Network/internet problems with XP machine

Sokartawi · Post by **Sokartawi** » 2004-11-22 10:30am

My brother's XP machine gives problems in the LAN now, we reformatted the thing, and replaced the network card, but the problem still remains.

It can see the other PCs in the LAN just fine, it can see the router too, however it cannot go on the internet. A moment ago I found out the internet actually works, as long as you only use IP adresses, not the domain names, in the browser.

All other PCs, which run on Windows 98, work perfectly fine.

I replaced the router a few weeks ago, now I got a Canyon thing, which seems to be the same thing as the E-Tech router. Initially it worked fine, but now it's giving problems. If I put the other router back (3 year old Sitecom thing, which often disconnects with the modem, that's why I replaced it), internet works fine on the XP machine again.

Any advice, or should I just go buy another router again...

Mad · Post by **Mad** » 2004-11-22 10:41am

Looks like a DNS issue.

Is the XP machine using DHCP (automatically assigned an IP address) or does it assign itself an IP address in its own configuration?

Some routers can be used as the entry for the DNS when manually assigning an IP to the machine, others can't. (My Linksys router sometimes works that way, sometimes doesn't. It's odd.)

If it's using a manually-assigned IP address, try switching it over to DHCP and see what happens. If you really need to have the IP specified, then check the router settings for the DNS servers in use, and manually enter those into the TCP/IP properties of the XP machine.

Sokartawi · Post by **Sokartawi** » 2004-11-22 10:49am

The router assigns the IP to the PC, which works just fine, and in the router it shows correctly that it has handed out that IP to the PC.

If I do a manual IP it won't work.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2004-11-22 10:49am

Agreed sounds like DNS

Check the routers dns adresses, here is an example from my router:

Enter the same infor into your rourers DHCP scope or a static dns in your computer

Sokartawi · Post by **Sokartawi** » 2004-11-22 10:57am

Put them in both of the fields in the properties of TCP/IP, but still no effect.

What's so different between win98 and winXP that win98 works fine and winXP does not?

Steven Snyder · Post by **Steven Snyder** » 2004-11-22 11:08am

I work in a school with a mixed 98, 2000, XP environment and I think I know what is going on.

When a Windows 98 system needs to contact another system on your LAN it uses a service called WINS to find the IP addy of the remote system.

Windows 2000/XP is different it uses DNS for that service.

So it sounds like WINS is working fine because your 98's are working, but your DNS isn't resolving internal addresses.

There are a few tools you can use to look at the problem.

On Win98 open up "Winipcfg.exe" to see the configuration, make note of your WINS server and DNS server. On 2000/XP you need to open up a command prompt and use "Ipconfig.exe /all" to see it. Make sure that they are using the same WINS and DNS servers.

In the command prompt of your Windows XP system use the "NSLOOKUP.EXE" command to test the functionality of your DNS server.

An example is
"NSLOOKUP XCOMPUTER" where XCOMPUTER is the name of another computer on your network.

You should get a response that looks like this...

C:\nslookup XCOMPUTER
Server: UnKnown Not to worry about this line
Address: 15.16.17.118 This is the IP address of the DNS server

Name: XCOMPUTER.yourdomain.com This is the name of the remote computer
Address: 15.16.17.100 This is the resolved IP addy of that system

If that doesn't come up, you probably have a DNS problem. You may consider setting up a DNS server on your network and use that instead of your router.

Sokartawi · Post by **Sokartawi** » 2004-11-22 12:05pm

The values I get on the 98 machines are those from my ISP. WINS completely empty in that overview, so it cannot be using that.

I entered those DNS values in the TCP/IP properties on the WinXP machine, and now it works.

Oh, if I FIRST connect the XP machine to the old router, get a page, and then unplug the old router and put the new one there, it also works, but after the PC reboots it usually no longer works.

So basically there is something wrong with the new router that windows XP doesn't like, right?

Steven Snyder · Post by **Steven Snyder** » 2004-11-22 03:19pm

The Win98 may also be using Netbios/Netbui...

But yeah there seems to be some problem between the router passing DHCP data to the Windows XP machines.

Sokartawi · Post by **Sokartawi** » 2004-11-22 07:06pm

Okay, thanks for the assistance so far, I hope it will remain working for now and probably get myself a new router, again...