Internet Connection Entry In Network Connections

FarmerJoJo · 27th May 2004

Hi,

I am using a small home LAN network and have three Windows XP Pro machines connected. In fault finding another network problem I came across an oddity. Of the three machines only one had a Internet Connection entry in the Network Connections list. The other two did not have this entry. I suspect that all three machines do not need this since internet connection is shared via a DSL504 router/switch across the LAN. All three machines are in the same workgroup and each has its own different logon password.

So I thought it would remove it first by disabling it and then deleting it. When I disabled it to my surprise both the other machines on the network could no longer access the internet. After a bit of poking about I found out that disabling this connection actually disconnected the DSL504 router. This I know because when I logged onto the router with user name and password it showed that it was disconnected.

How can a remote machine perform this router disconnect when it could not have possibly known the user name and password, and even if it did it would not have known the procedure? I changed the user name and password in the router and Internet Connection was still able to disconnect it!

On re-enabling the connection the router reconnected and all machines were again able to access the internet.

How do I remove this Internet Connection entry? How did it get there in the first place?

Regards FarmerJo

Newt · 28th May 2004

Need more specifics I think. Do this from the PC with the internet piece and from one of the others and post the results of the text files to this thread.

start~run~ipconfig /all > c:\config.txt

FarmerJoJo · 28th May 2004

Hi,

I have compared the outputs of ipconfig /all on both machines and there is no difference other than what you'd expected. The problem I have is that when you navigate to :-

Start|My Network Places|View Network Connections

as well as my "Local Area Network" connection shown in the list there is another that shouldn't be there called "Internet Connection" which I possibly setup ages ago and did not realise.

If I right click it and select Disconnect is actually disables my DSL504 router so that NO machine on the network is able to access the internet.

If I do not Disconnect it but pull out the network cable from the PC the entry in the list disappears and then shows up again when the network cable is plugged back in.

When I right click "Internet Connection" and select Properties a dialogue box is presented which says the following.

"This connection allows you to connect to the Internet through a shared connection on another computer".

But no such computer is used to share the internet connection, internet sharing is provided on the network via a DSL504 router which altimately all PC's connect.

Can anyone tell me how this connection is able to disable the DSL504 router which is password protected and how "Internet Connection" can be deleted?

Regards FarmerJo

Newt · 29th May 2004

Sorry but I strongly suspect the details I need are in the config info so without looking at all of it, I would be playing guessing games and I won't do that if info is available.

FarmerJoJo · 29th May 2004

Hi,

OK here are the two reports.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Machine without the "Network Connections|Internet Connections" item
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Evo-2g

Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :

Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown

IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-C1-26-02-B5-42

Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.4

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

212.159.13.50

Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 28 May 2004 22:39:03

Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 31 May 2004 22:39:03

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Machine with the "Network Connections|Internet Connections" item
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Inspiron-7500

Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :

Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown

IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Xircom CardBus Ethernet 100 + Modem 56 (Ethernet Interface)

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-10-A4-FF-BA-B3

Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.15

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

212.159.13.50

Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 28 May 2004 23:45:57

Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 31 May 2004 23:45:57

Hope this helps.

Regards FarmerJo

Newt · 29th May 2004

Thanks. Things were clean as you said but I still wanted to verify.

This is what you are seeing. After you read the whole thing over and decide if you want it or not, post back. If you have XP with SP1 you can remove it from add/remove, the windows components section, and the networking section.

FarmerJoJo · 29th May 2004

Hi,

Many many thanks for that. It turns out that I had forgotten a long time ago to disable uPnP on that one machine which is why this mysterious icon appeared. It has also shown me that this network service is not necessary for the work that I do and I have heard bad things about uPnP on the network.

Excellent work Newt!

Best Regards FarmerJo