Problem with NICs

[Nick]

I've got a couple of NIC's in my machine which I have tried seperately and simultaneously in my computer with no luck. I'm trying to connect to a D-Link ADSL modem, which is working fine as I've tested it elsewhere. The D-Link assigns IPs via DHCP so there should be no problem with the IPs.

However, neither NIC get's an IP address when connected to the D-Link. The 2 network cards are of different makes, one is a SIS 900, the other is a Realtek FA311. I've got the latest drivers for both.

The cable I'm using is the correct cable which has been tested elsewhere. I've also tried hooking the NICs up to other things, but whatever I do I can't get a network connection over them.

Initially I thought it was malware related, and a quick search turned up some of the usual suspects such as bridge.dll, which have been removed now.

The only thing I can think of is that I'm missing something or an XP networking driver/file has been corrupted, but SFC turns up nothing.

The most bizzare fact of this whole issue is that I use VMware and when I first installed it, after giving up on the NICs, and it installed the bridge drivers to connect to the network card, the network card worked and I could connect to the D-Link. This stopped after a reboot and isn't really a feasible solution to bodge it with VMware network drivers, as I'd like to know whats causing it and fix the root of the problem if possible.

Cheers
Nick

 

[Mainframeguy]

what's you mobo? Has it got onboard NIC? I once put a NIC card in and never could get it working because I had it onboard.... Are you getting Network Cable unplugged or not even finding the NIC devices?

You've given us a fair bit of information - but I can't help thinking we might need more to crack this one....

Also (I may regret this!) but idle curiosity makes me wonder why you want to have two NICs....

 

[Dan04]

hi guys, on my comp ive had no troubles using a 2nd nic on a board that already has an integrated one but then i spose thats just my computer, probably a stupid question but your not using any software firewalls are you? coz i had nic troubles were i couldnt c ne computers or anything due to something nortons firewall wanted to do and when i disabled it everything went fine...i have to agree with mainframeguy why do u want 2 nics for?

 

[Nick]

No software firewalls or onboard NICs. There isn't actually an onboard NIC on my board, but there are settings for one in the BIOS, so I disabled it when I got the board.

The motherboard is an Abit KV8 Board.

The reason I've got a couple of NICs is when anyone brings a laptop round it saves me messing around with cables and network settings, I can just plug it into the other NIC. The first time I came to use two NICs was when my router died (power cut during firmware flash) and I was sharing my network connection through it with one NIC for my ADSL modem and one to a hub, but that was on my previous computer. Snice then I've always found it useful to have a couple of NICs as long as I've got a spare PCI.

 

[Zedric]

Let's take it from the top so we don't miss anything.

Do the lights on the NICs light up? If not, it's the wrong cable (or seriously broken cards).
Do they light up if you connect just between the cards? If yes, you have a crossover cable when you should have had a straight.
Are the cards set up to use dhcp correctly?
Have you tried manual configuration of the NICs?

 

[Nick]

Lights light up. I have loads of cable, both straight and crossed, tried both just in case. Cards are set up ok to use dhcp (everything set to automatic in the config pages). Also tried them on manual.

When I've tried them on manual, the network status shows it as sending packets, but not receiving any. I've tried it with and without the windows firewall, didn't make any difference.

 

[Steevo]

I had this problem once, turns out I had to move the card to a different PCI slot. It had a conflict of interest with my (dial up) modem, XP however said it was all OK.

Can you ping your modem? (DSL)

 

[Maveric169]

I had this problem once, turns out I had to move the card to a different PCI slot. It had a conflict of interest with my (dial up) modem, XP however said it was all OK.

Can you ping your modem? (DSL)

That is what happened to me also, I had to change PCI slots, no ryme or reason, just won't work in the one slot, even though I had no HW conflict statuses. Might give it a try.

 

[Dan04]

sounds like a conflict between the 2 cards regardless wether or not windows picks up a conflict or not

 

[Nick]

It's not a conflict between the cards as I've had both running in together in a previous machine and the cards don't work when either one of them is plugged in singly. I've pretty much eliminated a hardware cause with having two cards, they've both been in various PCI slots, singly and simultaneously.

Both cards don't receive any traffic so ping doesn't get a response.

I'm pretty sure it's a software issue, I just don't know enough about all the different files windows uses for networking to see if any of them have any problems, or if anything untoward has sneaked in and is causing problems.

Thanks for the ideas, keep them coming.

 

[RickyC]

What's acting as your DHCP server, the D-Link?

Try 'ipconfig /all' at the cmd prompt. Make sure the NIC's are getting IP's from the DHCP server and are on the same scope as the D-Link, though you may have already tried this.

They may also be conflicting with the motherboard, try and get your hands on a couple of different NIC's see if they work (hardware based if possible).

 

[fimchick]

I assume you are running Windows XP? At bootup press F8 and try booting into "Safe mode with Network Drivers." See what happens.