Ethernet is go. DHCP not so much.

[Bardish]

I normally never ask tech questions, but I'm stumped on this one.

Here's the situation:

I'm using a laptop at work (running XP) and I'm trying to connect to their network via ethernet cable.

Here's what you should know: the cable is good, the ethernet card is good, the drivers are good. The problem is in the network.

So I connect via ethernet, and I get a successful connection at 10 mbps. Packet data is being received so I think, wooh, it works, no headache. But it doesn't. When I try to connect to the internet I get a server not found error. Okay, that's odd, let's find out what's going on. So I load up my console and do an ipconfig. IP is there (which explains the packet data) and the subnet mask is there. But lo and behold, the default gateway entry is missing. My connection didn't detect it for some reason.

So I go into my advanced TCP/IP settings, and reset the options to "Detect IP and DNS Automatically" to see if it would load a gateway for me. It didn't.

So that's where I'm stuck. I'd try entering it in manually, but I have no idea what my building uses as their default gateway.

Any ideas?

One thing I tried additionally is unplugging one of my work's servers and plugging it into my own laptop, and this worked. The thing about it though is that I don't want to use this connection per se, because it is directly connected to my company's corporate and I don't think they'd appreciate my personal use of their resources. That's why I'm trying to jack into whatever network it is that the building uses locally. Another thing: I know it is possible to do because the last person who had my job played Final Fantasy 11 for 5 years during the job. I wish I had his cellphone number, :P

Please help!

Graveyard shifts are boring!

[bAdWaYz]

Before going around plugging things in or unplugging things I would ask the network guys what to do. Not knowing how their network is setup it would be hard to give you good advice. If your computer won't pull an address having it set to "obtain ip address auto" then for whatever reason dhcp isn't working as you know. If you are going to static address it then you need to know the gateway ip. Find another computer near yours that has a connection and do an ipconfig /all on it. Make note of the gateway, subnet mask, and dns addresses and use them. If however you happen to static address using an ip thats already on the network this will cause an ip conflict and likely get you in trouble with the network guys.

[Bardish]

Good advice, but the problem with that is that I don't exactly have network guys on-site. The addresses that are used within the building are static. I also know that there are two types of networks. One is being connected directly from corporate and uses it's own IP and router, the other is provided by a service called Ibahn, which designates 160+ ips throughout the building (if you haven't guessed already, I work in a hotel). There may be a third network, but I'd have no way of finding out besides asking my engineering department. I already did an ipconfig on a working system and that's how I found out it was connected to corporate, so the one I'm trying to plug into I suppose is the Ibahn one.

And the IP conflict is another reason I don't want to use that corporate connection.

So what my question really is, what would cause the gateway address not to be detected? And is there a way to detect it automatically if windows couldn't detect it? I'm guessing at this point, I need to obtain and enter manually the static addresses.

[bAdWaYz]

If dhcp isn't being used that would explaine why you get no gateway. If you are going to static address you need to know the gateway. I would use a computer on the Ibahn system open a command promt and to a tracert on anything. Example do a tracert on some website ip address this should show you the first hop it takes. The router is normally the first hop and your gateway. Make note of it then when you static use that gateway. That or talk to some one there that knows the system better.