and the Microsoft small network facility in XP. NTL get me to try some DOS command that will restore everything to the original factory settings for the Evesham after I've removed the ICS\network. Still no joy. I phone up customer services - can the PC (Evesham)be plugged directly into the set-top box. Plug in, hooray, a welcome to NTL world screen, and then nothing, it hangs for forty minutes while I sit in NTL's call centre queue. I give them an ultimatum, mend it or take it away. They'll get an engineer out. Engineer arrives and he can't get an IP address or connection. Eventually replaces much of the wiring and all of the leads until signal obtained. Plug new RJ45 cable into the back of the Evesham, power up set-top box, power up PC and....private IP address. I'm referred back to the Technical help-desk. Meanwhile, I discover that installing a Netgear router on NTL broadband is not for the computer novice. I get referred to Robin Walkers web-pages on NTL BB problems, but the router has gone back to the supplier, and as it never installed properly, so a lot of the other stuff there doesn't seem to apply. Is it a virus or some form of denial of service. Well - we haven't got a virus checker, (son has Norton on his MESH),as knew we were getting the router, and I'd heard that both Norton & McAfee can cause problems with router installation, plus routers usually come with a firewall that is every bit as good. Using dial up I've been to both the Symantec and McAfee web-sites and used their free scanners, but neither found anything. Spybot and WinPatrol are installed on the Evesham. All subsequent system restores to earlier points have failed since that first restore. I've tried to write our files to CD's, but both the DVD\CD writer, and the ordinary CD writer aren't working.I've not had cause to use them before for this purpose, so both may never have worked as writers. Any suggestions - I'd love to go to another broadband supplier but if its a PC config or Denial of Service then we could still have the same problem.