Yesterday we had bad thunderstorms, apperantly there was a "power surge" (as described by the members of my office -i didnt see it, i was outside) now 1 of 8 computers will not connect to our network. I wont pretend I'm a networking expert cuz im definitely not - i do have basic experience/education in networking but its been a while since i've done ANYTHING related networking. I have a DEll PowerConnect 2124 A Linksys RV042 and a pretty complicated mess of wires and some really old computers. I tried to repair the local area connection but I can not renew my IP -I've tried EVERYTHING I could find online to fix this. Another problem is that the office never got the Admin passwords from the person who set up the network. Am I going to be able to do anything w/out logging in as the Admin? Any suggestions? If you need more info or if I'm not describing this well, let me know please. much appreciated. well i know i've made misktakes i've had my ups & downs my ins & out, my share of bad breaks but when its all been said and done, i raise my beer and i swear GOD ITS BEEN FUN!

Am I going to be able to do anything w/out logging in as the Admin? Any suggestions? Good question...I guess it depends on what rights you have locally. At this point, I'd suggest uninstalling, then reinstalling the TCP/IP stack. I've seen it where for whatever reason a file (or files) in the stack become corrupt and it stops working correctly. Usually, in those cases, my suggestion will work. Give it a try and see. If you get an error message saying "you don't have rights to perform this task" then you need to get ahold of whoever has the admin password and get it from them. On a side note....if the network was setup by a contractor and they didn't provide you with all the pertinent information (such as admin login info) then I suspect someone's trying to fix things so you're forced to do business with them and them only. As a person who's worked as a contractor, IMHO, I consider this type of activity disreputable and it shows a complete lack of integrity in the person, or business, that you hired. Whenever I was contracted to setup systems, a network, a domain, or whatever for a client, I ensured they had all pertinent information when I was finished. This way if for some reason they chose not to do business with me, they weren't hamstrung into doing so. If this is not in fact illegal, it bloody well should be. However, if your network was setup by a previous employee....well, all I can say is I sure hope he isn't disgruntled.

Also - I did a Net Diagnostics on the machine that wont connnect and heres where there are probs: {00000008} Intel(R) Pro 100/CT Network Connection FAILED Default IP Gateway=192.168.1.254 (same subset) FAILED DHCP Server 192.168.1.1 FAILED DNS Server SearchOrder 192.168.1.1 FAILED IP Address 192.168.1.10 PASSED Win Primary Server 192.168.1.1 FAILED any ideas? well i know i've made misktakes i've had my ups & downs my ins & out, my share of bad breaks but when its all been said and done, i raise my beer and i swear GOD ITS BEEN FUN!

honestly, i have no idea who set up the network originally, my friend (a serious networking pro and I worked on it a little at one point 3 years ago when i first started attending school) then a contractor came in and started working on it. its a business my mom manages so im trying to help her out. I dont think whoever is managing the network now purposely didnt give her the passwords, i think she just didnt know enough to ask or he gave them to her and she doesnt remember what she did with them. Anyway, I uninstalled/reinstalled the TCP/IP stack - I'm waiting for the damn thing to restart now (you should see how long it takes). So I think every user on the network must have full rights as i did not run into any probs regarding not being logged in as the Admin. let you know if the uninstall/reinstall worked in a min as soon as it restarts. thanks. EDIT: uninstall/reinstall did not help - do you think it was something to do with the thunderstorm/"powersurge" or do you think there may be another cause? im just at a loss. well i know i've made misktakes i've had my ups & downs my ins & out, my share of bad breaks but when its all been said and done, i raise my beer and i swear GOD ITS BEEN FUN!

Post the results from this command: ipconfig /all Then compare those results with what it gives on the other stations and let us know if there are any discrepancies. Test the network cable with a good quality cable tester and move the cable to a different port on the switch. "...a pretty complicated mess of wires..." You only have 8 computers, so the cabling shouldn't be too messy. If it is, then the person that cabled it, didn't know what (s)he was doing. You might want to look into cleaning up the cabling.

so, we finally ended up calling the contractor, and they REFUSED to give me the Admin passwords! so basically they are FORCING the company to do business with them. shady. anyway, the guy came to the office, talked to me like i had no f---ing clue and didnt wanna give too much detail (which really pissed me off)basically the problems were: 1)a fried NIC in the one computer 2)something about telephone wires actually getting struck by lightening and 3)a crappy UPS. So basically everything I did yesterday was a pretty much a giant waste of time since i didnt know about the whole phone system being involved. thanks for the suggestions tho. well i know i've made misktakes i've had my ups & downs my ins & out, my share of bad breaks but when its all been said and done, i raise my beer and i swear GOD ITS BEEN FUN!