Hello to the DAL community, I need your help.

I have a laptop and a desktop computer at home. There is one cable modem. When we want internet on the desktop, we plug the cable modem into the desktop to get internet, when we want internet on the laptop - we unplug the modem (to clear it), then hook up the cable to the laptop and replug the cable modem back in. And this has worked - no problem.... until now.

I have been out of the country on business and took my laptop with me. At one office, they messed around with the settings to get it to hook into the network in their office. And it worked and everything was fine. But now that I am back home, my laptop can no longer access internet here (the desktop still works fine). Arrggh.

When I plug in the modem cable into the laptop, it says that the 'LAN is now connected', with a speed of 100 Mbps and it sends packets, but does not receive them. When I go to try and open up a window, it says it is detecting proxy settings, finding the site and then i get the dreaded 'page can't be displayed'.

The operating system of both computers is Windows XP. The network adapter is a Realtek RTL 8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC and when I went to check on its status - it said it was working properly. I did the 'repair' button for the NIC too - just in case.

I have searched pretty extensively on-line and have come across some other folks that have had similiar problems, but the solutions listed did not work for me. I currently have the LAN settings set to 'automatic configuation'.

I am wondering if there is some other settings that the guy in the foreign office tinkered with that I am not aware of and therefore haven't been able to change back. Unfortunately, I can not get a hold of the guy in the foreign office and soooo...... I'm kind of up a creek without a paddle.

Any and all suggestions are most welcome. Thank you in advance for any time and expertise you can throw my way.

Try setting your LAN setting to:

Check Automatically detect settings.

and Uncheck all other boxes.

If that doesn't work try unchecking all boxes.

You may need to reboot after/ between changes. Definitly Disconnect & Reconnect to your ISP after/ between changes.

If this doesn't work we can check further settings.

Hi Jephree - thanks for the idea. No go. Where to next?

As for your settings under Internst Options Connections:
Settings: uncheck everything on that page. Only your e-mail address & password should appear.
Then under LAN uncheck everything.

The most reliable way to make changes and make them stick is
first to close all IE windows (and then verify that iexplore.exe
is no longer an active process); then use the Internet Options
Control Panel applet.

Also the message of "Detecting Proxy Settings" is often associated with worms & or trojans.
Do you run scans? Do you use Spybot & or AdAware? Do you think that this could be an issue?

I unchecked everything under Internet Options Settings and the LAN page.

I did run spybot and it did find some problems. they were the 'tracking cookies' type of bugs - didn't look like any trojan or worms or worse...although you were right about the 'detecting proxy settings' being a sign that i have bugs. now that i've cleaned them up, that message no longer appears. thanks.

however, it's still the same. connected to LAN, but not to internet. it sends packets, but does not receive them.

Have you checked the security settings under Internet Options? Medium?

Also under Advanced | Restore Defaults?

Also are you running a Firewall? SP2?

_________________________________

Also try this on both machines and compare results:

Start, Run: cmd: type ipconfig /all


_________________________________

ok. security settings were (and still are) medium and i restored defaults under 'advanced'. windows firewall has been (and is) running on both computers - although i don't know what a SP2 is.

the desktop has Norton Anti-Virus Pro, and the laptop runs Symantec Anti-Virus Corporate. i've run scans on both computer and nothing has been caught.

for the cmd thing i'm assuming you are asking what the cmd says when they are hooked into the cable modem?? if so, when the desktop cmd thing is done this is what appears ...

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Amy
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connecti
on
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-E0-18-48-4E-4C
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 68.196.112.123
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.240.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 68.196.112.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 167.206.3.170
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 167.206.3.170
167.206.3.236
167.206.3.171
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, May 26, 2005 2:51:21 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Monday, May 30, 2005 2:51:21 AM

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>



the laptop cmd is ...

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : cathy
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Mixed
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Eth
ernet NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-02-3F-6B-03-94
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.27
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.162.0.1

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom 54g MaxPerformance 802.11g
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-90-4B-51-84-39

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>


i hope this may give you some clue as to what may be wrong. thanks.

SP2 is XP Service Pack 2:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2/default.mspx

Check in your Services:

Administrative Tools | Services

That DHCP Client is Started & set to Automatic

Do the same with:

DNS Client

sigh.

i checked the admin tools/services and dhcp and dns client both are started and set to auto. the only difference i saw was that the dchp says 'log on as a local system' while dns client says 'log on as a network service'.

sp2 --- i've tried to download on the desktop, but it already has received that update and i can't seem to download it again into some form that i could burn onto a CD to transfer to my laptop. any suggestions?

i can't help but feel like i'm overlooking some simple little thing that's causing this lack of connection. it's just so strange to be 'connected to lan' but not getting to the internet. the little green light flashes on my laptop at the port where i plug in the cable and so it seems like it's working...but just no internet.

i appreciate your help very much jephree. any ideas of what to check next?