Roommate can't connect to network?

[Tempestv]

my roommate has an IBM thinkpad. recently, it stopped connecting to the network and consquently the internet. for one, the ethernet port is screwed up somehow, which makes it difficult to work on it because the network cable keeps disconnecting. but even when it is connected, it doesn't work right. for some reason, I can't properly set up a network connection. on the network connections page, it says the network connection is "connected". I go through the set up home or small office network and go through that and it says it's configuring the connection, and in the background on the network connection page, the network connection changes to "enabled, firewalled". you can even get on the internet and load pages while the network is configuring. but then there is some kind of error, and the setup network connection wizard stops and the conection goes back to being "connected" and no web pages will load. Any idea what would cause this?

[4play]

Is the windows firewall working ? do any processes crash on boot? I have had trouble like this before when svchost crashed on boot/

can you ping an ip address try ping 72.14.207.99 (this is google) If you get a reply chances are its your mates dns settings.

[Tempestv]

Nothing crashed on boot, and Windows Firewall isn't popping up or anything.
I tried pinging google already and it said it couldn't connect.

The problem seems to be that an error appears when configuring the network.

[4play]

The problem seems to be that an error appears when configuring the network.

what does the error message say ?

[lynx]

I tried pinging google already and it said it couldn't connect.

4play suggested pinging 72.14.207.99, that's not the same as pinging www.google.com.

If the ping works using the IP address, but not with the name, then the fault lies in DNS lookup.

[lightshow]

Tempestv, are you at a university? Or are you on a personal connection?

If you are at a university, theres a chance they may have blocked your roomie's ip or mac address from accessing when/if they found him using p2p.

[Tempestv]

The problem seems to be that an error appears when configuring the network.

what does the error message say ?

it says that there was an error configiuring the network. the network was not properly configured.

I'm off campus, so this is a private connection, and both other computers plugged into the router, including this one, work fine. besides, I highly doubt he has ever done any filesharing. I had to walk him through how to get an email address a couple of weeks back.

I'll try pinging the IP later today

I doubt it will work though- I tried looking up the local IP of my computer, and it tried to direct me to an MSN page saying that they couldn't find the webpage. I also can't find the router or modem by entering the ip in.

[lynx]

If you can't find the router by its IP, then don't bother with pinging the IP, that's obviously not the problem.

My guess is that is has something to do with IPv6, there seem to be problems with that under some circumstances although it isn't clear what those circumstances are. Try uninstalling Microsoft TCP/IP version 6 and see what happens, he will probably never need it.

If that doesn't cure the problem I suggest you remove everything you can find related to networking, including looking for any hidden netwotk devices in Device Manager. I suggest even removing the primary network device from Device Manager, and letting windows install it again on the next reboot.

Finally, a thought just occured to me. It may seem like stating the obvious but could it be that you are trying to configure the wireless network rather than the wired network port?

[Tempestv]

not the wireless- I don't even think this laptop has wireless.

well, it's gonna be a little bit till I have time to work on his computer.

I've already spent to much time trying to get this computer on the network, like when I spent a day trying to get a lan cable to work, only to find out that his lan port won't connect over a cable more than about 30 feet long, which is what it would have taken to connect his computer to the router, so I had to move the router closer and reconfigure all the other wiring so I could move the wires around and connect to the router in it's new location.

[Tempestv]

well I got it working. I wish I could tell you what the fuck I did, but I don't have a clue what changed. I went in and tried to setup a network connection just like I did before, and this time it worked.