Need help with troubleshooting Home Network (Bet you can't solve this one!)

[vmarkx3]

Ok here is the setup, all standard home configs:

- Cable internet with Nortel Network (Philips) DOCSIS v1 compliant
- DLink 604 Router, setup as the gateway
- 3 Computers, all running XP with Belkin NICs

The setup above worked perfectly until couple days ago. While 2 of the computers are having NO problems at all, the last computer is having numerous problems. Here is the situation with the trouble computer:

- The router leases IP info correctly
- I am able to ping the gateway and all outside WAN servers like yahoo.com without a problem
- I can NOT access WAN or LAN
- Internet Explorer and other utilities just hang on, they don't timeout just hang on and on... some freeze up
- I am able to play Unreal Tournament with any problems ( huh?) with rather good latency times to boot
- Networking Status identifies all information from Router as valid
- The problem started while the computer was running, not from cold/warm reboot

What I've tried so far:

- changed the NIC
- uninstalled & installed NIC drivers
- uninstalled & installed TCP/IP
- Performed system restore to time when there was no issues
- All workgroups are the same
- Scanned for viruses
- Scanned for Adware, etc.

Will be trying shortly:

- Try different Cat5 cable btw computer and router
- Check IP Security services


Again, the other 2 computers are not having any problems at... They actually feel maybe a bit quicker now..

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[cmetz]

Check your IE settings, in particular whether any proxies have been configured.

 

[vmarkx3]

Originally posted by: cmetz
Check your IE settings, in particular whether any proxies have been configured.

No proxies are used.

I did the XP Diagnose networking, and it looked rather strange.
"
Modems and Network Adapters
Network Adapters
[00000001] Realtek RTL8139/810X Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC ( PASSED)
[00000004] Realtek RTL8139/810X Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC ( FAILED)
"

I only have 1 NIC in the computer.
In the [00000004] NIC, the ping to 192.168.1.1 (gateway) failed.
In the [00000001] NIC, the ping to 192.168.1.1 (gateway) passed.
My correct gateway is 192.168.0.1

I'll try to manual assign the correct gateway. See if that those it.

 

[vmarkx3]

I found this post on the usenet detailed the same problem I am experiencing.

HELP! Anyone?

===================
Search Result 8
From: Norman Woo (nwoo@videotron.ca)
Subject: Ping works under DOS, but connectivity problems under XP Home Edition
This is the only article in this thread
View: Original Format
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.networking
Date: 2002-09-01 23:38:43 PST


Hi folks

I've tried everything short of re-installing Windows XP Home edition
in trying to get Internet connectivity. Here are the specifics:

- Computer: Dell computer
- ISP: Videotron
- Cable Modem: Webstar DPX110 Scientific Atlanta USB
- Ethernet card: CNET Pro200WL PCI
- OS: Windows XP Home

Tried the following and still no connection:

1) Tried re-installing the Ethernet/Cable Modem drivers with versions
from Windows XP, from Scientific Atllanta, from WWW.CNETUSA.COM.

2) Created a new Internet Connection using the Internet Connection
Wizard. "Cable Modem Status" shows "connected". Speed is 10 MBPS.
Activity shows a few bytes sent and received.

3) Deleted the Ethernet Adapter from Device Manager, reboot computer.
Computer sees the "new" Ethernet device and installs it.

4) Unplug and reset the Webstar Cable Modem

5) Under a DOS prompt, did a IPCONFIG /RELEASE and then IPCONFIG
/RENEW.

6) Under a DOS prompt, did a IPCONFIG /ALL shows the DHCP IP address
from the ISP. The only thing I saw which was a bit wierd was a 10.*
address for the DHCP Server. Shouldn't this be the ISP address?

7) Remove Ethernet card, reboot computer, shutdown computer, reinstall
card, reboot computer.

8) Tried different URLs and even IP address numbers under MS IE6


What does work:

Now ping does work under a DOS prompt. I was able to ping out to the
Internet with a reply. At least this indicates that physical
connection is OK. Seems there is something missing in Windows XP.

Anything else I should try before I re-install Windows XP Home?

Thanks

 

[cmetz]

It probably somehow thinks you have two NICs and is getting confused about which of the NICs to use. Delete both with device manager, let Windows auto-detect the one NIC you have and re-use the current driver, and that should help.

 

[vmarkx3]

cmetz,

I tried your suggestion, but after it reinstalled the NIC now XP indentifies 3 NICs in XP Diagnose networking... Urrgghhh 2 Pass 1 Fail.. Makes no sense..

The Network Connection Details:

Physical Address: 00-10-B5-0E-C4-EE
IP Address: 192.168.1.50
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server: 192.168.1.1
Lease Obtained: 1/11/2003 6:58:52 PM
Lease Expires: 1/18/2003 6:58:52 PM
DNS Server: 192.168.1.1
WINS Server:

These appear to be all correctly assigned DHCP IP info. Either way, I attempted to manually enter it without any succes.

There is no proxy software used nor S/W FireWalls of any sort.

Found couple posts on the usenet with similar problems:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...677$H65.53369@post-02.news.easynews.com#link1

A Microsoft support rep couldn't figure the problem out.

Another person with the same problem:»

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=N...e16101c259a0$e068a8f0$2ae2c90a@phx.gbl&rnum=6

So far did the following:

- How to Reset Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) in Windows XP at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q299357&sd=tech

It didn't work..


Nothing..

Will try:
1. Remove TCP/IP
2. Backup and delete the Winsock2 registry key entirely
3. Reboot and then re-add TCP/IP

Thanks for the suggestions

Anyone else?

 

[vmarkx3]

Okay, I was rethinking of what exactly I installed or changed about same timeframe when the problem started. I realized started to convert my HDs partitions from FAT32 to NTFS, would that have anything to do with the problem?

I realized NTFS has "more security" features, anything possibility that's the problem?

Thanks!

 

[vmarkx3]

Ok tried the following:

Connected the problem computer directly to the cable modem and rebooted modem and computer.

It didn't solve anything, but did run the I did the XP Diagnose networking, and it looked rather strange.
"
Modems and Network Adapters
Network Adapters
[00000001] Realtek RTL8139/810X Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC ( PASSED)
[00000004] Realtek RTL8139/810X Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC ( FAILED)
[000000015] Realtek RTL8139/810X Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC ( FAILED)"

I only have 1 NIC in the computer.

The Failed attempts are to the OLD DCHP servers. Why is XP retaining this information??? I am thinking XP is confused what is and isn't current setup.

Help!

 

[cmetz]

I'm not certain that the now two phantom network adapters are all of your problem, but I'm sure they're not helping things. You should try to get rid of them, or as much as you can.

See if you can either (or all of):
(a) unbind TCP/IP from the phantom adapters
(b) convince Windows to forget and unbind all DHCP addressing info from those adapters
(c) hand configure them to bogus network addresses (like 10.x.y.z addresses outside the range in your internal net)

Try running "netstat -r" or "route" and see what your routing table looks like; if those phantom adapters are anythwere in that picture, that's bad.

I know this will not make you happy, but the standard answer I give to when Windows starts failing in bizarre ways is to just reinstall the whole darn thing. It's brute force and sucks a lot, but often ends up being the fastest way to get yourself fixed. (granted, I'm mostly not a Windows user, so it's not as big a deal to me to do so)

 

[vmarkx3]

After uninstalling all service and NIC (Network/properties), I ran the "netstat -r" and it didn't show the phantom Nics.

I followed some instructions from Dslreports.com thread on this subject:
=====
...It's Lonely Out In Space
rockotman

Posts: 7960
Joined 08-06-2000
Location: DSotM NOTE: this is in response to the post by ltt75
Here is a suggestion - from reading your previous posts, I am not sure if you would have tried it, but here goes:

1. Remove all adapters from your Network->Properties.
2. Remove all services from your Network->Properties.
4. Remove all network adapters from your Device Manager
5. Shut down the computer.
4. Remove the NIC.
5. Reboot the computer, and check to make sure that there are no NICs listed in Device Manager and no adapters listed in Network->Properties.
6. Shut down again.
7. Install NIC.
8. Let XP do its thing.

When all is said and done, the NIC should show up in Device Manager and in Network->Properties, and should automatically be configured for DHCP.

If this doesn't work, post back and we'll see if there is something else to try.
============


Didn't solve it.


I am throwing in the towel.... I am going to just install XP... Thanks for the suggestions

 

[vmarkx3]

For those interested, I reinstalled XP and everything now works! Probably some files must have gotten corrupted.

Thanks for the help.