Networks

Does anyone here know anything about networking? 'Cause I'm having some serious problems with mine.

My roommate and I cobbled togather a five-machine network with the guys next door so we could share their cable modem. Last term, it worked just fine. When I got back from winter break two weeks ago, I hooked my machine back up to the network, and it just doesn't work. I'm using an IBM network card that the guy next door gave me to replace the crap-tastic Linksys card I bought at Fry's. When we hook up the cable, we get lights both on my card and the server port. We've checked the cable out by putting it in my roommate's machine, and we know it works. But my computer will not acknowledge the network, no matter how many times I tell it to get a new IP address (using winipcfg); it hangs for about 100 seconds and then returns an error message. I've tried reinstalling the card in Windows, but no luck. I've rebooted about 15 times since the problem started, no luck. I was able to get on the network for a period of about 26 hours from late Sunday night to early Tuesday morning; it just kinda popped on, and then it just kinda popped off again. The guy next door who supposedly knows all about networks says there's a software problem on my machine, and gives me no other help. Do you guys have any suggestions?

My cable prevents me from networking computers to any computer using it. I don't know why. Whenever I connect anything to the computer with the cable service, the cable service dies. AT&T has stated that it doesn't allow more than one computer to use it's service at a time unless you pay extra, but I do this with two network cards in the main cable box, and theoretically, AT&T shouldn't be able to look far enough into my PC to see that there's another computer hooked onto it. However I'm certain it's AT&T because when I brought this EXACT same setup (3 PCs) to work and changed nothing but the IP and gateway of the card that leads to the internet, everything worked just like it should.

I guess all I have to say is make sure the cable company doesn't require extra pay for more computers using the line, and don't trust them that they have no way of telling if you're serving more than one computer to the connection. Maybe your software lets them detect you're leeching bandwidth and they shut you off.

NETWORKS ARE TEH EV1l!!!

I think I figured it out. While my roommate was out, I moved my network cable over and put it into his machine. I get the exact same error in the exact same time frame. So its my cable, or their port. It pisses me off how he passed off such a thing. And he still expects me to pay him for the service. When that bunch gets back from their bible meeting, we're going to have a little "talk." Likely a very un-Christian "talk."

Question: If I wasn't in the apartment over winter holiday, and I took my machine with me, should I be expected to pay my part of the cable modem bill for that month?

Question: If I wasn't in the apartment over winter holiday, and I took my machine with me, should I be expected to pay my part of the cable modem bill for that month?

Hell no.

My cable prevents me from networking computers to any computer using it. I don't know why. Whenever I connect anything to the computer with the cable service, the cable service dies.

Are you using a hub to connect the other computers together? If not that's why. Also I had to get a special cable made (with the leads switched) so I could hook the modem up to the hub and have it provide internet access to the network. The cable companies absolutely do not provide these cables. If you ask they tell you you have to make 'em yourself. They refuse to provide any tech support regarding networks. I still needed to requisition an extra ip from the company so both my computers could connect to the internet. But it was free anyway (as a sign up bounus).

Are you using a hub to connect the other computers together? If not that's why.

I am using a hub. I know the setup works because I brought it to work and it worked great. The main PC has two network cards, one to go to the internet and one to go to the hub connecting the other computers.

Also I had to get a special cable made (with the leads switched) so I could hook the modem up to the hub and have it provide internet access to the network. The cable companies absolutely do not provide these cables. If you ask they tell you you have to make 'em yourself.

Oh, crossovers? Yeah I know you need those for direct connects, I have a few (I made all my own network cables at work anyway :)).

I still needed to requisition an extra ip from the company so both my computers could connect to the internet. But it was free anyway (as a sign up bounus).

I don't. You can work around the extra IP with Win98's Internet Connection Sharing. I scrapped the setup a while ago (since it didn't work), but I think what you'd do is set the second network card's main IP address to be the gateway of the cable card, and the rest of the network cards in the other computers would be *.*.*.2, *.*.*.3, etc. (don't quote me on that, but I know it was something similar to that.)

I don't. You can work around the extra IP with Win98's Internet Connection Sharing. I scrapped the setup a while ago (since it didn't work), but I think what you'd do is set the second network card's main IP address to be the gateway of the cable card, and the rest of the network cards in the other computers would be *.*.*.2, *.*.*.3, etc. (don't quote me on that, but I know it was something similar to that.)

Oh I know there are ways of sharing access. But the extra ip was free so I couldn't be arsed =P. BTW I only have one network card in each computer. You don't need two. That just makes things way too complicated. It can be done alright but it's a real pain specifiying which card is supposed to do what.