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Can't connect to Internet


wixerzp

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Hello I am using Windows 98 (nostalgia reasons) and I can't for get the internet working. My motherboard has a built-in ethernet adapter called Realtek RTL 8139/810X. I successfully installed the drivers for it and in the device manager it says "this device is working properly". When I connect the cable from my router the light on the adapter lights up. Then I set up a static IP, and yes I set the TCP/IP to the adapter in network options. And I still can't connect to the internet. What do I do?

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Can you ping the router?

Have you set the gateway properly to the router address?

Can you ping a known server (as an example 8.8.8.8)?

Can you access the router (standard configuration) from the Win9x machine?

Did you set correctly the net mask?

What does Winipcfg.exe show?

jaclaz



 



 

Edited by jaclaz
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24 minutes ago, jaclaz said:

Can you ping the router?

Have you set the gateway properly to the router address?

Can you ping a known server (as an example 8.8.8.8)?

Can you access the router (standard configuration) from the Win9x machine?

Did you set correctly the net mask?

What does Winipcfg.exe show?

jaclaz



Pinged router - nothing, request timed out.

Yes, I set the gateway properly.

Pinged 8.8.8.8 - nothing, request timed out.

Nope, can't access router.

Yes, I set the net mask correctly.winipcfg

Winipcfg first shows "PPP adapter" which has no information, and then I can select my Realtek adapter, which has the normal info.

By the way, for setting the static IP, I used this guide - http://portforward.com/networking/static-98.htm

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Well, if you cannot ping the router the issue is "from the start", it is very likely that you are either using a "wrong" IP address or a "wrong" net mask or - more simply  - that the network driver/card is not working properly for whatever reason... :dubbio:

Can you ping 127.0.0.1?

Can you ping <Win98 Machine IP>? (almost the same of above but checking the actualassigned IP instead of the generic "home" one)

If it is not a secret, can you post the actual IP address you assigned to the machine, the net mask and the router IP address and net mask?

Do you have another device that you can connect to the network to check if the router replies to ping? (all routers do, but it is possible that - again for whatever reasons - it is stuck), as well with another device you can cross ping the two devices and determine if the network connection and/or TCP/IP stack is working and configured correctly.

See also here:
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/trouble/Troubleshooting-Basic-TCPIP.html

jaclaz


 

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20 minutes ago, jaclaz said:

Well, if you cannot ping the router the issue is "from the start", it is very likely that you are either using a "wrong" IP address or a "wrong" net mask or - more simply  - that the network driver/card is not working properly for whatever reason... :dubbio:

Can you ping 127.0.0.1?

Can you ping <Win98 Machine IP>? (almost the same of above but checking the actualassigned IP instead of the generic "home" one)

If it is not a secret, can you post the actual IP address you assigned to the machine, the net mask and the router IP address and net mask?

Do you have another device that you can connect to the network to check if the router replies to ping? (all routers do, but it is possible that - again for whatever reasons - it is stuck), as well with another device you can cross ping the two devices and determine if the network connection and/or TCP/IP stack is working and configured correctly.

See also here:
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/trouble/Troubleshooting-Basic-TCPIP.html

jaclaz


 

I pinged 127.0.0.1 and my WIN98 machine IP and both got a response.

I don't want to post that information.

I have a laptop that I connected the same cable to. The internet is working there. I checked the settings and everything was the same as the win98 machine except the last bit of the IP of course.

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Can the laptop and Win9x machine ping each other?

Of course you need two cables (and I am assuming that the router has more than one port).

You could try (just as a test) temporarily set the Router to enable DHCP and see if the WIn98 machine can get a dynamic IP address. :dubbio:

jaclaz
 

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you shouldn't have to mess with anything for the ethernet assuming the driver is working. only thing that may need to be done is to run "winipcfg", release ip address and then renew the ip address for the ethernet adapter and it should work, these are just the basics though.

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10 hours ago, cov3rt said:

you shouldn't have to mess with anything for the ethernet assuming the driver is working. only thing that may need to be done is to run "winipcfg", release ip address and then renew the ip address for the ethernet adapter and it should work, these are just the basics though.

Tried that, nothing happened...

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16 hours ago, jaclaz said:

Can the laptop and Win9x machine ping each other?

Of course you need two cables (and I am assuming that the router has more than one port).

You could try (just as a test) temporarily set the Router to enable DHCP and see if the WIn98 machine can get a dynamic IP address. :dubbio:

jaclaz
 

The laptop can ping the win98 machine, and I get this :
Reply from (censored): Destination host unreachable.

The router had DHCP enabled all along.

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Well, then it CANNOT ping it.

And I presume that this is symmetric, i.e. pinging the laptop from the W98 machine results as well in destination host unreachable.

If the router has DHCP enabled, try setting IP acquisition on the W98 machine as automatic.

Which hardware is the W98 running on?

Can you try booting an alternate OS, like a DOS:

http://www.netbootdisk.com/

or a live Linux distro?

The issue here is understanding if the cause is:

1) TCP/IP configuration (or mis-installed protocol)
2) Network card driver/software (again mis-installed, even if seemingly OK)
3) Network card hardware (defective)

Since the machine can "ping itself", and given that you double checked all settings and that they are normally seen in winipcfg, #1 should be OK.

Trying with another OS would exclude #3, although (anecdotal at it's best) it happened to me that for *some reasons* a network card worked in "pure DOS" but had issues in Windows NT.

The Realtek RTL 8139 is a very common card, but there are like a zillion models of it, maybe the driver is not the "exactly right" one?

Is your Windows 98 , "plain" Windows 98 or Windows 98 SE?

Which EXACT version of the driver are you using, and where specifically you downloaded it from?

jaclaz


 


 

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18 hours ago, wixerzp said:

I don't want to post that information.

It is difficult to help someone troubleshoot a network issue if they do not post more information. You are working with the private side of the network, you may be using 10.x.x.x or 192.x.x.x. It would be nice to be able to see a simple network map.

What router is it?

Are you using an IP address in the same subnet that the router hands out in DHCP but not within the scope?

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On 2016-08-28 at 4:17 PM, jaclaz said:

Well, then it CANNOT ping it.

And I presume that this is symmetric, i.e. pinging the laptop from the W98 machine results as well in destination host unreachable.

If the router has DHCP enabled, try setting IP acquisition on the W98 machine as automatic.

Which hardware is the W98 running on?

Can you try booting an alternate OS, like a DOS:

http://www.netbootdisk.com/

or a live Linux distro?

The issue here is understanding if the cause is:

1) TCP/IP configuration (or mis-installed protocol)
2) Network card driver/software (again mis-installed, even if seemingly OK)
3) Network card hardware (defective)

Since the machine can "ping itself", and given that you double checked all settings and that they are normally seen in winipcfg, #1 should be OK.

Trying with another OS would exclude #3, although (anecdotal at it's best) it happened to me that for *some reasons* a network card worked in "pure DOS" but had issues in Windows NT.

The Realtek RTL 8139 is a very common card, but there are like a zillion models of it, maybe the driver is not the "exactly right" one?

Is your Windows 98 , "plain" Windows 98 or Windows 98 SE?

Which EXACT version of the driver are you using, and where specifically you downloaded it from?

jaclaz


 


 

I already tried setting IP acquisition on the W98 machine as automatic, didn't work.

I don't know, it's my aunt's old PC. I think it's a custom built Pentium 4. On the front panel there is a Pentium 4 Inside sticker, but dxdiag says I have a Pentium 3. Weird.

For the netbootdisk, I assume that it needs a floppy disk. I don't have one of those and the drive isn't working, so I just burned the files folder from the bootdisk zip onto a CD. Then I put my win98 startup CD and booted into DOS, then I put in the netbootdisk CD with the files, and autoexec.bat just gave a bunch of errors. I don't think that's gonna work.

I'm using Windows 98 SE.

I probably know what is the problem. There is a weird situation with the drivers. My motherboard is a U8668-D and version 7.0, it say so on the motherboard. I realised that this mobo has a VIA VT6103, not a RTL 8139.  I somehow installed RTL 8139 drivers, and it worked. I think I downloaded those drivers from here http://www.biostar-usa.com/mbdetails.asp?model=u8668. As you can see this is the u8668, not the u8668-d.  For some reason now it says that the LAN adapter is  RTL 8100B, not a RTL 8139.  I uninstalled the RTL 8139 and tried installing the VIA VT6103 drivers from here http://www.biostar-usa.com/mbdownloads.asp?model=U8668 D, but it said "Cannot find proper NIC, press OK to continue.  Then I found another biostar site http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=245 Here you can select the version of the motherboard, but 7.0 is not listed! This is definitely a problem with the drivers. I don't know where to download proper drivers.

On 2016-08-28 at 4:36 PM, Tripredacus said:

It is difficult to help someone troubleshoot a network issue if they do not post more information. You are working with the private side of the network, you may be using 10.x.x.x or 192.x.x.x. It would be nice to be able to see a simple network map.

What router is it?

Are you using an IP address in the same subnet that the router hands out in DHCP but not within the scope?

Like I said, this most likely a problem with the drivers.

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On the Biostar site there are 2 models of U8668-D 7.x, the 7.1 and the 7.7:

 http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/support/download.php?searchmodel=U8668-D
 

The LAN drivers for BOTH the above models point to the SAME file:
http://download.biostar.com.tw/upload/Driver//LAN/VIA/LAN.zip

So it is very likely that even your "unknown" version use the same set of drivers.

Have you tried that file http://download.biostar.com.tw/upload/Driver//LAN/VIA/LAN.zip (and not any other one)?

What happens with it?

The archive contains a DIAG.EXE DOS diagnostic program, have you tried running it (in DOS, before loading Windows)?

About the Network bootdisk, you shouldn't "assume" or "invent" ways to burn it, there is a page dedicated to creating the floppy disk (or floppy disk image):

http://www.netbootdisk.com/building.htm
 

and one about burning it as a "floppy emulation CD":

http://www.netbootdisk.com/bootcd.htm
 

if you need further instructions or assistance just ask for it, the tutorial is about using Nero , but you can use IMGBURN (freeware) to the same effect:

http://www.imgburn.com/

jaclaz


 

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  • 3 weeks later...

on 98SE, for the realtek 8139 ethernet. i remember using the driver version "5.621.0304.2005" and it was working fine. i think the newest version to work on 98SE is "5.707.1030.2008", i believe i tested this though i am not 100 percent sure if it worked. you can try either or if you haven't used these versions.

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