LAN workgroup connection keeps removing itself!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Billw
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Billw

This is a weird one. Home/small office LAN, connecting to other computers
and an ADSL modem via a D-Link DI-704P "Ethernet Broadband Gateway with a
built-in four-port switch". There are three machines in the workgroup
arrangement. The networking for the Win2K and WinME machines work..

But the WinXP Pro machine loses its workgroup connection every time it is
rebooted! I have to go in and use the #@$&$$ network connection wizard
every time, tell it once again which workgroup it is supposed to be
connected to, and wait, before I can connect to the internet or see the
other machines.

It did this the first time about a year ago when it was first updated to
WinXP's SP1 --then, when I finally figured out what happened, I just
reconnected it, thought it was some bug in the update, and forgot about it.
It had afterwards been working fine till about a week ago (right about the
time of MS's windows update to fix a security hole).

Now, every time I boot up, it is as if it was never configured for the
workgroup LAN.

Does anybody have any idea what this is about, or more to the point, how I
can fix it?
 
Windows XP "remembers" every NIC and it's associated network
settings. Because of this, you can end up with multiple NIC's in the
Device Manager and a Local Area Connection associated with each
card. Check Device Manager under Network Adapters. Check the
"Show Hidden Devices" option under VIEW first. See what iteration
NIC is active. If it is a number such as Linksys... #2, then you have
multiple instances of the same Network Interface Card. The one
listed without a numeral is your original NIC, so don't remove that
one.
Windows does have a habit of re-enumerating NIC cards, so users
end up with multiple Local Area Connections. Removing the LAC is
a Registry edit that if not done properly can mess things up.
 
Thanks, I'll give it a try.

R. McCarty said:
Windows XP "remembers" every NIC and it's associated network
settings. Because of this, you can end up with multiple NIC's in the
Device Manager and a Local Area Connection associated with each
card. Check Device Manager under Network Adapters. Check the
"Show Hidden Devices" option under VIEW first. See what iteration
NIC is active. If it is a number such as Linksys... #2, then you have
multiple instances of the same Network Interface Card. The one
listed without a numeral is your original NIC, so don't remove that
one.
Windows does have a habit of re-enumerating NIC cards, so users
end up with multiple Local Area Connections. Removing the LAC is
a Registry edit that if not done properly can mess things up.
Click to expand...
 
Tried that, but no such luck. There's only one instance shown for the the
NIC card itself, no duplicates or numbered additional ones. (There are
several miniport drivers listed, but all have somewhat different names,
similar to another machine I looked on).

Here's another data point. I uninstalled some programs that were not being
used anymore, mostly stuff that had been there for months, but one newer one
was the Nero 6 Express's media player. The next boot right after doing
those uninstallations, the workgroup connections worked! I thought maybe
that had fixed it, but alas, no... another boot again we're back to having
to run the blasted wizard to get a connection.

Any other ideas? Does anyone know where the registry keys for this are
stored, so I can maybe see when they are getting doinked?
 
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