Network Nightmare

[irv]

I have a problem with our home network that is driving me nuts.
Here's the lowdown:

we have three computers on our network -
Computer 1 - desktop running windows xp, connected directly by a cable to our router (an msi router RG54G2)
Computer 2 - desktop running windows 98, with a Belkin Wireless G USB Network adapter
Computer 3 - laptop running windows xp, with a Belkin Wireless G USB Network adapter

We set the router up on computer 1, by going into the ip of the router (192.168.1.254)
We set up using typical configuration. Bingo. internet works fine on Computer 1
We then install network adapter software and hardware on Computer 2. Again, bingo. internet works fine on Computer 2.
So far both computers have internet working absolutely fine.
We then set up network adapter software and hardware on Computer 3. Everything seems to be going fine. However...

clicking on explorer on computer 3, homepage comes up (google). Lovely. But when you click on a link or type in an address the following box appears:

'The web page you are trying to view is unavailable offline.'

Clicking try again or work offline doesn't let you go to any other page - it seems that as far as the computer is concerned it is offline despite the homepage coming up (the homepage has not been set up for viewing offline.

Also, after setting up on Computer 3, Computers 2 and 1 fail to connect to the internet. There is no 'Work offline' box, they just wont connect, and the belkin wireless monitor application changes from being connected to the router and the internet to just being connected to the router.

So..

I have tried changing the 'webcheck' function in regedit on Computer 3. They are both already set to 'auto'.
I have tried fixing ip addresses for each computer. Nothing.
I have tried having all computers set on automatic ip address in tcp/ip. Nothing.
I have tried connecting computer 3 directly to the router with a cable. Nothing.
When i try on computer 3 to connect to the network containing computer's 1 and 2, i am told i must run a network setup disk on 1 and 2 despite a perfectly good network already.
Oh, and before anyone suggests it, i have tried uninstalling everything, unplugging everything, resetting anything and starting from scratch. You guessed it... Nothing!

This is driving us absolutely mad.

In Network Connections on Computer 3, it says there are two connections, the wireless one and one that says 'Realtek something or other'. I don't know what this is.

Everything is fine with Computer's 1 and 2 until 3 is turned on. Then everything on 1 and 2 stops working.

The trouble also is that although i sort of knwo what i'm doing (having read lots f stuff on the net advising what to do in similar situations), i am no computer genius. When it gets to things like tcp/ip, dhcp abc to the power of 7 pq functions etc., i don't really know what i'm doing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[S_Doherty]

the realtec something or other....sounds to me like it is your onboard nic card....try disabling it in the BIOS sounds to me like you have a problem with an adapter of some sort in computer 3...remove it from the network and isolate what the problem is with that computer before you put it on the network

 

[irv]

Can't find NIC in Bios

Hi,

I looked in the bios (i take it this is the screen that comes up if you press f2 on computer startup?) and could find no mention of the Realtek NIC card thing.
There was a section that said 'Boot' and then a list with 'Network Boot' in it but it didn't do anything. And i expect that's got nothing to do with it.

In device manager i found the Realtek thing and disabled it but to no avail.

Thanks anyway for trying to help.

 

[S_Doherty]

A Network Boot has nothing to do with you issue...what that means is that you are booting from a network...do you have dhcp enabled on the 3rd machine? do you get any type of error messages when the 3rd PC is turned on?

 

[irv]

I'm not entirely sure what DHCP is, but everything on the tcp/ip settings is set the same as the other two computers, that is, everything is set to automatic.

When I looked on the 'DHCP client list in 'LAN settings' on the router's setup thing (192.168.1.254), it has all three of our computers listed, and all on different ip's (192.168.1.1, 192.168.1.2, 192.168.1.3).
The internet connection type is selected as DHCP Client.
When i looked on 'Wireless settings', then clicked 'associated client list', it says 'This page displays information of stations that are currently associated to your wireless broadband router' and only my pc is listed, computer 3's is not.

Very confused.

 

[irv]

Oh, and there are no error messages when the third pc is turned on. My friend who owns the third pc informs me that about three hours ago the internet was working with no glitches for about half an hour. We tried it just now and it doesn't work again. both times, Computer 1 was turned off and Computer 2 has been on with the internet running.

 

[irv]

Also, when we first got the internet in our house, the internet worked fine on computer 3 when it was plugged straight into the modem before we'd set up the network.

 

[irv]

This is what the 'system settings' says:

General Information
System Time 01/18/2005 23:17:42
Firmware Version R1.0.6.0 ETS[Jul 7 2004]
Hardware Version R01
Serial Number 4600059851
Firewall Enabled
NAT Enabled
UPnP Enabled

Internet Settings

Connection Status
Connected

Connection UpTime
00:04:13:50

Connection Type
DHCP Client
WAN IP Address
82.43.169.125
Subnet Mask 255.255.248.0
Default Gateway 82.43.168.1
Primary DNS 62.30.112.39
Secondary DNS 194.117.134.19
WAN MAC Address 00-11-09-23-0C-48
DDNS Disabled


LAN Settings

LAN IP Address
192.168.1.254
Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
DHCP Server Enabled
DHCP Client 3
LAN MAC Address 00-11-09-23-0C-49


Wireless Settings

SSID
RG54G2

Radio Status
on
Channel 7
Authentication Type Both
Encryption Disabled
Associated Clients 1
Association Control Disabled
AP MAC Address 00-11-09-23-0C-49

----------------

To me it looks like it is our wan settings that are the problem, because i've not seen any ip addresses like that before while trying to sort this out. Is this info any help?

 

[Eiremax]

Have you enterd the same subnet masks on each of the computers i.e 255.255.255.0

Also did you configure the default gateway which is your router address, try 192.168.1.254 (as your router is on this LAN ) in the default gateway on the network settings

Can you do a ping from each of the machines to test for connectivity and do a loopback test:

IN COMMAND PROMPT

try the loopback test on all threee computers especially computer 3 in prompt type:

ping 127.0.0.1

From computer 1 try and ping 2 and 3 like this

ping 192.168.1.?? (?? = computers ip address)