need help setting up internet(LAN)

[Kevin18]

i had to get another computer recently, an older one that was laying around the house, and im trying to set up the internet. im setting it on through LAN and it is the secondary computer. its on cable internet and there is a connection to the computer, the green light is on. i tried going to start control panel network and putting it on retrieve ip automtic. the real problem is when i try to renew the ip address from start run winipcfg. it says Error DHCP server unavailable: renewing adapter***. any ideas on what i could do, also they are on different OS one is on Win 98 and one is running off of Win 95 could that cause a problem? do i need to update my OS? the pc with win 95 is the one with the problem. sorry if the majority of this post doesnt make sense because i am in a rush, any help would be appreciated

[MadMedic]

How are the computers hooked up? With a router? If it is is the router configured to act as a dhcp server? If not then there is no DHCP server, thus you won't optain an IP.

[Kevin18]

the two computers are hooked up with a router. im not sure if its configured to act as a dhcp server. i did have a computer hooked up through the router before and it had no problems with the internet.

[MadMedic]

I would log onto the router and see if dhcp is enabled. The other pc doesn't have a static ip address does it?

[Kevin18]

im not sure what that means or how to log onto the router. could you go into more detail please?

[bAdWaYz]

Depending on what make and mod your router is you should be able to log into its setup page with a web browser. Example most linksys routers use the default ip address of 192.168.1.1 so if you were to type that ip address into a web browser it would then bring up a login box and the default is to just use a password of admin. This would log you into the routers setup pages.

[MadMedic]

If it's not a linksys then just look at the documentation that came with it.

[Kevin18]

i tried doing the linksys but i do not know the password because this is not my computer and i dont know where documentation is. i will try asking for the password tommorow, in the meantime is there any other problems i could try looking at?

[Kevin18]

ive gotten into the linksys, now what should i look at to see if there are any problems?

[MadMedic]

You need to go to the tab labeled DHCP and see if it is enabled. If it's not then you don't have a dhcp server running thus the reason why you can't get an ip address.

[bAdWaYz]

You should also make sure the router is setup to use the internet connection type that you or the person using it has. For example Auto Config - DHCP, or PPPOE, or static address, and so on. Auto config - DHCP is standard pretty much for cable connections "there are exceptions to this rule". PPPOE is used for DSL "same execptions" and ect ect. Knowing the mod number of the router could help pin point advice for this post too.

[MadMedic]

Bad isn't he talking about dhcp for the LAN? As for internet connection I know cable is Obtain IP Automatically, unless he's paying more for a static address.

[bAdWaYz]

Him not being able to get an ip address could indeed be caused by the routers DHCP server not running and thus not giving out an ip address to the computer. The settings I mentioned to check are for the WAN side. If the router itself can't pull an ip from the cable connection then it wouldn't be able to give out an ip to the computers on the LAN. From his first post I was not clear if the router was getting an ip or not so I just added that last advice trying to cover the bases so to speak.

[MadMedic]

Even without the WAN IP it should still be able to function as a DHCP because it should have it's own LAN IP. I only asked because I understood it to be a LAN problem rather than a WAN issue, don't want you to think I was trying to step on your toes.

[bAdWaYz]

The DHCP action will still function yes but if the WAN side isn't setup right then even if he is getting an ip from dhcp it still wouldn't allow him to hit the WAN side of things such as the internet. I wasn't clear from his first post if he had checked the WAN side of things or not so like I said I was just trying to cover all the bases. So many different things can cause a person not to be able to connect to the internet I was only offering more advice is all. He did say that he once had a computer in the same place that this one is now and it worked with the router so it could be the router or it could be that computer or the NIC. Starting at dhcp is a good thing it will help narrow things down. The goal of my post was to give a few more things to look over, because alot of times a person will post a problem then not be able to log back on for a day or three. As for my toes heheh don't worry I don't have toes.

[MadMedic]

I understand. I think we were just looking at it from different sides, which is what good about this site. Multiple heads are better than one.