Case of the 53s

[maharito]

I'm...just about ready to throw the thing out the window. And it's too hot and my head is scrambled from all the stress and fatigue.

All I know is that there's a computer behind me that I'm trying to get onto this network (linked by Ethernet cable through a reliable Netgear hub)... Other comps on the network are fine, and this one also worked fine until I had to copy that comp's drive onto another physical drive because it was dying. I then had to run a repair with an XP disk, install SP1 again, and...

Voila. Certainly not the first time I've had the case of the 53s... I'm referring, of course, to the output received ('system error 53--The network path specified was not found.') when I try to run a 'net use \\compname'--Network Setup Wizard and 'repair' functions for both server and client comps are unhelpful, and simply show that the client network connection is unable to renew IP (that is, obtain a DNS). This is annoying as heck, of course.

In addition, in subsequent random resettings/hub unpluggings/network connection reimplementings, the 'net view' command run from the client comp will sometimes show the server's computer name, and sometimes not. I've experienced this behavior before, so I don't consider it unusual.

Please save me from throwin' this thing out the window...

 

[maharito]

It seems peculiar to me that running a 'repair' on the problem comp's network connection to the hub generates a 'Failed to renew IP address.' error box IMMEDIATELY instead of after 30 seconds of trying. That just doesn't seem right. *tries to reinstall it again*

 

[maharito]

Alright. I have made progress at last.

I changed the configuration of the problem comp's connection. I made the IP 192.168.0.17 (last number doesn't matter if it's not 1, I think)... used the default Subnet mask, and the default gateway is the server comp's internal network IP (192.168.0.1). There was a place to enter a DNS, but I don't even know what that could be, so I left it blank.

Now I can access the other comp, swap files with it, etc. However, internet access is still not possible. When I try to run Network Setup Wizard, it just resets the configuration to some non-working auto-configuration. GRRR! Is there some manual way to activate Internet connectivity?

STILL NOT FIXED!