Please help.
I have 2 laptops working (??) via a wireless connection on a Belkin router on Virgin Broadband. On Monday evening I spent 3 hours with the Virgin help line in India as I had connection problems.
Laptop 1 (HP Compaq) could not get an internet connection, while Laptop 2 (Acer) could. So to be on the safe side I reset both the router and the modem.
Then neither laptop could get an internet connection and both seemed to have lost the identification of the network which is called simply Home and my Wireless Router is called Colin.
I then reset both the router and the modem again. With no success.
I then went and put an Ethernet cable into Laptop 2 through to the Modem and still could not get an internet connection. From this I believed that the problem was then either the internet line itself (perhaps having dropped in the area) or the modem.
So I rang Virgin. They had me perform various tests and then they advised that both the modem and the line were working perfectly (the Wireless router was not theirs so they were not interested in performing any tests for this). Their first suggestion was that the NIC driver was corrupted and they got me to download a replacement driver for Laptop 1 and to see whether that would help. It didn’t. At this stage we had a 5 minute period (literally) where Laptop 2 worked wirelessly and then went off so I rang Virgin again.
They then got me to check the IP address which was done and it was now found to start with a 169. They then told me that the Laptop had a fault has it reverts to a 169 number to stop it getting access to the internet to protect itself.
They then asked me to perform a number of tasks to correct the IP address. One was simply IPCONFIG/RENEW which did not work. The second was through Vista when you double click on the red cross that goes from the network to the internet on the picturegram in the Network and Sharing Centre you get the option of repairing, and reinstating the IP address. The repair did not work as it gave up part way through.
Virgin India then got me to perform all the tasks again on Laptop 1, and it was found that this too had a 169 IP address. Again nothing worked.
Yesterday I brought in Laptop 2 into work to see whether it would work on a wireless connection. It didn’t. I did not want to connect it via a cable to our system for fear of possibly endangering our system. I then rang a colleague for help and it was suggested that I download Winsockfix, which I did and installed it on Laptop 2. It still had an IP address of 169 and still could not get onto the Internet.
Last evening I borrowed a laptop (that we had earlier given away, but up to 3 months ago had been working on my home system). I tried to get wireless internet access and was denied. I checked the IP address and it started with 285. I reset the router and Modem. Then hooked this laptop (Toshiba - let’s call it Laptop 3) up to a cable direct to the modem and no Internet connection. I checked the IP address and it now had a 169 IP address……………..
I have come to the conclusion, rightly or wrongly that the Wireless Router is damaged in some way. That when I try to access the Internet via the Router it then changes the IP address on the laptops to stop then accessing for protection.
But to be honest I haven’t a clue. All I know for sure is that everything was working perfectly before Monday. Is the system infected? Could a bug be causing all of this?
Virgin tell me that the line and the modem are working fine and there is no need for them to get an engineer to visit.
Could it be Eset which is my security system? could the fire wall be stopping access and then changing the IP address. If so why would that be? The Eset on Laptops 1 and 2 was up to date. But the Eset on laptop 3 was red so had not been updated for a while. Yet I was still blocked from getting onto the internet.
My thought is that –
1. I probably need to buy a new Wireless Router (as I don’t know whether the existing one is what’s causing the problem)
2. Even with a new Router the laptops will still not work as the fact that Laptop not working in the office has proved.
How can I get the laptops to have a proper IP address?
They seem to be clean from Viruses / spyware etc?
ANY and I mean ANY help that you can provide would be very much appreciated.
Best regards
