NIC card Failure

**Jaisudha** · 23-01-2009

hi friends,
Can someone assists me in finding the reasons behind the failure of Network Interfacing Cards i.e (NIC). i faced this problem few day's back and can't judge out the reason behind it.
so can you people will help me in finding those reasons?
i m waiting for your replies......

**Steve123** · 23-01-2009

The Network Interface Card must be functioning for your PC to be able to communicate on a network. When network problems occur, the NIC is less likely to be the cause of connectivity or device problem.

Try to check via the below given symtom:

Unplug and then plug the network connector into the NIC and at the other end.

Check the other end of the cable is connected to a device that is powered on.

Switch the cable to a different port if available.

Check with different network cable.

Check the control panel in Windows to make sure the card is recognized and working.

**Shen** · 23-01-2009

try this one out:
According to me it migth solve your query.

Confirm the connectivity with the far end of the network cable connected to the proper port, or else try it with some another different port.
COnfirm that your PC is not using an IP address that is already in use on your network.
Make a clarification that your PC is not using a name that is already in use by another PC on the network.

**Big Fish** · 23-01-2009

hi there......
i think the major reason that approximately all the people find it in their cases :

Make sure that certain other network devices are powered on.
Make sure that your PC is configured with the proper Workgroup or Domain
name.
Make sure that your PC is not using an IP address that is already in use on your network.
Make sure that your PC is not using a name that is already in use by another PC on the network.
Keep in mind to Allow up 20 minutes for network polling to identify all available resources.
Make sure that network cable connections uses a different port if available.
Also try to check whether Windows is configured for more than one NIC, so that the correct one is being used for this network.

**Zachary** · 23-01-2009

If your NIC has an IP address , but the machine is unable to communicate across the network, then it's a different situation. The first step that you need to consider is the source of the IP address. Was the address entered manually into Windows, or was it leased from a DHCP Server?

If the address came from a DHCP server, then you can discard a lot of possible causes of the problem . If the machine is able to lease an IP address, then it means that the computer’s network card is functioning and that the connection to the switch is good. When a computer leases an address from a DHCP Server, the lease is valid for a specific period of time. If the machine has successfully leased the address in the past, but the lease has not yet expired, then it might appear that the machine has obtained a lease, when in reality the machine is holding onto an IP address that it acquired during a previous session.

The easiest way to find out for sure what is going on is to use the IPCONFIG /RELEASE and the IPCONFIG /RENEW commands to get rid of the old lease and acquire a new one.

If the NIC has an IP address, but the address has been assigned manually, then the first thing that you will need to do is to perform some basic connectivity tests. You can do this by trying to plug in a known good PC into the network connection to make sure that the connection is good. Make sure that the NIC has the correct drivers. For an instance you want to make sure that your hardware is functioning correctly before you continue.

Once you have done basic hardware testing, open a Command Prompt window and try pinging the computer’s own IP address. If the ping is successful, then it means that the TCP/IP protocol stack is at least functioning in a rigth condition. If you receive an error message stating “Destination Host Unreachable” then it means that there is something wrong with the way that the machine is set up. It could be that Windows doesn’t recognize the network card, or it could be that a necessary system file has been deleted or corrupted. You have to remove and re-install the network card and its drivers.

If that doesn’t work, try re-applying the Windows Service Pack since doing so will refresh all of the system files.Assuming that the machine is able to ping itself, try pinging another machine on your network by IP address. If your machine is able to ping itself, but is not able to ping another computer on the network then I recommend trying to ping a few more computers. If you are not able to establish communications with any of them, then look for a bad network link or perhaps a bad network card.

If you are able to successfully ping other machines on your network by IP address, try pinging those machines by hostname. If you don’t know the hostname, then you could use the ping /a command against the machine’s IP address to resolve the address to a host name.

If you are able to ping machines on your network and on the Internet by host name, then your machine is successfully communicating. If you can ping by IP address but not by hostname, then the problem is probably DNS related. Enter the IPCONFIG /ALL command to make sure that your machine is configured to use a DNS server. If there is a DNS server specified, make sure that the DNS server’s IP address has been entered correctly. If everything appears normally, try pinging the DNS server to make sure that you can communicate with it.

If you can ping the DNS server, the DNS server’s IP address has been entered correctly, and the DNS server seems to be resolving addresses for other people on your network, then the problem probably isn’t DNS related. I recommend checking your HOSTS file. It is located in the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC folder. The HOSTS file is a legacy component of TCP/IP that really isn’t used anymore. It was previously used to associate a Web site with an IP address before DNS became popular. Today, a lot of browser hijackers and various forms of spyware work by altering the hosts file. Try displaying the HOSTS file through Notepad. You might be surprised at what you see. If you see entries that shouldn’t be there, you can either delete them or delete the entire HOSTS file.

This will literally and in the true sense can solve your troubleshooting as well as NIC card related problems.