Help, My home built mame computer wont go online.

[rackoon]

I bought a bunch of parts from eBay, stuck them together and made a computer for half built Mame cab. I have my Roms, but cant get online to download MAME32.

The computer I am writing this on is a Mac and file planet wont let me down load onto it so I can transfer files. My MAME computer works great. I installed winXP that works well but I just cant get it to go online. I have comcast cable and should be able to just plug into any computer and it should work. I have done it before with other Macs. But my MAME computer is window based.

My new motherboard has a LAN port. I dont need a special card or something do I. Do I need to configure somthing to make it accept the internet.

[JONTHEBOMB]

My new motherboard has a LAN port. I dont need a special card or something do I. Do I need to configure somthing to make it accept the internet.

Did your motherboard come with a cd?

If the motherboard did come with a cd there maybe drivers on the cd that you need to install in order for the LAN port to work.

Plan B: (If you have Saint's book, Project Arcade)
The cd in the book has a old version of MAME32.

[TOK]

I'll go through some basics for someone not too familiar with XP/PC's. I don't mean to be stating obvious stuff if you're familiar with them. Sounds like you're primarily a Mac guy. 

First thing to do is find out if XP recognized the hardware. Right click on My Computer->Properties->Hardware->Device Manager.

Go down to Netwwork adapters and see if your ethernet port is recognized. If there is a red X or a yellow exclamation point over it, you need to find drivers for the device. Hopefully you have them on CD like Jonthebomb said.

If it says the device is working properly, right click on My Network Places->Properties and right click again on the Local Area Connection icon (there may be more than one). When you right click, go down to Properties and open it.
Ensure the TCP/IP check box has a check on it. Highlight it and click Properties.
Comcast uses dynamic IP, so make sure the Obtain an IP address automatically and Obtain DNS server address automatically are checked.

Just a couple of other things... If you are not using the machines on a router (just switching the ethernet cable back an forth between the PC and Mac), you need to unplug the cable modem when you move it between machines. If you don't, it will appear that you have an IP address, but you will not be able to surf.

Hit Start->Run and type CMD in the dialog box. When the DOS box comes up, type in ipconfig and hit Enter.
If you have connectivity to Comcast you should see an IP address (typically starting with 68. 69. or 71.xxx.xxx.xxx) and some info telling you what you're connected to at comcast.net.
If you have 0.0.0.0 or a 169.xx.xxx.xxx IP, you're not getting out.

Good luck!

[kelemvor]

Also some cable modems get angry when you swap devices connected to them.  SO assuming that LAN care is working per the instructions above, unplug the cable modem for a minute and then plug it back in so it forgets what was plugged into it before.  Then boot up your PC and see if that helps.

[leapinlew]

My sister lives in Hawaii and apparently their ISP didn't like having a MAC attached and then a PC. They had to call the cable company who had to flip a switch or something...

[ahofle]

Also some cable modems get angry when you swap devices connected to them.  SO assuming that LAN care is working per the instructions above, unplug the cable modem for a minute and then plug it back in so it forgets what was plugged into it before.  Then boot up your PC and see if that helps.

It usually takes over a minute to forget the previous MAC address.  The cable company can usually reset it, but if you do it yourself you probably need to leave it unplugged for several hours (or overnight).

[TOK]

It usually takes over a minute to forget the previous MAC address.  The cable company can usually reset it, but if you do it yourself you probably need to leave it unplugged for several hours (or overnight).

I have never found this to be the case. Simply unplug and plug back in. I know in the instance of Comcast there is nothing you need to call them for regarding the MAC address.

[Crowquill]

It might be helpful to know what setup you have. Is there a router involved or are you just switching cabling? What motherboard do you have?

Go through what TOK said to check the drivers since that's probably the issue. You also might double-check that the onboard ethernet is enabled in the BIOS if it gives you the option. On a used system I usually reset the BIOS and then make the changes I need just to be safe.  It's also possible on a used mobo that the ethernet port is bad, but probably not likely. If you can't find drivers or get the port to work right, you can always throw in a cheap ($10 or so) PCI network card. It'll definitely come with a driver disc.

I'm not sure why you'd have trouble downloading the file from fileplanet. I just downloaded it on my G4 (10.4.8 w/ Safari). The only problem I ran into was not scrolling down enough to find the non-subscriber link.   

As far as transferring files from the Mac to the Windows box, either use a USB flash drive or burn CDs/DVDs. If you knew networking worked, but just had modem/ISP problems you could use 'Windows Sharing' in OS X 10.2 and up. One program that helps with this is Sharepoints. It'll let you pick folders on the Mac other than your home directory to share with XP. How did you get the ROMs transferred?

I know some of this can be a pain. I set up my XP MAME cabinet by downloading files on my Mac.