Realtek NICs and autoconfiguration

[eric]

I do not think this is going to help, but worth a try.

 

[DKSuddeth]

what I'm having to do is edit that total key. I'm manually inputting the information as well as copying pretty much every string value (placing the unique information in the keys) from the other machines. We'll see how that works.

 

[eric]

Any luck ?

 

[DKSuddeth]

no, editing the registry didn't do anything. I tried to go the manual route with IP addresses on the local NICs and every machine lost the internet. I could still see them on the network though. I'm ready to pull my hair out. can you believe I'm supposed to be a network engineer?

 

[eric]

Did you set the default gateway and dns servers on each machine?

 

[DKSuddeth]

i tried, it just won't do it. Is there a user limit on ICS do you think?

I don't know what else to do. I'll continue jacking with the kids machine for awhile.

 

[eric]

No limit that I am aware of.

 

[jimnyc]

Not to sound like a typical phone tech with a canned answer, but have you considered re-formatting and re-installing your OS?

It's a pain in the ass, but I do it to my machine like every 4-6 months anyway just to have a "clean" machine.

You could pop in a new NIC card, re-install and be back up and running within an hour (depending on how much you need to backup, and how you perform your backups)

Just a suggestion, sometimes it'll actually save you days of troubleshooting. It sucks not knowing the fix, but having a machine that functions properly will make you forget that.

 

[DKSuddeth]

ROFL, in the last 3 days I've installed win98, 98SE, 2k, xp, and I even went so far as DOS 6.2 but realized I'd have nothing to use as a browser. the network worked fine in dos but forget about it in windows.

 

[jimnyc]

Originally posted by DKSuddeth
ROFL, in the last 3 days I've installed win98, 98SE, 2k, xp, and I even went so far as DOS 6.2 but realized I'd have nothing to use as a browser. the network worked fine in dos but forget about it in windows.

So this problem exists throughout all those OS versions? Was it with the same NIC on all the installs?

 

[eric]

Does the kids machine now see the server, can you ping it?

 

[DKSuddeth]

yes, all 3 os' and all 3 nics. I'm going to try win98se one last time and if it doesn't work i'll get a new NIC tomorrow. enough banging my head against the wall.

No, kids machine could never see the server at all.

 

[DKSuddeth]

well i'm feeling pretty stupid about this thing.

it turned out to be the port on the switch. I changed to a different port and voila.

 

[eric]

Was it in the uplink port ?

 

[DKSuddeth]

nope, just a bad port in the 5 port switch.