Connecting to LAN/Internet on a ship

I'll try to be as short as I can. The ship is connected thru satellite on the Internet. Each cabin has desktop computer with a modem(VDSL ethernet converter, that's what it says on it) which is plugged into the wall(ordinary dial -up with a splitter).

Everything works fine with the desktop, but I would like to connect with my notebook. So I plugged the ethernet cable in it and ot the yellow triangle(limited or no conn.). Everything was on auto. Then I tried entering data manually(TCP/IP, DNS, Sufix, even changed computer name to be identical to desktop??) but that didn't work either. I got a normal "connected" icon, but the web pages didn't want to load(finding web page...).

How can I find out what am I doing wrong or what is blocking my access. Is it MAC address security on the modem? How can I check that? Btw. I don't know the modem login ID & password. Yet.

 

Often times, the connection is keyed to the mac address without it actually being MAC blocking.

Power off the modem and laptop. Hook up the laptop to the modem. Power on the modem--wait until all the lights are solid. Now turn on the laptop. Odds are you will have your interent. The modem simply doesn't recognized the laptop as a connected device if you switch the cable without powering hte modem down

 

Ok, thanks I'll try that and get back with the result.

 

Hm.. I did exactly as you told me to but nothing different happened. I also tried with auto settings. Btw. the desktop is on workgroup, so I made notebook also part of the same group. At least I think I did. I don't know if thta changes anything. Ah, yes and the desktop has a XPPro, mine is just Home.

 

OK...with the desktop connected, click START > RUN type
CMD
< enter >

in the black box that appears, type
ipconfig

record the ip address, subnet mask and gateway

Disconnect and connect the laptop

with the laptop connected, click START > RUN type
CMD
< enter >

in the black box that appears, type
ipconfig /renew

record and report the ip address, subnet mask and gateway

You said the desktop is in a workgroup....what kind of ship is this? Can you determine a model number for the vdsl converter?

The vdsl converter is not a modem or a router--it converts a ethernet signal that normally travels over cat5 or cat6 cable to a signal that can travel over standard 2-wire copper lines. Somewhere on the ship is a dhcp server and a router that should be authorizing your computer for an ip address

 

Ok.
Desktop.
Connection Specific DNS Suffix : NetScreen-NS5GT
IP Address . : 192.168.1.100
Subnet Mask.:255.255.255.0
Default Gateway.: 192.168.1.1

Notebook:
Connection Specific DNS Suffix : NetScreen-NS5GT
IP Address . : 169.254.105.187
Subnet Mask.:255.255.0.0
Default Gateway.:
This is all on automatic settings. And I got a yellow triangle.

Pretty much I did all this before as well. When the setting are entered manually(from ipconfig /all) I got connected but can't get on internet.
On the modem front side its writen "OMEGA-Z VDSL modem" and on the back "VDSL-Ethernet Converter" with serial number as well. There is some server eq. on the ship but I can't get there yet. But if the settings are on manual...

Btw. the ship is an LNG carrier, now between S.Korea and Japan.

 

Hmmm, says MODEM on the front, but converter on the back.

Who set the desktop up?

I wonder if the desktop takes care of the connection and the modem is just in pass through mode.

Next up, on the desktop, right click on NETWORK PLACES, choose PROPERTIES.

You should have several connection types in there--what are they?

 

It's just one - Local Area Connection. The network and the desktop comp was set up by a technician before I got here.

 

OK, now right click that, choose PROPERTIES choose INTERNET PROTOCOL 4....is it set up to automatically download dns and ip info? On a small controlled network, you don't always use a dhcp server.

 

Sorry, been busy these days so I can't answer promptly. Even though you're helping me. But hey, I'll just put a +rep for you as a thanks.
Yes, it is setup on auto settings, and the ipconfig /all says that as well, DHCP enabled.

 

OK, must be mac filtering--that's pretty crazy for your case.

All righty then, on the desktop, start > run
type
ipconfig /all
< enter >
Note the physical address for the adapter, should look like

XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX

Where X= a letter or number

Now in the laptop, go to Network and Sharing Center

click on MANAGE NETWORK CONNECTIONS on the left

right click the LAN adapter, choose PROPERTIES

Click on the CONFIGURE button

Find NETWORK ADDRESS on the left in the box, select it

Type the PHYSICAL ADDRESS from the other machine, but without the hypens (-), like so

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Click OK.

Turn off the laptop.

COnnect the network cable and start...try your internet now

 

When DHCP dishes a 169.254.X.X address, it means that you didn't get a lease. Before you start spoofing your MAC, you need to set a manual IP address.

In the network connections screen, right click on your device, and go to properties. In the dialog window, choose Internet Protocol Version 4, and edit the properties. Use these settings:
192.168.1.71
255.255.255.0
192.168.1.1

For DNS servers, you can try using the OpenDNS servers:
208.67.220.220
208.67.222.222

If these settings don't work, try changing the last digit in the IP. Valid numbers are from 2-254. If several attempts don't work, give the MAC edit a shot, but it shouldn't be needed.

 

DHCP does not dish a 169.254.x.x address--ever

169.254.x.x is used by the automatic ip configuration function--it means that either there is no dhcp server (which is not the case, because his desktop is getting IP information from a DHCP server), or the DHCP only leases IP information to known devices (likely through mac filtering)

Having someone arbitrarily pick an ip address on the network is likely to toss someone else off the network and create a conflict.

It is better to spoof the mac address so that his laptop can simply use the same setup as the desktop without interfering with the rest of the ship's network.

This guy is on a NAVY ship floating around in the middle of the ocean--if he picks the Captain's IP address and disconnects him he's gonna get tossed in the brigg.

 

^^^ Something like that about the captain. Except one thing it's not a navy ship, it's a LNG(Liquified Natural Gas) carrier.
I'll try that tomorrow, it's half past 4 in the morning and I'm dead.
Btw. gerry, I did put a +rep for you but you still have 11. hm...
Thanks

 

OMG, it works, awesome. I'm currently writing this from my notebook. Now that I know this, it looks soooo simple and logical. Acctually I didn't know that one can change its MAC address, I thought it's permanent.
You gave a way to do it in Vista, but since I have XP I had to google it a bit for some terms("spoofing").
Thanks again, it was a great help.

 

Actually, I thought you had an XP desktop and a vista laptop...sorry. I'm working too many threads and cannot keep them straight...glad you got that working.

 

Ok guys, back to my issues on board. I need your help, network experts. Really.

There has been some problem with the network on board and captain somehow founf out that someone has been messing with it. Now, I don't know if he knows for sure or he is just guessing because he heard some rumors that someone tried to do something. Obviously I'm not alone in this.
Now what my question is can the company, not the captain, I'm sure he cannot from here onboard because he already would if he could, find out which computer is not connected properly. That is, can they see if I'm connected with my laptop or my desktop(which is the one that I should be connected with)?

I know if that someone wants to track the user he can do it through IP address. But my IP address is always the same for the desktop and the notebook when I connect with it. I changed the MAC address so this is the same as well. Is there any other way that they can track me down.

Now to explain why I need/would like to do this. Well we all know that we like to set up our comp the way we like. Well I can't do it with the desktop because I'm a limited user on it and every time it is restarted, it deletes every setting that I made, and files(W. Disk Protection). There is a limit of 200MB per day. And that is per address so it doesn't matter if I'm on a laptop, I still have the limit(which is better for me, this thing just takes me sometimes). Entering passwords for forums, sites, skype, emails, favorites, rss... Oh gosh there's so many of... And the comp has to be restarted every now and then. Or it restarts by itself.
Thanks.

 

What problems?

It's hard to say--what you've done shouldn't produce problems, per se...and how it can be detected depends on what the ship has going.

Let's say I was running your network. It sounds like (now) you are connecting to a domain, a centrally controlled network. In addition to simply gaining Internet Access from the network, the computers are also receiving updates, virus definitions, etc. You also share network resources from your network (printers), but when you hook in your laptop, you are not part of the domain.

So, how would I track you down? If you never download (receive) updates, but are still receiving Internet, I would be puzzled. I can tell you are getting internet because I likely am using a proxy server of some type on the ship to limit network traffic.

What's going on with this node?

 

No, no. That what I did as per your suggestion did not cause any problems. The problem was in an another network. You see we have three networks on board. One is internal, computers are connected in this network so that they can share files, send internal emails, basically we have a common server to do all that. The other network is for IAS(Intergrated Automatic System). And this IAS network someone was messing with. Every officer and engineer has a IAS laptop in his cabin but it is set up only in view mode and cannot be changed. Well until now, obviously. Someone did that so that he can, if for example he has an alarm down in the engine while on night duty, doesn't have to go down in engine and open the valve from the control panel. This way he wouldn't have to go down in the middle of the night. The captain and ch.eng. did not like that, as you can imagine.

The third network is this one for internet and is completely separated from other two. We don't have anti virus on these desktops, guess they don't need one because of this Windows Disk Protection.
How can I check if the desktop is on a domain. Because when I go MyComp. Properties - Computer Name it says it is part of a workgroup.

"What's going on with this node?" - didn't get that ???

 

Then you're not on a domain.

Now, can someone still determine if you are using your laptop or desktop?

Not quite sure under my limited understanding of your network....I don't understand your Windows Disk Protection explanation. Is this process initiated from the nework? If so, since it is not being done, I imagine the program has some way of monitoring the process.

This process is not part of a standard windows installation

 

Windows Disk Protection is a service that deletes all user data and settings when the computer is restarted. This has been done to prevent the computer to be infected with viruses and malware. I believe that is one of the best protection. Whatever you do, when it is restarted, you're back at the beggining. And the beggining is/was when the technician has set up everything and started the setvice. It is a Windows service. It could be a XPPro service.
But that has nothing to do with monitoring and it is not initiated from the network but from the desktop it self.

 

Ah, its called steady state, now

 

You mean on Vista it's called like that? That's what I read on the popup baloon.

 

No both,

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default.mspx