Home LAN no longer works following Internet outtage - Help please

usignuolo

We have a small LAN in our home office. There are four pcs, (all run XP Pro), connected to to it by cables plugged into a Belkin router. We use a cable modem for broadband connection to the internet. All the PCs are set up to share files and internet access.

Recently our Virgin broadband supply developed a fault in our area and was out for around 12 hours. Since it came back, we cannot use the LAN. All the PCs work individually, the internet works via our host PC but the rest of the PCs are no longer on the LAN. They are all still plugged into the router which is active (all its lights are flashing).

I have looked at the XP LAN trouble shooting advice but it does not have any advice for reconnecting a LAN after the broadband service to it has been disrupted. In the Network connections box it currently only shows the host PC, none of the others.

What should I do to reconnect the other PCs to get the LAN back? I don't want to have to set it up all over again as everything is in place just as it was before the outtage. We have turned everything off and on again and unplugged and replugged in the cable modem to the router but nothing happens.

Do I need to pull the individual PC's cables from the router and plug them back in. Should it all be done in any particular order? Advice appreciated.

PROLIANT

Hi, on the main PC that can connect to the Internet, do the following;
Click Start > Run and type CMD in the dialog box, Enter.

A black window will appear with a flashing cursor, type IPCONFIG /ALL
A list of text will appear, find out the IP Address of the PC, will look something like below.

If possible could you do this on one of the problematic Computers and post the results from the command window.

You can copy the text out of the command window by right clicking the mouse at the top corner of the black window and selecting Mark, then drag the mouse so all of text is selected, the right click and you can then paste in to MSE.

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.
C:\Documents and Settings\proliant>ipconfig /all
Windows IP Configuration
Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : xx
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : xx
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : xx
xx
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : xx Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) 82566DM-2 Gigabit Netwo
onnection
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1E-90-32-6E-0E
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.54
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.254
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
192.168.0.2
Primary WINS Server . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
Secondary WINS Server . . . . . . : 192.168.0.2
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 21 August 2009 11:07:45
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 21 August 2009 19:07:45

KingL

The day is quickly coming when every knee will bow down to a silicon fist, and you will all beg your binary gods for mercy.

I, for one, welcome our new semiconducting overlords.

mjwalshe

usignuolo wrote: »

We have a small LAN in our home office. There are four pcs, (all run XP Pro), connected to to it by cables plugged into a Belkin router. We use a cable modem for broadband connection to the internet. All the PCs are set up to share files and internet access.

Recently our Virgin broadband supply developed a fault in our area and was out for around 12 hours. Since it came back, we cannot use the LAN. All the PCs work individually, the internet works via our host PC but the rest of the PCs are no longer on the LAN. They are all still plugged into the router which is active (all its lights are flashing).

I have looked at the XP LAN trouble shooting advice but it does not have any advice for reconnecting a LAN after the broadband service to it has been disrupted. In the Network connections box it currently only shows the host PC, none of the others.

What should I do to reconnect the other PCs to get the LAN back? I don't want to have to set it up all over again as everything is in place just as it was before the outtage. We have turned everything off and on again and unplugged and replugged in the cable modem to the router but nothing happens.

Do I need to pull the individual PC's cables from the router and plug them back in. Should it all be done in any particular order? Advice appreciated.

what do you mean by host PC ?

I take it you have tried turning it on and off again?

can The PC's pn the lan see each other

basmic

Try directly connection one of the PC's to the cable modem - can you browse the internet on this computer then?

You might have to turn the cable modem off for 30 seconds, and power it back up again before it allows the computer access to the internet - because the MAC address of the LAN device connected to it (previously the router's WAN MAC address) will have changed (to the computer's network card MAC address).

If so, then I would suggest your router is at fault.

amcluesent

>All the PCs work individually, the internet works via our host PC but the rest of the PCs are no longer on the LAN<

Hard to know without more info, but one thing to check is if the IP address allocations to the PCs were somehow tied up with the Virgin Broadband. Since it went off and came back, maybe only the one PC is being set-up properly?

Usually your router would take care of DHCP requests on the LAN, not the broadband but sometimes people do make all their PCs "visible" to the Internet usually by mistake.

PROLIANT

amcluesent wrote: »

but sometimes people do make all their PCs "visible" to the Internet usually by mistake.

Yes, this is possible if you have a proper router that can be setup in a No-NAT configuration thus each PC would have to have its own public (WAN) IP Address.
Or they could disable the NAT Firewall and leave all ports open.

exup

apart from what Proliant has suggested and you may be carrying through - did you make any changes to the settings to the router or just use it out of the box? If you didnt change anything then you could try a full factory reset by holding down the reset button on the back of the router unit for the usual 30 seconds.
(although the time may differ between router models - do you happen to know the model of Belkin router you have?)