Networking nightmare...

July 4, 2007

I have a real head scratcher here... I've been banging my head against the

wall for a couple of days now. I've stumped a friend at work who is an

MCSE, and I'm just about ready to wipe the system and start from scratch.

This is what I'm really trying to avoid.

I have a Windows XP Home Edition system with SP2 that has been running fine

for several months. This is connected to a Linksys broadband router that

does DHCP. Let me stress that this configuration has worked flawlessly for

months. The system is a custom built, that I built myself. The motherboard

is an Abit AB9 Pro that has a pair of built-in GigE network ports.

A few nights ago everything was working fine. The next morning I had no

Ethernet connectivity. I specifically mean I had no Ethernet connectivity

because my work laptop is connected to the same Linksys router and is

working fine. I tried step one of Windows troubleshooting and rebooted.

This obviously didn't work. I disabled DHCP and assigned a static IP. I

was able to ping the IP I just assigned to the card, but was unable to ping

the router. I replaced the Ethernet cable and rebooted and still nothing.

At this point I thought maybe I have a bad network port on the motherboard,

so I went out and bought a brand new Linksys Ethernet card. I installed

this and it would also NOT pickup a DHCP address. I assigned a static IP

with the same results. Out of pure frustration I went out and bought a new

broadband router, and this too made NO difference. Obviously several

reboots have occurred in this time.

I ran this by an MCSE friend at work. He suggested doing a repair install

of Windows XP and this sounded like a good idea, although I'm still stuck

without Ethernet connectivity after this. The only thing left that I can

think of is to give up and either call Microsoft (I'm not paying the money

for that), or wipe the system and re-install from scratch. The last thing

I'm going to try this evening to completely rule out hardware is to download

a Live CD version of Linux and make sure that I have network connectivity

that way. I suspect that this is some kind of TCP/IP corruption, but I have

no idea how to straighten this out.

Please help me avoid having to wipe and reload the system. I know that this

being Windows I need to do this once a year or so, but I just built this

system less than 6 months ago. Even Windows should be able to run without

having to be reloaded for that period of time. Thanks in advance for any

help.

Scott

July 4, 2007

Re: Networking nightmare...

"Scott" <sn4265@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message

news:2GDii.2781$rL1.1949@newssvr19.news.prodigy.net...

>I have a real head scratcher here... I've been banging my head against the wall for

>a couple of days now. I've stumped a friend at work who is an MCSE, and I'm just

>about ready to wipe the system and start from scratch. This is what I'm really

>trying to avoid.

>

> I have a Windows XP Home Edition system with SP2 that has been running fine for

> several months. This is connected to a Linksys broadband router that does DHCP.

> Let me stress that this configuration has worked flawlessly for months. The system

> is a custom built, that I built myself. The motherboard is an Abit AB9 Pro that

> has a pair of built-in GigE network ports.

>

> A few nights ago everything was working fine. The next morning I had no Ethernet

> connectivity. I specifically mean I had no Ethernet connectivity because my work

> laptop is connected to the same Linksys router and is working fine. I tried step

> one of Windows troubleshooting and rebooted. This obviously didn't work. I

> disabled DHCP and assigned a static IP. I was able to ping the IP I just assigned

> to the card, but was unable to ping the router. I replaced the Ethernet cable and

> rebooted and still nothing.

>

> At this point I thought maybe I have a bad network port on the motherboard, so I

> went out and bought a brand new Linksys Ethernet card. I installed this and it

> would also NOT pickup a DHCP address. I assigned a static IP with the same

> results. Out of pure frustration I went out and bought a new broadband router, and

> this too made NO difference. Obviously several reboots have occurred in this time.

>

> I ran this by an MCSE friend at work. He suggested doing a repair install of

> Windows XP and this sounded like a good idea, although I'm still stuck without

> Ethernet connectivity after this. The only thing left that I can think of is to

> give up and either call Microsoft (I'm not paying the money for that), or wipe the

> system and re-install from scratch. The last thing I'm going to try this evening

> to completely rule out hardware is to download a Live CD version of Linux and make

> sure that I have network connectivity that way. I suspect that this is some kind

> of TCP/IP corruption, but I have no idea how to straighten this out.

>

> Please help me avoid having to wipe and reload the system. I know that this being

> Windows I need to do this once a year or so, but I just built this system less than

> 6 months ago. Even Windows should be able to run without having to be reloaded for

> that period of time. Thanks in advance for any help.

>

> Scott

>

If your using any software firewall check it to make sure the LAN IP(s) aren't

being blocked.

All of the below may not be necessary for you:

Right click My Network Places on the Desktop.

Click Properties.

Right click Local Area Connection.

Click Properties.

Under "This connection uses....."

Click "Client for MS Networks".

Click Properties.

Select "Windows Locator" from the dropdown box, if disabled skip.

Click Ok.

Scroll to and select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).

Click Properties.

Under the General tab make sure "Obtain an IP address automatically" is selected.

Click the Advanced button.

Under the DNS tab:

Selected "Append Primary and Parent DNS suffixes.

Register this connections address in DNS"

Under the WINS tab > NetBIOS:

Selected Default.

Ok out of MNP.

Reboot if required.

Test connectivity:

Open a command prompt, click Start > Run, type in: cmd and press Enter.

At the prompt type each command below and press Enter after each.

**Note: Command noted by =, Space noted by ^. Do not type the = or ^.

=ping ^ 192.168.1.1 *Routers IP, change as necessary.

If it times out then there is no communication between the router and machine.

If not then the machine communicates with the router.

=ping ^ google.com

If it times out then there is no connection to the net.

If not then net connection is established and all is well.

ping 127.0.0.1

If it fails it may be a TCP/IP stack problem.

Ping each computer from the other using the UNC:

=ping ^ computername

If it fails either way there's an IP or Name resolution problem.

If pinging times out on any address, to see if the machines IP is correct along with

other settings.

= ipconfig ^ /all

If anything isn't correct, at the prompt type and press Enter after each command:

=ipconfig ^ /release

=ipconfig ^ /flushdns

=ipconfig ^ /renew

=ipconfig ^ /registerdns

=exit

If that fails reopen the command prompt, run /release and /flushdns only and exit.

Shut down the machine.

Pull the power from the router.

Pull the power from the modem.

Wait approx 30 secs.

Apply power to the modem and wait for it to finish synchronizing with the cable.

Apply power to the router and wait for it to finish synchronizing with the modem.

Power up the machine.

The machine should now be assigned a new IP from the router.

Run ipconfig or attempt net connection to test.

--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }

Conflicts start where information lacks.

http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

July 4, 2007

Re: Networking nightmare...

"Scott" <sn4265@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message

news:2GDii.2781$rL1.1949@newssvr19.news.prodigy.net...

>I have a real head scratcher here... I've been banging my head against the

>wall for a couple of days now. I've stumped a friend at work who is an

>MCSE, and I'm just about ready to wipe the system and start from scratch.

>This is what I'm really trying to avoid.

>

> I have a Windows XP Home Edition system with SP2 that has been running

> fine for several months. This is connected to a Linksys broadband router

> that does DHCP. Let me stress that this configuration has worked

> flawlessly for months. The system is a custom built, that I built myself.

> The motherboard is an Abit AB9 Pro that has a pair of built-in GigE

> network ports.

>

> A few nights ago everything was working fine. The next morning I had no

> Ethernet connectivity. I specifically mean I had no Ethernet connectivity

> because my work laptop is connected to the same Linksys router and is

> working fine. I tried step one of Windows troubleshooting and rebooted.

> This obviously didn't work. I disabled DHCP and assigned a static IP. I

> was able to ping the IP I just assigned to the card, but was unable to

> ping the router. I replaced the Ethernet cable and rebooted and still

> nothing.

>

> At this point I thought maybe I have a bad network port on the

> motherboard, so I went out and bought a brand new Linksys Ethernet card.

> I installed this and it would also NOT pickup a DHCP address. I assigned

> a static IP with the same results. Out of pure frustration I went out and

> bought a new broadband router, and this too made NO difference. Obviously

> several reboots have occurred in this time.

>

> I ran this by an MCSE friend at work. He suggested doing a repair install

> of Windows XP and this sounded like a good idea, although I'm still stuck

> without Ethernet connectivity after this. The only thing left that I can

> think of is to give up and either call Microsoft (I'm not paying the money

> for that), or wipe the system and re-install from scratch. The last thing

> I'm going to try this evening to completely rule out hardware is to

> download a Live CD version of Linux and make sure that I have network

> connectivity that way. I suspect that this is some kind of TCP/IP

> corruption, but I have no idea how to straighten this out.

>

> Please help me avoid having to wipe and reload the system. I know that

> this being Windows I need to do this once a year or so, but I just built

> this system less than 6 months ago. Even Windows should be able to run

> without having to be reloaded for that period of time. Thanks in advance

> for any help.

>

> Scott

If this was my machine then I would put it on the bench in

a controlled environment and build things up one little step

at a time like so:

- I would use another machine to ping the router. This would

confirm the router's IP address. It would also confirm the

quality of the cable.

- Using the same cable, I would ping the router from the

problem machine.

- If this did not work then I would install a network sniffer,

e.g. Ethereal, to monitor the traffic on the network.

- I would also use a spare disk and load a vanilla version

of WinXP, to confirm that there are no hardware problems.

Booting with a Bart PE CD would achieve the same.

I suspect that your current problem is a simple oversight,

e.g. an incorrect IP address. This often happens when

running round in circles while solving persistent problems.

July 4, 2007

Re: Networking nightmare...

I've recently had the same problems as you have. One compute works fine,

another does not.

A friend, who is in the internet service business said to reboot my router.

He tells me that recently, Linksys routers cause a lot of problems, and he

does not allow them to be used in his business any longer.

I did a hard restart of my Linksys router by holding the reset button and

applying power, and sure enough, it resolved the problem. I've had this

happen on three different occasions.

The last time this happened to me, I was able to log into the router from

one machine. From the admin page, I chose "factory default" reset. That

also cleared my problem.