Lost internet connection.

[sheds]

I recently bought a new laptop and hooked it up for connection. For my surprise, my brother started having problems connecting. I took the time to fix his computer, and now the one with no connectivity is my linux box. I don´t have anything set up like proxys or sharing internet or anything, i just hooked the cable to the computer and that´s it. I got my cable modem connection going into an 8 port switch. When the initial 2 computer were connected, no problems at all, but now i plug in a third cable for my laptop into the switch, and one of the other two computer will loose connection, probably the one that is turned off when turning the modem and switch off to reset the connection.

i also noticed that when i open AMSN, it displays an error that says ´Error connecting to server; couldn´t open socket: host is unreachable´. So far i´ve done my homework about ifconfig and netstat, no luck. It seems they just give you information, they don´t like refresh or try to get an ip address, subnet mask or default gateway.

Am i making my problem clear?

THANKS IN ADVANCED and if posible hurry up with an answer, i can´t be using windows too much.

I guess what i am asking for are some troubleshooting steps and commands i can type or do to try to get an ip address again.

[LBmtb]

What 8 port switch is it? How are the computers getting IP addresses (is there a router or something handing out DHCP?)?

[sheds]

Ok, it´s a CNET 8 port switch, i guess he´s the one in charge of handing out ip addresses. All i did to connect the initial 2 computers for startes was to connect them both to the switch, connect the output from the cable modem to the switch and then that´s it. No configuring or anything.

[LBmtb]

This bad boy?
http://www.cnetusa.com/product/specs...h_cnsh800l.htm

Dont think this provides DHCP. Might have to get a router to stick between the switch and modem. I'm not a network guru so I"ll let someone else confirm this.

[sheds]

Yep, this bad boy. Then i guess i´ll have to keep my computer off the internet (of course i mean this XP box, gotta have my linux).

[KidCloudWala]

Greetings,

I think your Cable Modem is acting as a DHCP Server and assigning IP Address to the computers connected to the switch.

I will suggest you to do this:

Connect a cable from the Cable Modem to the Port 8 of the switch and then connect the computers one by one to each of the ports of the switch starting with the linux box. Also, check the IP Address you get on the linux box that will confirm what range of IP Adress are you getting and whether is it from the Cable Modem or form the ISP itself. Also, confrim from your ISP that isn't there any kind of restrictions to access the internet for more than two connections there shudn't be any but still its better to be confirm.

Once you check the IP Address and got to know that if you are getting a private IP try to specify the a static IP in the same range if still none of your computers are able to access the internet.

Hope this much Helps... If not do let know the status to work more in it...

[sheds]

I'll gladly attempt to do all this if you tell me the commands to do so. I've researched a little bit and found out about netstat, route and some others but none seem like the ones to refresh and assign IP addresses.

Where you mention to check the IP address on my linux box, what command do i use? Regarding the ISP restrictions, i know i get like 2 private ip addresses and i don't know what else there is to it. I will attempt your idea about connecting each computer, one by one starting with the linux box, see what happens, sounds good. I just need the command to check the ip address i got from that thing in linux. I think it was something like 'ifconfig -a', or not?

[sheds]

By the way:

I will suggest you to do this:

Connect a cable from the Cable Modem to the Port 8 of the switch and then connect the computers one by one to each of the ports of the switch starting with the linux box.

This is how i've had it to begin with. Of course before there were only 2 computers, now there are 3.

Do you guys think neither my switch nor my cable modem box are given out DHCP? I guess my modem could at least handle 2 ip addresses, i don't know if it handles more. Let me give you a reference of the Motorola modem i have.

SURFboard® SB5100 External Cable Modem
http://broadband.motorola.com/noflash/sb5100.html