[ellenpmaier]

Hi eveyone! I'm new here, and I'm hoping that someone might be able to help me. I had a lightning strike at my home last night and now all the computers in my house on my LAN cannot connect to the internet. They all tell me that my LAN has limited or no activity. I have tried to trouble shoot the LAN connection and it tells me that there is a problem with my IP address so, I go to my C: Prompt and try to release and renew my IP, but I get the error message that it is unable to contact the DHCP server and that my request has timed out. My current IP address starts with 169.254., which I know is bad. I have contacted Comcast, my ISP, and they tell me that they can see my modem online and that it is running fine. I do have an ethernet hub a NetGear,it seems to be working (I guess), one light is blinking like it can see the internet, but the other lights for the lines out are not blinking like they should be. Does anyone know anything that I might be able to try? I am at a loss, I dont know what else to do. Thank you all in advance for your time, you dont know how much it is appreciated!
Thank you,
Ellen

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is your network set up like this:

modem > hub > computers
is that hub really a hub or is it a router (what's the model number on it)?
what happens if you plug a computer in directly to the modem?

being that all of the computers are having the same issue, i'd say it's either the modem or this "hub thing" (which i'm assuming is actually a router)

[dsenette]

is your network set up like this:

modem > hub > computers
is that hub really a hub or is it a router (what's the model number on it)?
what happens if you plug a computer in directly to the modem?

being that all of the computers are having the same issue, i'd say it's either the modem or this "hub thing" (which i'm assuming is actually a router)

[ellenpmaier]

Your right, I believe it is actually a router, not a hub. I would be able to tell you the model number, etc., except for the fact that I am unfortunately at work at the moment. But yeah, the set up goes modem- router-computer. I havent had much time to actually do anything with it, as I've been stuck at work all day. Everyone else Ive talked to says that the router must've gotten fried by the lightning. I actually believe I've had this problem before, but cannot remember how it was corrected. Thanks for your time anyways, I appreciate it!
Thanks Again,
Ellen

[dsenette]

well when you get home
What you need to do is what is referred to as 'Power Cycling' your Cable modem. To do this do the following:

• Turn off all computers connected to the router
• Unplug the power cord from the back of the Cable modem and the Router
• Wait at least 5 minutes
• Plug in the power cord into the Cable modem and wait at least one minute for it to initialize
• Plug in the power cord into the Router and again wait at least one minute for it to initialize.
• Power on one computer and try to connect to the Internet with it.
• If the one computer can connect to the Internet, then you can start turning on the other computers one-by-one and checking their Internet connection.

if that doesn't fix it...you MIGHT want to start router shopping

[ellenpmaier]

Thank you very much for everything, I really do appreciate it! I've already started looking around for a new router, but I'll try the Power Cycling first. Again, thank you!
Ellen