O
ObsesivelyCurious
Yet Another Frustrated WinXP SP 2 User
I need some good and detailed advice on the problem I encountered after
installing WinXP SP2 on my home computer. I hope this is the best
forum to post this question to, but if you know of a different group,
please, refer me there.
Here's my story, which I'll try to keep to a minimum - just
enough to describe things in detail. I have two computers at home: a
desktop and a laptop. Both of them sit behind a wireless router
(Linksys WRT54G) and a cable model (Motrola - can't recall the
model at this point). Both boxes run WinXP. I've been using this
setup smoothly and happily for some two years now relying on the
router's built in Firewall to protect me from malicious attempts of
the villains out there.
Unfortunately a couple of weeks ago I must have contracted some mutated
version of sasser which caused my lsass.exe to cease to function and
forced periodic system reboot. Alerted by this event I've decided to
bring my desktop up to the latest updates, and perhaps install some
software firewall on the box itself. I was able to successfully remove
the malware (and in the process found some more stuff, albeit less
malignant). Either way, after installing the first set of necessary
updates from MS I got everything working smoothly again... And here's
when I made a mistake.
I thought, if things are going so well, perhaps I should go ahead and
install Microsoft's recommended SP2, and I went for it. Installation
proceeded uneventfully and soon I had my brand new and shiny WinXP SP2.
Unfortunately, from that point on I have been unable to connect to the
internet. I've pored over gazillions of posts and discussion forums,
found some advice, applied it, and... got nothing. I even went as far
as restoring the system back to before SP2 (at which point everything
works fine) and reinstalling again, but to no avail.
Now, here's what I see exactly. My ipconfig shows everything as it
needs to be. Both my desktop (with SP2) and my laptop (without SP2)
get their IPs from the router via DHCP. I can also ping my router
(192.168.1.1) and my cable modem (192.168.100.1) just fine. I can ping
between the desktop and laptop as well. However, if I try to browse to
either one (http://192.168.1.1 or http://192.168.100.1) which normally
brings up a web based configuration interface, I get an IE error page
indicating it cannot connect. Also, when I try to ping something
outside my local network, the ping times out.
Now, this is the most bizarre part. Before I installed SP2 on my
desktop I took it offline by physically unplugging the network. During
the installation and even after I could access the internet from my
laptop without any issues. I could also view the configuration web
interfaces of both the router and the cable modem. When I later
plugged in the desktop with SP2 back onto my LAN I could still browse
happily on my laptop for a little while. I tried to navigate to my
router interface from my desktop, and after a very long delay, the
interface slowly came up. It was available for a few minutes, and then
went down (with the familiar error page in IE). I thought this must be
a problem with the desktop and SP2, but to my dismay I found out that
my laptop now can't access the internet or web interface of the
router either. It seems that SP2 on my desktop is somehow capable of
taking down the router with it!!!
As a background info, let me state that I have installed the latest
firmware on the router. I've also carefully reviewed any potential
malware on my box. I've run Ad-Aware and removed everything that
looked suspicious. I also scanned the system with HijackThis and
examined the log, but did not find anything that concerned me. I'd
be happy to post the log later when I'm back at my box, if that can
be relevant here.
Another interesting tidbit is that my "Internet Connection" under
Network Connections disappeared after I installed SP2. When I restored
to the previous state, I couldn't see it either. Later, after
re-installation of SP2, it popped up again, until everything went down,
and then it disappeared again.
I also have Symantec Internet Security 2003 installed. I had not used
it before, but I enabled it after I discovered and removed sasser.
I've tried disabling it, but this had no effect on my connectivity
problems. I also disabled the Windows Firewall, but to no avail.
Quite frankly I'm completely at a loss for a solution. If there is
anyone out there who could shed some light on my desperate situation, I
would greatly appreciate your opinion and advice.
Thanks a bunch,
Andrew
I need some good and detailed advice on the problem I encountered after
installing WinXP SP2 on my home computer. I hope this is the best
forum to post this question to, but if you know of a different group,
please, refer me there.
Here's my story, which I'll try to keep to a minimum - just
enough to describe things in detail. I have two computers at home: a
desktop and a laptop. Both of them sit behind a wireless router
(Linksys WRT54G) and a cable model (Motrola - can't recall the
model at this point). Both boxes run WinXP. I've been using this
setup smoothly and happily for some two years now relying on the
router's built in Firewall to protect me from malicious attempts of
the villains out there.
Unfortunately a couple of weeks ago I must have contracted some mutated
version of sasser which caused my lsass.exe to cease to function and
forced periodic system reboot. Alerted by this event I've decided to
bring my desktop up to the latest updates, and perhaps install some
software firewall on the box itself. I was able to successfully remove
the malware (and in the process found some more stuff, albeit less
malignant). Either way, after installing the first set of necessary
updates from MS I got everything working smoothly again... And here's
when I made a mistake.
I thought, if things are going so well, perhaps I should go ahead and
install Microsoft's recommended SP2, and I went for it. Installation
proceeded uneventfully and soon I had my brand new and shiny WinXP SP2.
Unfortunately, from that point on I have been unable to connect to the
internet. I've pored over gazillions of posts and discussion forums,
found some advice, applied it, and... got nothing. I even went as far
as restoring the system back to before SP2 (at which point everything
works fine) and reinstalling again, but to no avail.
Now, here's what I see exactly. My ipconfig shows everything as it
needs to be. Both my desktop (with SP2) and my laptop (without SP2)
get their IPs from the router via DHCP. I can also ping my router
(192.168.1.1) and my cable modem (192.168.100.1) just fine. I can ping
between the desktop and laptop as well. However, if I try to browse to
either one (http://192.168.1.1 or http://192.168.100.1) which normally
brings up a web based configuration interface, I get an IE error page
indicating it cannot connect. Also, when I try to ping something
outside my local network, the ping times out.
Now, this is the most bizarre part. Before I installed SP2 on my
desktop I took it offline by physically unplugging the network. During
the installation and even after I could access the internet from my
laptop without any issues. I could also view the configuration web
interfaces of both the router and the cable modem. When I later
plugged in the desktop with SP2 back onto my LAN I could still browse
happily on my laptop for a little while. I tried to navigate to my
router interface from my desktop, and after a very long delay, the
interface slowly came up. It was available for a few minutes, and then
went down (with the familiar error page in IE). I thought this must be
a problem with the desktop and SP2, but to my dismay I found out that
my laptop now can't access the internet or web interface of the
router either. It seems that SP2 on my desktop is somehow capable of
taking down the router with it!!!
As a background info, let me state that I have installed the latest
firmware on the router. I've also carefully reviewed any potential
malware on my box. I've run Ad-Aware and removed everything that
looked suspicious. I also scanned the system with HijackThis and
examined the log, but did not find anything that concerned me. I'd
be happy to post the log later when I'm back at my box, if that can
be relevant here.
Another interesting tidbit is that my "Internet Connection" under
Network Connections disappeared after I installed SP2. When I restored
to the previous state, I couldn't see it either. Later, after
re-installation of SP2, it popped up again, until everything went down,
and then it disappeared again.
I also have Symantec Internet Security 2003 installed. I had not used
it before, but I enabled it after I discovered and removed sasser.
I've tried disabling it, but this had no effect on my connectivity
problems. I also disabled the Windows Firewall, but to no avail.
Quite frankly I'm completely at a loss for a solution. If there is
anyone out there who could shed some light on my desperate situation, I
would greatly appreciate your opinion and advice.
Thanks a bunch,
Andrew