Alright guys, big post here, apologies for that in advance.
I have a series of desktop and laptop computers in my apartment hooked up to an Asus DSL-N55U router through various means. My own desktop is connected directly to the router, one of my flatmate has one cable connected to the router which goes up into his room, and connects to a switch which is then connected to his two desktops. Also connected to the router is a cable going into the kitchen, which connects to another switch, the TP-Link SG100-5D. Connected to this is my other flatmate's desktop, and the media pc in the living room. The laptops are connected to the one wifi source in the apartment, the router.
Now, all of the cables and switches we had until recently were 100mb, and I wanted to upgrade to gigabit. So I replaced the switch in the kitchen with the SG100-5D, and everything connected to it fine with no issues. Yesterday the CAT6 gigabit cables arrived in the post and I hooked them up - one replacing the cable going from the router to the switch in the kitchen, and the other replacing the cable to the media pc. I do transfer a lot between the media pc and my desktop, so those were the ones I wanted upgraded first (my desktop has long had a gigabit cable connected at 100mb). My flatmate's desktop in the kitchen remained connected at 100mb with the new CAT6 cable connecting the switch to the router, and that's fine, it means there is no issue with the cable. I say that, however, because the media pc refuses to connect using it's new cable.
It is giving the hair-tearing issue of the unidentified network problem, my old nemesis which I have not experienced in some time. Usually it can be fixed by assigning an IP address to the machine, then adding a network address, or adding the address first, then adding an ip address and removing the network address.. just trial and error until it decides to work. But nothing I've done will solve this one. It is really pissing me off, because the one machine I really do want hooked up via gigabit is the one that won't play ball. The media pc is a S775 based machine, with the Asus motherboard carrying an Atheros AR8131 ethernet adapter, which is a gigabit adapter. It even says so when I click on the adapter status. The light does come on the switch when I connect the cable into a port, meaning it is recognising that it is there.
I have tried the usual TCP/IP and network address shenanigans, I have disabled and uninstalled the adapter, unplugged the cable from the switch and plugged into another port, unplugged it and turned off the switch then plugged it back in and turned the switch back on, plugged the cable going from the switch to the router into another port on both (though my flatmate's pc has no issue so that's not the problem), reset the IP stack... I'm really at the end of my tether. If I assign it an IP address and type in my router's address (192.168.1.1) into the default gateway, it gives an error about it not being correct or something. It won't ping the router, says something about a general failure to transmit. It does not show up on the router's connected devices list. I cannot ping it from any other machine. I have tried telling it in Advanced System Settings that the network is a home one (it always defaults to business for some reason, and never changes anyway no matter what I tell it). It will not bring up the network map.
Any suggestions would be great guys, I am so sick of this bloody issue, I have had it before but have always been able to resolve it eventually. But this time it's worrying that it's giving the error about the default gateway address is wrong, that it won't ping the router's IP. If it means anything, the two cables I bought can be seen
here.
