A little Vista Home Help

[Fordman]

Hello,

We just got a new computer with Windows Vista Home Premium  (for the wife). Out of the box, it seems to work fine. Then attach the Cat5 cable and no connection to the Internet  . So I then call Gateway and they tell me it is not a hardware problem after they walk me though the steps. Now they can no longer help me as their part of the bargain is met by there not being a hardware issue.

I have tried 3 dozen or so times to create a new broadband connection and it keeps asking me for a username & password. I have never used a username or password when using my internet on my XP computers.

I called my ISP and they also tell me I dont need a username or password, the ISP uses the cable modem to let onto their network and if the modem ID is correct it will automatically let me on. They tell me to call Gateway  !

So, any thoughts from the crowd at large. I have surfed the net looking for an answer and everything Micro soft has is what I've been doing and all the spin off sites say do the same as the Micro soft one says.

What might this Vista Virgin be doing wrong?

Thanks for the time,
Fordman

[BobA]

Open the network sharing center in the control panel and pick setup a connection or network on the left hand side and go thru the setup and see if that helps. 

[Fordman]

Thanks Boba, but I've been through that 3 dozen times and it wants a username & password. My ISP says I dont need a username and password, they read my modem strings to make sure my connection is legite.

So now I'm stuck with a computer that wont connect to the internet?

No wonder people in hordes are leaving Micro soft and going to Mac!

Thanks for the effort,

Fordman

[BobA]

Can you see your network connection using network and sharing center and going to manage network connections on the Left?   What is the current state of you ethernet adapter?  Do you also have are wireless connection?   If you do what is its status?    Disable your wireless connection if you are not using it and reboot and try again with your eithernet adapter.

[Endaar]

First off, do you have a router connected to the cable modem? If not, get one. Besides the fact that directly connecting to a cable modem is pretty much guaranteed to get your PC infected with something, it also makes setting these things up more complicated.

If you're getting to the point where you are being asked to enter credentials, you're doing something wrong. I don't even think you should have to setup a broadband connection. Your network card should pickup an IP address (from the router, ideally) and that's should pretty much be it. If you are attempting to connect directly to the cable modem, bear in mind you probably need to reboot the modem after it's connected to the PC in order for your PC to get an IP address.

Get to a command prompt, run an "IPCONFIG /ALL" and post the output here.

Endaar