I'm having problems with my Win98 machine connecting to a cable modem/broadband connection -- the modem appears to connect, but the computer isn't. Their tech support kept having me try running winipcfg and pressing Release to release and renew my IP address, but when I click it, nothing happens. What does this mean? My IP address has an autoconfiguration address of 169.254.xx.xx. They also had me disable WINS and DNS under the Network area of Control Panel. Every site I found that talks about winipcfg says if release doesn't work, it's time to call someone, but they don't say how to fix it!! Thanks!

are you highliting your correct ethernet card in winipcfg? there is sometimes more than one listing there

You might want to try uninstalling and re-installing the TCP/IP Protocol. You can do this in the Network Applet of control panel

Your getting the default address 169.254.xx.xx because when your system boots up it doesnt find an address from a dhcp server..
hence you cannot release an address that you dont have. so release will do nothing for you. you should be able to just put renew and it should pull an address (from your provider). If this is not the case there is something wrong, more than likely its with your card. does it look good in the device manager? are you using the ethernet cable they provided? are there any IRQ conflicts?

If everything looks perfect, and it doesnt work, i would remove the drivers, remove the card, reinsert the card into a different slot, reboot, reinstall the drivers, reboot again and connect to the net.

i have gotten this problem all the time. i had to figure out how to fix it myslef after spending 2 hours of tech support with my cable company just so they could tell me they didnt know what to do.

you should pay $100 for this because thats what it would cost if the tech support people came to your house.

you must go into the registry and set the defualt ip address to 0.0.0.0 .thats the way to fix it. like the other guy said 169.xxx.xxx is windows defualt ip address when it cant connect.
write down the ip address, then go into registry, [start>run>regedit] and then type the address down untill you find it. it may take a while for the search [go to edit tab and search].

you could also use my reg patch. this has happened to me so many times that i just exported they key to make the address 0.0.0.0. again.

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\DHCP\DhcpInfo00]
"DhcpIndex"=dword:00000000
"DhcpIPAddress"=hex:0c,e8,97,56
"DhcpSubnetMask"=hex:ff,ff,f0,00
"DhcpServer"=hex:0c,f2,11,22
"DhcpDesiredIPAddress"=hex:0c,e8,97,56
"Lease"=hex:e9,45,05,00
"LeaseObtainedTime"=hex:1b,19,ae,29
"T1"=hex:0f,bc,b0,29
"T2"=hex:08,51,b2,29
"LeaseTerminatesTime"=hex:04,5f,b3,29
"HardwareType"=hex:01
"HardwareAddress"=hex:00,e0,29,6e,9d,8e
"IPAutoconfigurationAddress"="0.0.0.0"
"IPAutoconfigurationSeed"=dword:7dade5a3
"AddressType"=dword:00000000
"OptionInfo"=hex:06,08,d8,94,e3,44,cc,7f,ca,04,03,04,0c,e8,90,01,0f,0a,61,74,\
74,62,69,2e,63,6f,6d,00,01,04,ff,ff,f0,00,ff,00

select all that text then paste it to a text file and have the extension .reg, or go to

hekylocalmachine>system... and you will find a whole buch of data. next too the "IPAutoconfigurationAddress", double click on it, it will have a litlle ab in brown next to it, then type 0.0.0.0 and ok. then restart you computer and it should work.

hoped that help. that works if the autoconfig address is supposed to be 0.0.0.0 and a ip is automatically asigned by the modem, if not, then get the right address from your cable company and put it there.

hope it helps

http://www.berkeleycomputerbuilder.cjb.net

You do have "obtain IP address automatically" checked in the NIC properties?" I'm not sure what your problems is, but you shouldn't have to go thru all that stuff mooseboy suggests -- I've never heard of anyone having to do all that! (WINS and DNS should be disabled, by the way.) SteveL's suggestions seem right on -- I'd suspect a card problem if the NIC setup and TCP/IP bindings are all in order.

One other thing -- you don't say if this connection has ever worked. If not, does your ISP use the cable modem or NIC mac address to identify your connection? If the latter, do they have the right address for the NIC?

What a conundrum! I have never seen so many people try and give someone support that probably shouldn't. Especially the guy telling them to go into the registry. You should NEVER have to go in and modify your registry for any setup unless it is advanced and uses specific instructions. Anvil- the very basic thing noone has bothered to ask you is if your getting a link light on the back of the cable modem where the cable runs to your computer. The reason a network card will not grab an address and goes into auto mode is if the device cannot communicate or the DHCP device (that gives out addresses) is not communicating. I have seen on numerous cable modems where if you don't go through a specific startup routine you will not get a link light to your computer. You should also see an activity light that will show network traffic, it should blink periodically. If that all works..come back and talk to me and I'll tell you the rest.

check in the add remove programs. Do you have new dot net installed? If so that can screw everything up.

HERE'S THE FIX:
Thanks for all the help, but I actually did something completely different to fix this --1) unplugged my modem for the 100th time
2) I disabled the IP Autoconfiguration Addressing by installing the Ipac_off.inf file in the Tools\mtsutil folder on the Windows 98 CD Rom
3) plugged my modem back in
4) rebooted
Then it worked like a charm!! I don't know if the unplugging of the modem was necessary in the process. Trust me, that alone wasn't the solution because my cable company's feeble help desk made me do that 400 times. Yee hah!