Network Problems "Limited or No Connectivity" 1

[Albion]

I am having the infamous "Limited or No Connectivity" problem on an XP SP2 Home machine. Here is what I have tried.

1. L2TP VPN? Tried the Microsoft patch that's avaliable, no luck.
2. Changed from DHCP to static IP? When I change to a static IP I do get a "Connected" status on the network adapter but the only thing I can do is ping. When I ping I get these results.

pinging °ÿ with 32 bytes of data

Reply from 192.168.1.4:  Bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.4:  Bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.4:  Bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.4:  Bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for      :  Packages sent = 4,  Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip time in milli-seconds: Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

Notice the "°ÿ" in the first line?

3. Contact DNS? When I attempt to telnet into port 53 on the DNS server I get "The requested service provider could not be loaded or initialized". Where if I telnet from another machine I get a connection and a blank screen.
4. Contact DHCP? No
5. Virus? I've run two seperate DOS virus scanners from a DOS boot CD, neither found any viruses on the machine.
6. Spyware? I've run three anti-spyware packages (Microsoft, Spybot, Ad-Aware) on the machine, neither found any spyware.
7. Suspicious software? I've disabled practically everything in msconfig without touching necessary system software and still have the same problem.
8. Subnet problems? No
9. Firewall? Turned firewall off still have the same problem.
10. Bad Network card? Tried two completely different network cards with different drivers, still have the problem.
11. Bad drivers? See 10. Same problem with two completely different drivers from two different manufacturers?
12. Problem with router? Tried two different routers which both work with other XP SP2 machines.
13. Cables? Tried three different network cables.
14. Registry edit "AssumeUDPEncapsulation..."? No Luck.

Does anyone have any other suggestion aside from a complete reinstall of XP?

Thanks

-Craig

 

[garyanj]

There is an option under the properties of the network connections that removes the limited or no connectivity and will show connected if I remember correctly. I am unsure what you are trying to accomplish so I can't go any further. It does seem that you are connected as you are receiving a succesful ping.

 

[Albion]

But a ping is all I can do! If I try to connect to a DHCP server I can't. If I try to connect to the web I cannot. If I try to connect to a DNS server I cannot. If I try to telnet to telnet server on the same network I cannot. If I try to ftp on the same network I cannot. If I try to connect to a share on that machine from another machine on the network I cannot. What is with the weird symbols in the ping reply? Obviously there is a problem with the network.

Another thing I have noticed is that the Local Area Connection Status shows a rather large ammount of sent packets. ~2,300,000,000,000 packets in a matter of 5 minutes with 0 recieved packets. But when I look at networking under task manager I see 0% utilization.

So my guess is that no, the network isn't working.

-Craig

 

[mattjurado]

Before I state anything, that really does sound like a virus. You say you have run 2 DOS scanners off of a boot CD, but did they really mount the file system? DOS can't access NTFS partitions (assuming you are NTFS).

Besides a virus type problem, try the repair button. Open your network connection and instead of properties, hit the support button. See what you get. You might also want to run hijackthis on the computer and get us the log (you can burn it to cd, run it, then put the log on a floppy/cd, and transfer it to a system where you can post it here).

Also, I know you tried many things, but did you try a new network card in a different PCI slot? Have you tried moving the computer to another cable drop in the building alltogether. If you haven't try those test for us please.

Matt J.

Please always take the time to backup any and all data before performing any actions suggested for ANY problem, regardless of how minor a change it might seem. Also test the backup to make sure it is intact.

 

[cdogg]

Just some thoughts, helpful or not...


A) What are you pinging in step 2? Yourself or another PC? I ask because it's a response in 0ms.

B) Is it possible that you already had some items disabled before doing 7 above, that are causing the problem? Just in case, you might want to re-enable everything since we know disabling didn't help anyway.

C) How is the router configured? DHCP? If so, then there's no reason to choose static.

D) Does the router have any IP's reserved for MAC addresses of other PC's?

E) Did you try to blow out the LAN connection altogether in between removing/reinstalling the Network Card?

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[Albion]

Yeah, I agree, it does sound like a virus. But I ran the boot with NTFS support from a clean CD and then ran F-Prot and Panda with their latest signature files. Neither of them found any viruses.

I have tried repair. When DHCP is enabled it fails, when I am using a static IP it says everything is ok, but still no functionality.

I will try hijackthis and post it here.

As for the network card. The original network card was an onboard network card. I disabled that in BIOS and installed a 3com network card in a PCI slot.

I've tried the computer on two completely different networks at different locations (My home network, and my work test network).

Another thing I find weird is that if it were a virus you'd think it would try to propogate over my test network but my anti-virus (Trend Micro Server Protect, VirusWall, OfficeScan) isn't finding anything moving anywhere on my network at all. Now, unless this is some new mega virus that no one has found yet, you'd think my corporate anti-virus would see some sort of outbreak somewhere.

Thanks

-Craig

 

[Albion]

to cdogg:

I am trying to ping my DNS server. And yes that is sort of odd that it's showing a 0ms return time.

Yes there were items disabled, but they were all items I know not to cause a problem; like quicktime, real player, music match, etc... And when those items were disabled the machine was working fine. There was nothing disabled directly prior to the network failing.

The router is configured DHCP, but I have tried both static and DHCP with this machine and neither work.

As for the MAC question. That is a good question. My home network does have MAC address filtering enabled but both the MAC addresses were added. My router here at work has no MAC address filtering.

What do you mean by blow out? Do you mean physically blowing out the connection with something like a can of air? If so no, but if that were the case on the first connection, why does the second connection have the same problem?

-Craig

 

[cdogg]

Craig,
Sorry, should have clarified that better. I am referring to the LAN Connection entry listed under Network Connections. Remove it after uninstalling the NIC. Perhaps some setting got corrupted in your netwrk stack.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[Albion]

Yeah, I tried that. I also tried to reset the TCP/IP stack using NETSH.

-Craig

 

[linney]

Packets sent = 3,274,290,832,129. Packets received = 83
thread779-526667

"Any type of networking problem in XP SP2 will give you this “Limited or No Connectivity” message, so you may have any one of these causes of the problem."

http://www.pchell.com/support/limitedconnectivity.shtml

http://users.tpg.com.au/adsl5muj/index.htm

Limited Connectivity
thread779-949524

ICS Gateway does not provide configuration to home computers
thread779-955113


Make sure you used the correct Netsh command for SP2.

WinXP Connectivity Issues
Lost Connectivity after Registry or Malware Cleanup
faq779-4625

 

[linney]

Look for 'hidden' firewalls, there are AV programs that also include a firewall component.


"pinging °ÿ with 32 bytes of data"

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...pinging+°ÿ+with+32+bytes+of+data"&btnG=Search

http://groups-beta.google.com/group...,GGLG:en&q="pinging+°ÿ+with+32+bytes+of+data"

 

[Albion]

In Windows XP SP2, this solved my problem:
"netsh winsock reset catalog" from a command prompt.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to help out.

-Craig

 

[mattjurado]

Thanks for letting us know what it was. I haven't used that command yet, now that I know that it actually fixed a problem for someone in real life, I'll keep it in mind.

Matt J.

Please always take the time to backup any and all data before performing any actions suggested for ANY problem, regardless of how minor a change it might seem. Also test the backup to make sure it is intact.