Troubleshooting with a Cat5 Connection

OS: Windows XP
LAC (Local Area Connection) Error: Network Cable unplugged


Step1: Check Physical Connection. Unplug/replug the cable. Make sure when you plug in the ethernet cable you will here a "clicking" sound. If not, better change the cable.

Step2: Check Speed and Duplex. To change the adapter's speed and duplex you go to the properties of the LAC icon and click configure. Click Advanced then highlight on speed and duplex and check the value. If in case the value is set to 10mbhalf, change it to auto or vice versa.

The adapter's speed and duplex can sometimes be inaccessible. This is common to laptop's issued by your work office. Sometimes your IT personnel will disable this option so you cannot change whatever your company's network is set to.

Step3: Change Cable.

If Step1, 2 and 3 failed have somebody check on the port or you can verify with maintenance if everything is up and running.


Error: Limited/no Connectivity


Step1: Check Physical Connection. Make sure the cable is plugged in properly. Unplug/replug the cable at both ends to make sure its fitted in.

Step2 : Repair the connection. To do this, you need to right click on the LAC icon and hit on repair. This should renew your ip address. With a limited/no connectivity error the ip is invalid ( ip:169.254.xxx.xxx) and since its invalid it needs to get a valid ip address from the network and doing a repair usually helps.

Step3: Check Speed and Duplex. The same process goes with network cable unplugged error

Step4: Assign Static IP. In case you dont know the IP range, you can ask your network administrator a static ip. To assign it in your pc, you need to go the property window of your LAC adapter. Click on Internet Protocol TCP/IP and assign the numbers given.

Step5: Change cable

If everything has failed, call maintenance to check on the port or verify if the system is up and running.


OS: Windows Vista

LAC: Access Local Only

This error has been most of the topic for vista forums. There is no guarantee for a connectivity but at least we can try some steps to help ourselves connect.

Step1: Disable/Enable LAC adapter. This is like doing a repair on the connection. Windows Vista has a different environment from xp. To do a repair, you can right click on the LAC icon and chose network and sharing.Click on manage network connections and then right click on the LAC icon and hit on disable. After disabling it, right click on the LAC icon again and click enable

Step2: Enable DHCP. To enable this you have to go to the control panel and click on Network and sharing. Go to manage network connection and right click on LAC then click on properties. Double left click on Internet Protocol TCP/IPv4 and make sure ip and dns are set to auto.

Step3: Disable TCP/IPv6. Same with step2 but instead of clicking on tcp/ipv4 uncheck tcp/ipv6.

OS: MAC OS9/10

With MAC OS there is no error indicator or any icon for your Local Adapter. You have to check if its getting a connection through opening the browser or checking for its IP address. The former is easy.

To check if the IP address is valid you need to know the ip range first. If not, then make sure its not 169.254.xxx.xxx


Step1: Check Physical Connection. Make sure the cable is plugged in properly. Unplug/replug the cable at both ends to make sure its fitted in.

Step2: Click on the apple icon and go to system preferences.

Step2: Click on Network Connections. Make sure show is set to Built-in-Ethernet and Location should be set to Automatic.

Step3: Click on TCP/IP. Make sure Configure IPv4 is set to using DHCP and check on the IP address

Step4: Check Speed and Duplex. MAC is obviously different from windows so to change the speed and duplex you have to go back to the network connections page and click on Ethernet.
Set speed to 10baseT/UTP and duplex to half. If it doesnt work, set it b ack to auto.

Step4: Assign Static IP Address. Follow step 2 and 3 but this time set Configure Ipv4 to manual and assign the numbers given by your network administrator.

Step5: Change the Cable.

If everything has failed, call maintenance to check on the port or verify if the system is up and running.