Windows 7, hub, dsl modem.....no internet access

plumbers crack said:

Shootist said:

Have you logged on to the model and checked the DHCP server to see how many IPs it is set to hand out?

The modem is a SpeedStream 5242-Series. It doesn't tell me anywhere about the DHCP server. I has 2 DNS server addresses????

I've never had this problem before and I run my laptop at times on the system as well.

Please bear with me as this is the frist time I've been this deep into internet settings. I deffinitlly want to learn so I'm all ears, or eye since I'm staring a comp screen.

You have to look for the DHCP Configuration page in the modem/routers setup web pages.

I have download the manual and I must say it is a bit confusing. they only tell you there IS a DHCP configuration page but they don't tell you how to get to it.

Most routers by default give out a set number of IP address in a predefined range. Its refereed to as the DHCP scope. My D-Link router for example hands out IP address from the range of 192.168.0.100 to 192.168.0.199. My default limit is 100 IP address, so thats 100 devices/PCs max. Unless somebody changed your default settings I don't think thats your problem. If it was you should be able to unplug one or two of your other PCs and you should then be able to get an IP address with the PC that can't connect. DNS servers is something else entirely. The two DNS servers listed are the ones your modem uses to look up web sites. DNS lets the modem look up the ip address for the website your trying to connect to. The router actually uses DNS forwarding so if you run ipconfig on your PC your routers ip address will be listed under DNS not the ones on the routers status page.

Tried everything listed and still will not connect, I'm just going to try a fresh install and see if that fixes it.

This is my guess... yeah Hubs being at Layer 1 of the OSI model will not assign IP Logical addressing.

I have two settings in my DSL model, one for bridging and one for server.

Bridging will push the IP address from the ISP to a single device.. most likely your computer.

If you use server mode, the DSL will act as a router and use NAT technology and give each computer on the network a Private address and allowing all devices to be online using NAT and DHCP enabled.

acurasd said:

This is my guess... yeah Hubs being at Layer 1 of the OSI model will not assign IP Logical addressing.

I have two settings in my DSL model, one for bridging and one for server.

Bridging will push the IP address from the ISP to a single device.. most likely your computer.

If you use server mode, the DSL will act as a router and use NAT technology and give each computer on the network a Private address and allowing all devices to be online using NAT and DHCP enabled.

You are correct, the HUB does not do DHCP and will not assign an IP address to any devices. In this case you don't want it too. The DHCP server in the router is doing that though the HUB. The HUB just repeats everything sent into it to all devices connected. The PCs are actually talking to the router in the cable modem. Your common store bought routers usually come with a 4 port switch built into them so you don't have to add another device to be able to connect more than one PC. You can think of a switch as the next step up from a HUB. A HUB is a very basic stupid network device, a switch actually has a little smarts built into it. Its a more efficient network device. Your basic switch doesn't do DHCP either.

Putting your Modem in bridge mode will basically bypass the router portion. Anything connected to the modem will get a public IP address. You will be exposed to the Internet so you better have a good firewall and anti-virus protection. You usually only want to do that if you have your own router that you want to use. A router gives the PCs connected to it a private IP address and only uses one public IP for itself. It isolates you from direct contact with the internet. For the longest while Cable and DSL Modems didn't come with a router built into them and most ISPs charged extra if you wanted more than one public IP address. If you wanted to connect more than one PC you needed a router. Even now some modems with a router built in only have the one network jack so you need to connect a switch to get more ports.

To the OP, are you sure it is just a HUB? A switch would be a better choice. If its a router it could actually be causing problems. You don't want to go thought two routers. Its refereed to as double NATing and can cause networking problems. NAT stands for Network Address Translation. If it is a router you would want to put the Modem in Bridge mode. I only ask because I have seen Hubs confused with switches and routers. Only a Router will have a WAN jack on it.

Well I did fresh install and it still doesn't connect. Tried a windows 7 starter 32 netbook and it connected fine with the same port on the hub. So three comps connected fine, his hp windows 7 home 64 is the only one that has a problem. Maybe it's the comps hardware that's causing an issue?

The hub is a netgear en104tp.

It is either the hardware in that PC, which seems hard to believe because connected directly to the modem it gets a IP at least that is what you stated before, or it is the router section of the modem not having enough IP addresses to hand out.

This netbook you connected to that same wire it did have a connection before connected to something else, right. So it was just reusing the IP it was assigned by the modems DHCP server.

Not sure how your ISP works but some have access to there modems from the WAN port and can push down firmware updates without the user knowing about it.
Until you find the page that has the DHCP configuration on it you'll never know how many IPs it is set to hand out. It could be as low as 3. And this might be something your ISP changed with a firmware update.

I agree with what Shootist stated. At this point I think I'd want to know how many IP addresses your modem can give out.

I'll call them and find out.

Wouldn't just having his comp plugged into the hub with nothing else work? The net book that I tried has never been on this system and it went online no problems.

plumbers crack said:

I'll call them and find out.

Wouldn't just having his comp plugged into the hub with nothing else work? The net book that I tried has never been on this system and it went online no problems.

Not if all the IP leases are used up. Once the DHCP server hands out a IP address it reserves that IP for that piece of equipment until the lease is up.

There is one other thing to check that I remembered.

Check the MAC address of the network interface card in that one PC. Look at all other PC and see if there is another that has that same MAC address and even the modem router MAC address.

If for some reason the MAC address on that PC cloned one from something else on the LAN that would stop it from getting a IP address. But it would still get a IP connected directly to the modem (the other piece of equipment isn't present).