Difficult Problem - Internet Access Issue

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I have a client who has an HP Pavilion 531W that originally had XP Home. The
machine was so clogged with spyware that I had no choice but to run a
destructive restore from the hard drive.

The destructive restore did not solve the performance problems and I thought
perhaps the spyware (1000’s + incidents) may have corrupted the restore
files. The System Restore CD’s that shipped with the machine could not be
found and they are no longer available from HP. So, I decided to put Windows
2000 SP4 on the machine since HP told me that â€should†work.

A fresh W2k install did solve the performance issues except for accessing
the internet. It behaves just like when XP was on the machine.

Before the spyware problems the machine worked with DSL just fine. I am now
trying to get on the internet with in a cable broadband connection via my
LAN.

Here are the symptoms and corrective action I have taken thus far. Note:
there is NOTING loaded on this machine except the W2K OS – no firewall.

What DOES works:
1. Can ping the loop back IP
2. Can ping the Router IP: (NO filtering configured on router)
3. I can see the workgroup from another machine on the LAN

What DOES NOT Work:
1. Can not ping other machines on the network
2. Can not ping websites.
3. Cannot ping this machine from another machine
4. Browser retunes “Page can not be displayed†for Google & Yahoo etc.
5. Clicking on the Workgroup from another client on the LAN I get a
“Workgroup is not accessibleâ€â€¦â€device is not connected†error message.

What I have TRIED:
1. Verified the cable is good
2. Tried 2nd Known good NIC (vs. onboard one)
3. Uninstalled and Re-installed the IP stack
4. Set the Browser Connection to LAN and tried “Automatically detect
settings†enabled and un-enabled.
5. Cleared browser cache
6. Tried TCP/IP settings to grab IP’s dynamically AND also tried setting
static IP’s

REALLY BIZAR is when I boot the machine one of the boot options listed under
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professionals is “Microsoft Windows Whistler
Personal†If you try it there is an error and it won’t let you boot to that.
I have NEVER seen that and do not know where that came from. I installed W2k
of the same CD’ I have used many times. ???

I feel like I a missing something really obvious and stupid or there is
something really strange going on with this machine. Since I have had two
OS’s on the machine I would think it would be hardware but I have verified
all of that, drivers too.

I am really at a loss here and would appreciate some help!
Thanks - Jody
 
Jody said:
I have a client who has an HP Pavilion 531W that originally had XP Home. The
machine was so clogged with spyware that I had no choice but to run a
destructive restore from the hard drive.

The destructive restore did not solve the performance problems and I thought
perhaps the spyware (1000's + incidents) may have corrupted the restore
files. The System Restore CD's that shipped with the machine could not be
found and they are no longer available from HP. So, I decided to put Windows
2000 SP4 on the machine since HP told me that "should" work.

A fresh W2k install did solve the performance issues except for accessing
the internet. It behaves just like when XP was on the machine.

Before the spyware problems the machine worked with DSL just fine. I am now
trying to get on the internet with in a cable broadband connection via my
LAN.

Here are the symptoms and corrective action I have taken thus far. Note:
there is NOTING loaded on this machine except the W2K OS - no firewall.

What DOES works:
1. Can ping the loop back IP
2. Can ping the Router IP: (NO filtering configured on router)
3. I can see the workgroup from another machine on the LAN

What DOES NOT Work:
1. Can not ping other machines on the network
2. Can not ping websites.
3. Cannot ping this machine from another machine
4. Browser retunes "Page can not be displayed" for Google & Yahoo etc.
5. Clicking on the Workgroup from another client on the LAN I get a
"Workgroup is not accessible"."device is not connected" error message.

What I have TRIED:
1. Verified the cable is good
2. Tried 2nd Known good NIC (vs. onboard one)
3. Uninstalled and Re-installed the IP stack
4. Set the Browser Connection to LAN and tried "Automatically detect
settings" enabled and un-enabled.
5. Cleared browser cache
6. Tried TCP/IP settings to grab IP's dynamically AND also tried setting
static IP's

REALLY BIZAR is when I boot the machine one of the boot options listed under
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professionals is "Microsoft Windows Whistler
Personal" If you try it there is an error and it won't let you boot to that.
I have NEVER seen that and do not know where that came from. I installed W2k
of the same CD' I have used many times. ???

I feel like I a missing something really obvious and stupid or there is
something really strange going on with this machine. Since I have had two
OS's on the machine I would think it would be hardware but I have verified
all of that, drivers too.

I am really at a loss here and would appreciate some help!
Thanks - Jody
Click to expand...

As a starting point I suggest you post the output from the command

ipconfig /all > c:\ipconfig.txt

when executed on both PCs.
 
Windows 2000 IP Configuration - GOOD MACHINE
Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : mce5-Laptop
Primary DNS Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : 3Com Megahertz 10/100 LAN CardBus PC
Card #2
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-DA-D2-53-DC
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.107
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.105

Windows 2000 IP Configuration - BAD MACHINE
Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : brooks
Primary DNS Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : D-Link DFE-530TX+ PCI Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-BA-5D-C8-92
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.112
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 198.162.1.105
 
In just about all cases, your type of problem is caused
by a firewall. Now I know that you said you don't have
one but I have to state this observation regardless. ZoneAlarm,
for example, is notorious for blocking pings even when
disabled. Uninstallation seems to be required to get things
going.

Your IP settings look fine. Here is what I would do:
- Set the network adapter speed to 10 MBits/s half duplex
on both PCs during the tests.
- Open the network adapter status display on both machines
so that I can observe the packet counters.
- Ping 192.168.1.1 on the good machine. The packets must
be visible on the status display.
- Ping 192.168.1.1 on the bad machine. The packets must
be visible on the status display.
- If not then I would uninstall and re-install the TCP/IP protocol,
change the network cable, replace the network adapter,
change the hub/switch port.
 
OK -
Changed NICs already - same results on both.
Just Changed Cable & Hub port - Same
No Firewall installed
Ping Output:

Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data: - GOOD MACHINE Auto & Full Duples
only options Set to Auto

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=150
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=150
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=150
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=150

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data: - BAD MACHINE Set to 10 Halft
Duplex
(NOTE: Sometimes I get a couple of Request Timeouts here)
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=150
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=150
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=150
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=150

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms
 
Your tests prove that both machines can successfully
ping your default gateway (presumably your router).
This means that there is nothing wrong with the TCP/IP
stack, the network adapters, cabling, and the router
ports.

Here are the next tests I would run:
- Ping the good machine from the bad machine and
vice versa, observing the network adapter status
panels.
- Ping this address from each machine: 66.102.7.99 (Google).
- Ping www.google.com from each machine.

What do you get in each case?
 
Can sucessfully ping ALL IP's from both good and bad machines
CAN NOT ping FQDN for google on Bad machine.
I get "Unknown host www.google.com."

Sounds like a resolution problem - what's the fix for that?
 
You have several options:
- Set the DSN values of the bad machine the same way
as for the good machine.
- Add 192.168.1.1 as the second DNS address on the bad machine.
- Add aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd as the second DNS address on the bad
machine, where aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd is the IP address of your ISP's
domain name server.
 
Tried 192.168.1.1 Didn't work
Tried the NS1 IP for the ISP's webiste domain is that what you mean? That
did not work either. If that is not the correct IP then how do I find out
what my ISP's DNS IP is?
 
I had to email my ISP they dont have that info posted on their website. I
will get back to you when Ihave tested that.

Question: If that doe snot work then what?

Thank you very much for your help. I appreciate it greately.
 
Try just using a random public DNS server, one that you can ping from your
good machine. THis soundslike a DNS problem all the way to me.
 
Sorry I haven't gotten back on this. I did get the ISP DNS server IP and
that did not work either. I feel a bit dense on this one but I finally just
connected the cable modem directly to the computer, removing it from my LAN
and it worked fine.
I suspect some network or rounter issue but that is very wierd since all my
other workstations (5) can access the server, other workstations and the
internet just fine????

Thanks both of you for your your help! - Jody
 
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