Problems setting up a home network

ciaran_otoole

I'd appreciate any help or suggestions that anyone might have in fixing this problem ....

I have a CAT 5 cable about 15 - 20 meters in length running underground between house and garage. Both ends are terminated into a wall socket (standard RJ45). In the garage, I have an Eircom DSL router from netopia which has the DSL connection. Now I connect the router to the wall socket using a standard ethernet cable. When I connect a laptop into the other end (i.e. in the house) I get a green led on the network card, but no network activity.

So to me it looks like the line is ok, but I can't access the router services such as DHCP. Even when I manually set the IP address, I can't ping the gateway and get out onto the internet.

Does anyone know if there's a limitation on the distance the router can transmit the signal before it degrades? Should I be using cross-over cables instead?

Thanks for any help!

merlin39

maybe turn off firewall.

PogMoThoin

Limit of ethernet is somewhere near 100m, You're nowhere near that

Is the router plugged into a phone line?

merlin39

use ipconfig/renew i think its that. get on to the settings of the router. they usually are 192.168.1.1 or 256 in the browser. use different cables, bit of trial and error.

yuloni

This post has been deleted.

ciaran_otoole

Hi merlin39 - There's no firewall active on the ethernet connection. I can't ping the router so my guess is that the problem is more to do with the underlying connectivity? Also ipconfig doesn't work because it can't reach the DHCP server. Have tried about 10 different cables with 0 success

shaaane - yes the router is connected to the phone line and is working ok. I can connect my laptop directly into the back using an ethernet cable and I can get to the outside world. Can't understand why this is different when connecting it to a socket.

hi condi - that was my guess as well but I've seen socket - to - socket connections working before in a LAN environment. I have a cable tester and it reported no errors so I'm guessing the pairs are correctly set up in the sockets.

RJ45's have 2 different ways of terminating them, A and B. Not sure what the difference is but whenever i have to do it in work (i'm an electrician), we always have to use the B type. Try switching the terminations to the opposite of whatever way you have it done. There's a wiring diagram label on the RJ45 outlet. Not sure if this will help...

merlin39

ciaran_otoole wrote: »

Hi merlin39 - There's no firewall active on the ethernet connection. I can't ping the router so my guess is that the problem is more to do with the underlying connectivity? Also ipconfig doesn't work because it can't reach the DHCP server. Have tried about 10 different cables with 0 success

shaaane - yes the router is connected to the phone line and is working ok. I can connect my laptop directly into the back using an ethernet cable and I can get to the outside world. Can't understand why this is different when connecting it to a socket.

hi condi - that was my guess as well but I've seen socket - to - socket connections working before in a LAN environment. I have a cable tester and it reported no errors so I'm guessing the pairs are correctly set up in the sockets.

can you try a different computer on to the router. if you cant ping the router the problem may lie in the computer. It means that everything up to layer 3 is not connected, so problem may lay in the network card or cable, or connectors

yuloni

This post has been deleted.

ciaran_otoole

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.

shaaane - That's interesting about the 2 types of setup. I don't realy fancy taking the socket end apart because I'll end up having to replace it afterwards. Would a cross-over cable be of any use instead?

merlin39 - I guess I could try to move a PC I have into the other end of the connection to see if that works. The laptop I'm testing with has been used in many different locations all without problems so I've kind of ruled out the laptop as the problem.

condi - I get the "limited connectivity status" on the network connection (not sure of exact wording at the moment. I guess this is right because I've got the green link LED lit on the network card.

merlin39

A successful ping request to 127.0.0.1 will verify that a computer's network interface card, it's drivers, and the operating system's TCP/IP implementation are all functioning correctly.

http://what-is-what.com/what_is/127.0.0.1.html

Cant see the harm in trying it.

ciaran_otoole

ok will try that tomorrow and report back. I suspect it will come back ok but let's wait and see.

Thanks again.

msg11

How did you get on?

limited connectivity status

I have got this before, and it was down to the cable. I made too cable up in college. Straight threw and crossover..

I used a crossover from the pc to the router and it would not work switched too a straight threw and no problems.

So maybe try straight threw from the router to the socket --- socket straight threw to laptop..

Also are the cables from the outlets ok that your using, give them a test too be sure.

Is the linking cat5 cable open to any interference from power cables ?

Cuddlesworth

On your network tester, if its a basic it should split into two parts. Each part should have two inputs. The reason for this is so you can test crossover connections.

The easiest way to check the cabling is to check the sockets, in a straight through situation the wiring should be in exactly the same place on each end.

http://ftp.ipsyn.net/pub/mirrors/cabling/T568B_scheme_opt.jpg

Also, the limit of ethernet is 100metres. But this is a guide and applies to a single length of cable end to end. Not cable to socket to socket to cable. That's dependent on the quality of the connections for the correct length.

ciaran_otoole

Thanks all.

I retested the connection this evening after work. The green (link?) LED lights up but there's no orange (activity?) LED action whatsover. Windows XP reports no connection for the network adapter. I tested with 5 different patch cables with the same result. I'll try to borrow another laptop for the weekend to see if the same thing happens.

ping to 127.0.0.1 works fine, but to any other ip doesn't work.

Cuddlesworth

ciaran_otoole wrote: »

Thanks all.

I retested the connection this evening after work. The green (link?) LED lights up but there's no orange (activity?) LED action whatsover. Windows XP reports no connection for the network adapter. I tested with 5 different patch cables with the same result. I'll try to borrow another laptop for the weekend to see if the same thing happens.

ping to 127.0.0.1 works fine, but to any other ip doesn't work.

Its got to be the cable in the wall. One light means its only at a possible 10meg connection.

msg11

Are you using half duplex or full duplex ?

Windows XP reports no connection for the network adapter

Have you enabled the local area connection ?

It should sense the cable in the adapter, and come up network cable unplugged firewalled etc.. Regardless of a router been plugged in..

Cuddlesworth

msg11 wrote: »

Are you using half duplex or full duplex ?

Windows XP reports no connection for the network adapter

Have you enabled the local area connection ?

It should sense the cable in the adapter, and come up network cable unplugged firewalled etc.. Regardless of a router been plugged in..

I have had cables light up lights on a network adapter as it sees the two pairs normally not used on a 100meg connection. But the data transfer pairs don't come across and Windows can't see a live cable as a result.

ciaran_otoole

I've tested with another laptop just to see what happens and the same behaviour occurs. Green LED is lit up but nothing more.

I believe everything is full duplex, is this configured on the router?

msg11

ciaran_otoole wrote: »

I've tested with another laptop just to see what happens and the same behaviour occurs. Green LED is lit up but nothing more.

I believe everything is full duplex, is this configured on the router?

Did you change any settings on the router ? DHCP ? You mention a static route, did you remove this? And enable DHCP on your laptop?

Have you configured your DNS servers on the laptop?

Ok just to recap on your problem;

>You can get connectivity if your go straight into the router.

>You can't get connectivity if you go threw the patch/wall plate?

Humm...

What cable is it your using under the house? Are all the wires terminated properly?

What reading are you getting from your tester? Is it lighting up green?

1-2
3-4
5-6
6-7

I know its not the correct numbers but you get the idea..

merlin39

Did you say you have an eircom router. Can you connect on to the settings page of the router. i would check the dns settings to make sure you have the right address for the web. phone your isp and check with them.

Snowbat

I've seen exactly these symptoms on a miswired cable run. You should verify that the sockets are wired in accordance with the colour code. Just having the same wiring sequence at each end is not enough - the colour code ensures that TX and RX pairs from the NIC are fed to individual twisted pairs in the cable.