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One for the fellow I.T. guys...


MarkB

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I'm having some severe feelings of noob-ishness right now.

For some reason, I cannot get an internet connection on my desktop PC. Well, not strictly true. More accurately, I can't obtain a reply from any host names. I can resolve DNS addresses fine, can ping both my ISP's DNS server and pretty much every IP address I've tried, but cannot ping a hostname. For example, pinging 64.233.167.99 (Google's IP address) gives 4 replies, but pinging google.com results in "Ping request could not find host google.com. Please check the name and try again." I've been battling this for the better part of a week on and off, and cannot solve it. The internet connection works fine on my laptop, so I know it's not an ISP issue, and the drivers and configuration files are all set correctly, as the modem can actually dial and connect to the internet - it just can't obtain a reply from a host name. It was working fine until some time last week, when I started it up in the morning and it showed these symptoms. No reason that I can think of.

Things I've tried and verified already;

Can ping localhost and 127.0.0.1 normally.

No recent hardware or software changes.

Ran nslookup on Google, resolves hostname and IP fine, normal results.

Same with both Windows Firewall and Outpost Firewall disabled.

Disabled, uninstalled and reinstalled modem and drivers (which also re-creates the network connection), same.

Nothing worth noting in Event log.

Disabled ICS, same.

HOSTS file is empty, aside from the localhost address. (Fresh install of XP.)

IP obtained from network is normal.

Reset TCP/IP using "netsh int ip reset c:resetlog.txt" from command prompt. Same.

Reinstalled TCP/IP (deleted Winsock and Winsock2 keys from registry and reinstalled from XP Home CD), same.

Ran Windows repair, same.

Ran the XP Winsock fix, same.

Ran the LSP fix, no problems found.

System restore disabled.

So, at this point, I'm pretty much out of ideas. Anyone else got any before I submit to another OS reinstall?

EDIT - Some info I forgot to add;

All pertinent services are started.

The system connects directly to the 'net - no hub or routers involved.

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in IE, check under Internet Options, connections tab, LAN settings button. Is there anything set there as your proxy.

also try hard coding your DNS servers to public servers like 4.2.2.2

I assume you have checked for viruses & adware

Some viruses will set up a poxy just to try and grab your passwords

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Nope, no proxy in use, set to automatically detect settings.

Tried 4.2.2.2, 194.73.73.172, 205.188.146.145 and 212.74.112.67, same results.

Yep, checked for virii, adware and spyware, as well as running a CCleaner scan, nothing found.

Thanks man.

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What's the difference in the way you connect to the internet when you use a hub / router and when you don't?

Are you using a wireless card? If so, maybe something with that is messed up ... whether it be a setting option or a slot.

Also, are you using a hard wire into the hub / router? If so, maybe the port (or whatever it's called) isn't working. Maybe you can try plugging it into another one or plugging a cable from another machine that works with the internet if you have into the same port the non-working machine is.

If you are using a different cable, maybe it's that. In other words, I tend to think it may be a hardware issue opposed to software. Sometimes when something doesn't work on my machine, I'll need to either put it into another slot or another connection port.

If it was me, I'd be freaking out and unhappy as I wouldn't want to face a day's worth of reloading the OS and programs. Keep us posted as to what happens and I wish you luck.

*EDIT*

Just re-reading what you wrote, I noticed the problem is more with the hub / router. I don't know if this is correct or not. But, maybe the problem is with the software or firmware on the router / hub perhaps. Did you try hard re-setting the router? Or perhaps if you can even connect to the router / hub from your machine and if you can go into the router / hub software, you can maybe try to reset or double check the settings within the program. But, I'm assuming you already checked this if you have a router / hub. Again, good luck.

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The only time I ever used a hub or router was years ago when I had a home network set up, but that was many, many OS reinstalls ago. That stuff is way gone, and the only way I'm connecting now is using a USB connection to ADSL modem. I had ICS set up to share the internet connection with the laptop, but disabled that and disconnected the cable for troubleshooting, and it's obviously not helped.

No wireless card on the system.

Same issue occurs on other USB ports as well, and the modem works fine on the laptop, which I'm on now, so I'm pretty sure it's software related. The only real hardware incolved is the modem and motherboard for the USB ports, and as the issue is the same on all the USB ports and the modem works fine on another system, I'm looking at software.

Yeah, I'm not looking forward to the OS reinstall...there's not that much data on it right now as I only did the reinstall in January and only really started setting it up within the last few weeks, but I've just got all my programs and MVP etc. loaded onto it, then I have this. Strange, but not exactly an exciting prospect - get everything working, then format & reinstall again.

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Did you check to see if the cable is the problem?

If you did and it's not the problem ....

Yeah ... from what you mentioned, I agree with you and don't know what else to say.

It looks like it's something on the machine. I don't know that much about ICS so I wouldn't know if has something to do with that.

The only thing that would stop me from re-installing everything again is the amount of time it would take is that if after you re-install everything you still would encounter the same issue.

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Did you check to see if the cable is the problem?

I don't mean to laugh or poke fun.... but, these are the answers that tech support at companies usually give you when you have problems. Like with my LCD that had a bad pixel.... "have you tried turning it off, and back on again"

"dammit, the monitor displays all white" .... their response... "Have you made sure that your computer is plugged into the wall?"

Im not trying to mock... it just reminds me of the many... many hours I spent trying to get Dell to fix my old monitor.... ps- they can go to hell.

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MarkB's an IT guy. We should all take revenge on him for the times we've dealt with IT guys over the phone.

[spoken in an accent I outsourced to India]Is it plugged in?[/accent]

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Just for shits and giggles, I tried the modem with another USB cable, and yep, same problem. Original cable works OK on laptop.

Leaning toward OS reinstall at this point.

And yeah...I work for Dell. Trust me guys, we hate the outsourcing as much as, if not more than, the average customer. Whenever we need to do internal transfers, it goes through India 99% of the time. I've made it my personal mission to wind them up as much as possible. Trust me - we cringe when we have to transfer customers to India. The language barrier is bad enough, but the Indian centres hit 86% customer satisfaction last year. Our centre hit 91%. I'm actually amazed that they get as high as 86%.

Angryrat - any problems with your monitor, run the monitor self-test. Disconnect the VGA/DVI cable from the monitor, leave power connected, and turn it on. If you can see the problem there, call them up, tell them that the monitor self-test has failed and you're unwilling to do any other troubleshooting because the fault is related to the monitor. At this point, they have to replace your monitor. They may ask you to do a swap with another monitor if you have one, but there's not much choice at that point than to replace the monitor. You get any hassle from the front-line guys, ask for a manager straight away. As long as you've run this test, you've done minimum troubleshooting for a monitor problem.

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Mark B ... I buy nothing but Dell and I'm thinking about buying something else soon. Can you hook a member up? LOL ... just kidding.

Tech support humor:

Hi, tech support. I have a problem.

> Hello Sir. How many I help you?

Uh ... when I try to turn on my monitor, all I see is a blank screen.

> Sir, did you check to see if the power plug is connected to the monitor.

I tried but I was unable to find it. It's too dark to see which one it is.

> Do you have a light you can turn on so you can find the cable?

I can't turn it on right now, otherwise I would have done so already.

> May I ask you why you can't turn it on?

Yeah ... my building has a power outage so the lights don't work now.

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Oh, yes...that's the one that's been edited from the original transcript and now usually has the technical support guy saying "Pack up your computer and take it back to where you bought it from." "Really? It's that bad? What do I tell them?" "Tell them you're too stupid to own a computer." :lol:

meteamo, I'm not 100% sure, but I may be able to. PM me with some details of what you're looking at and I'll see what I can do.

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Going with the OS reinstall guys. Can't figure it out, and don't want to waste any more time on it, so I may as well just cut my losses and get it over with. Very strange issue, though.

Thanks for the help kraw and meteamo, much appreciated.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Going with the OS reinstall guys. Can't figure it out, and don't want to waste any more time on it, so I may as well just cut my losses and get it over with. Very strange issue, though.

Thanks for the help kraw and meteamo, much appreciated.

You are very welcome. Anytime I can help, just let me know. I'm not sure if I was any help however. Thanks for the offer about the discount but I'm not looking for anything now. I have so many PCs that I need to use another every day so they won't get lonely. :lol: But, if I do look ... I'll send you a shout. Hope all goes well.

BTW ... I like that one about telling the store that they are too stupid to own a computer. Nice.

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