I have a home network with 4 computers, all running
Windows XP home, which has been working fine for the last
6 months. Two days ago my son was in the middle of a game
(offline) and a message popped up saying he'd been
disconnected from the internet. He clicked work offline
and continued playing. Now if I run the wizard it sets
him up with a different ip address (169.xxx instead of
192.xxx) and a different subnet mask (255.255.0.0 instead
of 255.255.255.0). If I manually configure his settings
(ipaddress, subnet mask, gateway and DNS server), then he
can access the other computers on the network and they
can access his files, but he cannot connect to the
internet. I have a cable connection through my pc and the
other 2 pcs on the network can still connect. I have
tried pluggin his cable into a different socket on the
switch, and all of the lights on the switch are on for
whichever socket he is using.
My most urgent question is why his pc cannot connect to
the internet, but I am also curious as to why the wizard
now sets him up with a different subnet mask and address.
When it isn't manually set, I can release his ip address,
but when I try to renew, I get a message saying it is
trying to connect through something that isn't a socket.
MSN says he may be behind a firewall and IE simply
doesn't connect.
Thanks in advance for any assistance.