My friend has a computer with a cable connection. His modem currently connects to a standard NIC. He has a PS2, with the recent addition of a network adapter. As I understand it, he can connect the PS2 to a second NIC on the computer, and share the internet connection.

I gave him the card and what I believe to the correct drivers. He installed both. The network settings show it, and say a network connection is unplugged. That seems fine to me. However, if tries to connect the second NIC to the PS2, he cannot connect. If he switches the cable to the second NIC, it does not connect to the internet (he cannot ping yahoo, for example). I figure he should troubleshoot the NIC first before he does anything with the PS2. Besides installing the hardware and drivers, is there anything else he needs to do to use the NIC? Some kind of network set up, etc?

TIA

Cant help, sorry.

is it a PS2 specific NIC?

First, before trying to do any BS passthrough stuff, just connect the PS2's nic right tot he cable modem. If that doesn't work, don't connect anything differently until you get it working.

Next thing...does this guy have a router by any chance? Anyway, from my experience, most cable modems register the mac address of hte machine they're connected to. So, it may not be recognizing the new nic's mac. Unplug the cable modem for a while from the power outlet, then plug it back in again (with the new nic attached to it). Try powering it down for 10 minutes or so if possible.

If it still doesn't work...what kind of diagnostic utilities do you have with this? You'll need to make sure the nic is set to DHCP while connected to the cable modem. Also, the lights on the modem signifying an internal connection should be on...if there are any actiivty lights on the nic/cable mdoem, they should blink occasionally. If you're missing these lights or activity, it could be a bad patch cable.

Bleh...anyway, let me know what happens.

Sorry if I was unclear. The set up is two standard NICs in the computer, with the cable modem connected to one, and a cat5 cable connected to the other, leading the network adapter on the PS2. I will foward on your advise thus far.

nah, I caught that part of it. that's not as easy as you may think. You can't just put two nics int he computer and expect it to forward the network connection. You'd have to set up internet connection sharing or something on the PC, which Microsoft never managed to actually get right. ie, it's unreliable. It's better just to attach your ps2 directly to the cable modem/router/switch. Which can be difficult if you're connecting right to the cable modem from the pc and it only has one port.

Which brings up the question of security...without a router buffering you from the cable modem, your pc is wide open to the internet. Any kind of network-vulnerable service/application/whatever is totally exposed. Behind NAT, you're only opening up holes selectively and (supposedly) only for specific packet streams.

But anyway....bleh...my initial advice still holds. :p

Hmm... I have an wired router I have give him. Good points.