connection issues

is there any reason why vista would not automatically recognize that there is a ethernet cable plugged into my laptop?

actually, let me say that again... it recognizes that there is a cable plugged in, but i only receive local access on startup. i have no internet access until i disable and re-enable the local network connection/adapter.

it's becoming sort of annoying, and i can't figure out why it's doing this.

i'm at work right now, so i'm unable to check if it only does this when connecting from this specific router, or from the router to my laptop only. i should check if it automatically connects if i connect my laptop directly to modem, but i can't do that until later..

 

May be you have some of the network services off at start up. Do this, run>services> and make sure that your network services are loaded automatically.

 

what specifically needs to be turned on for my network connection to automatically connect. the only thing i know of that i disabled was the "Workstation" service.

 

What about all your network services applications?

 

i can't tell ya right now, i don't have my laptop with me

 

Sounds to me like you're not getting an IP address at startup, which is why you'd see "local access only". (You're probably getting a 169.x.x.x address with no route to the gateway...hence, local access only.) Disabling the adaptor and re-enabling it no doubt forces a renewal, and then you're fine.

Is your router handling DHCP? Any other machines having problems?

Next time do this...rather than disabling/re-enabling the adaptor, open up a command prompt and type ipconfig /all and see what your IP address is. If it's 169.x.x.x (or 0.0.0.0) then type ipconfig /release, and then ipconfig /renew. If that works, then you'll know what the problem is...you're not getting an address assigned at start up.

Of course, then you need to troubleshoot why, but at least you'll know what you're chasing.

 

If the system is defaulting to an alternate private IP address (APIPA, I believe is the acronym ), it may be because the router isn't set up as a DHCP router, which would mean it's not handing out IP addresses.

 

Except that he does get an address after disabling and re-enabling the adaptor, so something (probably the router) is configured as a DHCP server. Just sounds to me like it's not happening at system start for some reason. The OP will have to check that on next boot.

 

You can setup the DHCP to start automatically on the "services" menu, as I said before.

 

firewall issue maybe...if you're using windows firewall have you configured it to allow the ports opened that allow for internet traffic...if third party firewall do you have your default gateway listed as allowing traffic...i'm only looking at this point of view due to the fact that you've not posted wether it's a new or old problem...also i see the same problem over and over in these types of threads...if your using DSL...and its modem usually has some sort of built in router...the modem needs to be set to bridge mode (disables DHCP) so it does not give out ip addresses...your router will do that...leaving them both in DHCP mode is going to cause data collisions...you can't have two devices on the same network handing out ip addresses they will conflict with each other...thats where the data collisions come from