Cannot get my XP computer to make a wired connection to the Internet in one room of house

[nfinance2]

I have called Verizon twice on this and they told me that my Network card is bad but I took my computer in and it is not my computer.  Our house is all Cat5 wired with the modem located in the Cat 5 box in the closet.  In one of our kids bedrooms, we are trying to connect a computer operating on XP and it will not connect to the Internet.  It is not the cable or jack because there is already another older computer hooked up in this room to same jack and it works fine whenever I switch it back over.  I have taken the XP computer and sucessfully hooked it up in another room and it connects just fine to the Internet.  I have spent hours on the phone with Verizon going through all the set up stuff, local area connection, Obtain IP address and DNS server automatically are both checked, we have reset the IPCONFIG, tried to ping with no success.  This is driving me crazy because the computer does work fine in another room.  Any help as to what could be causing the computer to not work in this room would be greatly appreciated. 

[crw856]

At first, I was going to say maybe the wiring in the house but now I don't think that is it. If possible, try updating the XP computer to the current software available from Microsoft. That might be the problem, but that's kind of a hard call. If you can move it to the room where you are having strong connection, you might want to try that.

Hope this helps. 

[nfinance2]

Ok, I did exactly that.  Updated EVERYTHING possible and even took the same cable to that room to make sure there wasn't some conflict with the cable and still won't connect.  I keep getting "local area connection 2, can't connect, cable unplugged" and it just keeps trying.

I do not know much about this technical stuff but are there settings to the individual ports on the router?  Could there possibly be something set up for the port that room plugs into that is messing with this XP computer even thought the other computer works fine in there?

I am about to call Verizon for the third time.  They did not know that I was able to hook up that computer in another room so I guess I will see what they say now.

[crw856]

Yes, that might be a good idea is to call them again and tell them your new developments. You may have to reconfigure the internet connection on the computer (if you haven't already) by deleting any old settings off there. This includes:

• IP address
• DNS servers
• Router address
  • and who knows what else

Good luck. 

[nfinance2]

Verizon won't help me.  They claim it is the wiring now even though I have now hooked up 3 other computers to that room without one problem but everytime we go back to this one computer, it is the only one that won't connect.

I want to scream

[nfinance2]

You know, I even connected another router in that room and connected the computer directly to that router.  I communicate with the router but still no Internet connection however, when I plug my laptop into that router, I connect just fine.  Obviously not a wiring problem.

[Mrdy]

When you plug the cable from the wall to your computer--do you see any light on the ethernet port on the back of your pc?

Make sure you use a known working Cat5 cable to hook up the computer. 

What kind of router are you using?

[crw856]

Well, we've ruled out quite a few troubleshooting solutions. The last one that I can think of is how old is the computer? I know that when some get to be a certain age, they start to show signs like this. If its brand new, you can contact its manufacturer or the store where you purchased it.

[nfinance2]

I have a Westell 9100EM router.  There is a light on back of PC in the port and I am using the same cable that works with this PC in another room of the house.  The PC is about 2 1/2 years old.

[crw856]

I would suggest contacting the computer's manufacturer.