Limited or No Connectivity

[Guest]

When you put #s in manually your overriding the DHCP

I understand that. However when I run the wizard on the Notebook and the
address set to Automatic, I don't get a DHCP address on the Notebook. I wind
up with an APIPA address on the Noterbook and a DHCP address on the Desktop
when the wizard is run there. Therefore the two machines will not talk to
each other. When I manuall set the address on the Notebook to 192.168.0.10
then everything on the network works except internet access from the Notebook.

The problem, as I see it, is that the Desktop is not assingning a DHCP
address to the Notebook. I'm sure when we can find out why, everything will
run just fine.

Now in checking 'Services' DHCP is enabled and running on both machines.
Confusing....

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

Now in my hacking around I manually scanned the Desktop with AVG just to
make sure that there was nothing there. To my surprise I found this:

Shell32.dll Change c:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll
hosts Change c:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

Now my question is why do these two files show "Change" when all the rest of
them show "OK"?

Is this because a virus or trojan horse got in there and changed something
or is it because these two items have been update by windows update? What
you think?

What influence would these two files have on the networtk, DHCP or system
operation if they were corrupted?

Cookie,

the hosts file can redirect addresses. It's a plain text file.
Could you post its contents here? Meanwhile you can also rename
it for a test, for example from hosts to hosts.txt or anything
else. You shouldn't actually need it.

Shell32.dll should also be replaced, but that's a bit more
involved, because I believe the file is protected by the
operating system. Could be an infection, actually, but could
also be something harmless. Difficult to tell.

The fact that the notebook doesn't get an IP address through
DHCP is definitely not normal. The cause for this defect may or
may not be the cause of your problem.

Hans-Georg

 

[Guest]

Cookie,

the hosts file can redirect addresses. It's a plain text file.
Could you post its contents here? Meanwhile you can also rename
it for a test, for example from hosts to hosts.txt or anything
else. You shouldn't actually need it.

Hans-Georg,

I renamed the hosts (no extension) file to hosts.txt on the Desktop. Here
is the file from the Desktop:

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

127.0.0.1 localhost

Shell32.dll should also be replaced, but that's a bit more
involved, because I believe the file is protected by the
operating system. Could be an infection, actually, but could
also be something harmless. Difficult to tell.

In addition I looked at system32.dll on the Notebook, and the two files
appear to be the same. I reloaded the origianl copy of XL Home on the
Notebook last week, and then did all the updates including SP2. They are the
same size and date modified.

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

I renamed the hosts (no extension) file to hosts.txt on the Desktop. Here
is the file from the Desktop:
[...]
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

127.0.0.1 localhost

Cookie,

OK, that one is harmless and not infected. Its only effective
line is the localhost line. You can rename it back to hosts.

I'm sorry I couldn't spot the cause yet, but there are still
very many possibilities of a well hidden problem.

In addition I looked at system32.dll on the Notebook, and the two files
appear to be the same. I reloaded the origianl copy of XL Home on the
Notebook last week, and then did all the updates including SP2. They are the
same size and date modified.

OK, so that one doesn't seem to be the cause either.

One other thought that occurred to me is that you may have
entered the wrong choice when running the network wizard, a
systematic error that sometimes crops up because the choices in
the wizard are awkwardly labelled.

The next step to localize the defect is to connect another
computer to your desktop and test the Internet Connection
Sharing. You already wrote that you can't do that easily, but
you may have to, otherwise you may never even find out whether
the defect is in the desktop or in the laptop.

The only other method I can keep recommending is to work
conscientiously through http://winhlp.com/wxnet.htm , fill in
the form completely, then work through all the results. You
could fill in the form once for the desktop computer and then
again for the laptop computer.

Hans-Georg

 

[Guest]

Hans-Georg,

B-I-N-G-O !!

You were absoultly correct! The answer did lie in your web site.

In going through it very carefully, and filling out the form for the
Desktop, it stated:
To start the repair installation, proceed as follows.
Boot from a full retail Windows XP installation CD. Most OEM CDs do not
allow repair installations.

Even though I only have an OEM version of XP Pro, I changed the bios to boot
from the CD drive and did a repair from there. When it finished I set the
TCP/IP properties, on both machines, to obtain an address automatically.
Then ran the wizard on the Desktop, followed by running it on the Notebook.
B-I-N-G-O! Everything fell right into place. Now when I do a 'ipconfig/all'
on the Desktop, this is what I get:

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : CURTIS

Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :

Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid

IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes

WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : hsd1.mn.comcast.net.

Ethernet adapter Home Network:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast
Ethernet NIC

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-11-D8-E6-8C-1E

Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Ethernet adapter Internet Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : hsd1.mn.comcast.net.

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Motorola SURFboard SB5100 USB
Cable Modem

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0F-9F-49-3D-5B

Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 66.41.187.105

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.252.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 66.41.184.1

DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 68.87.77.10

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 68.87.77.130

68.87.72.130

Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, May 03, 2006 9:57:31 AM

Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, May 06, 2006 9:19:18 AM

Nothing seems to have changed here.

Now here is the ipconfig/all from the Notebook:

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Notebook

Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :

Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Mixed

IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : mshome.net

Ethernet adapter Home Network:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : mshome.net

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network
Connection

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0E-7B-8D-52-15

Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.10

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, May 03, 2006 10:04:18
AM

Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, May 10, 2006 10:04:18
AM

The one thing that I notice is that the Node Type has changed from 'Unknown'
to 'Mixed'.

Locgically this tells me that the problem was with the Windows installation
on the Desktop... something had gone South.

I would like to THANK you very much for your time and persistant help in
solving this problem. I'm very sure that it was getting as frustrating for
you as it was for me... both of us sitting there scatching our heads,
wondeing where to go next.

Again, Hans-Georg, many thank's!

Cookie

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

B-I-N-G-O !!

You were absoultly correct! The answer did lie in your web site.

In going through it very carefully, and filling out the form for the
Desktop, it stated:
To start the repair installation, proceed as follows.
Boot from a full retail Windows XP installation CD. Most OEM CDs do not
allow repair installations.

Even though I only have an OEM version of XP Pro, I changed the bios to boot
from the CD drive and did a repair from there. When it finished I set the
TCP/IP properties, on both machines, to obtain an address automatically.
Then ran the wizard on the Desktop, followed by running it on the Notebook.
B-I-N-G-O! Everything fell right into place. ...

Cookie,

good to hear! Not all of these cases can be solved.

Thanks for reporting back! It's always good to know what worked.

NetBIOS Node type mixed is OK. In most cases only P-t-P causes
problems.

Hans-Georg

 

[Guest]

I noticed that routing was disabled on your desktop, could that be the cause?
I know DHCP server does not actually have to be part of the router but in
most case they are together, therefore it could be possible that there is
some dependencies betwwen the windows xp DHCP service and the routing
service, check it out!