Broadband works on one PC - not on other!

[DragonQ0105]

Hey, I have a PC and Laptop. I just reformatted my PC last night and reinstalled XP Pro SP2. I cannot get the internet to work correctly. If I install the Modem and activate the connection, it gives no errors and everything seems to be fine. However, when I go to google or any other site, it stays at "connecting to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" for 10 seconds or so, then it works.

Then, I can normally have the internet working for about a minute (although it's slow), then I'll just get "Page cannot be found" for everything. It's not even TRYING to find the site I don't think - it comes up straight away.

Sometimes resetting to modem gets it working slowly for another minute or so, then it happens again.


Strangely, when connected to the Laptop (also with XP Pro SP2), it works fine.

Here's some more specific info:

PC:
- MSI KM2M Motherboard
- AMD Athlon 1700+ (266MHz FSB)
- 512MB PC100 SDRAM
- 64MB GeForce2 MX 400 Graphics Card
- 52x52x32 CD-RW
- 50x CD-ROM
- 19GB 5400RPM ATA100 HDD
- 75GB 5400RPM ATA100 HDD
- Netgear Ethernet Card
- On-Board LAN Ethernet
- 6x USB2.0 Ports

On the PC, I've tried:
- Connecting to the Ethernet Port on the Netgear Card
- Connecting to the Ethernet Port on the Motherboard
- Connecting via USB
- IE6 SP6
- Firefox 1.2
- Uninstalling + reinstalling the modem and ethernet interfaces
- Disabling + Enabling the connection many times
- Repairing the Connection many times

No luck.

Laptop:
- Toshiba Satellite Pro 4320
- 6GB HDD
- 32x CD-ROM
- 1x USB1.1

Works perfectly on the laptop, suggesting something is wrong on the PC. However, I've tried all 3 available drivers on BOTH computers (Windows XP ones, the ones on the CD they gave me, and the updated ones on the internet - that are supposed to fix "intermittent connections"!!). They do not affect it at all.

Oh, last thing, it's a Scientific Atlanta WebStar 100 Series Modem on Blueyonder 1Mbps Broadband. I've tried Blueyonder's phone help when I had a similar problem before, and they were useless and told me they couldn't think of anything else to fix it than what I'd already tried.

Can anyone here help me please??

 

[jtb]

This all sounds just like Verizon with their crippled version of PPPOE...

maybe look through all that stuff...

JTB
Have Certs, Will Travel
"A knight without armour in a [cyber] land."

 

[DragonQ0105]

Verizon?

Anyhow, after installing SP2, it started not working again. So it seems SP2 is the problem....but I cannot see how because, as I have already said, the PC had SP2 before the reformat and the laptop has SP2 and they work/worked fine.

I've tried disabling the firewall with no difference. Any ideas?

 

[LloydSev]

Roll back SP2?

Computer/Network Technician
CCNA

 

[aquias]

Disabling a firewall doesn't always disable the policies that affect your system. I would suggest going into the XP firewall and seeing what ports are being blocked by the firewall.

Create an exception rule for IE and see if you can still get out.

 

[DragonQ0105]

IE and firefox are obviously allowed in the Windows Firewall.

I did roll back from SP2 back to SP1a and it works fine again. So it must have something to do with a feature in SP2 (which incidently didn't affect the PC before and doesn't affect the laptop)...

 

[LloydSev]

Check your system for spyware. Spyware/Adware can adversly affect the system when upgrading to SP2.

Also, another note of interest, SP1a does not include JavaVM.



Computer/Network Technician
CCNA

 

[aquias]

ARe you installing XP SP2 from a downloaded flie or from a CD?

 

[DragonQ0105]

LloydSev, the PC is Spyware and Virus Free.

Aquias, this is the Network Install of SP2 (i.e. Full Installation File) from Microsoft's website.