Dell GX260 Windows XP and DHCP connection problems

[AmigaPete]

I thought I would post this here as a last attempt at getting this thing connecting properly... bought a Dell GX260 off lease with XP Pro that could only ever connect at 10MB/s. I thought that was odd, but I could live with it. Then tried to hookup my kids Nintendo Wi-Fi, got that working, but then it crapped out and since then couldn't get the thing to even get a normal connection to my LinkSys Router. Have since reinstalled XP (twice) and even tried Win 2K (once) with reformats in all cases. Even removed the battery to reset everything in CMOS/BIOS. Now I am back to XP. I have done everything I can think of to try and troubleshoot - cable is good, port is good, computer is on same WORKGROUP, XP firewall is off, onboard NIC is reported to be good using diagnostic (passes all the tests), software has been installed in the proper order... I even tried to install a PCI NIC but that gave me more problems (couldn't complete the software/driver install for some weird reason) to the point where after I physically uninstalled it I could not remove it from the system - weird stuff going on there.

Problem is that DHCP is initiated, but somehow cannot connect to my router, then an automatic IP is generated (169.254.144.101) using a DNS of 255.255.255.255 - router is set up as 192.168.1.1. I get a green link light but cannot ping anything. I have tried to connect manually but still cannot connect. I have built small networks at work and have done my home network by myself so I know what to do (it should be almost automatic) but this thing is driving me crazy.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Pete

[AmigaPete]

kd7ota,

Thanks for the quick reply... it is a BEFSR41 with the latest firmware - there was a buggy firmware that had problems with maintaining the WAN lease but I have long since upgraded the firmware.

I did reset the router, and like I said, I am pretty sure it isn't the router because I have two other machines hooked up to it working fine and I can hook up other machines using the same cable and port as my GX260 and have no problems. What I will try, later maybe, is hooking the GX260 directly up to my cablemodem.

I have tried pinging the router and other machines - "Destination host unreachable".

Pete

[AmigaPete]

Well guys, I just connected the GX260 directly to my cablemodem and she connected no problem at 100MB/s!! I am writing this using it now. So I will have to see about reseting my router and starting over from there. At least I now know that this thing can connect at 100MB/s. Stupid computer!

Thanks for all the help,
Pete