Wireless router in an apartment building

I live in an apartment building that has high speed internet jacks in
each apartment. The service is provided by the building management, who
incidentally refuses to offer any technical support. Weird. Anyway, so
it was working just fine. I plugged the CAT5 cable into the wall and
into my laptop and wahlah...instant Internet.

Then the other day I bought a wireless router and network card. I
followed the instructions, programmed the router by ethernetting it to
the laptop and running it's built in configuration menu. Then hooked it
to the network jack and the green light came on that it had found the
connection. But I keep getting a message that it can't find an Internet
connection.

I disconnected everything. Uninstalled the drivers and then actually
used System Restore to go back to an earlier date. And then just hooked
back up to the wall by cable directly as I was before. Still no go.
Says it can't renew the IP address for my computer and IE gives a DNS
lookup error screen. The DNS server showing up is 192.168.2.1 which is
the same as the IP address that I see for the Default Gateway. My
computer does have an IP address assigned which is 192.168.2.133. Bear
in mind the router I bought is completely out of the picture now. I'm
using only a 10/100 ethernet card, CAT5 directly to the wall as before.

So today I stop by the office and ask the apartment manager if there
are any problems on their end. She said there aren't but they have had
a lot of complaints about tenants' Internet connections being out. She
says that it is because some people have routers installed that are
stealing other people's IP addresses. They are going to go through
every apartment and disconnect any routers they find. Is this possible?
How could my router have permanently stolen mine or some other tenants
IP address that is assigned by the apartment's server, even after it
has been removed?

Does your apartment management give each apartment unit a unique IP
or is it handled by DHCP? I'd think it is the second one.

In the unlikely chance of assinging fixed IP to each unit, someone
stealing your IP is possible. Rather, unwittingly using your IP
because they don't know how to set up their router. Given that
almost anyone has a couple of PCs/laptops at home and want Internet
from all of them, and the availability of cheap routers, this is a
definite possiblity.

Usually the DNS is .10 machine (in your case, it would be 192.168.2.10)
and the Gateway is .254 (192.168.2.254). You may want to set these 2
values in your router/laptop and give another try.

Finally, apartment managers are usually not computer techs. So, we have
to take their words with a pinch of salt.

Hope this helps.
Senthil.

I think your apartment manager is confused or not using the proper terms.
Additionally, they seem to be ill equipped to truly handle everyone's needs.
Judging from your description it sounds as if they have too small of an IP
address pool (range). Each Ethernet device requests it's own IP address and
if successful gets a lease for that address. The address lease is
automatically renewed as long as the device is "online" when it's time for
renewal. I think you can imagine how this will play out if even a small
amount of people are trying to do what you did. You have an IP address for
your PC and now your router is trying to get one. Very shortly they will
run out of addresses. The only way to really fix this is to get a larger
pool and/or shorten the lease time so the unused addresses will more likely
become available again.

You may want to try and ask to have your PC's IP address record deleted from
the DHCP server in exchange for getting a new address for your router. Your
router will assign NAT addresses for each of your machines and will not
affect the apartment's lease pool beyond that one address. This is, of
course, with the idea that the apartment is handling it's own DHCP.

Incidentally, disconnecting everyone's routers isn't the way to fix this
problem. They will have the same problem on their hands when people start
getting new PCs or attaching other PCs. Ironically, if they just let
everyone use a router and restrict direct PC use the problem would mostly go
away. Of course, then they'd have to worry about bandwidth problems from
all the additional PCs online but that's another issue entirely.

Richard


<danielcreech@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1107538822.442752.218030@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...[color=blue]
>I live in an apartment building that has high speed internet jacks in
> each apartment. The service is provided by the building management, who
> incidentally refuses to offer any technical support. Weird. Anyway, so
> it was working just fine. I plugged the CAT5 cable into the wall and
> into my laptop and wahlah...instant Internet.
>
> Then the other day I bought a wireless router and network card. I
> followed the instructions, programmed the router by ethernetting it to
> the laptop and running it's built in configuration menu. Then hooked it
> to the network jack and the green light came on that it had found the
> connection. But I keep getting a message that it can't find an Internet
> connection.
>
> I disconnected everything. Uninstalled the drivers and then actually
> used System Restore to go back to an earlier date. And then just hooked
> back up to the wall by cable directly as I was before. Still no go.
> Says it can't renew the IP address for my computer and IE gives a DNS
> lookup error screen. The DNS server showing up is 192.168.2.1 which is
> the same as the IP address that I see for the Default Gateway. My
> computer does have an IP address assigned which is 192.168.2.133. Bear
> in mind the router I bought is completely out of the picture now. I'm
> using only a 10/100 ethernet card, CAT5 directly to the wall as before.
>
> So today I stop by the office and ask the apartment manager if there
> are any problems on their end. She said there aren't but they have had
> a lot of complaints about tenants' Internet connections being out. She
> says that it is because some people have routers installed that are
> stealing other people's IP addresses. They are going to go through
> every apartment and disconnect any routers they find. Is this possible?
> How could my router have permanently stolen mine or some other tenants
> IP address that is assigned by the apartment's server, even after it
> has been removed?
>
>[/color]



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I don't think this is a problem with the IP pool size.
An apt. complex is not going to buy a pool of IPs.
If that was the case, we'd have been out of IP addresses
long time ago. That is too expensive too for an apt.
complex.

In all probability, they have just one IP address on the
Internet. The problem with this apt. complex is probably,
they are not using a DHCP server to lease unroutable
IP addresses to each apartment. Instead, they seem to have
assigned fixed IPs to each apt. When people plug-in new
devices into their wall without knowing how to configure
them, IP addresses get mis-assigned (stolen).

The other possibility is, the apartment network really has
some problem that they are trying to solve by ignoring it
and the manager is throwing around some jargon to keep
innocent tenants at bay.

my 2 cents.

I agree that it is unlikely that an apartment complex would have a pool of
addresses from an ISP however it is possible. It is also possible that they
have a small pool of addresses on their own DHCP server.

Also, I don't follow what you are saying here. If they have assigned IP
addresses for each apartment then it would be through static IP or static
DHCP. If that is so how does another device get another "stolen" IP
address? That would imply either they have a DHCP server or that someone is
manually configuring the IP settings on the client. Given the OP's info the
latter isn't likely.

Richard


"C.G.Senthilkumar." <cheetanc@pc49.cs.ucdavis.edu> wrote in message
news:cu0kjf$4f8$3@skeeter.ucdavis.edu...[color=blue]
>I don't think this is a problem with the IP pool size.
> An apt. complex is not going to buy a pool of IPs.
> If that was the case, we'd have been out of IP addresses
> long time ago. That is too expensive too for an apt.
> complex.
>
> In all probability, they have just one IP address on the
> Internet. The problem with this apt. complex is probably,
> they are not using a DHCP server to lease unroutable
> IP addresses to each apartment. Instead, they seem to have
> assigned fixed IPs to each apt. When people plug-in new
> devices into their wall without knowing how to configure
> them, IP addresses get mis-assigned (stolen).
>
> The other possibility is, the apartment network really has
> some problem that they are trying to solve by ignoring it
> and the manager is throwing around some jargon to keep
> innocent tenants at bay.
>
> my 2 cents.
>[/color]



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> have a small pool of addresses on their own DHCP server.
Nothing resticts them to a small pool of IPs on their own DHCP servers.

If the apt, has assigned fixed IP to each apt., anyone could give their device
their neighbour's IP and plug it in to the wall. If the apt. mgt. used DHCP
servers, that would take care of the IP assignment without problems.

Hope that helps.
Senthil.

"C.G.Senthilkumar." <cheetanc@pc49.cs.ucdavis.edu> wrote in message
news:cu18f4$jp4$1@skeeter.ucdavis.edu...[color=blue][color=green]
>> have a small pool of addresses on their own DHCP server.[/color]
> Nothing resticts them to a small pool of IPs on their own DHCP servers.
>[/color]


I don't think you understand. I never said there was any restriction to a
small pool of IPs. I explained that the apartment manager (or his tech
staff) might not have thought ahead to how large the pool should be. This
is one possible reason for the problem. You really should read my posts
more carefully.
[color=blue]
> If the apt, has assigned fixed IP to each apt., anyone could give their
> device
> their neighbour's IP and plug it in to the wall. If the apt. mgt. used
> DHCP
> servers, that would take care of the IP assignment without problems.[/color]

This makes no sense since the OP made no mention of having to enter static
IP information to get access from the get-go. Further, your assertion that
if the management used a DHCP server that there would be no assignment
problems is incorrect particularly if the pool was too small to begin with.

Richard

"Richard Forester" <richard_forester(nospam)@msn.com> wrote in message
news:42042be3$1_3@127.0.0.1...[color=blue]
>
> "C.G.Senthilkumar." <cheetanc@pc49.cs.ucdavis.edu> wrote in message
> news:cu18f4$jp4$1@skeeter.ucdavis.edu...[color=green][color=darkred]
> >> have a small pool of addresses on their own DHCP server.[/color]
> > Nothing resticts them to a small pool of IPs on their own DHCP servers.
> >[/color]
>
>
> I don't think you understand. I never said there was any restriction to a
> small pool of IPs. I explained that the apartment manager (or his tech
> staff) might not have thought ahead to how large the pool should be. This
> is one possible reason for the problem. You really should read my posts
> more carefully.
>[color=green]
> > If the apt, has assigned fixed IP to each apt., anyone could give their
> > device
> > their neighbour's IP and plug it in to the wall. If the apt. mgt. used
> > DHCP
> > servers, that would take care of the IP assignment without problems.[/color]
>
> This makes no sense since the OP made no mention of having to enter static
> IP information to get access from the get-go. Further, your assertion[/color]
that[color=blue]
> if the management used a DHCP server that there would be no assignment
> problems is incorrect particularly if the pool was too small to begin[/color]
with.[color=blue]
>
> Richard
>
>[/color]

If when setting up the router and they have 150 apartments and they set the
router to allocate 150 IPs then they could have a problem. How many people
have more than one computer using a hub instead of a router. Then each PC
would request and get an IP until the allocated pool is used up. The
apartment complex probably has an internet connection attached to a router
and set the rouetr to match the number of apartments.

Hubs are much cheaper than routers and they allow users to connect many
computers getting thier IP from the apartment complex router.

I really appreciate everyone's input on this. I will add this much....

1. When I first moved in and hooked up to the one jack that exists in
my apartment and turned on my PC (directly cabled to the wall - no
wireless / no router of my own) everything worked fine and yes I did
have DHCP enabled on my computer. Never had to enter a static IP.

2. As I mentioned before, I did take my own wireless router out of the
equation and go back to this set up and am still having problems. But
I'm noticing that almost every time I turn on my PC it has the same IP
address, and even if I release and renew through ipconfig I still get
the same one and no errors. But if I go through the GUI and click
"Repair" in the TCP/IP info dialog box, I immediately get a box saying
that "The following operation failed: renewing the IP address." The
dialog box that normally shows the IP address switches to say "invalid
IP address" for about 3 seconds, and then switches back to show an IP
address again which is usually 192.168.2.133.

3. I completely formatted and reinstalled Win XP yesterday just for the
hell of it to rule out the possiblity that I had screwed something up
beyond repair. Nothing changed. Same problem.

4. The default gateway (and DNS server) is always 192.168.2.1. Usually
I can't ping it. But every now and then I can and I get a ping response
quickly. But then the next time I turn on the PC I won't be able to.

Does any of this mean anything?

I guess the main thing I'm wondering right now is, if the problem is
that someone else is stealing my IP address, then why do I appear to
HAVE an IP address? Granted Windows reports an error when trying to
renew it, but it is there all the same. And so is the gateway.

Most likely the scope of IP addresses on the router is very small and
only allows you to have a few addresses. For example, on my Belkin
router it asks me what scope of addresses I want to allow DHCP to
issue to my internal network. So , I set my router up with an
internal scope of 192.168.2.40 ~~~ 192.168.2.60

That gives me 20 IP addresses that can be assigned to any device I
plug in.

Also, remove any hosts file that you may have on your machine as this
would assign a static routing table. Go to
C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc folder to remove hosts.

No one is stealing your IP address most likely.

On 7 Feb 2005 08:09:12 -0800, "Daniel" <danielcreech@gmail.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
>I guess the main thing I'm wondering right now is, if the problem is
>that someone else is stealing my IP address, then why do I appear to
>HAVE an IP address? Granted Windows reports an error when trying to
>renew it, but it is there all the same. And so is the gateway.[/color]

Hi Daniel. Please see below...

"Daniel" <danielcreech@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1107792037.315775.205340@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...[color=blue]
>I really appreciate everyone's input on this. I will add this much....
>
> 1. When I first moved in and hooked up to the one jack that exists in
> my apartment and turned on my PC (directly cabled to the wall - no
> wireless / no router of my own) everything worked fine and yes I did
> have DHCP enabled on my computer. Never had to enter a static IP.
>[/color]

I figured that this was the case.
[color=blue]
> 2. As I mentioned before, I did take my own wireless router out of the
> equation and go back to this set up and am still having problems. But
> I'm noticing that almost every time I turn on my PC it has the same IP
> address, and even if I release and renew through ipconfig I still get
> the same one and no errors. But if I go through the GUI and click
> "Repair" in the TCP/IP info dialog box, I immediately get a box saying
> that "The following operation failed: renewing the IP address." The
> dialog box that normally shows the IP address switches to say "invalid
> IP address" for about 3 seconds, and then switches back to show an IP
> address again which is usually 192.168.2.133.
>[/color]

As far as getting the same IP address is concerned, this is normal. Even if
you do a release and renew you will get the same address since your lease
time hasn't expired. Incidentally, why are you trying to repair your
connection if you get an address with no problems? Has the apartment
manager done anything to help with your complaints? Have they told you how
their network is set up? It's hard to debug a connection when you don't
know the source of the problem.
[color=blue]
> 3. I completely formatted and reinstalled Win XP yesterday just for the
> hell of it to rule out the possiblity that I had screwed something up
> beyond repair. Nothing changed. Same problem.
>[/color]

I forgot to mention this to you in my initial response. XP probably has
nothing to do with this problem. Just so you know, the IP address you get
from DHCP is assigned to your NIC, not your OS.
[color=blue]
> 4. The default gateway (and DNS server) is always 192.168.2.1. Usually
> I can't ping it. But every now and then I can and I get a ping response
> quickly. But then the next time I turn on the PC I won't be able to.
>
> Does any of this mean anything?[/color]

You should be able to ping your gateway at any time. The fact that you
can't most of the time leads me to believe there are some serious problems
with the design of the network at your apartment complex. If you can't ping
your gateway you certianly aren't going to be getting any traffic to/from
it.

Richard

Thanks again for the responses. I know you're all getting sick of this
topic but here are some interesting new developments...

Last night I turned on my computer and magically had Internet access
again. Hadn't changed anything since I left in the morning. Now it
showed a name for the Primary DNS suffix which was the domain name of
the management company (gracedevelopment.com). I had not seen this
entry before. I also had an IP of 192.168.1.133. And the DNS server #
was not the same as the DHCP server # as it had been before. It was
some completely different number, 42.* something. This made sense
because I never thought your primary DNS had anything to do with the IP
address of the gateway your are going through.

So it worked. I powered off, rebooted a couple of times, unplugged the
NIC and the cable and all just to see what would happen. Everything
stayed put and working. So this morning I found it to still be working
and decided to try hooking up my wireless router again. I plugged in a
cable to my ethernet card and to one of the 4 ports on the back of the
router. I hooked another cable from the network jack to the Internet
jack on the router (per the instructions). Then I powered on the router
and then the PC. I opened IE, pointed it toward 192.168.1.1 to
configure the router. No go. Immediately says it can't find that
address. So I disconnected everything. Shut down. Hooked up directly to
the wall again just as before. Even restored to a system restore point
I had set just before hooking up the router. No internet connection
again.

Now the IP address shows 10.0.1.36. Subnet is 255.255.255.0. Gateway,
DHCP, and DNS server numbers are all 10.0.1.1.

I can ping the gateway just fine. There are packets being sent and
received like the connection is open (the way it normally counts up all
the time while you're connected). But I ALWAYS get a DNS error when I
try to open any web site. I've unhooked, rebooted, banged, kicked, and
pleaded and it won't work now.

How could hooking up my stupid Linksys router for 1 minute, when it
isn't even configured yet, completely change the IP address and
configuration set by the apartment building's router? Could it just be
that I don't have a proper DNS server defined. The primary DNS server
can't really be the same IP address as the building's DHCP server can
it? Shouldn't it be an address external to the LAN?

Please help!

Here is a solution which works in my home:

1. Keep in mind that you are trying to connect two routers (your building's
router and your new wireless router). There can be only *one* gateway and
*one* DHCP server and your new wireless router *must have* a unique local IP
address.
2. Disable the DHCP server in your wireless router.
3. Assign a unique Local IP address to your wireless router. (192.168.1.2,
192.168.1.3 etc. are probably outside the DHCP range of your building's
router.)
4. Make sure that the wireless router is allowed to obtain an IP
automatically ("Internet Connection Type" or some such setting)
5. Connect the CAT5 drop in your apartment to Port1 (*not* the uplink port!)
of your wireless router.
6. Test the wired connection first. So connect a computer to Port2 with a
CAT5 patch cable.
7. Test the wired connection.

Good Luck!

-WK


"Daniel" <danielcreech@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1107877656.836773.17120@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...[color=blue]
> Thanks again for the responses. I know you're all getting sick of this
> topic but here are some interesting new developments...
>
> Last night I turned on my computer and magically had Internet access
> again. Hadn't changed anything since I left in the morning. Now it
> showed a name for the Primary DNS suffix which was the domain name of
> the management company (gracedevelopment.com). I had not seen this
> entry before. I also had an IP of 192.168.1.133. And the DNS server #
> was not the same as the DHCP server # as it had been before. It was
> some completely different number, 42.* something. This made sense
> because I never thought your primary DNS had anything to do with the IP
> address of the gateway your are going through.
>
> So it worked. I powered off, rebooted a couple of times, unplugged the
> NIC and the cable and all just to see what would happen. Everything
> stayed put and working. So this morning I found it to still be working
> and decided to try hooking up my wireless router again. I plugged in a
> cable to my ethernet card and to one of the 4 ports on the back of the
> router. I hooked another cable from the network jack to the Internet
> jack on the router (per the instructions). Then I powered on the router
> and then the PC. I opened IE, pointed it toward 192.168.1.1 to
> configure the router. No go. Immediately says it can't find that
> address. So I disconnected everything. Shut down. Hooked up directly to
> the wall again just as before. Even restored to a system restore point
> I had set just before hooking up the router. No internet connection
> again.
>
> Now the IP address shows 10.0.1.36. Subnet is 255.255.255.0. Gateway,
> DHCP, and DNS server numbers are all 10.0.1.1.
>
> I can ping the gateway just fine. There are packets being sent and
> received like the connection is open (the way it normally counts up all
> the time while you're connected). But I ALWAYS get a DNS error when I
> try to open any web site. I've unhooked, rebooted, banged, kicked, and
> pleaded and it won't work now.
>
> How could hooking up my stupid Linksys router for 1 minute, when it
> isn't even configured yet, completely change the IP address and
> configuration set by the apartment building's router? Could it just be
> that I don't have a proper DNS server defined. The primary DNS server
> can't really be the same IP address as the building's DHCP server can
> it? Shouldn't it be an address external to the LAN?
>
> Please help!
>[/color]

"Daniel" <danielcreech@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1107877656.836773.17120@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...[color=blue]
> Thanks again for the responses. I know you're all getting sick of this
> topic but here are some interesting new developments...
>
> Last night I turned on my computer and magically had Internet access
> again. Hadn't changed anything since I left in the morning. Now it
> showed a name for the Primary DNS suffix which was the domain name of
> the management company (gracedevelopment.com). I had not seen this
> entry before. I also had an IP of 192.168.1.133. And the DNS server #
> was not the same as the DHCP server # as it had been before. It was
> some completely different number, 42.* something. This made sense
> because I never thought your primary DNS had anything to do with the IP
> address of the gateway your are going through.[/color]

This all sounds right. Your DNS should look like something outside of your
network (unless they are handling your DNS as well and that's highly
unlikely).
[color=blue]
>
> So it worked. I powered off, rebooted a couple of times, unplugged the
> NIC and the cable and all just to see what would happen. Everything
> stayed put and working. So this morning I found it to still be working
> and decided to try hooking up my wireless router again. I plugged in a
> cable to my ethernet card and to one of the 4 ports on the back of the
> router. I hooked another cable from the network jack to the Internet
> jack on the router (per the instructions). Then I powered on the router
> and then the PC. I opened IE, pointed it toward 192.168.1.1 to
> configure the router. No go. Immediately says it can't find that
> address. So I disconnected everything. Shut down. Hooked up directly to
> the wall again just as before. Even restored to a system restore point
> I had set just before hooking up the router. No internet connection
> again.[/color]

Doing a System Restore shouldn't do anything for your networking situation
unless you messed with the settings. I have no explanation as to why when
you hooked your PC up again it didn't work. My advice is to negotiate with
your apartment manager to allow your router an IP address in exchange for
losing your PC address. In that scenario, you will handle your own DHCP on
the router side and can add as many PCs as you like. Your router will be
the sole owner of the IP address that the apartment manager has doled out to
you.
[color=blue]
>
> Now the IP address shows 10.0.1.36. Subnet is 255.255.255.0. Gateway,
> DHCP, and DNS server numbers are all 10.0.1.1.
>[/color]

What? This makes absolutely no sense. The only reason for this to happen
is if the apartment manager radically changed how they hand out addresses by
abandoning their old addressing schema. It would be quite the coincidence
that this is happening at the same time you are trying to get an IP address
but then again your situation is unusual.

[color=blue]
> I can ping the gateway just fine. There are packets being sent and
> received like the connection is open (the way it normally counts up all
> the time while you're connected). But I ALWAYS get a DNS error when I
> try to open any web site. I've unhooked, rebooted, banged, kicked, and
> pleaded and it won't work now.
>
> How could hooking up my stupid Linksys router for 1 minute, when it
> isn't even configured yet, completely change the IP address and
> configuration set by the apartment building's router? Could it just be
> that I don't have a proper DNS server defined. The primary DNS server
> can't really be the same IP address as the building's DHCP server can
> it? Shouldn't it be an address external to the LAN?[/color]

Hooking up the Linksys isn't changing anything on the apartment building's
router. It's just not capable of doing things like that. As far as what
address a DNS or DHCP server is concerned, it can be anything. For
instance, I have a home network where I run an SBS server. It acts as my
gateway, DHCP and DNS so all those addresses are indeed the same. However,
most times the DNS and DHCP and gateway are different.
[color=blue]
>
> Please help!
>[/color]

I'm not sure how much any of this can really help you. I hope some of it
did.

Richard



----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==----
[url]http://www.newsfeeds.com[/url] The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

This is the time when you should consider getting your own ISP. Internet
access provided by apartment management, as you are finding out, tends to be
spotty and unreliable. If you need reliable internet access, get your own
ISP.


"Daniel" <danielcreech@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1107877656.836773.17120@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...[color=blue]
> Thanks again for the responses. I know you're all getting sick of this
> topic but here are some interesting new developments...
>
> Last night I turned on my computer and magically had Internet access
> again. Hadn't changed anything since I left in the morning. Now it[/color]
<snip>

Thanks, Ook, for that profound advice. The idea here is to avoid
getting my own ISP. Thus the reason for all the effort you've seen on
this thread to get the connection I have working.

I wasn't trying to be sarcastic - I was dead serious. I know people that
live in apartment buildings with apartment supplied Internet service, and
they all suck. They will be unreliable and have intermittent outages. There
is seldom anyone on site that knows how to maintain or configure the
equipment. When it goes down, it can be down for days sometimes weeks. What
you are experiencing is unfortutanely very common.

In a recent message you said you plugged in your router and could not get to
192.168.1.1 (netgear router?). What you need to do is plug your PC into
your router, but NOT plug your router into the apartment network. Your PC
will get an IP address from the router's DHCP server. You will then be able
to connect to the router admin page. Configure the router to provide your
subnet a different IP range - say 192.168.3.x, or do like I do and use
10.0.0.x (a carry over from my Cisco days). The idea is to verify connection
from PC to router, which means your router has a functional DHCP server and
your PC is sucessfully getting an IP from the router. Also to set router to
an IP address that is different from whatever your apartment complex is
likely to use. Once this is done, your PC is working properly and you should
not have to do anything at all - no restore, nothing - it's working, the
problem is not there. Then plug router into apartment network and see if the
router can get an IP address from the apartment complex. If not, their DHCP
server is misconfigured, hosed, down, or just plain out of IP addresses. If
the router does get an IP from the apartments network, you should also have
Internet access again asuming that their network is connected to the
Internet and properly configured.

Do you know how to use IPCONFIG? If not, learn how. Ipconfig /release and
ipconfig /renew are indespensible commands. But that only effects the
connection from PC to router.

I don't think I'm saying anything that hasn't been said before. I understand
your desire to get this working, and I sympathize. I've spent days banging
my head against the wall trying to solve problems like this.


"Daniel" <danielcreech@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1108507353.371067.196970@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...[color=blue]
> Thanks, Ook, for that profound advice. The idea here is to avoid
> getting my own ISP. Thus the reason for all the effort you've seen on
> this thread to get the connection I have working.
>[/color]