<p>S2’s computer dropped the internet yesterday for no apparent reason. The home network still works, just on the internet on his particular machine. I tried plugging the internet service directly into his network cable and no change. Deleted and recreated network connection, no change there either. </p>
<p>Any ideas on why the internet is not accessible on just this one computer?</p>
<p>FYI, computer is dell desktop, +/- 3 years old, hardwire home network, broadband internet service via Time Warner Cable.</p>
<p>We had this exact problem. Not sure if your problem will be what we found, but worth a try as it was EASY.</p>
<p>We have several computers, all accessing Internet via Roadrunner. Some plugged in, some wireless. All of a sudden, intermittently, one or more of us couldn’t get on the Internet. All others in the house worked fine.</p>
<p>Turned out that we were set up, centrally via Roadrunner, for 4 Internet connections. A simple call to them gave us this little tidbit of info, which we hadn’t known/remembered. They just upped our # of devices in their records/system to 6.</p>
<p>Never a problem since.</p>
<p>BTW, franglish’s suggestion might be your problem as well. But we had already tried that.</p>
<p>Network is hardwired and working other than internet, ie S can print on my printer, access his computer from my computer, mine from his etc, so it is not the network.</p>
<p>Part of me wants to let this go for a few days to let S see that he can live w/o constant IM, facebook, etc. He is “totally plugged in” 24/7.</p>
<p>Dell desktop running XP and no wireless card
Home network (both wired and wireless)
Did you use the same Ethernet cable to plug your son’s computer into your cable modem/router?
Did you try a different cable? Always a possibility that your son’s cable is bad…</p>
<p>To verify your Dell’s Ethernet connection is still good, go to Window’s Control Panel. Select “System”. From the System dialog box, select Hardware, then Device Manager. A list of devices will appear. From this list, you will see “Network Adapters”. Below “Network Adapter” is your Ethernet connection. Double click on your connection and another dialog box will appear. This box will tell you that the connection is enabled and if there is a problem with this device. </p>
<p>If there is a problem with this device, close the dialog box. Right click on the Ethernet device and select “Uninstall” from the list. Close out of everything and restart your computer. XP will automatically scan your computer upon startup looking for any new devices. It should find the Ethernet device and begin the installation process. You will see installation messages at the bottom right hand corner of your monitor. Just let the process run, you need do nothing. The computer will restart by itself. After the computer restarts, your network connection should be up and running. If not, the Ethernet connection on the motherboard is bad and you’ll either have to buy a cheap network card or a wireless card.</p>
<p>YEA! Internet is fixed. S1 consulted from college (originally said he would not provide any more computer help for little Bro) and told me to change properties on Network Connections to “obtain IP address automatically” and that solved the problem. </p>
<p>Now just have to figure out how S2 accidentally changed or dropped his IP address from the computer. This kid is going to be in big trouble at college next year, because he manages to mess things up on his computer and then expect others to fix his problem.</p>
<p>Congratulations on getting your son’s internet connection back!</p>
<p>However, I have a few concerns. To change the network setting from automatically obtaining an IP address, you have to go to the control panel, select network connections, right click on the network icon, click on properties, and select the TCP/IP Internet connection option. You then click on properties and in the next dialog box; the “Obtain an IP address automatically” option is highlighted with a green dot. To disable this, you have to click on the “Use the following IP address” option. A green dot will appear for this option and the grayed out IP address area will ask for an IP address to connect to. You need a specific and static IP address to type in. This is not something that is done just for the hell of it.</p>
<p>The other issue is how your college son knew that this is the problem rather than looking at more prosaic solutions. Once you set up a network connection, you don’t go back to how your computer connects to the Internet. </p>
<p>Maybe I have an over-active imagination, but my gut says to do a bit more digging…</p>
<p>Mich… That is exactly what I did to get the internet working. Looks like you copied S1’s directions from his email to me.</p>
<p>S1, the college kid, set up the network a long time ago, and indicated if his suggestion did not work, I would have to set the network on a dynamic IP address if I actually called a techie to fix the problem.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t know where to begin to find a specific static IP address, but obviously S1 does, and did at one time, as that was what I found when I followed his directions for fixing the internet problem.</p>
<p>If you have another computer hooked up to your home network, follow your college son’s instructions and see if the network properties is set to “obtain IP address automatically”. If this is the case, then your son’s Dell should be set in the same way. If you see an IP address appear in the option of “use the following IP address” (groups of numbers separated by periods), then you have a static IP address assigned to you by your cable provider. This is an extra charge to your cable bill. Your documentation from the cable company should have the assigned IP addresses.</p>
<p>(If other computers in your home network are set to “Obtain IP addresses automatically”, there is no reason for your high school son’s computer to be set differently.)</p>
<p>There are a number of reasons for having a static IP address. If you’re playing with VOIP to make long distant phone calls over the Internet, then having a static IP address is like having a land-line phone number. Another reason is to support bit torrent programs. </p>
<p>See the following links for more information: (especially the second article)
[What</a> is static IP address/dynamic IP address? - a definition from Whatis.com - see also: static IP address, dynamic IP address](<a href=“What is a Static IP Address?”>What is a Static IP Address?)</p>