XP Service Pack 2

[Rhys666]

Since I Installed XP SP2 for my XP Pro PC at home I'm getting the message Your network connection is limited or not available when trying to set up my home network.

I'm running XP Pro, the Lan is on my MOBO, (Abit NF7 s2). The Lan led next to the slot is on, the bios say the lan is on, windows says the drivers are installed, but still the problem. I've tried the latest Lan drivers for the MOBO with no success, I've tried the Windows drivers with no success.

Any thoughts, idea's, comments or instant solutions , avoiding changing the OS as my work is MS product based, please let me know.

Cheers

Rhys
"A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk I have a workstation..."

""Vampireware /n/, a project, capable of sucking the lifeblood out of anyone unfortunate enough to be assigned to it, which never actually sees the light of day, but nonetheless refuses to die.

 

[bcastner]

And if you do a Repair operation by right-clicking the Network tray icon what happens?

It would help if you say something more about the Home LAN; are you connected to a hub, switch, router or using a cross-over connection to another PC? How is the adapter (I am assuming this is not wireless) configured to obtain Speed and Duplex settings -- is it set to Automatic? Is it true that despite the warning message, the LAN connection works normally?

 

[Rhys666]

The LAN was up and working before SP2 on a direct PCtoPC connection via crossover cable. On the PC it's the Ethernet adapter built onto the MOBO.

Essentially, when I try to run the networking wizard or configure the LAN in any way I get the warning your network connection is limited or not available on the first step and the network will not set up.

As far as I can ascertain however the Ethernet drivers for the MOBO are installed, (and they're up to date), the Ethernet adapter is on at the BIOS, is recognised by windows and judging by the power LED sitting next to the Ethernet socket it has power.

Rhys
"A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk I have a workstation..."

""Vampireware /n/, a project, capable of sucking the lifeblood out of anyone unfortunate enough to be assigned to it, which never actually sees the light of day, but nonetheless refuses to die.

 

[bcastner]

If you see a "limited or no connectivity" warning and a yellow exclamation mark in Device Manager, this only means that the computer's network port is set to automatically obtain an IP address through DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), but a DHCP server could not be found. Windows then generates an APIPA address in the range:

Class B: 169.254.0.0 - 169.254.255.255
(Subnet mask: 255.255.0.0)

This means that all computers in the LAN (Local Area Network) can communicate with each other, if the others also gave themselves APIPA addresses.

It does not necessarily mean that there is anything wrong, but if you don't want to see this message any more, right-click on the Network tray icon, Show Network Connections, click on the LAN connection, select Properties, and remove the check mark for "Notify me when this connection has limited or no connectivity".

If the issue is that the connection does not work after the upgrade to SP2, check that:

. In the SP2 firewall, you have enabled an exception for File and Printer Sharing, and that you have set the Scope to your local network subnet.

. See the end of faq779-4625 for instructions on how to use Netsh to reset your Winsock stacks.

. Make sure that you only have TCP/IP as the network protocol, no Netbui or IPX/SPX

Reboot and test again.
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