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Is This A Network Problem ?


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Posted
I have a basic workstation using w2000 with wired lan that currently is connected to the network and is sending data, however it cannot receive any for some unknown reason. A similiar thing has happened to a member of staff with a wireless laptop using xp.
Posted

What data can it send? What data can't it receive?

Can you ping other workstations/servers from it? Can it be pinged from other workstations/servers?

Has it been assigned a correct IP address (using dhcp or statically)? Have you tried using IP addresses as well as host names (may be a problem with DNS)?

 

I've had similar problems in the past and I find that once I've checked all of the above I have usually found the break in the chain somewhere.

Posted
Tried everything but a new network card. However if I have to open up the machine to change it then I might as well put a CD drive in there and update the pc cos it could do with a fresh install which will hopefully solve the problem.
Posted

I have had this many times in several schools, the answer is usually a network cable/connection problem, or the network card itself (usually the port on the network card has a bent pin, stopping recv).

 

However, there has been several occasions where it was not the above. I found on one PC (NS Optimum pc with windows 2000), it would not receive. I tried everything known to man, including changing network cards, fixing windows playing with bios and so on.. nothing worked.

 

I ended up formatting the PC and putting XP on, which worked.

Posted

I did have a similar problem on another workstation which was caused by the upgrading of drivers. However this machine has been working fine and I have made no modifications to it in the past week before it spontaneously decided to start playing up.

 

Just waiting for OS to be installed now and see if its working normally.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Limited connectivity can be caused by:

Damaged cable/pin, wrong type of cable(cross over etc), network card driver not good, Network card is set as half duplex. In the wireless case not a very strong signal.

Check the above

Posted

The workstation worked fine after I reinstalled newer windows, but the laptop I mentioned is still having problems.

 

Its a wireless one and the teacher tells me that the wireless works fine at home, but as soon as it arrives in school it only sends and doesn't receive. Tried all sorts, apart from using a different network card which I think will be the answer as its currently using a 3-com one whereas we have d-link acces points.

Posted
The workstation worked fine after I reinstalled newer windows, but the laptop I mentioned is still having problems.

 

Its a wireless one and the teacher tells me that the wireless works fine at home, but as soon as it arrives in school it only sends and doesn't receive. Tried all sorts, apart from using a different network card which I think will be the answer as its currently using a 3-com one whereas we have d-link acces points.

 

You will be able to send but not receive if there is a problem with authentication. This could be wrong SSID, WEP key or wpa settings.

Posted

Cross vendor *should* be fine, but in the real world it generally causes issues! We have had problems with schools buying Netgear APs and D-Links NICs

 

I would always endeavour to keep the NIC and Access Point vendor the same.

 

Rob.

Posted

Whenever I have problems with a wireless card I just uninstall it completely and then re-install it. Has worked almost EVERY time.

 

We use a range of NICs and APs and haven't had any problems (no serious ones anyway).

Posted
If your using XP SP2 I've found that the manufacturers bundled WiFi tools interfere. I generally uninstall them and let windows handle the connection.
Posted
If it is a Centrino or Intel 2300BG type chipset then you may be best disabling Wireless Zero Configration and using Intels own management software. The 2200 series don't like some other manufaturers basestations.
Posted
Are you sure about that? I've had trouble with manufacturers connection tools because they are loaded after a user logs in causing a chicken and egg situation. :)
Posted

I think that the real question is 'how does the teacher know that the card is sending but not receiving'? Has this teacher got a wireless sniffer that can see the packets going past?

 

I would bet it is more likely that it isn't associated with the AP, is associated with a rogue AP or the AP has 'issues'.

Posted
I think that the real question is 'how does the teacher know that the card is sending but not receiving'? Has this teacher got a wireless sniffer that can see the packets going past?

 

I would bet it is more likely that it isn't associated with the AP, is associated with a rogue AP or the AP has 'issues'.

 

double click on the little network icon in the task tray (if the icon is turned on) :)

 

Nothing magical with sniffers required :wink:

Posted

That isn't particularly accurate because that shows all the packets that windows has sent even ones that haven't reached their destinations. The counter that has recorded all the "sent" packets will be showing all the 'control packets' that have been sent to the AP.

Ethereal would be the best way to check what EXACTLY is being sent from the wireless NIC.

Posted

@DMcCoy: As penguinpowered has described, the card might think that it is sending packets but nothing is happening.

 

Another thing worth checking is if the card is switched on (I've now managed to teach my dad not to turn off the wireless NIC!).

Posted
@DMcCoy: As penguinpowered has described, the card might think that it is sending packets but nothing is happening.

 

Another thing worth checking is if the card is switched on (I've now managed to teach my dad not to turn off the wireless NIC!).

 

I'm just pointing out how you can see that its only sending, if you do not have authentication set up correctly as I mentioned then windows will show 0 recieved in these stats. Windows will quite happily tell you that you are connected to a wlan even with the wrong auth settings, it just sees the ssid and pretends that its connected to a network.

Posted
Are you sure about that? I've had trouble with manufacturers connection tools because they are loaded after a user logs in causing a chicken and egg situation. :)

 

Very painful experience. Sony Vaios are buggers for this.

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