(no subject)
Feb. 4th, 2018 10:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
girlofpreyHello!
I haven't had the internet on my main computer all weekend. The connection was playing up again, and it was so frustrating it made me want to cry. I cobbled together an internet experience using my parents' tablet to watch videos, and charged up my old netbook for going on Dreamwidth and email - trusty old netbook. But I also just googled the error I was getting, "'Ethernet' does not have a valid IP configuration" and tried to fix whatever the problem is as much as I could.
I found a list of things that can fix that very problem, and did all of them. I used Windows Admin commands. I uninstalled and reinstalled my network card. I double-checked all the settings. I reinstalled drivers. The only thing I couldn't do was search for the latest drivers for my network interface card online, because I wasn't sure how to do that without the internet. Nothing worked, and all the comments on the list I used that said "I did all this and nothing worked, any suggestions?" had no replies to them. Some said things like "Finally I plugged my ethernet cable into a different port on my router, and that fixed everything!". So hope. Confusing hope. It can be a software or a hardware or a connection problem, and it's hard to ever tell which.
So tonight, I explained everything to my dad, after he wondered if he and mum would ever get their tablet back. He had previously suspected that it was the Windows OEM key I used for my operating system, which is a £6 option you can get instead of a £100 Windows license, because he has always been convinced that must be dodgy. But it's the same OS I've been using with good internet for a year. So, given that the last time it was the ethernet connectors that were the problem, I took my dad's laptop upstairs to plug it in to my ethernet cable, as I did last time. I'd already swapped the ethernet cable I was using, in a vain hope, which didn't fix anything. But my dad's laptop, which happily used the WiFi signal, switched to saying 'no valid IP configuration' when I plugged my ethernet cable in. Suggesting it's a problem with my internet setup, not my machine. So, we set to it. My dad revealed that he'd bought some new ethernet plug-in connectors, just in case it was that, but before that he told me to try a new ethernet cable between the plug-in downstairs and the router. And to plug it into a different port on the router, as the internet comment had suggested. I did this. I clicked the button on the plug-in to link it to the one upstairs. I came upstairs. I switched my computer on. At first it said there was no connection at all, which was confusing, but then I remembered I actually hadn't plugged my ethernet back in after connecting it to my dad's laptop. I plugged it in. Nothing. I went back over to the upstairs plug-in. I noticed that there was also a button on the upstairs one to 'link' the plug-ins - on my previous set, there had only been a button on the one upstairs. I pressed it, and plugged the ethernet cable into a different port on the plug-in for good measure. I went downstairs and pressed the other plug-in's link button again. I came back upstairs, and checked my computer. Still no internet, "'Ethernet' does not have a valid IP configuration". I restarted the computer. I had the internet.
So. I don't know. I fixed something, and there is a chance that I just hadn't been linking the Ethernet connectors properly because I didn't know there were two buttons. So it seems like it's still the connection. But it could happen again and be the software, or the hardware, and I wouldn't really know until I tried everything else. I hope it is never the hardware, because I really don't know what to do about that except for replacing the motherboard. Which would suck. But for now, it just seems like it's the connection, and it is fixed. Isn't technology grand?
What I could do right now is google to make sure I have the most up-to-date drivers for my network card from the manufacturer's website. But I'm a little afraid to mess with it again, at the moment, and I'd rather just go on the internet for now.
Votes for women.
I haven't had the internet on my main computer all weekend. The connection was playing up again, and it was so frustrating it made me want to cry. I cobbled together an internet experience using my parents' tablet to watch videos, and charged up my old netbook for going on Dreamwidth and email - trusty old netbook. But I also just googled the error I was getting, "'Ethernet' does not have a valid IP configuration" and tried to fix whatever the problem is as much as I could.
I found a list of things that can fix that very problem, and did all of them. I used Windows Admin commands. I uninstalled and reinstalled my network card. I double-checked all the settings. I reinstalled drivers. The only thing I couldn't do was search for the latest drivers for my network interface card online, because I wasn't sure how to do that without the internet. Nothing worked, and all the comments on the list I used that said "I did all this and nothing worked, any suggestions?" had no replies to them. Some said things like "Finally I plugged my ethernet cable into a different port on my router, and that fixed everything!". So hope. Confusing hope. It can be a software or a hardware or a connection problem, and it's hard to ever tell which.
So tonight, I explained everything to my dad, after he wondered if he and mum would ever get their tablet back. He had previously suspected that it was the Windows OEM key I used for my operating system, which is a £6 option you can get instead of a £100 Windows license, because he has always been convinced that must be dodgy. But it's the same OS I've been using with good internet for a year. So, given that the last time it was the ethernet connectors that were the problem, I took my dad's laptop upstairs to plug it in to my ethernet cable, as I did last time. I'd already swapped the ethernet cable I was using, in a vain hope, which didn't fix anything. But my dad's laptop, which happily used the WiFi signal, switched to saying 'no valid IP configuration' when I plugged my ethernet cable in. Suggesting it's a problem with my internet setup, not my machine. So, we set to it. My dad revealed that he'd bought some new ethernet plug-in connectors, just in case it was that, but before that he told me to try a new ethernet cable between the plug-in downstairs and the router. And to plug it into a different port on the router, as the internet comment had suggested. I did this. I clicked the button on the plug-in to link it to the one upstairs. I came upstairs. I switched my computer on. At first it said there was no connection at all, which was confusing, but then I remembered I actually hadn't plugged my ethernet back in after connecting it to my dad's laptop. I plugged it in. Nothing. I went back over to the upstairs plug-in. I noticed that there was also a button on the upstairs one to 'link' the plug-ins - on my previous set, there had only been a button on the one upstairs. I pressed it, and plugged the ethernet cable into a different port on the plug-in for good measure. I went downstairs and pressed the other plug-in's link button again. I came back upstairs, and checked my computer. Still no internet, "'Ethernet' does not have a valid IP configuration". I restarted the computer. I had the internet.
So. I don't know. I fixed something, and there is a chance that I just hadn't been linking the Ethernet connectors properly because I didn't know there were two buttons. So it seems like it's still the connection. But it could happen again and be the software, or the hardware, and I wouldn't really know until I tried everything else. I hope it is never the hardware, because I really don't know what to do about that except for replacing the motherboard. Which would suck. But for now, it just seems like it's the connection, and it is fixed. Isn't technology grand?
What I could do right now is google to make sure I have the most up-to-date drivers for my network card from the manufacturer's website. But I'm a little afraid to mess with it again, at the moment, and I'd rather just go on the internet for now.
Votes for women.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-02-05 02:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-02-05 11:19 pm (UTC)