My onboard LAN just died!

[irrelevance]

Well it's been a bad month for technology for me. Ibook g4 just bit the dust could well be a logic board and monitor fault. So I hooked up my main PC direct to my internet hub. (the pc used to run through the ibook) This involved me running the ADSL line upstairs into the studio (no wifi card in pc). The line itself is fine.Anyway while trying to connect to the internet last night I realised that my LAN had dissapeared. No LAN in device manager, No network connection, nothing. I can see a LED on at the back but I think there should be two LEDs on? Checked bios which features a virtual cable check and it doesn't seem to get anywhere. The cable that I was using didn't clip in completely to the hub so this may have caused the issue although I'm not sure. Could it be something as simple as a protection device blown? I don't have any space to fit a PCI LAN so either I fix thisat component level or buy a new board!

Any ideas?

[netguyjoel]

Buy a USB NIC

3Com (3C460) Network Adapter

[next to nothing]

First thing to check is your network cable. A typical fault is that you have a "crossed" cable (needed for connecting two computers) but you might need a "straight" cable (needed for connecting to a hub etc.). You could fix this yourself or buy a new one (duh!).

more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_crossover_cable

[irrelevance]

Buy a USB NIC

3Com (3C460) Network Adapter

Aha ok thx.

First thing to check is your network cable. A typical fault is that you have a "crossed" cable (needed for connecting two computers) but you might need a "straight" cable (needed for connecting to a hub etc.). You could fix this yourself or buy a new one (duh!).

more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_crossover_cable

No my cable is straight through always has been.

[valis]

Bad cable will prevent the NIC from working, but won't cause windows to 'forget' about the hardware. Check device manager, and if you don't see it listed there do View>"Show Hidden Devices" to see if it has an exclamation or some other issue.

First thing to check though is to make sure your onboard NIC is enabled in the BIOS...

Also I recommend AGAINST the USB NIC, unless you're completely out of PCI slots (or have a hard time resolving IRQ sharing issues). An Intel Pro/100 adapter should be super cheap and will do the job of getting you online just fine (I have boxes of these things, and they are considerably better than most onboard devices which are typically PIO mode buffers much like AC97).

[iSiStOy]

I can see a LED on at the back but I think there should be two LEDs on?

Yep! 2 leds! One orange and one green. If you checked the device is activated in BIOS, maybe asking to scan hardware device manually could help finding it... Or maybe you deactivated manually once the network connection in Win?!

Edit: Ooops, didn't read you checked connections already. Quite obvious thing you do before going into the BIOS though. Maybe some kind of conflict with another device you plugged in recently?

[eric]

>> (the pc used to run through the ibook)

Like this? - Cable from DSL modem to iBook, then cable from iBook to PC?

Is this the case - the cable from the iBook to the PC would be crossover and the cable from DSL modem to iBook would be straight through?
Check if the DSL modem requires a straight through or a crossover on it's LAN output and make sure you have the right one going to PC.

Eric.

[valis]

>> (the pc used to run through the ibook)

Like this? - Cable from DSL modem to iBook, then cable from iBook to PC?

Is this the case - the cable from the iBook to the PC would be crossover and the cable from DSL modem to iBook would be straight through?
Check if the DSL modem requires a straight through or a crossover on it's LAN output and make sure you have the right one going to PC.

Eric.

^^ This is actually correct. Most routers don't require a crossover to connect to modems either as there's usually a dedicated "WAN" port which is essentially crossed internally.

You can see here the common wiring schemes: Ethernet Cable - Color Coding Diagram. You'll notice there that there are two standards represented on that page, TIA/EIA-568A (category 5 cable aka. "cat5") and TIA/EIA-568B ("cat5e"). The important thing for your case is to note that both standards have 'normal' cable pinouts (colors) matching at both ends if you hold them up side by side, and when both ends do not match that is known as a 'crossover' cable (for connecting computers directly rather than via a switch). This is the part relevant to your situation so you can easily just refer to the diagrams on that page and end here.

For the sake of completeness in what you'll find listed on online shops, ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A was for up to 100mhz (100mbit) and is known as category 5 cable or "cat5". Technically normal cat5 has support via IEEE 802.3ab for 1000mhz (gigabit) but there have been 2 revisions since. TIA/EIA-568-B defines "Cat 5e" cable with improved noise-rejection by swapping 2 sets of pins (officially supporting up to 1000mbit-gigabit-under the full standard) and is the most common cable you'll find now. Then a later revision for Cat6 improved crosstalk & noise rejection further (and offers "full" support for gigabit and potential support for 10GBASE-T (10Gigabit Ethernet) up to some cable lengths, Cat7 provides longer distances for 10G with individually shielded connections but you're unlikely to find that offered for consumers.)

Cat5e is standard and should you need to buy a cable should suffice for your needs. Cat6 is often offered now to consumers as 'premiere' cable for a cost premium, but if you're not wiring a full hosting facility I doubt you'll notice any difference.

[netguyjoel]

Orange & white
Orange
Green & white
Blue
Blue & white
Green
Brown & white
Brown

Straight through cable pattern