Ethernet connection issue with W7?

cormie

Hi,
I'm in Poland at the minute (if that makes a difference) and I've tried taking an ethernet cable from a computer (which connects fine to the internet when it's in) and put it in my laptop. Usually when I put an ethernet cable into my laptop it just connects straight away to the net, but with this, it takes a while to register it and then just says "unidentified network" when you look at the connection and there's no internet.

I've done a bit of googling with no luck, one suggestion is the ethernet cable is older and a different type? The computer it's connected to is old too.

Any other suggestions welcome!

darkpagandeath

does the Ethernet port wobble this tends to happen on laptops ppl jar the port forgetting it's plugged in. does it look damaged or loose ? put your finger on it and see if it moves

cormie

Thanks for the suggestion, checked the port and all seems fine, cable too, it works fine in the pc, internet every time. When I connect it to the laptop it spins the icon in the system tray and if I hover over it, it just says "identifying network", then after a minute or two it stops and just says "unidentified network" for the whole time after and no luck getting online

Dermot Illogical

Do you have settings hard coded for the network card on the laptop?

ressem

Is this a home/small office or enterprise computer from which you are borrowing the network cable? If within a business, there is a huge amount of things it could be. Starting with...

Are you permitted to check the network settings of the PC?

1) DHCP could be disabled or restricted on the network. This is the service that provides an IP address, subnet, gateway and DNS server. If this is the case then the desktop will have statically set values. It's running XP?

2) Check the laptop to find whether any values are being set by DHCP.
using the command "ipconfig /all" (Start \ Run \ cmd to open up the command window).
You're looking for the Ethernet Adapter - IPv4 address.
If it's a 169.254.x.x autoassigned address then it has failed to get an address.

3) Are you able to access any internal network resources? In a company environment, a proxy server or firewall might restrict access to the internet.
In which case you would require these details.
In a large business every network cards MAC address might need to be approved by IT.

darkpagandeath

being a laptop the network card could have come loose inside .. can you check that ? usually in one on the flaps underneath. try reseating it

cormie

Thanks for the replies folks, it's only a home internet connection but it's from a big apartment block and I'm not sure if it's one company who has the contract for the whole block. The pc it's working fine on is just a regular home pc though which I doubt anyone set up to work on a specific network? I can't be sure though, the ipconfig steps seem a bit confusing for me and I wouldn't know where to start really

ressem

cormie wrote: »

Thanks for the replies folks, it's only a home internet connection but it's from a big apartment block and I'm not sure if it's one company who has the contract for the whole block. The pc it's working fine on is just a regular home pc though which I doubt anyone set up to work on a specific network? I can't be sure though, the ipconfig steps seem a bit confusing for me and I wouldn't know where to start really

Ok lesson 101.

If the machine is running Windows and the network cable is connected...
then while pressing and holding down the Windows Key on the keyboard, tap R on the keyboard.

This should bring up a dialog titled "Run".
There is a space to type in a command. Type in

cmd

and hit enter or the OK button.

A black window will appear. Into the black window, at the prompt...
Type in

ipconfig /all

and hit enter.

Some text will scroll by.
About 9 lines from the top you should have something like...

Ethernet adapter vEthernet :

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : l Ethernet Adapter #1
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : AB-CD-EF-1A-2B-3C
  [B] DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes[/B]
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   [B]IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.2(Preferred)[/B]
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 07 August 2013 21:35:16
   Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 10 August 2013 21:35:15
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
   DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 8.8.8.8                                             
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Which describes whether the Ethernet wired connector has been configured.
1) is dhcp enabled on the PC. On the Laptop?
2) is the ipv4 address set to something other than starting with 169.254.xxx.xxx on the laptop. When all is working the first digits will be the same.
3) The DNS server describes how the computer changes www.whatever.com into a numerical address. Is this the same for both laptop and computer while each are attached in turn to the network cable.
4) ditto for the gateway and dns.

cormie

Thanks a lot for the help on that, greatly appreciated, unfortunately I'm no longer going to be at that connection so can't test it out. I'm on a college network using ethernet now with no issues at all so it must have been something to do with the connection or cable I was on?