One pc cannot connect

[rjbrundage]

I am helping my parents out with their pc. I set up the network about 2 months ago and everything worked fine. All of a sudden (I do not use it) they have not been able to connect to the their cable internet at all. The other pc on the network connects perfectly. I have power cycled everything numerous times. I have checked all the ethernet cables and they are also good. The hub is brand new and works for the other pc. For some reason the pc that is not working has an odd ip address. When you set it for auto-ip it constantly goes to a 169. ip address, which is incorrect. I reinstalled windows xp to see if that would change but it does not. What could potentially be wrong? I am spending way too much time at my parents' house. Thanks.
Their pc is an AsRock board w/ 2gig+
Memory is 512
Hd is 80gig
New hub is wired
Cable service is through SuddenLink

[cramer]

are you using a router? what brand? whats your cable modem?

try this one out first... on win xp sp2 go to start > run > type
"netsh winsock reset catalog" or
if win xp sp2
"netsh int ip reset iplog.txt"

see if that will work..

cramer

[rjbrundage]

I appreciate the help, Cramer. I will give it a try in the morning and yell if I need more help. Thanx.

[cramer]

ayt!

[rjbrundage]

Didn't do anything that I can tell. The exact ip address is 169.254.54.252 and is an auto ip. The cable router is a Motorola SB5120 and the network hub is a Linksys 5-port and both are working fine since other pcs are connecting with them. I have no idea whatsoever on what to try next. Any expertise on the issue would be helpful. I have set up numerous networks and never had this problem before.

[cramer]

this is one hell of a hack dude.. but if you are willing to give your best effort on this, well lets get it on!

lemme tell ya first, make sure your lan card is ok.

IP address 169.254...
If the computer cannot obtain an IP address from a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server, like a router using NAT (Network Address Translation), Windows will automatically assign an APIPA (Automatic Private IP Address) in the range:

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

One likely cause is Winsock corruption, caused by adware or a virus. Please read on!

Winsock corruption

Winsock corruption can be caused by some software installation or, more likely, deinstallation going wrong or by advertising malware. Possible symptoms are:

The computer can apparently establish an Internet connection, but then you receive no data or cannot send data.
The computer cannot obtain an IP address from the DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server and Windows therefore assigns an APIPA (Automatic Private IP Address) like 169.254....
Typical error messages are:

An operation was attempted on something that is not a socket
The page cannot be displayed
Initialization function INITHELPERDLL in IPMONTR.DLL failed to start with error code 10107
The operation failed since no adapter is in the state permissible for this operation.
The attempted operation is not supported for the type of object referenced.
Error 720: No PPP Control Protocols Configured
Another possibility is that, in Device Manager, when you click Show Hidden Devices, the TCP/IP Protocol Driver is listed as disabled under Non-Plug and Play drivers, and you receive error code 24.

Service Pack 2 adds a new command to repair the Winsock corruption problem.

netsh winsock reset

Using this command should normally not do any harm, so if you have unsolvable connection problems or spurious disconnections, try it. It does remove all nonstandard LSP (Layered Service Provider) entries from the Winsock catalog, which are usually adware or spyware entries, but if you happened to have a legitimate one installed, for example one that provides a PDA synchronization service, it would also be removed and would have to be reinstalled.

If you're really curious, you can use the command:

netsh winsock show catalog

before and after resetting the catalog to find out whether any entries were in fact removed and which ones these were. Another way to get at the same information is to run

winmsd

and select Components, Network, Protocol. The Layered Service Providers in the list should be of the MSAFD or RSVP ... Service Provider type. All others are likely malevolent and should disappear after the reset command shown above.

If you don't have Service Pack 2 installed, you can repair your software installation as described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles.

How to determine and recover from Winsock2 corruption
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811259/

You receive an "An operation was attempted on something that is not a socket" error message when you try to connect to a network
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817571/

A third party product that can also solve this problem quickly is WinSockXP Fix, available at http://www.spychecker.com/program/winsockxpfix.html. One user reported that it solved his problem after all the other methods failed.

TCP/IP not working

To check whether TCP/IP is installed and working properly, find the IP address of each of your computers and, if present, of your router, then ping each computer from at least one other computer. You can find the IP address of each computer by going to that computer and running ipconfig (on Windows XP, 2000, NT) or winipcfg (on Windows ME, 98). Then ping your local computer through the localhost address by entering one of the following commands into a command line window and pressing return:

ping localhost
ping 127.0.0.1

If this works, ping other computers by entering ping, followed by a space and the IP address of the target computer, then press return.

If the ping test fails, the low level connection between your computers (or, if ping localhost fails, even inside your computer) is not working, and there is no need to read on until this is repaired. The most radical method to repair it (short of reinstalling Windows) is to remove all networking components, reboot, then add them again.

One action you can try first is to repair the connection. Right-click on the connection (in the network connections list) and select Repair.

There is also the command:

netsh int ip reset

or:

netsh int ip reset log_file_name

where log_file_name should be replaced with a text file name of your choice.

Command samples:

netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt
netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt

It is unclear whether this command does more, apart from the possible logging, than the Repair command described above, but if there is any difference, then the netsh int ip reset command is probably more thorough. Please send me an email if you ever find that the latter does or does not more than the former.

The appropriate Microsoft Knowledge Base article provides more details on this:

How to reset Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299357/

How to reset "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" in Windows Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/317518/

Also.. make sure you have only 1 LAN card enabled
check firewall, disable ALL i mean ALL firewall
check for spyware
powercycle modem for atleast 2 mins
if you think modem may not be giving you the DHCP address, you may want to hard reset the modem, but if other connections to your modem is ok, dont hard reset the modem.


man, this is hardcore! good luck!

hope this will help!

[bAdWaYz]

Hi RJ and welcome to CTH,

Now before you go and let cramer there go and have you rebuild the network stack just to have it broken again by an unclean computer "or if it even needs a rebuild in the first place" lets go about this another way. First go to the Cyber Safety forum HERE (http://www.cybertechhelp.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=25) Make a post saying that you think you may have spyware/virus related problems and you want to know for sure. They will likely have you install and run a program called Hijackthis that will create a log for the experts in Cyber Safety to read for you. Once they read the log they can tell you if indeed you do have problems that need taken care of and tell you how best to deal with them. This will A. Get the system clean and B. Narrow down the network issue. After they give you a clean bill of health if you still have the same issue with the ip you are getting post back in here and we can go from there. No offense to cramer but I'd rather be sure something has broken the winsock layer before we try to fix it.

[Whiterin]

I am having this same exact problem. I even just got done making my own post about it. oops... it does have some extra info on this though. Also. It IS making an unusuall IP address, but I have tried manually changing it and still no connection. It has nothing to do with the winsock... I redid that already. i guess I am not the only one stumped on this.

[rjbrundage]

If this helps...I already assumed a serious virus or bug screwed something up. I did a format on the harddrive and reinstalled winxp. The cpu is running faster but it did not assist in changing the ip. It still comes back as a 169.

[bAdWaYz]

I'd still like to be sure the Cyber Safety team has had a chance to look at a log just to be on the safe side. Sometimes an ifection can be to the point that even after a format its still there. The best way to fix a problem is to first make sure the system is clean.