Internet problems help needed

[Jump n Fish]

Ok, so my wife bought a Dell Inspiron B130 a while back and the thing never worked properly. Ran so slow you couldn't even use it for word processing. It did not come with a disc for reinstalling windows xp and it just said to use system restore for any problems. System Restore didn't fix a thing even going back to the original restore point. We dealt with dell over the phone countless hours (BTW DELL SUCKS!!!!!!). I got so frusterated talking with people from India or somewhere I gave up and just decided to count it as lost.

Here's where I may have made the mistake. I have a Dell dimension desktop since forever that came with all the discs to reinstall windows if necessary. Not really thinking, I installed this new system on the Inspiron laptop. Shazaaam, computer works great and runs fast!! I downloaded any drivers for it I thought I would need on my other computer to a disc and installed them onto the Inspiron including the Ethernet Broadcom 10/100 driver.

The computer works flawlessly now except that I cannot connect to the internet. I just get the "cannont find server" page. I've gone throught the connection setup and when its done it says "your broadband connection should be already configured and ready to use"

In my control panel I go under network connections and all I have is the
"Local area connection" and it says "connected". Why on earth would I not be able to get internet then. I noticed on my desktop under network connections I have the "Local area connection" in addition to the "1394 Network adapter". I do not have this "1394 network adapter" on the Inspiron. Is this my problem, and is there anyway to get this adapter. I've tried searching for it and every download site is either bogus or leads to dead link. Is there any way to fix my problem or is this something that I can't do anything about since I used the Dimension desktop reinstallation cd for the Inspiron. Any help would be appreciated, as I always considered myself fairly computer literate, and this one's got me stumped.

[fish_finder]

Originally Posted by Jump n Fish

Ok, so my wife bought a Dell Inspiron B130 a while back and the thing never worked properly. Ran so slow you couldn't even use it for word processing. It did not come with a disc for reinstalling windows xp and it just said to use system restore for any problems. System Restore didn't fix a thing even going back to the original restore point. We dealt with dell over the phone countless hours (BTW DELL SUCKS!!!!!!). I got so frusterated talking with people from India or somewhere I gave up and just decided to count it as lost.

Here's where I may have made the mistake. I have a Dell dimension desktop since forever that came with all the discs to reinstall windows if necessary. Not really thinking, I installed this new system on the Inspiron laptop. Shazaaam, computer works great and runs fast!! I downloaded any drivers for it I thought I would need on my other computer to a disc and installed them onto the Inspiron including the Ethernet Broadcom 10/100 driver.

The computer works flawlessly now except that I cannot connect to the internet. I just get the "cannont find server" page. I've gone throught the connection setup and when its done it says "your broadband connection should be already configured and ready to use"

In my control panel I go under network connections and all I have is the
"Local area connection" and it says "connected". Why on earth would I not be able to get internet then. I noticed on my desktop under network connections I have the "Local area connection" in addition to the "1394 Network adapter". I do not have this "1394 network adapter" on the Inspiron. Is this my problem, and is there anyway to get this adapter. I've tried searching for it and every download site is either bogus or leads to dead link. Is there any way to fix my problem or is this something that I can't do anything about since I used the Dimension desktop reinstallation cd for the Inspiron. Any help would be appreciated, as I always considered myself fairly computer literate, and this one's got me stumped.

Are there any connections listed under Tools | Internet Options |Connections under Internet Explorer? Does the PC have a modem installed?

[Mako]

Just because you are connected doesn't mean you have a gateway out. It just means that there is a connection to your NIC. Are you connecting using a router (ie. what's the ethernet cable connected to on the other side)?

[Jump n Fish]

I don't see anything under Internet Explorer Tools, connections menu. It says at the top "to setup internet connection click setup" I've gone thru that setup and thats when I get the message, "your broadband connection should be already configured and ready to use".

There is nthing in the box under dial up network settings. I have cable internet with an external cable modem and an ethernet cable going to the computer. Under network settings it says that I'm connected under local area connection, but when I use it I only get "cannot find server". I do not think there is a modem in the computer. At least I do not see one listed under the hardware in the control panel

[Jump n Fish]

Originally Posted by Mako

Just because you are connected doesn't mean you have a gateway out. It just means that there is a connection to your NIC. Are you connecting using a router (ie. what's the ethernet cable connected to on the other side)?

It goes straight into the cable modem provided by the cable company. I use the same ethernet cable for my desktop that I'm using right now and it works fine. I've just been plugging it in back and forth. I've plugged it in and rebooted as well.

[Mako]

Do you know if you have an IP? You can usually check by looking at the little icon in the taskbar somewhere that looks like two computers with green lights blinking on them. Double click that for more info, or look at the "connected" icon you were looking at before.

[Jump n Fish]

Originally Posted by Mako

Do you know if you have an IP? You can usually check by looking at the little icon in the taskbar somewhere that looks like two computers with green lights blinking on them. Double click that for more info, or look at the "connected" icon you were looking at before.

Yes I do have an IP adress.

[Mako]

Originally Posted by Jump n Fish

Yes I do have an IP adress.

PM it to me.

[Jump n Fish]

Mako, you're great. I'm good to go!!

This forum rocks!! I've got more help from an outdoor forum than I've got browsing all the tech sites that the web has to offer. Pretty ironic.

[Mako]

Originally Posted by Jump n Fish

Mako, you're great. I'm good to go!!

This forum rocks!! I've got more help from an outdoor forum than I've got browsing all the tech sites that the web has to offer. Pretty ironic.

Glad you got it working!

[fish_finder]

Glad you got it going. What was the issue?

[Jump n Fish]

Originally Posted by fish_finder

Glad you got it going. What was the issue?

Mako, took my IP, used his supercomputer at home to hack into my system. He reviewed all my registry files and found one for a network connection that worked on my desktop that didn't jive with the inspiron notebook. He ran a program to disable this registry and found the program online to install one driver that I was missing and change the registry so the network connection would work the Inspiron. Way above my head, but its amazing to me that he could do all that in about ten minutes just from me sending him IP address. Of course I had to disable my firewall. Mako you're some sort of computer genius, you can probably do some crazy stuff with those kind of skills.

[Jump n Fish]

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Actually, my modem just needed to be reset. It doesn't switch over to a new computer automatically.

[Mako]

vrentropy, you weren't too far off. Wasn't loopback but he had a private IP.

[Alex T.]

Mako you're some sort of computer genius, you can probably do some crazy stuff with those kind of skills.

Make sure to keep an eye on your bank accounts and kids' college funds.

Alex

[fishnguy]

Job well done Mako!

[Harold]

I hear MUSIC comin'!

Harold F.

[Mako]

Harold, when I saw that you posted here, before I even clicked on it, I knew what I was going to see.

[vrentropy]

I REALLY HATE it when you get your private IP Stuck in your modem.

[fish_finder]

Originally Posted by Jump n Fish

Mako, took my IP, used his supercomputer at home to hack into my system. He reviewed all my registry files and found one for a network connection that worked on my desktop that didn't jive with the inspiron notebook. He ran a program to disable this registry and found the program online to install one driver that I was missing and change the registry so the network connection would work the Inspiron. Way above my head, but its amazing to me that he could do all that in about ten minutes just from me sending him IP address. Of course I had to disable my firewall. Mako you're some sort of computer genius, you can probably do some crazy stuff with those kind of skills.