XP supposedly failed the installation, it never finished it.
As for lights, when a cable is plugged into the NIC and the modem, I have lights. The only light that doesn't light is the activity light on the modem. I haven't even tried hooking up the router yet, I figure whats the sense if the NIC isn't working right.
I've tried 2 different cables, I'll try a different PCI slot.
I'm thinking there is a setting someplace I am missing.

OK tried a different PCI port, nothing.

hello'
the lights on the pci nic card will only show activeity if the modem is conected and working. you will get only one light on the nic card with out the modem conected and working it allso being conected to the internet.
no activeity will show in those lights other wise.
it might be time to try removeing the nic card from the device manager and reboot.
or trying a known good nic .

ok i just unhooked a computer from my net work and rebooted it with out net work card(nic) plugged in and no lights on it!
i hot plugged in net work cable all lights on nic came on than started to flicker
with activity.
so no network conection no lights on nic.

onw thing that hasn't been looked at is the nic cable itself. make sure you are not using a cross over cable.
you should be connected as follows

cable from wall -> modem -> nic on pc... is this how you have things setup?

in control panels -> networking -> TCP/IP settings are set to DHCP (get address automaticly(sorry about the spelling)).

i just read the docs on this modem and you should be able to setup both NIC and USB at the same time. so i would look at the NIC on the PC. do you have a second pc to do some testing?

???Question??? did you get on the net using USB before you started all of this change?

Hi Eclipse144,

Just for clarity, Does your machine have an internal NIC?

The Dell 8400 series should have the NIC incorporated into the Motherboard.
If you didn't use a loopback plug or have the system on a valid network, the loopback test should fail. This wouldn't indicate that the NIC was bad, just not able to get a signal from from the transmit pin to the recieve pin. This might work if the router was installed and the cable was plugged into it instead of the modem. You might try installing the router without connecting to the modem as a way to isolate the problem.

ZZ

Yes, everything is fine with USB, wanted to change to ethernet so I can network 2 other comps in the house.

All lights function as they should except the activity light on the modem

I don't think anything is wrong with the NIC, even bought a second one as suggested by the tech guy @ Opt Online

Tried 3 different cables

TCP/IP settings are @ automatic


So you are saying to install the router without an internet connection?

Yes, I am saying that you can go ahead an install the router without the modem. You will not be able to get to the internet but you can use it to troubleshoot your computer's NIC. If it works with the router, You know that you have a problem with the modem.

I would try connecting the router and the modem for very short times just for testing. ( you will want to get your firewall set up on the router before you connect this permenently) Once the router is up, You can try plugging the Ethernet port on the modem into the router to see if the modem gets lights. (Don't leave it connected, some routers can be hacked in just a few minutes without a new password and firewall set.)

You should be able to have the router connected to all of the computers while maintaining the USB connection to the internet on one of them, at least until we can toubleshoot the ethernet connection. If the modem and the router work together, you may be able to access the internet on the other computers while we troubleshoot the NIC on your existing connection.

At any rate, the route can be used to help troubleshoot the connection.

ZZ

If you go to Device Manager, under Network Devices and right click on your Ethernet card, Properties, Advanced, and click on "Link Speed/Duplex Mode" - it should say " Auto Negotiation" If it does not, change it to that and try and try again. If it does say that, try 100Mbps/Half Duplex and see if it works.

Did a Utilities disk come with your PC? I am waiting on some more info from one of our collegues - hopefully soon that will tell us about an internal Network Diagnostic program. Not sure where it is located - could be on your HD in a Dell folder or on a disk. If it fails that test, you should be able to go to Dell for support if you are under warranty - I think!

Whew, thought you guys had given up on me! I will try the device manager method if that doesn't work, I'll try installing the router. I will keep you posted

Sorry it took so long to reply. It tried both things and got nowhere with either. I am wondering if there is something wrong with the ethernet input on my modem. It does light up and it does show that it's connected but I still get no internet. I called my ISP and they said all looks fine from their end.

Hi Eclipse,
Were you able to see the router from your PC?

I found a copy of the installation instructions for your modem on the Internet. Accord to them you must contact your ISP in order to use the modem for multiple users. The diagraml that they show does NOT include a Router but uses a switch instead so this may not apply to you but I don't know what configuration the Cable company needs to do to your modem.

It also says that the modem will not work if you have the USB and Ethernet connection on the same PC. You can use both ports at once if you are using 2 different computers but not both connection types on one machine. The instructions that I am look at are here;
http://broadband.motorola.com/noflash/customer_docs/user_guides/485646-001-99.pdf
I found the information on page 33.

ZZ