New server NIC issue

[guest]

We just installed Windows 2003 Enterprise in a new server. We can’t connect to the network via a hub. We receive Limited or no connectivity message or receive IP 169.254.x.x if using DHCP. We tried the following steps:

1. The computer comes with two 1GB NICs. We tried all of them
2. We added another 100MB NIC for the test. That doesn’t work.
3. We tried to assign static IP. That doesn’t work.
4. We replaced the cable.
5. We tried another laptop to test the cable and hub port.

Any suggestions?

[Bill Castner]

Did the laptop reach a valid DHCP server? You do not say.

The 127.x.x.x range of IP addresses is internal to the TCP/IP stack. Pinging 127.0.0.1 only indicates that the TCP/IP protocol is installed. So ping 127.0.0.1 and report the results.

If the laptop worked and the new system does not, I would re-install the Server OS.

Particularly if the ping test fails.

Remember that "Limited or no connectivity" is not a physical cable plant argument or test -- it means only that a valid DHCP server could not be found and is a perfectly logical test of TCP/IP and not a physical test of the connection.

Since you do not receive any error status from media sense, the issue is purely software.

I am suspicous whether there is a valid driver in the native OS distribution for your dual adapters. Make sure in testing, even with no physical connection, that you set the non-used adapters to either disabled, a false but safe static IP, and that Automatic Metrics is disabled on both unused adapters. A Route Print should help.