Limited or no connectivity

[Megadeth]

I know I've encountered this before but I don't remember what I did to resolve it.
I was working on a friends computer earlier today. They said they couldnt connect to the internet and I thought it was just a simple configuration...

I find that they have the Limited or no Connectivity message for the NIC and I cannot renew an IP address (IP is a 169.xxx.xxx.xxx). I decided to put in a different NIC and change the CAT 5 cable. I still was getting the same thing.

I decided to run a System Restore (Windows XP home sp2) I went back more than a month (problem started last week)... After the machine rebooted There was a message that said Windows could not complete the restore.

I hadnt really brought many tools with me but I did have my USB Flash drive which has some spyware removal tools but I havent updated my flash drive Since late July. I ran Hijackthis and didnt find too much out of the ordinary except an LSP Winsock item that I check for removal. Hijackthis came up and said it could not remove it but Spybot would be able to.

I had Spybot, Ad-Aware and MS Antispyware on my flash drive (all from around July) and installed them all but didnt find anything. I told my friend I would come back tomorrow since I have some plans tonight. I was planning on doing a Repair install of Windows but am not overly optimistic about what the results might be from that.

I am sorry am not near their machine right now. I am putting down as much as I can from memory. I hope I have given enough info to get some help.

UPDATE:
I ran the winsockxpfix.exe utility and the problem still occured (played around again for almost an hour after that). Just as I was getting ready to leave my firends house I decided to plug back into the old NIC and it was working! I left it like taht, I'm almost dreading a call from my friend saying that after they eventually turn off their machine for the day and try to bring it back up later that it will no longer work again. I guess I will hav eto wat and see.

 

[JackMDS]

In General you can debug the Network Settings of a computer by following these steps.

Step One. Check the Network parameters in the Computer?s Device Manager. Make sure that the drivers are installed correctly; there is No IRQ conflict, and No Ghost installation. http://www.ezlan.net/faq#ghost

Step Two Verify Basic network setting in the OS: http://www.ezlan.net/Installing#verify

If the above two Steps indicates that every thing looks good but functionally it does not work.

Step Three. Check (and repair if necessary) the Socket Layers, Winsock, and or refresh the TCP/IP Stack. http://www.ezlan.net/clean#refreshnet

If need to Reinstall; Log to this page it have a lot of links to instructions for Windows Network Installation - http://www.ezlan.net/Installing.html

:sun:

 

[Megadeth]

Thanks, I will give some of those steps a try tomorrow

 

[Nocturnal]

Normally when I run into this problem at work and a new NIC doesn't resolve the problem I try to check the connection. Have you reset his router/modem?

 

[Megadeth]

They don't have a router, and I did call Comcast and they were showing that the modem was getting a signal but had me reset it anyways. I suppose that unless there is something wrong with the port on the modem then it shouldnt be a problem.

 

[nweaver]

have you checked to see if your dhcp server is working?

 

[Nocturnal]

Yes, one more thing you may want to try but I don't think this is it. Go to the start menu, run, type in services.msc. Check to see if the DHCP service is stopped or disabled. If it's either restart it and or set it to auto.

 

[Megadeth]

I will edit and post update as well:
I ran the winsockxpfix.exe utility and the problem still occured (played around again for almost an hour after that). Just as I was getting ready to leave my firends house I decided to plug back into the old NIC and it was working! I left it like taht, I'm almost dreading a call from my friend saying that after they eventually turn off their machine for the day and try to bring it back up later that it will no longer work again. I guess I will hav eto wat and see.