A friend has an ancient HP that I'm trying to get online for him. He lives with his wife, and she uses a laptop. They have a switch the internet is plugged into, and both PCs are plugged into the switch. The laptop sees the internet, the desktop has "limited or no connectivity".

I've tried changing the ethernet cables, but the laptop still works and the desktop doesn't. That narrows it down to the computer. It's running XP Pro so it's not ancient software. It's running DHCP client service. I couldn't find any firewall that might block internet traffic?

The thing is set up for a dialup account, but it should just see the broadband LAN connection and work, right?

If it's a switch, that's your problem. You need a router instead. A switch requires an existing router or something else with a DNS server enabled.

http://compnetworking.about.com/od/h...ervsswitch.htm

This might help you get it figured out.

make sure the browser connection is set to use a direct connection as default

the desktop has "limited or no connectivity".

This sounds like a possible IP issue,
some ISP supplied switches are set to allow only one DHCP IP in the allowed range so you may have to set the IP, Gateway & DNS server manually on the PC

The thing is set up for a dialup account, but it should just see the broadband LAN connection and work, right?

In IE: tools>internet options>connections>lan settings.> check box automatically detect settings and then reboot. Same options can be set for the control panel.

A switch worked fine for us with more than one computer when using dsl. I changed to a router for security reasons when we changed to cable.

colbyt: did your DSL modem act as a router, though? (i.e. did it have an internal IP and an external IP?)

Originally Posted by ADAM Web Design

colbyt: did your DSL modem act as a router, though? (i.e. did it have an internal IP and an external IP?)

I really don't have a clue. It was a Fujusti (sp), whatever the phone company was giving away. I was with a private provider, my son worked there and they may have tweaked something on their end. We had 3 computers going at one time.

Now that I think about it, we all had the same IP except for the last digit. My son had 5 personal IPs as a perk. But they all came trough the same modem.

Networks are not my strong point. But I paid for most of his education and he bails my butt out when I need it.

Originally Posted by ADAM Web Design

If it's a switch, that's your problem. You need a router instead. A switch requires an existing router or something else with a DNS server enabled.

Thing is, they have a wifi router that just stopped working on them for no reason. Like the day after the warranty expired. They're going to buy a new one, eventually, but only after being po'ed for a while.

There's a cable modem coming in from the wall (it's comcastic!), and then a 30 foot long ethernet cable coming to the den. That's plugged into this NetGear switch, and they're both plugged into that.

I guess the DNS server should be in the modem, but it sounds like it's really in the dead wifi router?

Yeah you will need a new router instead of that switch.