Can't use internet if network cable plugged in

Random

I have an O2 Sierra A850 data card. This shows as a wireless network connection in Network Connections. This has my internet connection.

I have a network port. This just connects to a router for my home network / print server.

When a cable is plugged into the network port then the internet doesn't work. As soon as I plug it out then the internet works again.

Windows XP Pro SP2

What am I missing?


Thanks

Nehaxak

Do an ipconfig /all while on the internet wireless connection , then again with the lan cable plugged in.
It could be a lot of things but the first that pops out to me is that there is a conflict in IP addresses.

Maybe the internet provider you're using on the wireless card provides the same internal ip address as your LAN and thus they both conflict ?

boopolo

Well Ciaran,

If I plug my laptop into my router via ethernet, it disables the wireless on the laptop to the router. This would suit most users.

But
Am sure there must be some way of disabling this 'disabling action'. As you say, your card is showing as a wireless connection.

Boopolo

Hal1

What type of IP address do you have. Do you enter in any numbers? check ipconfig as mentioned above, it will say if its DHCP or manually assigned.

Random

with network cable out / internet working wrote:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\zero>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : pcline
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter ohio:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-11-D8-8A-75-5F

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 3:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Sierra Wireless 3G Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-A0-D5-FF-FF-8C
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 89.204.233.76
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 89.204.233.76
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 89.204.233.253
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 62.40.32.33
62.40.32.34
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 13 November 2007 18:11:38
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 16 November 2007 18:11:38

C:\Documents and Settings\zero>

with network cable in / internet not working wrote:

C:\Documents and Settings\zero>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : pcline
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter ohio:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-11-D8-8A-75-5F
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.100
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 14 November 2007 00:21:17
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 14 November 2007 01:21:17

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 3:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Sierra Wireless 3G Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-A0-D5-FF-FF-8C
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 89.204.233.76
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 89.204.233.76
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 89.204.233.253
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 62.40.32.33
62.40.32.34
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 13 November 2007 18:11:38
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 16 November 2007 18:11:38

C:\Documents and Settings\zero>

Also note that I don't enter any details for IP or DNS for either connection. The O2 data card includes the O2 APN and the with the network connection the router does all the work.

Any more ideas with this new info?

Nehaxak

The two DHCP servers might be conflicting or your LAN is taking precendence (if that's the correct word) with it's gateway. Maybe.

You could also edit the properties of your wireless card. Select Networking tab > make sure only the "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" is selected (and possibly QOS.

Try that first anyway and see if it works.

Essentially if you have "Client for Microsoft Networks" and "File and Print Sharing for Microsoft Networks" checked/enabled on the wireless card, they can conflict with private LANs.

Try the above anyway and see if it helps.

Nehaxak

Ps to the previous, if it doesn't work after those changes first time, restart the computer and try it all again.

For simple web access though, you could enter the gateway of your wireless (89.204.233.76) in the proxy config of internet explorer (or whatever browser you use) and that should at the very least give you web access.

croo

I'm not a frequent windows users so I don't know the precise details of how to do this in windows but what you need do is to modify the ip routing table to send all packets intended for the internal 192.168.1.0 network to the wired connection while all other external packets go to the wireless connection
I see this
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/route.mspx
gives some details how to do this at the prompt but perhaps someone can point you to some info on how to do this via the gui!

watty

remove default gateway from the ethernet as otherwise the PC will use it.

The WAN wireless card is acually a dialup connection, not Wireless in the sense a WiFi, WiMax or Digiweb Mobile card is.

The default GW setting is most likely problem. But you may need to change other settings.

Xennon

I think Wattys on the right track, you basically have two default routes and the data will take the first one it sees on the routing table which you can see by running netstat -nr on the command line.

You could enable routing on that pc to allow your home network access to the internet through that pc, this can be done by following the instructions here for WinXP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315236

Then set the default route of the other PCs on your home network to the IP address of that PC ie 192.168.1.100

Random

There is no default gateway set within the IP settings for my ethernet.

Unless I'm missing something?

Snaga

As Watty says - its the default gateway on your ethernet interface causing the problem.

Check your DHCP settings on your LAN router and see if you can remove the default gateway IP address from it (just leave it blank).

If you can not stop the router from issuing a default gateway as part of the DHCP reply - then you may just have to manually set your PC's LAN ip address and specifically leave the default gateway empty.

Random

Snaga wrote: »

As Watty says - its the default gateway on your ethernet interface causing the problem.

Check your DHCP settings on your LAN router and see if you can remove the default gateway IP address from it (just leave it blank).

If you can not stop the router from issuing a default gateway as part of the DHCP reply - then you may just have to manually set your PC's LAN ip address and specifically leave the default gateway empty.

This seems a very roundabout way of doing things?

Snaga

ciaranfo wrote: »

This seems a very roundabout way of doing things?

Compared to what? A "make interweb go now" button?

Your 3G adapter likely gives you a dynamic ip address - so you cant create a static default route with a lower metric to override your ethernet cards default route. (Well you can, but it will break the next time your 3g cards IP address changes).

So you are left having to make some type of change to your setup to make this work. If your local network has no internet connection then you have no need of a default gateway pointing out onto your local LAN - the sensible thing here is to stop the DHCP server from advertising it in the first place.

Random

"make interweb go now" button would actually be splendid if you could provide

Currently I have no internet connection via the ethernet but I will in about 2 weeks. I'll also still want the 3G adapter to work while connecting through the ethernet for my print server.

Does this mean I'll have another problem in 2 weeks then ?

Snaga

Well a solution could be to create two batchfiles for your desktop.

One called "LAN Default ON" and one called "LAN Default off" - with something like the following in them...


lan-default-on.bat to restore your LAN's default gateway.

route add 0.0.0.0 mask 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.1 -p

lan-default-off.bat to remove your LAN's default gateway

route delete 0.0.0.0 mask 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.1

When you plug in your usb adapter - double click the 'lan-default-off.bat' to remove the default route facing out your lan interface making your pc use the 3g adapters default route.

When you want to send your traffic out your new LAN internet connection just run the 'lan-default-on.bat' file to have your pc route the traffic back over your ethernet connected network.

Its a two button 'make interweb go now' solution, but would work nicely in your case.

Of course - if you need to use both at the same time for different things this is gonna start getting more complicated

Random

Thanks for the options Snaga but I'd like to use both at the same time.

Also, it's not a USB adapter - it's in a PCMCIA card in a PCI adapter in my PC.

Snaga

ciaranfo wrote: »

Thanks for the options Snaga but I'd like to use both at the same time.

Also, it's not a USB adapter - it's in a PCMCIA card in a PCI adapter in my PC.

The fact that it is a PCMCIA adapter doesnt matter at all.

What exactly are you trying to achieve by using both connections at the same time?

Xennon

when you do an netstat -nr to see the routing table you will see two routes for 0.0.0.0 mask 0.0.0.0, in your case one pointing to 192.168.1.1, and the other pointing to 89.204.233.76.

You need to delete the 192 default route by running the following in a command box;
route delete 0.0.0.0 mask 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.1

Then as i said before you can enable routing on that box, and allow the other pcs on your network to access the glorious internets by using the ip of that box as a default gateway.

Snaga

That default route will be recreated every time he DHCP's an ip address on his lan interface. (This is why I suggested the two batchfile option above - allowing him to remove this default route very quickly every time he needs to).

I think the OP needs to clarify why he would want to use both internet connections at the same time before we can help him further.

Random

I use the ethernet connection to connect to my printer and to other PCs in my house over the network.

I use the Wireless to connect to O2 Broadband.

I would like to use both of these together.

I do also want to be able to plug out the O2 and use the internet provided by the ethernet at some future stage.

Hope this clears it up.

Snaga

My batch file solution mentioned above allows you to do exactly that. Is it just the manual process of double clicking the batch files that is the problem?

Random

I'm gonna try your batch file idea now.

This should allow me to browse the web with my wireless card and print over my lan via my ethernet - right ?

Snaga

Yup it will allow exctly that - its important that you understand what it is doing though as well.

Every time your PC restarts or has the ethernet cable plugged out and back it will DHCP a default gateway for your LAN's router.

You will need to run lan-default-off.bat to remove this route to allow your PC to use the default route it receives from the PCMCIA adapter. In this state you will be able to print on the local LAN and use your 3G internet account. (hurrah!).

If you then get an internet connection for your LAN - you can run lan-default-on.bat to restore your LAN default route which will send all your internet traffic out your LAN (instead of the 3G adapter). Restarting your PC (or unplugging and replugging your ethernet cable) has the same effect as this .bat file.

Does this make sense?

Random

It's not working Snaga. Are you sure your instructions are correct?

Do I need to reboot in between ?