PING THE LOOPBACK ADDRESS

TCP/IP is Microsoft's preferred route for Windows networking. When you install a networking card, Device Manager reports that it's working properly. You can make sure it's functional with the installation of the TCP/IP protocol in Control Panel.

The first test, whether you assign the IP addresses to your PCs through Windows 98's Automatic Addressing feature using a DHCP server, or statically, is to test the loopback address. To do this, use PING utility command, which tests for a connection between two hosts, similar to sonar--"If you're there, send me a reply."

For example:

Ping 127.0.0.1

The numbers 127.0.0.1 are a reserved address-- a loopback to your own adapter. If you fail to receive a reply from your own adapter, without even touching a network cable, you will never go any further.

Look for a reply like this:

Pinging 127.0.0.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128

Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128

Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128

Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 127.0.0.1:

Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:

Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

If this fails, backtrack over the configuration in the Network applet of Control Panel and Device Manager again to see if the card is installed correctly and that TCP/IP is bound to the card.