Win98: Blocked Network Properties

Hi
I've got a very strange problem with an older Win98 (first Edition) PC.
All fields, where IP-Adresses can be entered are blocked.
This means I can not enter a static IP, DNS-Server, Gateway etc. I've installed Windows 98 several times on different computers and have never seen such a strange behaviour.
My guess is, that a network property somwhere in Windows blocks all the windows..

Below you can see a screenshot of one "blocked" dialogue:
(It's in German, but that shouldn't make any difference)

http://iserver.hta.fhz.ch/~iasummer/stuff/network.jpg

As you can see, all fields ar filled with underlines. And I have no chance entering any numbers.

Any ideas?
Thanks!

 

Hard to tell for sure from the picture but if you have the address and netmask blocks filled with the underscore character ___ then can you delete the underscores?

I'm not aware of any feature in Win98 that would allow locking of those particular blocks.

 

Try setting your display properties (themes, fonts, etc.) to defaults or update your video driver if possible.

 

Thanks for your replys. The underscores can't be deleted.
I reseted all thems, fonts, and display properties, but that did not help.
Normally, if no IP adresses are entered they're represented by spaces not by underscores. Really a strange problem. Hope that don't have to reinstall windows from scratch to solve it

 

I would try removing the TCP/IP protocol and reinstalling.

 

Are you sure your network adaptor is working OK? That may be one reason you can't set an IP address. Also try selecting the "automatic" button and then click on the "specify" button again to see if the blocking characters disappear.