Need help with networking

[Evil Baby]

here is the setup.

cable modem --> router 1


router 1
port 1 -->computer 1
port 2 --> computer 2
port 3 --> router 2 (about a 50 foot run)

router 2
port 1 --> computer 3
port 2 --> computer 4(about 30 foot run).

issue is, computer 4 can't really get the internet. It drops packets like crazy or just wont get ip because of DHCP error. The cable tester says the line is good. I'll be running a new cable tomorrow (the 25 foot one) tomorrow to see if maybe it's jus the cable but what I want to know is what type of cable between each devices.

right now everything is a straight through cable but should it be a crossover between the two routers?

[willy]

Computer 3 is working without problem, right ?

Computer 4 ... Have you tried to switch to a different port(s) on router 2 ?

Most NICs/switches/routers have auto-sensing ports nowadays. Straight-thru/X-over shouldn't be a concern anymore ...

[magical]

Did you switch off the DHCP server on the 2nd Router? you must assign the 2nd router a ip different from the 1st and make sure that DHCP is disabled on one of the routers.

This will basically turn it into a switch and all is great

[silentio]

I think it's a cabling issue. Try another port as someone already suggested.

You obviously already disabled dhcp on 1 of the routeres, or computer 3 would not be online (unless of course you set a static ip on computer 3 as a work around).

[GVRtrader]

Just to make my post slightly more organized, i'll call the computer in port 1 A and port 2 B.

Put computer A in port 2 and computer B in port 1 (in another word, switch the two comp's around). This will see if its a port problem if if its either cable/network card/etc. If computer B still has problems, then the problem is probably no within the port since port 1 was working fine with A. If computer A is screwing up, than you know port 2 is screwed up.

Now if the problem is not the port, try updating your NIC drivers. If that doesn't fix the problem you got to pretty much switch the NIC in the 2 computers (or use another method to test rather the NIC is working, but this is the easiest to explain).

If switching the NIC results in A not working but B working, then you know there's an issue with the NIC and you need a new one

[Desolatax]

What type of cable are you using for the 50 foot run and the 25 foot run? Cat5? Cat5e? Cat6? Solid? Braided? Is either of the cables run beside an electrical cable or anything that creates lots of interference?
I'd bet that the problem is cable or something in the vicinity of either of the cables.

[Evil Baby]

sorry, I haven't posted back in here, I had a busy day yesterday.

I'm not sure what kind of cable they were using(it's my friends setup) for the longer runs. We did try using different ports.

I ended up bringing over some of my own cat5e cable and it seemed to work find so I guess it was just the network cable.

Thanks for the help.