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Problems Connecting to AEBS Wired

Hi,


I bought a new Airport Exreme a couple of weeks ago and got everything set up with relatively few issues. My main desktop PC (a Windows Vista machine) is connected wired, plus a number of other devices (iPads, iPhones, Android tablets, laptop) connected wirelessly.


Yesterday I discovered my Windows desktop had a malware infection so, rather than messing around with AV scans I decided to reinstall Windows. Everything went fine - OS reinstalled, most applications reinstalled and Windows was busily redownloading several years' worth of OS updates over its wired connection. At some point this morning the problems started - my wired connection was showing as an unidentified network and local access only. On further inspection I can see in ipconfig /all that I have been given a 169.x IP address.


I have tried ipconfig /release (which appears to work) followed by ipconfig /renew (which results in the error messages "An error occurred while releasing interface Loopback Pseudo-Interface 1 : The system cannot find the file specified." and "An error occurred while renewing interface Local Area Connection : unable to contact your DHCP server. Request has timed out."


I have subsequently reinstalled Windows for a second time and the same thing is happening. I have also reset the Airport Extreme to factory defaults and reset up the network.


All my wireless devices are still connecting fine (as is my desktop PC if I use its wireless card instead). If I pull the ethernet cable out of my PC and connect it to my laptop (running Ubuntu) the laptop can connect to the router's wired connection with no issues. This leads me to think it's a problem with my Windows machine, rather than a problem with the router, but I have no idea what it might be.


Any help would be very much appreciated. I'm tearing my hair out here!


Thanks in advance,


Ed.

Posted on Aug 27, 2012 7:45 AM

Reply
7 replies

Aug 27, 2012 10:20 AM in response to Tesserax

No, this is a clean installation of Windows. There's no applications installed at all. The first reinstall I did (to clear the malware) the wired network worked straight away then died as I was installing updates. After reinstalling Windows a second time (in an attempt to fix my Internet connection) it's still dead.


I've also tried installing Ubuntu on the same machine and wired connections won't work in that either however my two laptops (one windows, one Ubuntu) both work. I'm beginning to think it's a dead network card... what do you think? It just seems strange that it's not completely dead. It attempts to connect but DHCP is failing.


Is there any chance the new Airport Extreme could have a fault that's damaged the PC's NIC? It's worked fine for years and then failed within a week of me connecting it to my new AEBS...


thanks again,


Ed.

Aug 27, 2012 10:21 AM in response to ed2020

Is there any chance the new Airport Extreme could have a fault that's damaged the PC's NIC? It's worked fine for years and then failed within a week of me connecting it to my new AEBS...

The only thing I can see that this would be possible, and it would be indirectly due to the Extreme, is if there was a power surge (lightening strike, brown-out, etc.) that pushed a voltage spike through the Extreme's LAN port to your PC's network card. The other option would be similar, and that would be if either power was not removed before changing cables or networking equipment AND/OR a static voltage spike was introduced because of improper grounding. Otherwise, I would find it highly unlikely that the Extreme could have been the cause.

Aug 27, 2012 11:00 AM in response to Tesserax

Just tried connectking my PC directly to the modem and get the same problem. Does this confirm it's the network card that's at fault? One thing I did notice is that the light on the PC's Ethernet port is green when attached to the modem but amber when attached to the router - any ideas what that means?


Wouldn't a power surge through the Extreme also damage the Extreme as well as my PC's NIC...?

Aug 27, 2012 2:21 PM in response to ed2020

So after many hours of messing around with this problem I decide I've had enough and go downstairs to watch TV. I come back up half an hour later because I am unable to leave things like this unresolved and everything's mysteriously started working again. My PC is now successfully getting an IP address assigned rather than defaulting to 169.*


Somehow I find this more frustrating than if it was still broken. If the fault was with my PC why didn't reinstalling Windows (or Ubuntu, for that matter!) resolve it? If the problem was with the router's DHCP server why didn't restoring factory defaults fix the issue? And why was there no problem with other machines when connecting to the same ethernet cable?


If anyone can shed any light on this I'd appreciate it. I hate not getting to the bottom of things like this, especially when they mysteriously fix themselves so there's nothing to investigate!


Also maybe worth mentioning I also dug out my old router and had the same symptoms. The only difference was the Ethernet port LED was green again (it's still showing orange when connected to my Airport Extreme, even now things are working again).


Ed.

Problems Connecting to AEBS Wired

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