new homebuilt computer is acting very odd with the internet

July 9, 2006 12:02 AM

i just built my first 'home built' computer - and I am curious as to why I cannot get it to connect to the network that I have set up here in our office. I am getting two orange lights on the ethernet port, if that helps, and I'm connected through a Linksys WRT54G, and our cable connection. It's a brand-spanking-new machine. more details inside...

the new computer I have put together (for audio recording ONLY) is giving me some trouble - I am trying to get it to connect to both the internet, and to my little home network so that I can move some install files around and get the new machine recording ready. It has integreated Gb LAN. Athlon 64 3800+, ASUS motherboard, 1 Gb of RAM.

What I am getting right now is something odd, like it doesn't see a network, or the internet period. I keep wondering if there is something I haven't set up - this is from scratch, mind you, so I may have missed something software or driver based - even though I don't believe so.

I am getting two orange LED's on the ethernet port - not blinking, just steady-on - and in "My Network Connections," I have '1394 Connection' and that is it. When I go to try and refresh the IP or repair the connection, what I get is "Failed to query TCP/IP settings of the connection. Cannot proceed." Is there something I have missed? I cannot connect to the computers in the network, they cannot see the new computer, and I cannot connect the new computer to the internet. I have run the Network Setup Wizard as well.

Current lineage is as follows:
new comp > WRT54G > Comcast Broadband Cable Modem

Please help...?

posted by jimmyhutch to computers & internet (10 comments total)

umm... install up-to-date drivers?
posted by hatsix at 12:10 AM on July 9, 2006

well, when I checked the drivers, they are up-to-date.
posted by jimmyhutch at 12:12 AM on July 9, 2006

Checking the drivers, meaning you checked ASUS's site?
posted by aubilenon at 12:26 AM on July 9, 2006

if all you have is "1394 Connection" then you haven't actually installed the network drivers. 1394 is IEEE-1394 which is also known as Firewire, and is most certainly not your actual network card. so, pop your CD in there and install the network drivers. should work ok after that.
posted by mrg at 12:35 AM on July 9, 2006

Well, if the network card isn't showing up, then the drivers aren't actually installed. Find out the original manufacturer and chip version of the ethernet, and go to them.

1394 connection is your firewire connection (you can run TCP/IP over firewire if you're ever in a bind), so you'll want to leave that alone for now, the error you received is nothing to worry about there.


Check the BIOS, make sure the card isn't deactivated.

Once the card is up and running, try setting the mode to 10/100 Base T, as your WRT might not be auto-negotiating with the 1000BaseT connection.
posted by hatsix at 12:37 AM on July 9, 2006

doh, beat me by 2 minutes :-(
posted by hatsix at 12:38 AM on July 9, 2006

Some things to check:

1) Substitute Ethernet cable, preferably with one capable of at least Cat 5 (100 Mbit/sec) speed. You'd be surprised how often a bad Ethernet cable is the cause of network problems.

2) Go into BIOS, and make sure your on board Ethernet chipset feature is enabled. You may also need to verify a jumper on the motherboard is in correct position. See your motherboard documentation.

3) Open Start --> Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Computer Management --> Device Manager, and locate your Ethernet card in the device list. If there are any Unknown Devices, yellow question marked, or devices marked with red icons or X'ed out, your integrated Ethernet chipset may not have been properly detected by the hardware probe, and you may need to reinstall drivers from the CD that came with your motherboard, or better yet, from later drivers posted on the vendor's Web site. A lot of Gb Ethernet chipsets have errata that requires updated drivers, as the Gb Ethernet spec was still changing up to a couple of years ago, for copper media.

4) Depending on your sound card, you may have a resource conflict that is killing your on board Ethernet. Remove the sound card, and see if you can get Ethernet working. If you do get Ethernet working, make a note of resources it is using, and see if there are ways to manually select the resources the sound card will use, that won't affect it. If you will not be connecting a parallel printer, you may be able to disable parallel port in BIOS to free IRQ 7, etc.
posted by paulsc at 12:40 AM on July 9, 2006

Windows XP has inbuilt support for a lot of network cards. However, none of those are gigabit-capable. You have a gigabit Ethernet port built into your motherboard; therefore, Windows XP will not know what to do with it until you visit the Asus website and download a driver for it.

The 1394 connection is Firewire, not your Ethernet connection. When you get the correct driver installed, you'll see another connection called "LAN Connection".

If you go into the Device Manager (right-click My Computer, select Properties->Hardware->Device Manager) you are pretty much certain to see a network device with a red X. When you have the right driver installed, that X will go away, and the device will be correctly named.

The orange lights mean that the chipset is doing the right thing, and that your cable is properly connected. That doesn't help you, though, if Windows can't talk to the chipset.
posted by flabdablet at 12:41 AM on July 9, 2006

If you have only the one computer nearby (perhaps you're posting this question from work), you should have gotten a CD from ASUS that has drivers on it. You can use those long enough to go get the most recent ones.

If you have an NVidia chipset and a Socket 939 board, be aware that the NVidia network hardware in that generation has many advanced features, nearly all of which are broken. The basic functionality is just fine and works great, but there's a lot of firewalling and offload features in the chipset that are buggy and cause all KINDS of problems.

When you are asked if you want to install the NVidia firewall, say NO. Just install the basic driver. After you've done that, bring up properties on the new network connection, find the physical card listed, and click on Properties. That will take you to the driver management area.

In the driver management window, find all entries that reference offloading... "TCP checksum offloading" is one... and disable them.

After doing that, the connection should be rock stable for you. It's a fine chip, as long as you don't try to us any of the advanced features. :)

If you have one of the newer socket AM2 boards, ignore this.... I haven't heard yet whether the new chipsets have problems.

Oh! Also, if it's not too late... do NOT install the NVidia IDE drivers for the parallel ATA ports. Stick with Windows' standard. if you're running RAID, the nvraid driver seems okay.
posted by Malor at 3:08 AM on July 9, 2006

Open up a Command window (DOS box) and type the following:

netdiag /test:winsock /v

Let us know what it says.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:58 AM on July 9, 2006