I just purchased a laptop (toshiba satellite 2455-S305) and am having problems connecting to the internet. It has a realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC card built in. The I got the computer and plugged it into my Linksys router and it would not connect. I tried going through the network installation wizards and configuring the TCP/IP settings but with no lick. I figured that maybe one of the guys working at Circuit City must have messed it up since it was the display. I formated the hard drive and started with at fresh installation of windows XP home. Same problem. When I check the status of the network, It shows a connection but it never recieves any packets. I thought that it may have been a conflict with the router so I plugged it directly into the cable modem. no luck. I put the laptop on a netgear FS108 switch and another box on it to transfer some files. I could do that with no problem but I didn't have the switch plugged into the router. I also tried buying a PCMCIA Network card and disabling the realtek and no luck with that either. Toshiba is absolutely no help and Circuit says to contact the manufacturer (really glad I spent $300 extra on the warrenty!) Please any help will be greatly apprectated! Thanks a lot!

post the result of ipconfig all may help. For more tips or information, go to http://www25.brinkster.com/ChicagoTech Robert, MS-MVP/MCSE and CNE Windows & Network Support, Tips and FAQs on http://www25.brinkster.com/ChicagoTech

============================================ Most cable modems need to have the drivers and software installed on all computers. My home network (using cable broadband) required the drivers to be installed on all networked computers. The installation process asked me if the computer I was installing it onto was to run through a server or directly to the modem and that was the only difference in the installation. Other than that, it was all the same. Also, some internet providers record your computers ip address and use that to limit your access to one computer so that they can make you pay for additional ip licensing. Are you sure that this isn't what's happening? Give them (your ISP) a call and ask them. They aren't going to deny you service just because you ask about it and they may be able to shed some more light on the problem. Other than that, verify that the NIC on the laptop is indeed functioning properly. Detection and an ip address is NOT a guarrantee that it is working...and yes, roberts request for you to post the results of "ipconfig all" is also a good way to help us help you. Best of luck! borelli34

when I run "ipconfig all" a DOS screen pops up but it is so fast I can't see anything.

Use the command prompt short cut in your start/accessories menu. Type 'ipconfig all' and then cut and paste the output. borelli34

Windows IP Configuration Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Laptop Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Eth ernet NIC Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-08-0D-15-26-0C PPP adapter {1DD87D52-A382-4337-9AFD-9BC93C13EC3A}: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-53-45-00-00-00 Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 172.150.66.94 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 172.150.66.94 DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 152.163.204.134 NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

The gateway is wrong. Change it to your ISP gateway.