The 169.x.x.x IP address is the windows default non-routeable IP when It
cannot find an
DHCP server to obtain an IP address.

I've had this happen to me before. One of my client machine's wasn't getting
an IP address,
but the NIC, and my gateway showed connectivity.  Yet when I pinged the
machine

Try using a different patch cable.  It's possible that one of the cable's in
it is loose that's either not tranmitting a signal or is getting corrupted.
I set a static IP on the machine, and couldn't ping my gateway. I checked my
gateway's loggs and It wasn't recieving any traffic.  In my setup I have a
patch cable that goes into a punch down jack, then ran to the ran with the
gateway into another punch down jack (a RJ 45 Block, not a whole punch down
block) then to another patch cable to the gateway machine (at the time a
Windows 2000 Pro machine with Internet Connection Sharing enabled).

What I did was goto the client end, un wire, cut about and inch off the
incoming cable, and re punch it in the jack.  Plugged that patch cable back
in, and set the Client back to DHCP, and did reboot, and it obtained a valid
Private IP address.  It was off and surfing.

I don't know what your specific design is.  So my basic suggestion to you is
check your cable, check the RJ 45 in put's on the Laptop's NIC.  There
probably a cable loose somewhere (or a pin in the 45 jack that's loose or
not getting a good connection).

Regards,

Patrick Black
CCNA


-----Original Message-----
From: PCBUILD - Personal Computer Hardware discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of ETLehner
Sent: Friday, September 07, 2001 6:09 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [PCBUILD] 98SE Laptop/LAN strange-IP issue


Hello All --

I've got two WinME machines connected with an SMC Barricade 7004
firewall/router (which also shares the cable-modem between them).  The
Barricade takes care of the local IP assignments using DHCP.  I use the
router's browser interface to tell it my @Home-assigned static IP, and the
DNS servers, etc etc.  Everything works fine for the two machines on the
LAN, and the TCPIP setup in "network" for both machines has none of the data
entered in its tabs (except the selection "use DHCP"), because it's all
inside the router setup instead.  This setup has run well for a year, when I
got the router and cable modem and did the WinME upgrade at the same time.
So far so good.

Now, I have a laptop here, running Win98SE, which I am attempting to hook up
to this LAN.  Physically I'm getting connection ('link integrity' on on both
the router port and the NIC-card dongle), but no recognition of the LAN by
the laptop, nor of the laptop by the LAN.  When I do an IPCONFIG in a DOS
box on the laptop, I get the correct information for the dial up adapter ("0
Ethernet Adapter"), and then this information for "1 Ethernet Adapter" which
is the card:
IP address: 169.254.29.203
Subnet Mask:  255.255.0.0
Default Gateway:  [empty]

Now, where the heck is that IP address coming from, and how do I get rid of
it??!  I didn't put it in, it's not correct, and I presume that's the
problem because the router is assigning local IPs in the range
192.168.123.100 and 192.168.123.199 -- and also is only seeing IPs in that
range as being part of the LAN, therefore the laptop is invisible.  Is that
IP part of some other range of local-IP reserved numbers, or hardwired into
the card, or something that I am just clueless about?

This is an old Xircom CreditCard Modem+Ethernet combo card, 10mbps only (the
router is 10/100), part number CEM33, and I've been to Xircom's website and
found nothing at all that points to this IP issue.

I've tried manually assigning a "correct" IP (within the range given above
that my router sees) in the Network setup, and I've tried giving the laptop
the router's IP as the default gateway, and everything else I can think of,
but nothing has worked.  The card's firmware and drivers are properly
installed and up to date, there are no asterisks in DevMgr, or anything like
that.


I'm at a loss .... the point of getting this laptop (and another one sitting
here, just like it) onto the LAN is to take hard-disk backups before handing
them back to their owners (kids), so that if they hose up their hard drives
again in the future, it doesn't take so much of my time to reconfigure them
(they only have CD-ROM drives so I can't burn the disks without the LAN).
But the time I am spending trying to get the LAN to work is beginning to
make me think of forgetting it, and just handing them back un-backed-up
(which I would regret later, I am sure).


Any ideas?  Thanks ----

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