Unable to connect to the internet.

[karate_kid]

I'm writing this post for a friend of mine. He hasn't been able to connect to the Internet because of some strange issues. He connects his modem to the computer using an ethernet cable . It's a DSL connection. There were many issues with that system. The initial problem was when you open network connections, it showed that the dependency services did not start. Managed to solve it by using the following commands in elevated command prompt.
net localgroup administrators localservice /add
net localgroup administrators networkservice /add

But still he couldn't connect to the internet. Checked for network adapters in Device Manager. None of them had drivers installed. So installed the Intel adapter's driver using the driver cd. But he couldn't uninstall or install the drivers for the WAN miniport and the ones under it(like L2TP I guess). Now when he tries access a web page, chrome displays the 105 name not resolved error.
Is he unable to connect the internet because of the absence of those drivers. I have a similar connection setup but I don't have any network adapters in my device manager except my LAN card. I don't see anything like WAN miniport there. Interesting.
What should I do now? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[Murissokah]

The reason why you don't have a WAN miniport installed, and he seems to need one, is that your modem is working as a router and his is not. There is a difference between these two operating modes for a DSL Modem:

Bridge mode - Every modem should be capable of this. Will only bridge your LAN card to your ISP. Needs WAN miniport drivers. Authentication happens at the client PC.

Router mode - The modem will connect itself to the ISP (WAN connection), also handling authentication. Simultaneously, the modem will work as a router and manage the local network (LAN). It will be a DHCP and DNS server for your LAN. DSL modems have usually come with this capability for a while now. This mode does not require any authentication or driver setup on the client, just the usual ethernet adapter.

If you can manage your friend's modem, see if it can work as a router. That should solve his problem (To access the modem, look for its web server IP address, usually 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1). The "router mode" may be called many things, such as "Router", "Dynamic IP", "Automatic", "PPPoE". You will need to set his ISP's username and password on the router, so it will be able to authenticate with the ISP.

*Explaining the error he gets: Since his modem is in bridge mode, and he hasn't got the WAN drivers/PPPoE installed, he cannot connect to the ISP. That means that, while he has an ethernet connection to the modem, it only has local access. There won't be a name server (DNS) available, so trying to access any website will result in a "name could not be resolved" error.

 

[karate_kid]

The reason why you don't have a WAN miniport installed, and he seems to need one, is that your modem is working as a router and his is not. There is a difference between this two operating modes for a DSL Modem:

Bridge mode - Every modem should be capable of this. Will only bridge your LAN card to your ISP. Needs WAN miniport drivers. Authentication happens at the client PC.

Router mode - The modem will connect itself to the ISP, also handling authentication. Simultaneously, the modem will work as a router and manage the local network. It will be a DHCP and DNS server. DSL modems have usually come with this capability for a while now. This mode does not require any authentication or driver setup on the client, just the usual ethernet adapter.

Thanks. I think his modem has router capabilities. It's actually better than mine. It has several ethernet ports. And it dials itself and establishes the connection with ISP just like mine does. I actually had to manually set it by accessing the modem's software @ 192.168.1.1. By the way, he is not able to access that page. I thought it's because of his network configuration problems. So will you please tell what I should do to solve this problem? Is it possible to get the drivers for WAN miniport and those things under that. Thanks again.

 

[Murissokah]

Since his LAN is lacking a DHCP server, IP addresses will not be set appropriately. You will have to set the computer's IP so it is in the same network as the router. Thas should be something like this:

IP Address: 192.168.1.2
Net Mask: 255.255.255.0

DNS Server: whatever for now.

To do that, go to network connections, find the ethernet connection, go to proprieties, TCP/IP V4 protocol, than proprieties again.

 

[Murissokah]

Wait, you said his modem dials itself. Is it currently set that way (as a router)? If so, his computer should have set his IP automatically through DHCP. That would mean there is something wrong with his DHCP service too. Setting the IP manually should work, but is not the ideal solution. And you will have to set the DNS too, to the router's LAN address (192.168.1.1).

 

[smorizio]

for your friend netwrok issue i would first start by seeing that the network adaptors are turned on in the bios. if they are check that the network card led is on and blinking and same port on the dsl/router is. on the dsl router read the ports sometime there a wan port to bridge more then one router. the router net port should be labeled 1-4. one thing to also check it the cable he using. there are two types of network cables...passthrough and cross over. pass-thought the send and receive pins are the same on both ends. on a cross over cable the send pins on one end line up with the receive pins on the other end.

 

[Murissokah]

for your friend netwrok issue i would first start by seeing that the network adaptors are turned on in the bios. if they are check that the network card led is on and blinking and same port on the dsl/router is. on the dsl router read the ports sometime there a wan port to bridge more then one router. the router net port should be labeled 1-4. one thing to also check it the cable he using. there are two types of network cables...passthrough and cross over. pass-thought the send and receive pins are the same on both ends. on a cross over cable the send pins on one end line up with the receive pins on the other end.

Network cards are obviously enabled on the BIOS, otherwise they would not show up on device manager and he would no be able to install the drivers.

Cabling is also correct since he did manage to access the router. The WAN port is only used if the router is connected to an external modem.

 

[karate_kid]

Cabling is also correct since he did manage to access the router. The WAN port is only used if the router is connected to an external modem.

Actually he cant even access the router. All the 4 lights in the modem are up which means that it has connected to the internet. But he cant access it from his computer. I guess the problem here is with those drivers? Cabling is correct. Thanks for your replies. Any idea about what should be done now?

 

[Murissokah]

You don't need WAN drivers to access the router. You just need the machine to have an IP assigned in the same network, as described before.

If you are not sure how to do it, please post us his ipconfig and I'll try to guide you. (to do that press windows button, then type cmd, then enter. In the command prompt, type ipconfig, then post the result).

If by drivers you actually meant the DHCP service, you don't really need it either. DHCP is usually the best option since it will handle changes in the network, while using a static IP address may require you to change it again manually in the future (if you change your router or connect to 3G, for example).

 

[karate_kid]

OK I will try it and post the results.