My Laptop Will Only Connect to the Web at Home

[TruthIs1]

I am trying to use my laptop to connect Though a Cable (not wirelessly) to a broadband cable modem. Zone Alarm says it found a new network connection, but then the connection turns out to be Limited or No Activity and I can't connect to the web.

What should I do

Thanks

[glengels]

I am confused by the wording of your title and description.

The title says, "My Laptop Will Only Connect to the Web at Home". This sounds like it does connect to the web, but ONLY [my emphasis] at Home (as opposed to somewhere else like at work).

But in your description, the only attempt you mention is one that doesn't connect ("the connection turns out to be Limited or No Activity and I can't connect to the web").

Does it indeed work in one place but not in another? Please clarify both setups - tell us both what you are connecting to that works (if there is such a setup) and what doesn't work.

A few things to check:

- Since you mention Zone Alarm, you could be having an issue with the firewall itself. Right-click on the Zone Alarm icon in the system tray, and do "Shutdown Zone Alarm" (then confirm that you really want to shut down). Try your connection again, and do the remainder of the checking listed below, with Zone Alarm off. Once your connection is working, you can then start it up again.

- Are you using the same cable in both places? If not, could be a bad cable.

- Under Network Connections, click on Local Area Connection, click on Properties, click on Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), click on Properties. Is it set to "Obtain an IP address automatically", or to "Use the following IP address"? Do you know what is expected for the device you are connecting to? (Most networks will use "Obtain an IP address automatically", but there are exceptions.)

- If set to "Obtain an IP address", is it obtaining one? To check, open a Command Prompt (under Accessories), and type in "ipconfig". What are the address, subnet, gateway shown?

- Are there other computers also connected to the cable modem, that are connecting properly to the web? If not, could be a problem between the cable modem and internet, nothing to do with the computer.

Do all the above and post the answers / results back here, so people can give you more informed advice.

[TruthIs1]

Sorry for the confusion.
1. My laptop works fine at home connected through a router and cable modem.
2. when I am at my parents they're computer connects to the internet fine, I simply unplug the cable connecting the cable modem to the computer and hook it up to my laptop, so the wire isn't the problem.
3. I disabled Zone Alarm, so that's not the problem
4. It searches for a new ip address every time a cable is plugged in.
5. under network connection it is set to obtain ip address automatically
6.Under Ip config I get
Address 169.254.210.157
Subnet Mask 255.255.0.0
Default gateway 169.254.210.157

[glengels]

I don't think you have connectivity to the modem / router at your parents house. That address which starts with 169.254 looks suspiciously like a Windows autoconfiguration address (what it does when it can't connect). This is confirmed by the fact that the ip address and gateway have the same address - this shouldn't happen if it connects, since the ip address of the computer would be different from the ip address of the modem / router.

What is causing this? A couple of ideas come to mind:

- I've seen this type of thing happen when the router or Ethernet cable only supports 10Mbps, but the computer's Ethernet adapter is trying to do 100Mbps. Try changing it to 10Mbps explicitly and see if this fixes the problem. (This is probably a setting from the Ethernet adapter. You may have an icon for the adapter in the system tray, or else go to Control Panel / System, click on Hardware, then Device Manager, navigate to the Network Adapter for Ethernet and click on Properties, then there should be a tab to let you manage the device.)

- Or, it could be a case where your parents' router is not set up (as a DHCP server) to give out IP addresses, and your parents' computer has a static IP address but yours does not. You can look at your parents' computer TCP/IP configuration just as you looked at your own. And confirm by looking at your parents' router settings; hook up your parents' computer (i.e. the one that works), use a command prompt to get the gateway IP address, then type that address by itself into the location bar of a web browser. It is very likely that the router will have a web browser interface. Look for a screen or setting that says, "DHCP server" and see if it is enabled. There could be other obscure situations here - for example, there could be a max number of IP addresses that it gives out, and if your parents have enough computers that the max is reached, then it won't have another address to give out to your computer until the lease expires for the one that you unplugged to plug yours in.

My bet would be on the Ethernet adapter with 10 vs 100 speed, but I mention the rest to give you some other ideas. Something is certainly preventing it from getting a proper IP address.