"Cannot renew IP address"

[Wuzup101]

Okay so I did a google serach on this and browsed the forums and I see a lot of people having similar problems but no clear cut answer. My friend called me over today because she's been without the internet for about 10 days now. Her ISP (cable co.) has convinced her that she needed to, in order I believe: reinstall drivers for her onboard ethernet, get a new cable modem, get a new patch cable, get a new network card. She was about to install the network card when I talked to her and told her I'd come over and look at it. This is what happened:

First thing was to see what windows was telling her. Connection says something like "not connected or unreliable connection" or something to that effect but not in those words. So I try the repair function and it gives me the error telling me that it can't renew the IP address. I try to renew the ip manually in the cmd prompt by using the release and renew commands. Releases fine but won't renew. Rebooting gives me a similar IP... always with 169.XXX.XXX.XXX. Google searches have said this 169 thing is a win thing or something like that. Anyway, connected my powerbook directly to her cable modem through her cable and in 10 sec was surfing the net. So that part is fine. Then I connected my powerbook to her computer via another cable that I brought. I set up my ip and hers so the two would network... everything was fine... played a movie on her computer from my hard drive so the hardware is physically okay.

It seems that DHCP isn't working because it won't automatically pick up the IP info when told to (and this is the correct setting for her cable modem). What can I do? It seems her internet just died when she rebooted like a week and a half ago with no notice. I should also mention that I did install the second network card (a linksys model) and it yielded the exact same error.

Thanks... I know it's a long post... I appreciate any help

EDIT: NO ROUTER... cable modem directly plugged into her PC... HP model PC desktop... system hardware profile shows everything working fine...

 

[lockmac]

Most Cable Modems do not provide DHCP, they just let windows assign an automatic private adress, which is what is happening in this case (169.xxx.xxx.xxx). If her cable modem is just a standalone cable modem, with no hub/switch or router built in, I doubt it would have a built in DHCP server.

 

[Kelemvor]

Actually cables modems should assign DHCP because they should go get one from the main router at the cable companies end. The computer has to get an IP either form your router if you have one or directly form the cable company. If I plug directly into my cable modem I get an Ip address of 65.x.x.x. If I use my router, it gets the 65.x.x.x address and I get the standard 192.x.x.x

What I would do to test it would be
1) Power Cycle the cable modem if you didn't already
2) Check for link lights on the NIC on the back of the computer to see if it's getting a signal at all.
3) If you have another computer/laptop you could bring over to plug in and test that would helpnarrow down if it's a computer problem or a problem on the other end.
4) Vice Versa you could take her computer to your place and see if it works there.

Good Luck

 

[Wuzup101]

Thanks for the advise guys. I wrote that really late last night and was kinda drunk. Anyway, as I said in the post, I did bring my powerbook over and plugged it directly into the cable modem. I was on the net in a matter of seconds using DHCP and all automatic settings on the powerbook. I also did power cycle the cable modem, reset it several times. Tried resetting it with her computer off and then rebooting her computer. She now has 2 nics in her computer and both give the exact same error. I can connect to her computer via my powerbook on either nic so the hardware is working.

I'm not a networking guru but I do know a decent amout about cable modems and routers. This seems to be a flakey problem... When I initially saw the problem I figured that she had to just call the cable company and get her IP and such as it was a fixed address. She informed me that she had been on and of the phone with them for days now and that it is supposed to be set to pick up the IP automatically. Most of the cable modems that I've installed for friends have always had a static IP. However, recently I've seen more that use dynamic IPs. I'm still not sure why this isn't working...

 

[JackMDS]

When connecting Directly to a cable Modem there is No private IP and you have No say in the IP assignments (unless you purchased an External Static IP).

Given the above every thing has to be set to Auto and if your network is OK it should work. E.g. your powerbook.

She does not need a new modem, but otherwise ISP support is right. The NICs has to be taken out the Network has to be uninstalled and reinstalled by some one who knows how to do it correctly.

Log to this page it has a lot of links to instructions to Windows Network Settings, and Sharing.

Link to: Windows Network - Installing & Sharing.

:sun:

 

[bgbysleepy]

reboot the modem and router(turn off wait 10s then turn on) if the problem still going on. try to key in the ip manually. for example, right click properties on the connection in network section. ip---properties--manual. if she is using router, change the default connection to the default connection of the router--mine is 192.168.0.1 (but other router might be different). for each pc, increment the ip by one. ex 192.168.0.2 and so on.

 

[imported_CromsDog]

From reading your posts we can tell that the problem is not hardware related at all. You've gone through every step that I would have done to ensure proper hardware functions testing everything from the modem backwards to the computer. (I hate to ask but did you test the actual cable between her computer and the modem. I saw that you said that you plugged your laptop in but was that with your cable or hers?) I agree with totaly removing the netork from her sys. Also run a spyware ap. and virus scan to ensure that nothing is residing in there to hijack any DNS settings later. The best thing you could do for her is to be there when she is on the phone with her ISP to ensure the proper level of support on their end. Knowing that they have a competent person on the other end helps keep them from just telling you whatever it takes to get you off the line. As a IT Director for a major corp I can ensure you that there are times when you just don't fell like dealing with the techno ignorant (no diss intended to your friend).

BTW what OS is she using?

 

[Wuzup101]

It's a gateway computer from about 3 years ago running XP sp2. Also, I did test the cable she was using with my powerbook... works fine. All the hardware in her loop works fine. I would also like to point out that there is NO ROUTER being used. If there was then I would be able to key the ip fairly easily and this wouldn't be a problem. Also I'd like to point out that I do know my way around windows fairly well. I've only been using a mac for a few months of my life... though I've built and fixed countless PCs for myself, friends, and family. I'd like to know what I'm overlooking, but I don't think this is a situation where the "nic needs to be installed by someone who knows what they are doing." Also, though I didn't follow the ISPs directions, I did look at them afterwards and everything was set up 100% exactly how they wanted it. Modem was rebooted, left unplugged for over half an hour while we ate dinner, computer was rebooted several times. Is there something that would be stopping it from picking up the IP info from the ISP. All the hardware is conected correctly, windows settings are set to automatic. What am I missing?

 

[Pepsi90919]

Originally posted by: FrankyJunior
Actually cables modems should assign DHCP because they should go get one from the main router at the cable companies end. The computer has to get an IP either form your router if you have one or directly form the cable company. If I plug directly into my cable modem I get an Ip address of 65.x.x.x. If I use my router, it gets the 65.x.x.x address and I get the standard 192.x.x.x

What I would do to test it would be
1) Power Cycle the cable modem if you didn't already
2) Check for link lights on the NIC on the back of the computer to see if it's getting a signal at all.
3) If you have another computer/laptop you could bring over to plug in and test that would helpnarrow down if it's a computer problem or a problem on the other end.
4) Vice Versa you could take her computer to your place and see if it works there.

Good Luck

cable modems don't have DHCP servers, the cable company assigns all IPs.

 

[ShadowBlade]

check the windows DHCP service...if its active, disable it, if its inactive, enable it, sometimes it works.....or you could always call the cable companies tech support again, ive had to go through like 6 different tech support people before i could finally get one that could solve my problems.

 

[mdnblaster]

Was there any resolution to this problem? I am facing this with my WinXP pro install

 

[thriemus]

Sounds to me like a firewall problem, check panda/norton/pc cillian etc etc for personal firewall and allow the local network either by nic or allow 192.168.0.0/16.

 

[ncl]

Originally posted by: Pepsi90919
cable modems don't have DHCP servers, the cable company assigns all IPs.

I'll go ahead and confuse the issue even more - for the sake of accuracy.

Actually, most cable modems DO have DHCP servers built-in. The server in only active when the modem has not properly signed on to the cable plant. In most cases the modem willl hand out an IP in the 192.168.100.0/24 IP block. The purpose behind this is to allow "easy" access to the internal diagnostic page on the modem (192.168.100.1). Once the modem has "signed on" to the cable plant the built-ini DHCP server is no longer active and your PC or router should receive IP's fromt he cable co's DHCP server.

Nicholaus