XP IP address Query

[#1]

[quote=ReedRichards]Purleigh seems fixated with DNS settings.
It might seem like that, but I am trying to eliminate the easy and no-cost solutions first, and work back through the more complicated configuration changes, and finally to those that involve swapping/buying hardware.
It also appears that "bumbershoot" needs a lot of hand holding, as we have already had two pages of replies to this thread and we still have not seen the results of a single configuration change.
If we can only move forward to a config with manually set DNS, then I will move on to my anti-DHCP fixation, and so on.
At the moment we don't know if "bumbershoot" has a workable configuration, if the wireless adaptor is simply swapped out at this stage (with the same undetermined settings) then there is just as much chance that that won't work either !

[#2]

Quote from: purleigh

It also appears that "bumbershoot" needs a lot of hand holding, as we have already had two pages of replies to this thread and we still have not seen the results of a single configuration change.

So lets cut to the chase, forget about eliminating the possibilities that don't fit the symptoms and get down to the likely cause of the problem.
If you have DNS problems then you have a perfectly good wireless connection to your router but you cannot connect to the internet - unless you use an IP address instead of a URL. If you have a malfunctioning wireless adaptor then you find the wireless connection to your router is sometimes not established or is frequently dropped.     

[#3]

Quote from: ReedRichards

If you have DNS problems then you have a perfectly good wireless connection to your router but you cannot connect to the internet - unless you use an IP address instead of a URL. If you have a malfunctioning wireless adaptor then you find the wireless connection to your router is sometimes not established or is frequently dropped.

Not necessarily (in XP).
A perfectly OK router was delivering wrong DNS info via DHCP - whilst other non-XP PC's worked fine.
Using static DNS in XP fixed it for me.

[#4]

[quote=ReedRichards]If you have a malfunctioning wireless adaptor then you find the wireless connection to your router is sometimes not established or is frequently dropped
While in isolation that statement is true, we have not actually established from "bumbershoot" that is actually the wireless connection that is being dropped.  Windows XP (as I recall) notifies the user of a loss of network connectivity when requests to the internet fail to get a response, and that scenario happens when the gateway/router (using PlusNet DNS values) stops responding with valid DNS responses - a scenario I have now seen on FIVE different home networks (as discussed in "A Fox is Evil"'s thread).

[#5]

Quote from: A

Not necessarily (in XP). A perfectly OK router was delivering wrong DNS info via DHCP - whilst other non-XP PC's worked fine. Using static DNS in XP fixed it for me.

Normally when your router establishes a connection with your ISP, your router is told the IP addresses of your ISPs DNS servers (although you could program your router to use different DNS servers if you wanted to).  When your computer establishes a connection with your router using DHCP then the router tells your computer "refer to me" for DNS.  So if you run 'ipconfig' on your (Windows) PC then the address you get back for the DNS server is the address of the router then the router refers in turn to the DNS servers it has been told to use.  This works exactly the same in all versions of Windows if you use the default Windows setting and the default router settings.  'A Fox...' wanted  to see what happened if he/she played around with some of the default settings and, it seems, managed to scupper DHCP.  The solution was to use static DNS so he/she did not need DHCP to work properly.
But, once again, DNS issues do not give rise to the symptoms bumbershoot is actually describing.     

[#6]

Hi ,the usb adaptor was new and unused until 2 months ago.The dns settings are as advised.I have noticed the connection seems fine first thing in the morning.I tend to go online 3/4 times per day and the first connection is without problems.
In network connections there appears to be two connections running,my bt adaptor and below this a 1394 connection.1394 Net Adaptor.Under status they are both connected for the same amount of time.The 1394 connection has no packets sent or received.Do I need to disable this connection or change the settings on it

[#7]

From http://www.voyager.bt.com/wireless_devices/voyager_1055/product_info.htm
"Important Notice: This product was withdrawn on the 18/05/09 and is longer on sale through BT. "
so the 1055 was withdrawn over a year ago, hardly new.  Anyway, have you tried a different wireless adaptor, bumbershoot? 

[#8]

The adaptor sat in a box,from new,unused for a few years.I do no have another adaptop to try.Searching google for 1055 problems shows that some fail early and a few others drop out in use.Neither of these problems relate to a failure to assign an ip address on startup.

[#9]

It seems Richard Reeds has it in for both of us.
He's certainly wrong about me.
And if a product is no longer supported, it doesn't cause it to fail...

[#10]

It is all very well "ReedRichards" repeatedly stating how it is supposed to work - we know all this already.
He is also not listening to what "bumbershoot" is actually saying, just reading the words and jumping to conclusions.
I will let "ReedRichards" take over helping "bumbershoot" in this thread as he is obviously the expert on these problems, and full of constructive suggestions ! 

[#11]

Windows IP Configuration        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : nicole        Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :         Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No        DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : lanEthernet adapter Local Area Connection:        Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-E0-18-4B-41-85Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : lan        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : BT Voyager 1055 Laptop Adapter        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-11-F5-D7-54-3F        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.64        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 208.67.220.220                                            8.8.4.4        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Monday, June 07, 2010 7:51:35 AM        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, June 08, 2010 7:51:35 AMWindows IP Configuration        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : nicole        Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :         Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No        DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : lanEthernet adapter Local Area Connection:        Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-E0-18-4B-41-85Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : lan        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : BT Voyager 1055 Laptop Adapter        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-11-F5-D7-54-3F        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.64        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 208.67.220.220                                            8.8.4.4        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Monday, June 07, 2010 7:51:35 AM        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, June 08, 2010 7:51:35 AMWindows IP Configuration        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : nicole        Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :         Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No        DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : lanEthernet adapter Local Area Connection:        Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-E0-18-4B-41-85Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : lan        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : BT Voyager 1055 Laptop Adapter        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-11-F5-D7-54-3F        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.64        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 208.67.220.220                                            8.8.4.4        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Monday, June 07, 2010 7:51:35 AM        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, June 08, 2010 7:51:35 AMWindows IP Configuration        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : nicole        Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :         Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No        DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : lanEthernet adapter Local Area Connection:        Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-E0-18-4B-41-85Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : lan        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : BT Voyager 1055 Laptop Adapter        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-11-F5-D7-54-3F        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.64        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 208.67.220.220                                            8.8.4.4        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Monday, June 07, 2010 7:51:35 AM        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, June 08, 2010 7:51:35 AM
I am still having trouble copying and pasting.Sorry for the size of this.It shows changes to dns settings

[#12]

 
« Reply #23 on 06/06/2010, 20:42 »
You have to tell it where to paste to!
Left-click in the window where you want it to paste to, then do the CTRL+v.
This was just a cruel trick.Right click where you want to paste,then select paste.Everything dissapears with a left click.
My second running connection.1394.If I disable it,will it cause problems

[#13]

Ignore the 1394 connection and leave it totally alone, it's just a firewire socket somehere and isn't relevant.

[#14]

Quote from: bumbershoot

Still having the same problem.Now 70% of the time when I switch on I have to renew the IP address using the repair function.This normally works first time but sometimes fails and I have to restart computer.Router is left on 24/7.BT wireless dongle.Windows XP pro,sp3.Excellent signal.Another computer using Win 7 connects without a problem. Its a pain.What can I do.

I don't have it in for anybody (although I do wonder if 'A fox..' isn't his/her own worst enemy, sometimes).  I just feel that leading 'bumbershoot' all around the houses may be counter-productive.  I'm taking the post above to be the most succinct description of the problem.  The fact that another computer connects without a problem I take to indicate that the router is working properly (although I'm assuming the Windows 7 computer also connects wirelessly, which bumbershoot does not say explicitly).  I think the fact that 'A fox ...' managed to find a way of altering his router settings so that DHCP would not work on Windows XP but still managed to get through on Windows 7 is a complete red herring; bumbershoot does not strike me as the type who would do the same thing.  Setting a static IP address or static DNS can be a workaround for a DHCP problem but it is a workaround, not the solution.
Bumbershoot has been encouraged to post details of his IP configuration which say:
The IP address of his BT Voyager 1 wireless adaptor is 192.168.1.64
The DHCP server and default gateway are 192.168.1.254
[What make/model of router is it?]
He/she has now managed to change his/her DNS servers to
208.67.220.220 {'Open DNS'}
8.8.4.4 {Google public DNS}
So, bumbershoot, did all this faffing around with DNS cure the problem or not?

[#15]

I'm willing to make a small bet that this is a fix
@Reed - if I'm my own worst enemy, then I'm a very lucky person