I have no IP address!

[Carol Murphy]

I installed a linksys Ethernet Adapter on my pokey old systyem a few years ago, and I guess I never got it installed with drivers correctly, but now I'm trying to get his thing hooked up to a cable modem, but I can't seem to get the installation to finish because the modem can't connect to the computer. I tried looking up the IP address, and there isn't one. I tried to install the ethernet adpater again, and the drivers can't be installed for some reason. Got an error code 1F6 when I tried to use the drivers located in the Windows directory. Windows 98 is supposed to support this product. Anybody out there have a clue as to what I can do to correct this problem?
It's an old 98 system, 3gb hard drive, but it's my original computer given to me by my dad, and I don't want to part with it until it dies a natural death.
Do I have a bad PCI adapter?
Or???

[Pat Farrell]

Can you manually assign a fixed IP address just to get started? use something like 172.16.2.2
(I recommnd not using 192.168.1.1 since every dadburned router, modem, and other device starts out using that one.)

[Carol Murphy]

Thanks Pat! I put in the IP address you suggested, and now I have an IP address, but I still can't connect.....
Am puzzled, but I like solving puzzles!

[Pat Farrell]

Carol Murphy wrote:Thanks Pat! I put in the IP address you suggested, and now I have an IP address, but I still can't connect.....

Can you ping yourself?
Do you have another computer that you can connect to the ancient one?

Windows 95 supported TCP/IP out of the box, or did once you enabled it. Did you look at the network setup settings from Control Panel?
(Its been so long, I can't remember exactly where). I think you had to explicitly enable TCP/IP on Win95/98.

[Carol Murphy]

I'm researching that, when I went to the Networking icon in the control panel, there was no IPAddress for my Etherfast pci adapter I installed years ago. I added the one you suggested manually, butI'm afraid I don't know how to "PING" myself!
I looked up the IP address from the command prompt, and it's there, but I don't lnwo what to do now.

[Pat Farrell]

Carol Murphy wrote:I'm afraid I don't know how to "PING" myself!

open a DOS/command shell

If your new IP address is 172.16.2.2 then enter

ping 172.16.2.2

and see what it says

[Carol Murphy]

Pat, here's an update! I came home from work Monday, fired up the 98 and got a new hardware installation window for the linksys etherfast adapter. So I tried installing it again, and determined the drivers I need for 98 are not on the installation disk (*$#?!) where they are supposed to be. So I downloaded drivers from linksys and tried to copy them to a cd on the xp unit. After a run to the store for fresh cds to write on, I determined there is a problem with the cd burner on the xp unit. It won't detect a cd in the drive in write mode. It plays cds just fine! My flash drive has long since been appropriated by one of my son's friends, so I have no way to transfer the downloaded files to the 98 unit. GRRRRRRRR. I go back and continue with installation, and for some reason, THIS time the driver files are located, drivers installed, all but one net something or other file it couldn't locate, and I had the linksys ethernet adapter listed in my hardware profile, along with drivers!
So I opened a dos window, got the Ipconfig, and pinged myself for the first time! I had an IP addres and a lot more! So I connected to the internet. I felt like I had conquered Everest. I then lost the ability to connect from the 98 unit. Being somewhat exhausted, I went to bed. This morning, I fired up the 98 unit, and there are no drivers installed for the linksys eterfast adapter. I know I didn't dream this. It really happened.
i'm gonna get a cheap Belkin adapter and try to install it. If that doesn't work, then I guess I just go with a flash drive to transfer files from 98 to XP. All this because I have a floppy drive on 98 and my husband wants to put photos and stuff stored on floppy up on his facebook, and we need to transfer them somehow because XP doesn't have a floppy drive! Also, if we had two computers with internet access, we wouldn't be fighting over who gets to go on facebook, and who gets to play WOW. Modern times, modern problems.

[Pat Farrell]

There are times when I run around the house yelling "I hate computers"

my wife and daughter know to stay out of my sight during these times.

[David Kilcy]

I dont know if this is an option for you but if you are just goign to be using it for web surfing then have you considered installing Ubuntu Linux?
I would be weary of surfing the internet on a Win98 box given all the exploits out there.

[Carol Murphy]

Switching to Linux is an intriguing option. The 98 system is my first computer, given to me by my dad. I'm kinda attached to it. If I install a Linux OS, how hard would it be to access the stuff I have on the 98 OS?
Oh, and as an update, I finally chased down the right drivers, but the adapter still isn't working. It is not supplying an IP address. I know little about how this works. Is the IP address generated by the network adapter, or is it created by the TCP/IP stuff in the network stuff? When I had this computer online before, my son's XP system was connected to the router and the 98 connected remotely through a USB adapter. In order to do this, I had to upgrade my hardware, and I installed a LaCie USB 2.0 card and this Linksys Ethernet adapter card. I don't remember having any installation problems, and I never used the Ethernet plug on the Lne100tx. So I don't know if I actually needed to install both. Is an ethernet connection necessary for wireless connection? Do you need to have that installed for the IP address to be supplied?
I'm wondering if I should just remove the card physically, wave it around in the air a few times, reinstall it and try again, or switch to a belkin adapter for $16.00?
All I really want is access to the floppy drive so my husband can post pictures stored on floppy to his facebook page, and access to some of my personal stuff that's still on this system. Besides, the newer systems screwed up the way minesweeper looks, and I prefer to play it on this system!

[Arvind Mahendra]

You could download some free utility which could detect your hardware and suggest you correct driver to download if that is an issue
And don't you get an ip address assigned to you when you connect to the internet? I remember configuring my wifi once and don't recall assigning myself an IP. I think you can do it but I remember I left that part grayed out and didn't enter anything.
To Answer your question about ethernet connection being necessary - No it is not if your modem/router has a USB port which you can then connect to your computer and do away with ethernet card alltogether. You would probably still need USB driver then for your particular modem/router.