Shaw → Can't get IP from DHCP through Shaw Modem - A Real Puzzle

Here's one for all you techs

My granny was recently moved (you'd love her, she's a sweety). Says to me "I can't get my emails". I'm far away and so I tell her to call shaw - issue with the new connection most probable. She gets a tech to come over. She says he plugs his laptop in and it works: He figures its the PC.
So they call me in (I'm no tech - actually took a basic "programming in Visual Basic" course many years ago for fun and now the family thinks I'm a guru ...They are sooooo wrong!!) I digress

I go to her place. hook my laptop to the modem direct. Reboot everything (modem, laptop) and I'm on the internet. Connection seems fine.
Hook up and fire up grannies computer after powercycle. Weird. Got a 192 IP address (again - no router in this house) so do a release/renew and get the 169 IP... Call shaw. After telling them that "there is no router here", we start the process: TCP/IP enable/disable, NIC card remove and reinstall, reinstall winsock, ipconfig release, renew, dnsflush - you name it, we did it I'm sure. Just can't get a valid IP address.
we figure - NIC ISSUE or SOFTWARE ISSUE. Under the circumstances, I agree.

I tell granny (actually her daugher) and tell her "take the PC to a tech and have him fix it - it's broke". They do, he apparently plugs it in, gets IP and is surfing away. He says PC is fine. HMMMM ???

They call me up and explain. I think "Strange"? so I go get the pc and bring it to my house (I also have Shaw and I need to double check this). I stop at a store and buy a NIC card - you know, in case.
I get home and decide prior to changing the nic, I'll just try to connect. I Connect her pc, reboot all equipment and I'm online. (no router in between). Installed Service pack 3, updated the nic card, watched some youtube ... It's working fine.

HMMM ... can't be computer. It seems to work like the tech said. Can't be Shaw, the first tech visit said it was fine ... I even had my laptop working there when I went over. ??

I return to grannies with the pc. Call shaw and we decide it may be a cable or modem. Swapped out the nic cable at grannies (Actually tried 4 of them including the one I used to connect my laptop successfully in the first place) Nothing! Went to Shaw and got a new modem - set up, rebooted, nothing. Called them, the reprovisioned the modem (whatever that is) - rebooted, nothing.

The last thing I did was change how things are plugged in at her apartment. I thought maybe a power issue (I was reaching to be honest). Figure laptops worked, but not a desktop ... so I plugged the modem and computer to separate wall outlets, etc ... Still no valid IP address (Just the cursed 169 ...)

OK experts, here's a puzzle.
PC desktop (HP tower running Win XP Home) can't pull an IP address at Apartment.
Laptops (3 of them to date) have been brought in and all can pull ip from her modem.
The pc was tested a tech's shop (not sure which one) and it worked. I also tested the pc at my house, and I was able to pull an ip ... all direct from modem (no router)after a simple powercycle of all equipment.
swapped out nic cable (tried 4 of them including one that I use and still use and know it works)
swapped out cable modem ...
Tried changing power configuration

Status: Tech from Shaw is scheduled to come in a weeks time. I was thinking of just doing what I initially planned to do (swap out the nic card) but other then that, I have no idea what could cause a computer to work in one location and not the other - AND on top of that, a whole bunch of other computers worked fine at the location where grannies computer is not working.

Its the NIC!
swap it out and you will be G2G.

I saw this a fair amount when i worked for Shaw in HP systems.
It has something to do with a public IP address.
Thats why it worked at the tech shop, they are on a private network, and thats why it pulled a 192 from the shaw modem when it was resetting because its a private IP range... as for your house and not behind a router... i cant explain that... but everything else fits.

I saw a case a couple days ago, where a mac pulled a 192 off the modem while it was in the middle of being reprovisioned. Not sure how it'd be trying to pull it in this case, though.

I'd make sure the DNS settings are correct, set it all to automatic if it isn't already. Maybe reset IE settings (terribly easy in IE7). It could be something that HP threw in to muck things up. You may also want to see if it decided to install IPv6 to the NIC (totally unsupported in WinXP/Shaw) and uninstall it if it did.

If all that fails, swap out the card/install a new one. I keep a spare in my case just in case something goes wrong.

Give this a try:

1) Unplug the power to the Shaw modem.
2) On your computer, open up command (run > cmd) and type netsh int ip reset ip.txt
3) Turn off computer.
4) Plug in modem and wait for it to lock in.
5) Start up your computer.

I would be hesitant to say that it's a NIC card issue, but if that doesn't work, it never hurts to try.

Thanks for all the help.

I will definitely try the suggestions - check dns settings, etc ... we went through them already but never hurts to check again.

Will also try what CogitoSum suggests ... I think we did the "netsh int ..." thing, but not in the same order that you outlined. I'll give it a go.

If nothing, the new NIC will go in.
I will post my results for anyone interested.

As an aside, I need to say this - perhaps because I've read SOOOO much negative comments about shaw tech support, they don't know nothing, blah blah blah. I've been on the phone probably 3 times with them since this started and I've gotten really good support. There was a time when if the computer pulled a 169 ip, you would hear the infamous "The problem is your computer sir - bye now!". Not sure what has changed but the guys I've talked to out there have really made an effort to help. So in the sea of negative comments, I'm just going to 'tip my hat' to the fine individuals out there that have tried to help. it's much appreciated.

May also do your sweet granny a favor and get her a cheap router as some additional protection. Keep all the internet nasties away.

This could be a few issues, most pointing to the NIC as the problem. Could be the NIC is set to either 10MB mode or 100MB mode, and the Motorola modem works best at auto, usually duplex don't mater, but leave it on auto too, or full. Could be a mac address conflict and the modem is receiving NARPs, changing the mac address will fix that. Could be the nic has a mac address of all 0's or F's and you won't get an IP from Shaw with that. Some NIC's just don't play ball to well with the Motorola modems.

Those are a few of the common issues I've seen with PC's getting the 192 address when the modem has not hooked up with the CMTS in the headend yet (offline) and not getting a public IP from shaw's DHCP server. Quick way to test or fix, is to install a new nic, or put in a router.

try changing the mac on the nic. Chances are someone has the same nic as you do especially if its a prefab and someones already leased that ip registered to the mac, so change the mac to something random and chances are itl work.

Motorola modem will give a 192.168.100.11 when the modem doesn't have sync and its in standby .

That being said.

Turn off the computer
Turn off the modem

Turn the modem back on wait for block sync - 4 solid green lights.

Boot the computer up

If you get an ip but can't release and renew it check your firewall. Windows will get an ip but as soon as the software loads it will lock the connection down.

If you get a 169 ip and its windows xp then go to dos and type

netsh w r c

This will reset your winstack and can fix alot of problems if something is locking down your connection or corrupted the LSP .

Since you have identified the problem is only related to Grannies computer (since other computers work fine).

Windows has a problem. You may need the Windows CD, make sure you have the CD before trying this.

* Click Start > Run and type "sfc /scannow" and the click OK.
Note the space between the c and the /

If you have Service Pack 2 (SP2) or SP3 installed, you will need the SP2 or SP3 version of the version of the CD. This can be done with a borrowed CD, if you don't have one.
* Allow the scan to run and when completed, reboot the system.

Running this can take 45 minutes or longer depending on what problems are found and how fast the computer is. This command scans all protected system files and replaces incorrect versions. This should fix any communications problem. A lot of techs are either not aware of this command or are not allowed to tell you about it because it takes so long to run.

Thats because its faster to wipe and reinstall the whole PC (depending on what you have installed of course but just a fresh XP install is faster in most cases)

And because most people don't have their XP install CDs these days. If they're buying a prefab the closest they'll have is a restore CD, if even that much.

Plus, short of rolling your own, or downloading an illegal copy, how many people in the world have a CD copy of WinXP SP3?

Well ... sorry for the Delay.
Want to thank everyone who throw in their 2 cents worth.
Took the computer, installed and new Nic and everything's working fine.
I'm still not sure why the computer didn't work at grannies apartment but worked everywhere else with the old nic card ... but ... oh well.
It was an HP computer and the old nic was - hmmm - not sure about the technical terms, "hardwired" in the motherboard (onboard nic).
Anyways
I disabled that one and installed a new one and away it went ... pulled the ip and that is all she wrote - granny got her 80 some messages.

again, thank you all for the advice ...
extra thanks to cableguy84 who called it from the start.

In hindsight, I wish I would have checked back on the other responses sooner though (had to go out of town for a few days) ... I would still like to know exactly why the other nic (that originally came with the computer) didn't work - specifically at her house. Would have like to try a few others. The mac address might have done it - but in the end, granny is happy so I'll leave it at that.
Thanks again all.

alot of times it's just an error in the windows built-in DHCP client. unplug cable modem's power for 10 secs, plug it back in, then in a cmd prompt type:

ipconfig /release
net stop "DHCP client"
net start "DHCP client"
ipconfig /renew

i'm hoping it's not your nic, because buying things sucks, and should be an absolute last resort (because it might not even work). also, check for updates for her motherboard chipset, and drivers for your specific nic (on a computer with working internet ofc). sometimes the actual chipset used in nics can be different than it appears, so try quite a few and do some research (google should suffice). an issue here is usually an issue with a bad OS install, however. so if the pc hasn't been formatted since it was purchased and installed with a different OS media, this is unlikely to be the problem.

netsh w r c would probably have fixed it

I would always use sfc or anything after netsh w r c

After working cable support for 3 years. Always the magic command to fix most 169's