Tuesday morning I could not get on line or get connected with Outlook for Email. My wife & I are networked & share the comcast cable. Up until now everything was fine, no roblems. 2 days before my problem she installed a new firewall on her computer. I don't know if this has anything to do with my not being able to get online but it seems a little suspect. I want to know my IP address because she can see when her computer gets pinged. If it's mine doin the pinging we should be able to un-block me & I'll have access again. We are networked thru her computer.
Anyone got any ideas?

........b
ps. online from work! <_<

Right click on My Network Places. then select Properties

Right click on Local Area Connection and select properties

Select TCP/IP and then go to Properties

It will give you your local IP address

If My Network Places is not on your desktop, then click the Start button and you will see My Network Places towards the top.

http://www.whatismyip.comi kid you not,

Go to the start menu click on run. Type "cmd" then enter. at the command prompt thpe "ipconfig" then enter. All of your IP settings will be displayed.

whatismyip.com will give you the static IP of your ISP provider (if you have one). It will not tell you what your local IP address, which is what I believe Bruce is trying to find.

The "Command Prompt" and "ipconfig" method will work on many versions of Windows, and that IP will be the IP of the machine you're sitting in front of, but knowing this may not help.

The problem you're likely seeing here is the new firewall isn't configured to forward traffic to your machine. You need to look at the settings for "Network Address Translation" (NAT) if you're both going to be able to share the same cable connection. One problem you face here is that it's very likely the IP of your box isn't fixed, but can change over time. Many boxes are now set up using Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), which generates a new address for you, perhaps regularly while you're connected, sometimes only when you power up again.

Basically, there's an "outside" IP (which is what whatsmyip would report), and two "inside" IPs. Your wife's box has both an outside and an inside IP. Your box only has an inside IP. The firewall software is supposed to be able to allow connections from your box and forward the traffic out, then forward the return traffic back to you (this is NAT). To the cable company, it looks like you only have one IP address (the outside IP on your wife's box), and it looks like all requests from both computers are coming from (and returning to) that one IP address. The NAT software handles splitting it back out again.

If the instructions of the firewall software you purchased are too difficult to figure out (or don't exist), a far less aggrevating way to handle this is to buy a hardware firewall/router, which are cheap ($30-60), from a vendor like Linksys or Netgear, and are nearly self-configuring these days. They'll work with any version of Windows, and require no software configuration.

Software fiewalls are crap, get yourself a linksys broadband router and turn it on and be done with it, trash the software firewall, they are more trouble than they are worth.

ipconfig will give you all the info you need ...

Andy

Thanks guys and thanks to Sean too.

I finally called Comcast and this nice Lady with a SUPER nice hispanic accent did what all of you said. ... START/RUN/ ipconfig... disconnect LINKSYS & go direct then back again. She got me up & runnin.
It's just like working on the 914. Once you do something you don't forget & I got this written down!

(prolly fergit it by mornin tho!)

..........b

Almost forgot..
So, with this Linksys Router I don't need a firewall???
It says it's a "LYNKSYS 5 group workgroup Hub".

For once I can tell my wife she's puting too much shit on her computer!!!

...........b

No, You have a Linksys hub, not a router, a hub is just a network collision maker, get yourself a Linksys Broadband router with a 4 port switch, then you will have a firewall and a faster switch. The hub would work fine for networking up to 5 computers but it serves no other purpose. It does not let you share a broadband connection, its your wifes computer that is sharing the connection with you and from what you said, she is most likely running XP.

actually she's running ME and you're right, now that I think about it, I am sharing the connection with her computer. Thanks buddy

.........b

Windows ME????
Oooh I am Sorry!

ME is the absolute worst OS you could possible run. I would look into upgrading her tomorrow. Bring her to at least 2000. Upgrade her RAM and get her on a 32 bit OS.

Depending upon what you are doing and what you want to protect, a hardware firewall is not very secure.

Software firewalls give a more granular security that is needed to block alot of the common attempts.

I would suggest you read the manual on her firewall as well as read the manual on the linksys router/switch (If you get one)

Please if you do nothing else, change the default settings on the router before you are online to long.

Also, if you upgrade to XP (Which you should) get ALL the patches from microsoft immediately.
I got hacked while I was downloading the patches for XP....it was amazing how fast I was found, but I think I was already on someones list before I upgraded....

Good Luck.
Rich