problem

[newme]

hello
i got a call freom my mom last night,she ordered a high speed connection and she tried to install it last night,she says they told her ,that her computer was to old and she would have to get a dialup connection.she bought this computer 2nd hand and it had an nic card installed,so someone has used it before.i live to far away to help her,i didnt think the age of the computer would effect what kind of connection you can have.i was thinkin of building her one and sending it to her.

[LawyerRon]

Do you know the specs on the old computer? Also, is she running Windows 3.1 or 95 and later. Her problem might be the OS and not the hardware.

[newme]

no,i tried to get my mom to tell me but it was impossible,she just doesnt have clue,i cant understand there being an nic card in there and not able to use it.its windows 98,im just wondering if the provider was having trouble with her understanding and just told her that

[Tuf]

It would have to be pretty old to not be able to use a broadband connection. It's possible that it's old enough to have Win95 or Win 3.11 and maybe her ISP's software doesn't support them. But if it has a 10BaseT or better network card in it there is probably a way to make it work.

[reboot]

It'll work, just probably not with the stupid install disk that the ISP gave her.
Run the network wizard and it should connect. It's probably old remnants of the previous NIC/LAN connection screwing her up.

[newme]

reboot do you think i should get her to reinstall the nic card, would that help,is that what you meant by old remnants of the previous nic ,or should she try just the wizard.by the way they phoned her to get the dialup connection,and told her she would have to pay long distance charges on it,she said no thanks.now they want to help her setup the adsl connection,this after they told her that her computer was to old.

[reboot]

I think the easiest would be to get her to check and see if the NIC is installed, just go into device mangler and look for red X's or yellow ! marks.
If it needs reinstalling, we can go from there.
Instead of running the ISP's disk, just run "inetwiz", select LAN, and it should install any necessary protocalls to connect.
I was thinking that if it was on a high speed connection with a different ISP previously, those old settings may still be present.
Is this a new install of 98, or a hand-me-down after someone deleted personal stuff?
If the computer is running 98, it's not too old. Anything that will run Win9x can be hooked up to broadband. I have an ancient PB 75mhz on 95 that works just fine, so I'm sure your mom's is newer than that.

[newme]

the windows 98 on her computer was already installed on it from the previous owner,so they must have cleaned it up befor they sold it to her ,im not looking forward to helping her do this,all she knows is what a mouse is and a keyboard.

[newme]

do you type inetwiz in the run box .

[glc]

It's probably just not strong enough to install the bloated PPPoE software from the ISP. She could use RASPPPoE instead.

[newme]

wow glc ,you might as well have said that in spanish,didnt get that

[glc]

Google it.

[newme]

i just had her look in her device manager under network adapters and all i said was > dial up adaptor ne 2000 compatible> this is a dial up modem right?she does have nic card insalled woudnt it show in device manager

[newme]

under network connections it says
clients for microsoft
dial up adaptor
ne 2000 compatible
tcp/ip adaptor
i cant see any nic card, anyone else see it ?i dont think her card is installed

[glc]

"NE2000 Compatible" is the NIC. Many old ISA bus 10 megabit cards are seen as that, it's an old Novell standard.

[newme]

is this good enough for the high speed connection,or should she install a new one.she bought a new one card, she is going to return it ,but if you think she would be better off with a new one i will help her install it
thanks

[glc]

A NE2000 is all you need for broadband as long as it works.

Remember that most ADSL these days is PPPoE - not "always on" like cable. You need some way to log on, be it the software from the ISP or RASPPPoE - or a PPPoE compatible router.

[newme]

okay thanks glc,we will give it a go tonight.

[kittyfire]

The nic may have been in there for other networking... not necessarily broadband. Many broadband connections are using usb instead of ethernet now. As a general rule... someone needs to be Windows 98 or higher (95 isn't supported by Microsoft so no one else wants to touch it either... 98 is going that way fast), 166mhz processor or higher, 64M RAM on 98, ME, NT, 2000 and 128M on XP, and a working usb port or ethernet card.

[Tuf]

glc's suggestion of a router is not a bad idea when trying to use older hardware on a broadband connection. Next would be can your machine support a browser that will let you view the things you want to online. I've a got a friend that has incredibly old IBM(circa 1987) that he runs nothing but his email on. It is routed through a Linksys router to his DSL.

[newme]

hello
my mom has phoned me and she is tryingto set up her internet connection.i tried to get her to use the network wizard,but she says it is saying there is no connection.now her modem is blinking green,can she try to renew her ip address would that work,does the blinking green mean thre is a connection,she has been trying ot phone her isp but getting no answer,this going to be tough project.it doesnt help that she has windows 98 and i have xp and im trying to explain with different os.

[kittyfire]

Is she cable or dsl and what modem? On some modems, the same light for sync will blink if it's trying to transmit and receive. On others, a blinking green means it's looking for sync but not finding it.

[newme]

its dsl not sure which modem can phone and ask

[newme]

she says its d-link

[glc]

Make sure she isn't plugging the DSL modem into a filter, the filters are for the voice phones only.

[kittyfire]

Only dlinks I'm familiar with are internal PCI cards and routers... but if she has an internal dsl modem that's a dlink pci card then I'm not sure what's blinking green... and if it's a dlink router... wow, a dsl company send a residential customer a router?

eeek... sorry to be annoying poking for specifics, hon. Just trying to make sure I understand what we're working with.

_____________________
Okay, I did find some specs on a dlink external ethernet dsl modem and a usb model. Ask her how many lights it has on the front. If it has two, we're looking at a usb modem. If it is the usb modem, find out if it's pulling it's power from the usb port or if it has an independant power source. That's a big issue for older systems as some usb architecture just cannot handle the power demands for some usb devices. I'll wait till I hear more from you before babbling on.

[newme]

im going crazy tring to do this over the phone.her isp says she is connected her modem is blinking which indicates she is connected,now she put the cd in and she gets to the part of system requirements,40 megs of ram 32 required processor 99 mhz 300 mhz required does not meet requirements ,doesnt let her go any further.tried the internet connection wizard,is that just for dialup?what else can i do to try get this going,trying to explain anything to her is vey difficult,any ideas?should she carry on with the system she has.

[Werewolfdaddy]

If her processor is less than 166mhz, then she' s probably not going to surf on a broadband connection. If it's over 266, then she's okay. However, if she really wants to enjoy her superfast internet connection, I would suggest at least 300mhz cpu and 128 memory on at least windows 98se.
I work for a dsl tech support company and I would say that xp is the easiest to configure, but requires the best system. For the least amount of headaches, I would suggest 600mhz+ with 256megs ram and a nice 3com or linksys ethernet card. Stay away from usb dsl modems. Not only do you have to worry about all the protocols, but you also have to worry about driver compatibility.

[glc]

Those are the minimum requirements for installing the PPPoE software provided by the ISP. There are 3 alternatives, and (2) and (3) will require that the ISP set her account up (username and password, etc.) manually at their end:

1. Upgrade the computer
2. Use a router (connect the modem to a router and connect the computer to the router)
3. Install RASPPPoE instead of the ISP-provided software

Options 2 and 3 may be beyond the abilities of you and her doing this over the phone and the ISP will not "support" either option.

[newme]

hello
thanks for the help, she phoned her tech support and she is finally online,after christmas im going to build her a new computer.