I bought my Dell5150 a couple of months ago but did not get to test its LAN until recently (I have only dial-up connection at home). When I tried to connect my laptop to broadband at my boyfriend's place, it did not work. LAN setting shows that it is connected and my NIC is working properly, but when I tried to use IE or FTP, I get a message saying there is no connection. I ran ipconfig to find out that my computer is detecting correct IP address, Subnet work and Gateway, but it does not detect Connection-specific DNS Suffix (this part was left blank). MY NIC is set so that it detects IP and DNS automatically, but it appears that it is not doing what it is supposed to be doing. Does anyone have any idea how I can fix this problem? Your help will be greatly appreciated.

What is a Dell 5150?

If this is the computer model, is the LAN the Network Adapter?

QUOTE

I ran ipconfig to find out that my computer is detecting correct IP address, Subnet work and Gateway, but it does not detect Connection-specific DNS Suffix (this part was left blank).  MY NIC is set so that it detects IP and DNS automatically

Call the owner's Internet service provider and ask for help in setting up the laptop. Find out if the Internet service provider is using static IP addressing or DHCP (dynamic) addressing. If the ISP uses DHCP you can configure (automatic) to find IP, Subnet mask etc.. Shell to DOS and type IP configure / release and then ipconfig / renew. One thing you might also try even though you are using DHCP, is to put in the primary and secondary DNS numbers manually. Call your Internet Service Provider for numbers for the DNS server. You will probably have to enter a host name as well. Your ISP can help with all this.

It might help to know what IP address your LAN Adaptor had picked up from DHCP ... if it began with 169. then this would indicate that DHCP didn't work

QUOTE

LAN setting shows that it is connected and my NIC is working properly,

How do you know this ??

You say you have a dialup at home ? Maybe your Internet Options are simply set wrong then and it is still looking for internet connection through dialup and not through the broadband via LAN

Open Internet Explorer and click Tools->Internet Options, then click the Connections tab. Under the Dial up and VPN settings you should see your dialup connection to your ISP. The option below that should be set to Dial Whenever a Network Connection is not present. Make sure it is.
Then check the LAN Settings button below that and ensure only the top checkbox is ticked. (Automatically detect settings)

What kind of broadband connection is it ? Router ? Modem ?
Zap's suggestion of manually entering the DNS server addresses is worth a shot, though you don't necessarily need to use your ISPs .. any will do Any decent ISP worth their salt will have that info available on their website .. as well as other troubleshooting information.

New to this forum.

* usually isp's are dhcp driven. the 169 address space is reserved by microsoft 169.0.0.1 through 169.255.255.255. So we are not working blind here, please post the results of ipconfig.


Most nic's have loopback functionality testing which can help in determining the operation of your nic.

regs,
ezat

I have to add that on my broadband setup "Connection specific DNS suffix" is blank too.

I think there's a lot of extra complexity to DNS that's just not relevant to basic home broadband setups.

Shell to DOS and type in:

ping localhost and tell us what you get.