Windows server connected to LAN, but not to Internet

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Windows server connected to LAN, but not to Internet

Gerfy1

My windows server 2003 is connected to a modem by an Ethernet cord. It says that it is connected to LAN when I connect the Ethernet to the modem. When I open up Internet explorer it says I am not connected to the Internet. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

daihuws

Do you have any other computers on the network? If so, are they able to connect to the internet without issue?

A useful thing to try is using the ping command from the command line (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc737478(v=ws.10).aspx)

First, try pinging your router:
C:>ping 192.168.1.254 (this may be different according to your configuration)

If that works, try pinging Google's public DNS server:
C:>ping 8.8.8.8
If that doesn't work, either the apocalypse has occurred in the meantime, or you can't connect to the internet. more likely the latter
If it did work, try:
C:>ping www.google.com

Now, if pinging 8.8.8.8 worked and www.google.com failed, you at least know that it's a DNS resolution issue.
I'm afraid I know next to nothing about Windows Server, so hopefully someone better versed in it than me can offer further advice.

Gerfy1

I tried pinging my router and it said that it was unreachable. Amy other suggestions?

daihuws

Do you have any other computers on the network? If so, are they able to connect to the internet without issue?

Gerfy1

I do have other computers connected and they are widows 7 computers. They connect fine.

Rukbat

Is the server set to get an IP address from the router, or are you giving it a static address? (If you have it set to a different subnet than the router, it won't see the router or the internet.)

Gerfy1

how do i check those and what do they mean?(I am a novice with servers and web developing. I am trying to get wordpress for a state competition for high schoolers.)

Rukbat

I don't run Windows servers, so I can't tell you where the IP address is set, but it may be in Properties for the network card (Control Panel/Network). If there's a specific IP address entered (there probably is), you'll have to set it to the subnet the router is on. Give us the make and model of the router and someone can give you that information, or go to http://screenshots.portforward.com/#A and look it up. (The first 3 numbers of the server's IP have to be the same as the first 3 numbers of the router's IP, and the last number of the server's IP has to be outside the DHCP range of the router AND an address not used by any other computer in the network.)

A subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 will probably work.

For the DNS addresses, you can give it the router's address (one of the functions of a router is to route DNS requests).

The Gateway address is the router's address.

BTW, you don't need to be running a server OS to run Wordpress. Windows 7 running xampp will work just fine. However, if you want people outside your network to be able to get to your Wordpress blog, whether you're running Windows Server 2003 or Windows 7 (or any other OS), you'll have to forward port 80 - in your router - to the computer that Wordpress is running on. AND hope that your ISP isn;t blocking incoming port 80 requests. If they are, you can run your web server on a different port (81, 8000 and 8080 are common work-arounds). Then your users have to connect to that port or you can use an IP translation service like DynDNS to translate the incoming port 80 requests to the port you're using. (DynDNS has a free service.)