WinXP - Limited or No Connectivity, wired box.

March 28, 2005 9:49 AM

WinXP, limited or no connectivity, wired box. Can't connect, tried everything I can think of, pretty close to trashing the whole install and starting over.

Box was working fine till a few days ago when I started getting Kernel driver errors, and couldn't connect to the internet. Googled the errors and found them to be associated with the Asus probe I was running. Uninstalled that, no more errors, but still can't connect. "Limited or no Connectivity" Here's what I've done to no avail.

Changed the machine's postion in the router, I have 2 other boxes that are connecting fine.

Changed cables

Changed from the asus onboard networking to a d-link pci card.

Run the sp2 networking fix.

Turned of the firewall.

Run WinsockSPfix.

I'm at the end what I can think of/google. Any one have any ideas before I trash the whole thing? This install is less than 2 months old and was totally updated, and behind a linksys router firewall and trend micro.

posted by clubfoote to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

Win2K box?

What does
ipconfig /all
report? Can you paste its output here?

What does a tracert show?
posted by orthogonality at 10:29 AM on March 28, 2005

Run the Microsoft Patch mentioned here?
posted by ori at 10:29 AM on March 28, 2005

(Several pages about the problem recommend this page as the ultimate source for the Limited or Not Connectivity SP2 bug.) You might need to run the patch and then run Winsock XP fix in the same go.
posted by ori at 10:38 AM on March 28, 2005

Mod note: added your title question to the post, hope that's okay
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:52 AM on March 28, 2005

Response by poster: I've run that patch and then run the winsock fix. I really don't think this is related to SP2, the machine was running it for 2 months before I started having this problem.

Ortho:

Ip config:
connection specific dns suffix: blank
autoconfiguration ip address: 169.254.104.69
subnet mask: 255.255.0.0
default gateway: blank

tracert:
Tracing route to 169.254.104.69 over a maximum of 30 hops
1 <1 m s 1 ms 1 ms 169.254.104.69br> trace complete
posted by clubfoote at 12:42 PM on March 28, 2005

Response by poster: I've also updated the router's firmware.
posted by clubfoote at 12:43 PM on March 28, 2005

Ok, the lack of a gateway is disturbing. To me it looks as if your router is giving you a (local) address, but the gateway's not being set.

Seconding, tracerouting to your own (local) IP address tell us something, but not much. Next time, tracert to a big web conglomerate, like metafilter.com.

Ok, now let's get stupid and do the obvious crap:
ipconfig /release
and when that finishes,
ipconfig /renew

and paste the results.

And go into your settings/network/network adapter, and check to make sure that you don't have some wonky gateway explicitly set.

Also, show us the results of ipconfig /all on your working boxes, in case they are working without a gateway and I'm just stupid.
posted by orthogonality at 1:50 PM on March 28, 2005

Response by poster: working box 1

Ipconfig:
earthlink.net
192.168.1.101
255.255.0.0
192.168.1.1

the other box is inaccesable at the moment due to a napping roomate :)

tracert metafilter.com
unable to resolve target systeme name metafilter.com


ipconfig /release
blank
0.0.0.0
0.0.0.0
blank

ipconfig /renew
error:unable to contact dhcp server. request timed out

Tcp/ip properties are set to obtain ip and dns automatically.
posted by clubfoote at 2:19 PM on March 28, 2005

Ok, let's be stupid. First, just reboot not working box and see if that fixes it. If not, plug not working box's cable into the plug on the router working box is currently using, then release and renew not working box.
posted by orthogonality at 6:46 PM on March 28, 2005

If it's any help, I had the same trouble - WinXP Home Edition, that is. Tried all the things you mentioned, and more. Nothing worked. So I installed a new hard drive with a fresh install of XP Pro instead. The old drive is now a data drive. Apparently XP Home has "issues", and sometimes it does this for no good reason. If it's XP Home, then you may just have to ditch it and do a fresh install. But try any other suggestions here first, just in case.
posted by ralphyk at 5:24 AM on March 29, 2005

Response by poster: So I get up this morning, half awake, turn the box on, and start using the inernet, like nothing was ever wrong.

ipconfig
earthlink.net
192.168.1.108
255.255.255.0
192.168.1.1

why after the 10th reboot it suddenly works is beyond me, I did nothing to the box after my last post from yesterday. effin weird.
posted by clubfoote at 7:57 AM on March 29, 2005