Thanks! I'll try all these before I rebuild it. Probably get around to that task middle of next week. It's a residential box and they are moving their data and picture files to another drive in preparation for the rebuild. I'd kinda like to see if I can fix it before I decide to rebuild. They sort of thought that maybe a "virus" (or some kind of malware) got into the box and that was what precipitated the first call to me. If I can buy them enough time to wait for Windows 7 release on Oct 22, that might be a good thing, too. I'll keep you posted on the progress - may take a week or so as this is not one of my 'high priority' projects.
The funny part is that it DOES ping things, both inside and outside of the LAN by address. But not outside by name. It does ping both of the Comcast DNS servers listed by address so I know it an get there - just no name resolution. My laptop on the same LAN resolves just fine even using the same ports and wires that fail on their desk machine. So it definitely is in their box where the problem is. Oh, well! I'll either fix it or wipe & reinstall and fix it. my motto: "It ain't over 'til I win!!" Len Hammond CSI:Hartland lenhamm...@gmail.com On Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 4:47 PM, Don Kuhlman <drkuhl...@yahoo.com> wrote: > This is a long shot, but is there a chance that the IE settings went into > "Work Offline" under tools\ when the computer couldn't connect to anything, > and now that you have a valid ip config, maybe it's only IE having issues - > that is as long as the only thing that isn't working is IE and surfing. If > you can't ping the default gateway (router) or the cable modem, then > something may be wrong with the Nic's settings too. > > Don K > > ------------------------------ > *From:* Len Hammond <lenhammo...@gmail.com> > *To:* NT System Admin Issues <ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com> > *Sent:* Thursday, September 24, 2009 3:38:27 PM > *Subject:* DNS issue > > Good morning folks, > > Recently, at a new customer who just upgraded from dial-up to cable, they > havn't been able to use the cable connection - it just didn't work. > Apparently Comcast wasn't able to help them, so I got the call. Anyway, what > I found was that ipconfig/all showed that it had an appropriate IP address, > SNM, DG and DNS servers listed. IE or FireFox couldn't find any sites on the > web. From the workstation I could ping the DNS servers and any other site I > knew the address of but could not ping anything by name. Suggesting that DNS > wasn't working. > > So, I installed their new firewall/router and after a call to Comcast to > get them to reset the cable modem, (the router refused to accept the > connection from the modem) the router started working. As this modem also > has the voice channel in it, when they reset the modem we lost our phone > call with them. Anyway the modem and the router were functional after that. > My laptop worked fine and could surf without problems. Their PC however was > like before, even after reboots and ipconfig/all showing the DHCP > configuration from the router that worked with my laptop. > > My conclusion is that something is wrong with the IP installation. It was > here that the owner mentioned the possibility of virus infection as their > Kaspersky subscription has expired. I thought about trying to unload and > reload the IP stack, but then realized that I have never done that to an XP > box, just done it with a rebuild. And with an unknown virus condition that > is still my preferred option. They are going to move all data files to an > external hard drive, plus they found all the OEM disks so a rebuild is > likely in the near future > > Bottom line: At this point, I believe there is something wrong with the IP > stack on the PC. But I am curious as to where to go to just refresh the IP > stack, never having done just that. In my XP pro sp3 desk machine here, the > option to uninstall IP from within the Network applet in Control Panel is > greyed out. > > Any thoughts would be appreciated, before I nuke the client machine to > start over. Although that is probably my best option considering the unknown > virus condition; especially since they could not tell my why they think it > is possible to have a virus (or whatever). It's so cluttered that it runs > slow enough to justify a refresh on that point alone. > > > Len Hammond > CSI:Hartland > lenhamm...@gmail.com > > > > > > > > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
