Bizarre network problem!

[Neo1]

Right so i have been wrestling with this for a while now, and i need some bright minds to take a look:

I have a Zyxel router acting as a DHCP server on my private network here in my flat. My laptop connects to the router through WiFi, it gets a local IP and has full internet access, also, it shows up on the routers "client list" and can connect to the routers config-page on 192.168.1.1.

Right, so my desktop is connected to the router by cable. The desktop has full internet access, but get this, it doesn't get a local IP. If i do an "ipconfig /all" it tells me the IPv4 address is my external IP, rather than some local IP in the 192.168.1.x range. Also, my desktop can not connect to the router config-page, and does not show up on my router client-list. Yet it still has full internet access.

Also, if i connect the laptop to the router by means of a cable rather than wifi, it still gets a proper local-ip, like it should. So, i called my ISP who supplied the router, and they told me that the problem was with my desktop, not with their router, and flat out refused to help me any further.

So, first off i tried removing the drivers for my network cards, and installing the latest version. Didn't help. Then i noticed that VirtualBox had created a separate connection and figured it might be screwing with things, so i removed the fake VB network card in the device manager, uninstalled VirtualBox and did an "ipconfig /renew /release", didn't help.
So after poking around on various MS support pages i tried resetting the TCP module by running: "netsh int ip" from the command line (Atleast thats what i think it did), didn't work.

And now im pretty much fresh out of ideas. Google is problematic in this case since there are a million hits on threads and questions from people who CAN connect to their router but not to the internet, while my problem is the reverse of that. Also i should just add that if i select the Ipv4 protocol under settings for my network card, it's set to obtain an IP automatically.

Normally this wouldn't be a problem since the machine has internet access, so i couldn't care less about it having a local IP, but i'm trying to run a Minecraft server for me and some friends, so i need to forward some ports and stuff, and this requires the desktop to be a part of the local network, which it seems it isn't at the moment.

Anyone have any ideas?

Edit: Both machines are running Windows 7 by the way.

[Codeplug]

Sounds like you need to enable DHCP on the desktop: How to enable DHCP in Windows 7? | Windows 7 Themes

gg

[Neo1]

Those two boxes are already checked, as i mentioned in my original post, it's set to optain an IP automatically as well as a DNS Server Adress

[CommonTater]

Right, so my desktop is connected to the router by cable. The desktop has full internet access, but get this, it doesn't get a local IP. If i do an "ipconfig /all" it tells me the IPv4 address is my external IP, rather than some local IP in the 192.168.1.x range. Also, my desktop can not connect to the router config-page, and does not show up on my router client-list. Yet it still has full internet access.

Open Control Panel -> Network and sharing center -> Local Area Connection -> Properties -> Click on tcpip(v4) -> Properties
In the dialog click on "Obtain an IP Address Automatically" and "Obtain DNS Server Address Automatically".
Ok your way back out... and restart your system.

When you go back to that dialog you should see a local IP and your router's base address in the DNS server line.

The most likely cause for this is that before installing the router your desktop was accessing the internet directly at a fixed IP address, but your ISP forgot to adjust it for the router.

[Neo1]

Open Control Panel -> Network and sharing center -> Local Area Connection -> Properties -> Click on tcpip(v4) -> Properties
In the dialog click on "Obtain an IP Address Automatically" and "Obtain DNS Server Address Automatically".
Ok your way back out... and restart your system.

When you go back to that dialog you should see a local IP and your router's base address in the DNS server line.

The most likely cause for this is that before installing the router your desktop was accessing the internet directly at a fixed IP address, but your ISP forgot to adjust it for the router.

Also i should just add that if i select the Ipv4 protocol under settings for my network card, it's set to obtain an IP automatically.

Those two boxes are already checked, as i mentioned in my original post, it's set to optain an IP automatically as well as a DNS Server Adress

As i mentioned in my original post and in my post above yours, those two boxes are already checked. And no addresses are visible after a restart. Before i moved to this flat the desktop was hooked up to my own router, and everything was functioning well, i can't use my own router here though since my ISP requires me to use their specific router for it to work. And somehow it seems my desktop is bypassing the DHCP server and just gets my external IP instead of a local one.

[CommonTater]

Are DHCP and DNS enabled in the router?

The way it is now you probably can't share files between your machines, and that's half the reason for networking...

[Codeplug]

How to reset Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
See if that helps.

gg