Dreamcast-Talk.com

Hi everyone, hope all is well and that someone could help me.

I recently pulled out my dreamcast which has a BBA (yes very lucky....somewhat) but unable to get online.

I recently followed the instructions seen on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUWW_mXaqJg but with the exception that I'm using Planet Web 3.0 which I luckily have a copy from back in the day.

I get a pop up saying "Unable to contact host. Could not look up its name". When I go back to the Internet option settings for Static IP inside Planet Web 3.0, none of the ISP settings I just put in show up and everything is back to 0 in all of the fields.

i would use XDP but unfortunately don't have a CD burner. I would also get a DreamPi but I no longer have the 56k modem.

I'm at whits end trying to figure out exactly what I'm doing wrong. I put in the IP address, subnet mask, gateway and the DNS address when i do ip_config\ all on my PC.

I simply would love to finally be able to get back online and play PSO and upload some art for Jet Grind Radio. I know its not my router as I'm able to get online with my Gamecube and PSO just fine.

Any advice out there what I could be doing wrong?

thank you all in advance if anyone has any info.

You should get a USB CD burner $10 from ebay is fine and CD-Rs 100 pack $15 at walmart.

Realistically using the XDP disc, you set most things to automatic to find ISP stuff right? There is another video tutorial that shows you the steps. I wish I could remember what it was, but hopefully someone else knows what it is too. Is there an auto setting in the planet web 3.0?

edit.....
This is similar to what I was talking about when you go to 4:10 in the video. I don't think this is the video I was thinking about, however it is running through the same steps for auto setup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhvkU51WgBM

It sounds like a DNS problem. You're connected to the internet but it's not able to look up web addresses. Follow the instructions as indicated in the video but set your DNS to 46.101.91.123.

If it's still not saving settings, there may be a hardware issue with your Dreamcast. Specifically the flash ROM where it saves the console settings is dead. Hopefully that's not the case.

@willis Using auto settings (DHCP) isn't recommended. It might work for PSO with a patcher disc but none of the other supported games will work that way. You need to use manual settings and a custom DNS server.

ok thank you all for your help so far.

I am unable to get a cd burner at the moment due to some financial constraints at the moment so unfortunately have to work with planet web 3 and the broadband adaptor at the moment.

I followed the recent advice and used the suggested DNS and saved settings to VMU. However when I tried to “connect” via the planet web 3 interface it gave me the same issue saying “Unable to contact host. Could not look up its name”


I then turned off my dreamcast and went back to my settings and everything (IP, subnet mask, dns etc) is all back to 0.0.0.0

Could this be the issue with the flash memory as you mentioned?

I don’t really know what else to do. Could this perhaps work better if i used dream pi instead of a broadband adaptor? my only issue is that i still don’t have access to an XDP browser

thanks again everyone for any help

deluxux wrote:You should get a USB CD burner $10 from ebay is fine and CD-Rs 100 pack $15 at walmart.

This is really the answer

neondreamcast wrote: I then turned off my dreamcast and went back to my settings and everything (IP, subnet mask, dns etc) is all back to 0.0.0.0

My best guess is that the flash memory in the Dreamcast is dead and as a result the settings aren't being saved. I've personally never heard of this happening before but I guess there's always a first time. It's the only explanation I can think of. Unfortunately if that's the case, you'll never be able to go online with that Dreamcast, regardless of the connection method.

Ok so the unable to contact host message you are getting is because the website pw3 tries to communicate with once connected has been shut down for 20 years. Planetweb.com.

Consider it the new welcome message for stock pw3. Seems you are connecting or you would get a different error.

There is a way to circumvent this tho. Use the dns that dreampi uses. This will auto redirect the “connect button” to dreampipe.net.

I think the settings not being saved is due to it not successfully loading a page after connecting. Same happens in Quake 3 when you fail to connect. It resets the recently saved fields

-drez01- wrote: There is a way to circumvent this tho. Use the dns that dreampi uses. This will auto redirect the “connect button” to dreampipe.net.

This is what I suggested in my first reply. Didn't make a difference.

-drez01- wrote: I think the settings not being saved is due to it not successfully loading a page after connecting. Same happens in Quake 3 when you fail to connect. It resets the recently saved fields

I don't believe this is the case. The settings are saved to the flash memory as soon as you hit the save button. You don't even need to load a webpage after this. You should be able to just shut off the console at this point and they're saved.

pcwzrd13 wrote:@willis Using auto settings (DHCP) isn't recommended. It might work for PSO with a patcher disc but none of the other supported games will work that way. You need to use manual settings and a custom DNS server.

That's probably what I was thinking pcwzrd13 because that is really the only game I used for online at the moment.