Dial-Up Accounts Icons Problem

[Jesse]

Hi, I installed the PlayOnline software to play Final
Fantasy Online XI, when I click my Account Icon on the
Network Connections Window the account Icon disappear as
soon the computer starts dialing, I dont pay attention to
it a that moment, but from that point foward I have to
create a new Account every time I want to connect because
the Network Connection Window only display the LAN icon
but none of the Dial-up, I can see the conections thru
the control panel but they are not available from the
Connect To shortcut in the Start Menu, I refresh the
windows and nothing happend, anyone knows how to fix
that, thanks in advance

 

[Coplan]

I am having the same problems. And after hours and hours of trouble
shooting, I have determined that it is, in fact, PlayOnline (or
perhaps FF IX) that is causing the trouble. But alas, I don't have a
fix for it at the moment.

For now, I have a temporary work-around so that you don't have to
re-create your connection every time. I'm assuming you're using
Windows XP.

When you create your connection, make sure you check the box that
creates a shortcut on your desktop (it's in one of the last steps).
While your connection icon and any indication of it may disappear from
the Network Settings, it is still in your computer and functional.
Just that you don't actually know its there. But the shortcut will
allow you to connect with that connection.

Now, the other problem si that you have no system tray icon. So you
can't disconnect the way you used to. For now, create another
shortcut for a program called "Rasphone". This is a utility that will
allow you to disconnect from your ISP. It is a windows program, and
can be found in the System32 directory:
%windir%\System32\rasphone.exe

Having two icons like that is annoying. And not having a link to your
statistics is annoying too. But I'll return if I find a solution and
post in this thread. If you find a solution, please do so as well.

I hope that all helps:

Coplan

 

[Coplan]

I havn't forgotten about you, but I have yet to uncover anything that
might resolve the problem. Hasn't anyone else discovered anything?

 

[susan]

I am also having this problem after installing FFXI and PlayOnline. I
uninstalled both, but the problem persists. I am planning to do a
System Restore tonight to see if I can get back to normal with the
networking components. I should think PlayOnline would give some type
of response.....

 

[susan]

Well, system restore didn't fix it, since there wasn't a point to
restore to more than 6 days ago. I installed FFXI 10 days ago. I've
tried every fix I could find in this and other newsgroups, and on
the MS site. I hope someone comes up with a fix soon....

 

[Guest]

I have the same problem as Susan. I installed FF and it messed up the machine. I uninstalled it and have beenunable to get things workiing again. I hope that someone finds a solution soon. I have heard nothing back on my post ot the FF tech support

I have also tried searching through the KB articles on the MS site and found several that looked promising but none have led to a resolution. One in particular seemed very promising (KB article 825826) but after stepping through all of the suggestions in that article and several others, the problem remains. (the only part I did not do, was remove and re-install the LAN connections since that should not be interacting and they currently work). There is always the possibility that I missed something in going through this KB article so I share it to see if it perhaps provides inspiration to others

I also do not have a restore point available since the machine ran out of space (or close to it) and of course the restore points were sacrificed during the FF installation. I have tried to compare registry entries for working XP machines that do not have FF installed (ever) and mine which is afflicted but to date with no success. Any suggestions on what areas to look for and compare from any one out there

This problem also affects more than just the dialup connections. VPN connections are also affected. It is no longer possible to know if the VPN tunnel is active or not (quickly) -- my workaround for that is to try to change some innocuous configuration setting such as whether to display the connection in the system tray and the system will tell you if the connection is currently active but this is annoying to say the least. Alo it appears that some other services like the Network configuration wizard no longer run (at least I think that this is related) and some services, noteable RAS no longer stop properly when requested to do so by manual intervention from the MNC snap in for services

I am preparing to take more drastic steps in order of increasing deperation

* Run a registry checker on the registry such as Norton System works and see if it finds anything? Pretty easy and painles
* Remove all networking from window xp, run a registry checker to clear things out, then reboot and re-install everything. I will save the registry entries for the specific dialup connections that I have and want to keep to minimize the pain and hopefully bring them back once networking has been re-installed
* Reinstall all of Windows XP over the current installation in the hopes that this re-sets whatever configuration has been messed up (I may try this first since most configurations survive this
* Reinstall a fresh copy of Windows XP from scratch and the re-install ALL of my applications again vowing never, ever, ever, ever again to install FF again; I have gotten rid of Windows and macro viruses with less effert than this!

Does anyone out there have other suggestions of things to try that might be a little less desperate and drastic

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and comments. I will end by echoing Susan's hope that someone finds an answer to this soon.

 

[Coplan]

Well, I uninstalled PlayOnline for a time, and had the problem
persist. But then I went through some of the Microsoft Tech support
pages, and somehow managed to get it working again. I really don't
know exactly what I did though. But it doesn't matter, because I
installed PlayOnline again (so I could play my favorite game), and the
problem returned.

Still no solution, then.

 

[Lynn]

I mentioned earlier that the only solution I found was formatting the hard
drive and reinstalling Windows XP. I decided to download and run the
benchmarking tool from PlayOnline rather than immediately reinstall the game
itself. Even the benchmarking tool caused the problem! Now I have to decide
whether or not the game is worth the trouble.....

 

[Lynn]

I found the fix for the missing dial-up connections icons/missing system
tray icons/non-working network wizard problem! Uninstalling QoS Packet
Scheduling fixes all the issues. I found this answer at:
http://vnboards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=60765362&replies=6
In a nutshell:
Create a new connection, and before you use it (causing it to disappear),
right-click the icon and go to Properties. Go to the Networking tab.
Uninstall QoS Packet Scheduling. Hallelujah!

 

[Guest]

Thanks, this fix worked for me. I removed the QOS service and the dialup connections immediately returned. When I again installed the QOS service, the connections remained!! Needless to say I am NOT going to re-install FF XI, until the reason is better understood (if ever!).