xp not passing Credentials

[teqmod]

OK I originally posted this in the office Forum but it seems to be more widespread throughout the machine. Here is what I have:

I have a single machine that will not allow access to exchange email. This user used to be able to open exchange email but no longer can. It asks for a username and password and when this is entered it just comes back like hte credentials were rejected. I logged in under my user account and attempted to connect to Exchange and got the same thing. Generally we are not prompted for passwords. On another machine on the same network I am connected to exchange without issue. I have the user working on a temporary laptop with no issue. There is nothing in the event logs on hte exchange server or the machine. This is what I see so far:

1) This is an issue with the client machine since Exchange can be accessed from other machines on the same network with the same user accounts
2) This is not an issue with the users profile since I logged in which created a new profile and had the exact same issue.

My thoughts are something is preventing the credentials from be passed from this machine outward but I am now stuck with what it might be.

Anyone seen a similar issue or have any thoughts on what might be causing this?

I have also found that when trying to connect using the new Remote Desktop client and it prompts for a username/password I can not connect to the exchange server or any other servers. I can ping the exchange server and it resolves the IP correctly.

I hate to start thinking virus or something but I am wondering if that might be a possibility. This user has a history of "issues" like that. I do not know of any viruses that cause this behaviour and we are running Trend Micro AV and it is up to date.

 

[ArizonaGeek]

There are a couple of things that come to mind, first check your hosts file to see if there are any weird IP addresses listed. The second would be to check for network problems. Make sure DHCP is working and getting a correct IP address. Do a release/renew and see if it gets the same IP address. Maybe try a static IP address.

Can you ping the gateway via IP address and/or hostname? Can you ping outside your network?

Try removing the computer from your DHCP and DNS servers, then do an ipconfig /flushdns

Last but not least maybe remove the computer from the domain, clear DHCP, DNS and AD and add it back to the domain.

Good luck...

Cheers
Rob

The answer is always "PEBKAC!

 

[ArizonaGeek]

Oh one other thing, check for a bad NIC. Make sure you have lights on both ends (PC and switch) and check the device manager to see if someone did Microsoft updates and if it installed an updated driver that pooched it.

Cheers
Rob

The answer is always "PEBKAC!

 

[teqmod]

Thanks for the input. The machine can ping internal machines, the gateway and other subnets. Ping is blocked at the firewall so nothing beyond that but name resolution is working properly. I have verified the hosts and lmhosts files. I also added the ip of the exchange server to make sure there was nothing weird going on with that. I checked the DNS server and made sure there were no duplicate entries for the ip. I will try the static IP next and see if that helps.

 

[ArizonaGeek]

You should be able to ping past your firewall even if you can't ping the actual firewall, I mean I guess it could have been blocked but that eliminates a HUGE tool for testing problems. Like the one you are having now.

Trying pinging 4.2.2.2 (some outside IP address that allows a ping, great for testing DNS issues) and try pinging

http://www.google.com

Can you ping the Exchange server by both IP and host name? Can the PC access the internet via a browser?

Cheers
Rob

The answer is always "PEBKAC!

 

[linney]

What firewalling or other security type programs are running on the XP machine?

Can you access the Server if the client boots to "Safe Mode with Networking"?

Is System Restore an option if things were OK a few days ago?

Can you add the Credentials via Manage Passwords?

There is a "Manage Passwords" section obtained via typing Control Userpasswords2 in the Start Run box. In the resulting window you will get to it via the Advanced tab.

See if there is anything mentioned in "Manage Passwords"?

Another thing you can look at is this -

306992 - HOW TO: Manage Stored User Names and Passwords on a Computer in a Domain in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306992&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

306541 - HOW TO: Manage Stored User Names and Passwords on a Computer That Is Not in a Domain in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306541&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

Behavior of stored user names and passwords

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/281660/?FR=1

 

[teqmod]

Ping is blocked at the firewall. Corporate policy. I can get to the internet and browse normally. I can ping the server by hostname and IP address. I can actually access the webmail running on exchange with no issues. On all other machines it automatically passes the credentials for exchange through. There is Trend Micro installed but I am not positive that there is any firewall portion enabled for it. I have disabled hte windows firewall with no sucess. I was thinking that it was not a password manager issue since it happened with a brand new user profile but I am going to look into this a little further. Updates are pushed out using WSUS and the users do not have the rights to install anything. I checked the logs and nothing has been installed since last Thursday.

I am doing the sfc right now and it wanted the CD so maybe that means it found something.

 

[linney]

TrendMicro may be interfering, it is not too hard to eliminate it from starting, but sometimes disabling is not enough because of registry settings still in effect, in such cases you have to uninstall to test a firewall or security program as a cause.

310560 - How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310560&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

What was the result from "Safe Mode with Networking"?

 

[teqmod]

well strangely enough removing TCP/IP v6 seemed to fix it or reset the nic enough to work. I started going through network services and saw it was enabled. Strange but that seemed to do it.