No Connection to Wired Internet

We have three PC's in our office running Windows 7 Pro, one with windows 7 home premium and one with xp home. At some point all of the Windows 7 PC's have had the following problem but two now seem to have miraculously rectified themselves over a long period of time. As of now only one Pro and the home premium still have the problem.

When the PC is started in the morning it shows that there is no internet connection on the network. I am however able to access local shares on the network but not the internet when I first turn on.To rectify this we have to do the following every time the computers are started.

1 Open network sharing Centre
2 Disable the local area network connection.
3 Click on troubleshoot network connection at bottom corner of screen.
4 Try repairs as administrator
5 This detects that it is disabled and rectifies the problem.

We have to do this every time the computer is turned off and almost every time it is restarted. Simply disabling the lan connection and enabling it does not produce the same results.

I would appreciate a solution to this as it has been a bind for the last year doing this every day.

Thankyou.

Wozza

 

First step, who is your ISP, and what manufacturer & model #s for the modem & router. Also, are they connected through a switch, if the router is only a single port.

 

Hi, thanks for the response.

Our ISP is BT.
The Modem/Router is a Netgear DG834PN (4 Port)
Yes, both are through switches although different ones. Both are brand new netgear gigabit switches. 1 Port from the router has 3 switches attached. Two of these were just installed yesterday. The other is a no name switch. I have tried switches in different positions and no difference.

Thankyou

 

I would not cascade switches, due to that can cause problems. It should be one switch per port. The switches can be what is causing the problems, and if you only have three computers on the network, you only need the router. Remove the switches, make sure that the Netgear is set up properly for your ISP, and hook the computers directly to the router.

 

I'd find that very difficult to do as I would have to thread individual cables in a very awkward place. I will try to disconnect everything except one computer to the first switch and see if that makes any difference. This may however take some time for me to get around to.

Cheers

 

You are going to have to get rid of all the switches, and wire the computers properly. That means if you have to use a patch panel to terminate raw cable, and jacks as it should be on the other end, you will have to do it.

 

Ah, that can't be done. What I neglected to tell you is we have a QNAP nas drive and a plotter on the network, so getting rid of switches permanently wont be possible. I can make it so that there is only one switch per port on the router. Surely switches are not the issue or they wouldn't be made and used on most networks. What I could do is try one of the offending pcs on its own directly connected to the router but if this is the problem I'm screwed.

 

Let's start from the beginning. How many devices are there that need to be on this network? The reason that I am asking to take the switches out of the situation, is to rule that they are the culprit as to why you are not getting a connection.

Also, is the router set to hand out dhcp dynamic addressing to all devices, or are they static? If we can get just the computers to talk to each other, by connecting directly to the router, then we can work with getting the other devices back on the LAN. If all cat-5e/cat-6 runs go to where the router is, and there is more than 8 devices, it would be better to go with a larger port switch. If you want more info on LAN's, you can work through the info at http://www.ezlan.net.

If we can get you back online, so that you do not have to go through the whole reset nic connection, I think that I can help you to narrow the problem down.

 

I am going to do a little diagram of the current network as it is. This will be far easier than trying to explain it. I am amazed how much the network has grown over the last four years, this is why the layout is not ideal. This is what happens though when bits are added over time.

I'll post a diagram later.

Cheers

 

Here is the ftp link, hope it works I'm very new to this.

ftp://guestnet:network@87.194.138.94/ftp/net scan.jpg

Let me know if you can't access it.

I could possibly add one more cable to the area 25 metres away and maybe put the NAS on its own cable. As far as individual cables for everything, this would be impossible as they are all in different places in a kitchen showroom.

Cheers

An alternative here: ftp://guestnet:network@87.194.138.94/ftp/alternative.jpg

 

I would go with managed switches on all. For the three together, can you take the two four ports and change it to either a 8 or 12 port managed switch, especially if they are in the same space. If you can get everything as is to work gig-byte for at least backhaul to the router, or giga all the way through, especially for the NAS, filesharing speeds would increase.

If the wiring is old cat-5e that has been there for at least 8 years, with your current topology, upgrading to cat-6 to be future proof, and running all homeruns, instead of cascading switches, would be even better. Figure for every single workstation, it should be two data, and one cat-6 rj-45 for phone (rj-45 jacks will accept rj-11 here in the U.S.).

Also, there are programs for mapping networks, and allow for inventory. Going back to the beginning, were you able to at least get the workstations up and running on one switch, or still have problems? I would though lay out the network as Modem to Router, Router to 24 port giga managed switch, then patch cables to a patch panel for all home runs to every data jack. You can always add another switch later, or upgrade the 24 port to a larger if needed.

 

For the time being I am going to install 2 more cables. I will run one to the nas alone and one to split the load in the showroom area. I will then change the 4 port at the beginning of the network to an 8 port.

At the moment I have a load of cat5e cable so I will be using this. I had heard in numerous places that the advantage of cat 6 over cat5e is only marginal and a gigabit network should run fine with cat5. Gigabit is a while off though as some of the pcs still need their mic cards to be changed for this.

Not had a chance to test out lone cable to router yet, I just sent one of the lads down today to thread the new cables. Great when you can delegate the nasty jobs like that one.

As soon as I have any updates I'll report back.

Cheers

 

The good thing about going with giga-switches, is that they can handle multi-casting, and filesharing better, than 10/100 switches.