WEIRD SCHOOL ETHERNET ISSUE!

[DragonReborn]

Hey smart people, need some help. I am fairly and modestly savvy with computers but I am stumped. I am on a college network where it could not be easier to set up an internet connection: plug in the ethernet cable, set everything to "auto" (obtain IP and DNS automatically) and boom your done. My girlfriends system cannot for some reason access the internet. I can ping the localhost, and other computers, when I run ipconfig it gives me a correct IP address and puts me on the right server. EVERYTHING is showing up correctly but when I run IE it gives me the "Finding www.whateverblah.com" then finally gives me the blank 404 page. Even my connection is saying that I am sending and receiving (although the receiving is much smaller than the sending). I have tried restarting, unpluging, releasing the connection, then renewing it...and everytime it should work. It says everything right ("you are now connected at 100 mbps" on the right server). Very weird. I can't do AIM, update any software...nothing. So it isn't just IE. I am stumped. Please tell me I am doing something stupid cause wow...I dunno anymore. I even tried reinstalling an old network driver, setting to an older restore point (which didn't work...it just said "No changed were made to your system" unable to complete system restore). HELP!! =)

PS. She is running XP HOME (wishing it were PRO)

 

[BornStar]

Well, until you said it wasn't just IE, I thought it might have been a proxy issue. That's all that I can come up with at this point.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

Have you tried a WINSOCK repair? WINSOCK FIX

 

[stash]

Is ICS running on the box? Can you run ICS on an XP home box, i can't remember.

 

[Boscoh]

Make sure her PC doesnt have a virus. I've heard of some colleges dropping PC's they detect as infected in a "quarantine" subnet, so she might get an IP and a default gateway and all that stuff, but if this is whats happening then she will not be able to get out to the internet. If her roommate has a PC, ask her if you can try plugging your girlfriends computer into her ethernet jack and see if it works that way. If her roommates pc works but then your girlfriends doesnt work in the same jack, I'd say its a problem with her computer...if that happens and your girlfriend doesnt have antivirus software and you cant put any on it, I'd check with the campus IT and see if they are blocking PC's that are infected with a virus and if so if they will clean it for you.

Most of the time this happens at colleges I've heard that they just shut the port off on the switch, but I've heard one or two people tell me they actually get an IP but they just cant do anything.

If that isnt the problem, call the campus IT anyways....sometimes they'll help you out.

 

[Thoreau]

Just for giggles, let's see if DNS may be the lone culprit...

See if you can ping www.supportbeam.com (one of my unused domain names)
If not, see if you can ping 66.39.106.146 (IP of said domain.)

If it can ping the IP, do a google search (on a working PC) for public DNS servers and configure couple static IP's for the DNS entries to see if that fixes it. =)

Hope that helps at least a bit.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Definitely check DNS (nslookup can help). Try pinging the ip address you get (it isn't a 169.x.x.x ip is it?). Traceroute to an ip on the net (get one of Yahoo!'s or 198.77.116.39 if you must, should be able to ping this ip too).

 

[q2261]

Yeah DNS may be prob. Try to use 24.163.16.15, that's a public DNS I run on RR. Also, check up on that quarantine issue, because I know that my school [unc-ch], they have quarantine subnets and a lot of people are frequenlty put into these because of virus issues. I dont think there is any other such "smart" dumb demographic as college kids when it comes to pcs and viruses LOL

 

[DragonReborn]

This is true. =) Well, I will try to put in that DNS address and tell you how it goes. I just don't know why it shut off for no reason...it was working for a good month (that's way over Micro$oft's expected crap out date).

 

[easternerd]

can you please check the dns settings.. do u get them through DHCP too ?
cause i suspect the DNS and also check the Proxy settings.. which might cause this problem..
this might be a likely case ..cause a proxy server is the gateway for the internet usually..
so its better to check that up first also make sure u entered the coorect credentials.

 

[DragonReborn]

well...I checked the dns to no avail. I think it may be a virus. The school can ping me and everything is right. Now...how the hell can I get rid of something that I cannot detect and don't know the name of???

 

[Boscoh]

Either buy an antivirus software package (you should have one anyways, or you're just asking for trouble), I'd recommend Trend PC'Cillin, download the newest pattern file onto a CD and install everything to her computer and scan it, or you can try your campus IT department. A lot of campuses will scan a PC and clean it if it has a virus...but if it does, you should definitely invest in some antivirus software and turn the Windows XP firewall on or she will get reinfected again.

You could also just trash the whole system and reformat...but that would suck. I'd check with campus IT first and if they scan it and see if they find a virus.

 

[stash]

I would try to reinstall the tcp/ip stack. Run 'netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt' from the cmd prompt and reboot the box. This will reset the registry keys in HKLM\system\ccs\services\tcpip\parameters and HKLM\system\ccs\services\dhcp\parameters.

 

[Matthias99]

I had a machine that I cleaned some spyware off of last week and it wouldn't do DNS properly afterwards. I found a fix for it on the web, but I believe reinstalling the networking components for Windows should fix it as well.

Here's the program that fixed it for me:

LSP-Fix

 

[DragonReborn]

Well, I will try the LSP-Fix and see what happens. Crossing my fingers. Oh and the 'netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt' am I typing that exactly into the cmd prompt? that's it? and it is a txt file? I'll try it out. =)

 

[stash]

Yep that's the command you need to type. You have to write it out to a log file or it wont run.

 

[DragonReborn]

Well...I am SOL again. Tried everything and even ran anti-virus program that found and deleted some viruses. No idea. The "computer tech's" on campus said that they've heard of this before...nothing fixes it, even a full reinstall of windows and eventually "it fixes itself." Not a chance. I was wondering if there was a way to delete a local area connection? I can disable it but I can't delete it. I wanted to kinda start from fresh as a last resort. Thanks!

 

[screw3d]

Originally posted by: DragonReborn
Well...I am SOL again. Tried everything and even ran anti-virus program that found and deleted some viruses. No idea. The "computer tech's" on campus said that they've heard of this before...nothing fixes it, even a full reinstall of windows and eventually "it fixes itself." Not a chance. I was wondering if there was a way to delete a local area connection? I can disable it but I can't delete it. I wanted to kinda start from fresh as a last resort. Thanks!

If you've found some virus, chances are your campus network has blocked your gf's computer from accessing the network (and thus stop spreading virii around the network). They can do this by blocking the computer's MAC/physical address. Call your campus network's administrator, not those "computer techs", to let let the computer connect to the network again.

 

[Boscoh]

I've never heard of something that a full reinstall of windows wont fix that eventually fixes itself. Either you have a software problem in windows, or you have a hardware problem...and neither really "fix themself". I think your campus techs are full of it. You have tried plugging her computer into another ethernet jack now that its virus free?

 

[DragonReborn]

That's the problem, the school isn't blocking her and says that she is connected and that there should be no problem. Personally, I feel like a full reinstall of windows would do it (especially if I upgraded her to XP Pro. Oh well, the head campus tech's are gonna come out and see what they say. Thanks again everybody.