02 broadband fine on desktop, broken on laptop, HELP please!

davenewt

Hi all,

Have done numerous searches online for answers to no avail.

I have an O2 broadband dongle which works fine on my desktop, and used to work fine on the XP laptop we have, but is now broken.

The modem works fine, connects to the server fine, but I cannot connect to any websites or ping any remote IPs or hostnames.

I have gone through all of this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314095

And also run netsh diag gui on both machines to scan for issues. On the laptop it came up with FAIL for pinging both primary and secondary WINS servers, so I thought that was it. However, I get the exact same result on the desktop, on which the connection is fine.

Does anyone have any good tech knowledge and hints to pass on to help me fix the connection on the laptop?

Both computers are XP...

I can see no difference between connection properties etc...

Grr.

TIA!
Dave.

unnameduser

can you use the laptop on someone else BB at the moment or does it work dial up. We need to figure out if it is related to the O2 broadband or internet connectivity itself first.

davenewt

Thanks for the reply unnameduser... the O2 BB works perfectly here on the desktop, just not on the laptop. When I connect on the laptop everything goes perfectly, I get an IP, ipconfig /all shows DNS servers and everything, which I can ping successfully. However, pinging a remote IP or hostname just fails every time.

It can't be anything to do with the DNS because they're the same when I connect here on the desktop and everything works... so what could it be?

I've even tried removing and re-installing the BB connection on the laptop in case something got messed up, but it still does the exact same thing: connection is established fine but cannot ping beyond the DNS.

watty

Gateway IP is maybe wrong.

davenewt

Thanks watty, but they're the exact same on both desktop and laptop when connected...

That's what I don't understand - settings look IDENTICAL from what I can see.

jor el

On three separate computers, owned by three different people, I've seen the exact same problem with the E220 modem. First, on my own laptop, it worked fine, then something changed, and it would no longer work. Connection was made, network connecting appeared, IP address given, but no Internet. Same thing happened with a PC I gave my sister, using either mine or her modem. Same happened to a friend then, with a brand new Laptop. All running XP Pro.

I have assumed that it's some kind of driver conflict in XP. Even doing a system restore didn't fix it though. The only way to fix it, reinstall Windows.

watty

Well that's extreme, but maybe a solution for the non-IT expert. I've never found anything that couldn't be fixed by fixing it.

I used a 3G/HSDPA modem for a while via DUN settings (same speed) instead of the fancy GUI and then later unistalled the Modem SW and re-installed it. Sometimes you need to delete registry entries or even DLLs

Ultimately virtually all USB EDGE/HSDPA modems appear as "virtual serial modems" with special AT settings. That's why most can be got working on Linux with no specific driver.

Fiddling with network/firewall settings or installing a Bluetooth (uses virtual serial ports often) can thus upset the USB dongle.

If you have not much applications to re-install, have all your licences and drivers, backup data, then re-install might be simplest.

If you aren't sure about drivers, source CDs / downloads / iTunes / steam / licence keys and/or lots of gadgets and apps, then fixing is prefereable.

davenewt

Thanks guys. Looking further into this over the weekend and combing through all the setup options, it seems the gateway on the laptop is different after all... I could have sworn it was the same the first time I checked, but I was probably wrong there!

Seems the laptop (which is a work laptop) automatically connects via a specific gateway, and there is no way to set up an alternate gateway (the Help & Support in XP told me how to do it, but the tab for specifying an alternate gateway is missing from the config, so it's probably hidden on purpose?) Wonder if I can get this back somehow?

Otherwise I guess the alternative is to connect it back up at work and see if the gateway automatically updates to a newer one... perhaps the existing gateway was changed...

That's what I'm hoping anyway!

Unless anyone knows how to get the "alternate gateway" option back in the config via registry settings, perhaps?!

D.

watty

Normally when using DHCP the Gateway is set automatically, so the tab disappears. It's only available with Static IP/ Manual IP, which is wrong for USB dongle (Should be Automatic/DHCP)

If you are using a router/firewall, then the gatweay is the address of that.

If you have Firewire under network disable it.
If you have ethernet under Network disable it.
If you have WiFi under Network disable it.

You can't have sensibly more than one gateway on a PC/Laptop, so make sure Gateway is blank or that all unused Network devices are disabled if you are using a Mobile Dongle.

Unless you are expert it's best to have only one network interface/gadget enabled at a time.

watty

Normally when using DHCP the Gateway is set automatically, so the tab disappears. It's only available with Static IP/ Manual IP, which is wrong for USB dongle (Should be Automatic/DHCP)

If you are using a router/firewall, then the gatweay is the address of that.

If you have Firewire under network disable it.
If you have ethernet under Network disable it.
If you have WiFi under Network disable it.

You can't have sensibly more than one gateway on a PC/Laptop, so make sure Gateway is blank or that all unused Network devices are disabled if you are using a Mobile Dongle.

Unless you are expert it's best to have only one network interface/gadget enabled at a time.

segaBOY

I use O2 broadband on a Mac Book and it fails to connect most of the time-takes about 3 or 4 tries of restarting the launch app for it to work and sometimes it is rediculously slow-anyone else have this problem??

Using E220 modem