Windows XP SP1 and router

I installed XP Pro and was able to connect to the Internet, through my router, with no problem. I downloaded and installed critical updates from Windows Update, no problem. I then downloaded and installed Service Pack 1. After the reboot I was unable to establish an Inerternet connection or communicate with the router. At a command prompt I typed ipconfig /all and all my settings were as I had set them. It showed the router's IP as my gateway and even told me that it had renewed my lease at the time of boot-up. Still, I can't connect to the net and I can't even ping the router. SP 1 changed/deleted/or added something to my connection configuration but I can't find it. Any ideas?

 

I assume you cycled the router! Unplug the power for 1 and 1/2 minutes.

Do this with the computer powered down.

Then turn on router wait 3 - 5 minutes until it reinits and reaquires the signal.

Now power up!

If still problem do this if using DHCP if you don't know if using DHCP do any way and it will report "Cannot Flush DNS Resolver Cache "

these tests.

ping yahoo.com

ping 66.218.71.198

ping 127.0.0.1

Finally if no joy go to IE Tools and recreate the connection.

Still no joy get back to us with the results.

Mike

 

There's a known issue with TCP/IP getting messed after updating to SP1.
The fix is here: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;331906
If that doesn't work, get WinsockXPFix.exe from http://members.shaw.ca/techcd/ and run it.

 

I tried all of your suggestions with no luck so far. I didn't mention the things that I had tried already but the very basic problem is that I can't even ping the router. Obviously, I can't then ping beyond the router. I should be able to put the router's IP in my browser to configure it but I can't do that either. I haven't given up and will keep you informed. I have XP on a removable drive, not my main drive, also removable, so this is not an emergency. I'm doing this for professional reasons as well as curiosity and would rather find the fix than uninstall the service pack. I might even learn something!! Thanks for your help. I hope that next time you hear from me, I'll have resolved the problem.

Greg

 

OK Greg

I am LOL at myself because in rereading my post I meant to tell you to do an ipconfig /flushdns but forgot to tell you to do it!

Do you have a static IP?

So try this.

ipconfig /all note settings

then

Unplug jumper from nic in computer.

then

ipconfig /release

then

ipconfig /flushdns


Shut down.


Boot to safe mode. In device manager remove the NIC.

Reboot to full let it reinstall the NIC. No cable yet.

ipconfig /all (all former should be gone).

Plug in jumper, confirm green light on NIC and link on hub/switch.

Recreate the connection now use DHCP. If it works OK!

ipconfig /all (if it reaquires ip and gateway and DNS's we know it is really communicating even if we still cannot ping anything).

If not hard code the settings. All, ip, gateway and dns's.

Let us know.

Mike

 

Mike, No static IP. DHCP assigned by the router after I give it a number of clients to support. ipconfig /all showed me that an IP had been assigned, that the router was my gateway, showed IP's for my DNS server, and that a lease had been obtained on boot-up. This was one of the first things I looked at to confirm my setup. One disturbing thing is that it reports the MAC address of the NIC as FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF. I've seen this before but when I did, it wasn't a show stopper. This may be a simple case of XP wanting to rediscover the NIC. I just haven't had a chance to do the "take it out, boot, shut down, put it back in, boot" and let XP discover it thing. The weekend is here (almost) so I'll try the usual hardware fixes and see what happens. I'll be in touch. Thanks.

Greg

 

Greg

I don't know what you mean by HW fixes.

Would be nice to hook a laptop or other computer to the router to confirm it does work and that the settings match.

I know it seemed to occur at the point of upgrade (SP). But believe me 25 yrs in this business professionally I have found more than once 2 seperate problems to occur simultaneosly or a new one occured that looked like it was caused by what I was doing at the time.

At this stage I would just do the removal of the NIC from device mgr and let it reinstall.

Contact your ISP about MAC address cloning to see if they require something here.

Do keep me posted, thanks.

Mike

 

Mike & reboot, I finally decided to uninstall the service pack to see what would happen. I wasn't convinced it would work so I was prepared to reinstall XP. As soon as I uninstalled and rebooted, the alpha numeric MAC address returned for the NIC and I was reconnected. I'm convinced that something in the service pack masked the MAC addressed to FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF which rendered the router unable to resolve the address via ARP. I wrote to Linksys (NIC & router) and Microsoft to make them aware of the problem. I've heard from Linksys, no real help, and don't ever expect to hear from Microsoft. I'm going to continue to research the MS Knowledge Base to see if it ever pops up. Thank you both for your help and I hope it will help someone else.

Greg

 

I have a question or wild idea ( your choice )

Is the Service Pack 1 that is being referred to the same one that is included on the XP Pro upgrade CD that I have ? The CD that I have ( Version 2002 ) says ( on the CD ONLY not on the box ) that it includes Service pack 1.

And the Windows update saying that it is not installed because it was not gotten from the update site . I had that problem with Media player several times after I installed it from a separated download.

Is it * POSSIBLE * that some users are trying to put the SVC pack over one that already exists.

I had no problems whatsoever with my Linksys Router or Road Runner ISP.

BillyBob

 

No, Billy Bob, the SP was not on the XP disk. This has happened to me twice actually. The first time when my W2K wouldn't boot or repair it was going to be my main OS. Luckily, I was able to restore the W2K drive. I had exactly the same problem with SP1 on a separate CD. This time, I installed XP on a spare, removable, hard while still using W2K as my main and downloaded the SP directly from Microsoft. The only real difference this time was that I noticed the change to the MAC address which I'm still convinced caused the problem.

Greg

 

AW HA !!. Problems with two different OS.

Same problem with Svc Pack from different places. HHMMMMM !!!!

I gotta ride with Mike here.

I think you have other problems somewhere.

In the BIOS maybe ?

If I do not keep mine set to NO for the P-n-P OS I have some not so nice problems occur. Especially if I try to change hardware.

How that and the IRQ assignments are set in the BIOS may make a difference.

BillyBob

 

BillyBob.......You're seeing problems where they don't exist. The problem I had with W2K had nothing to do with INet connectivity. It turned out to be rather simple and was fixed rapidly. It was while I was trying to fix it that I installed XP on a separate disk and had the exact same Service Pack problem. If you read my post yesterday @2027, you'll see that I fixed the problem by uninstalling the SP. I remain convinced, however, that SP1 masked the MAC address of my NIC. I don't know how or why but I plan to keep looking. Thanks. Greg

 

You are having a problem. You are looking for help and/or ideas. And you may well get some ideas that do not fit. But, from my own experiences I have found some problems to not be where I was looking.

When looking for problems it is not a better idea to look in just one place. Many times it is a combination of things that cause the problem.

Yep. I read that. ( and the rest of the reply )

And that is where I got the idea ( be it right, wrong or indifferent )of a * POSSIBLE * hardware problem which may be effecting ( or effected ) both OS but in different ways.

I also read the above from Mike

Can you be 100% sure of that ?

I do not believe it to be out of the realm of possibility.

When dealing with more than one OS on the machine BIOS settings can come into play. The settings may be OK for one OS but not the other.

BTW. When you installed XP did you install any Motherboard drivers that may be required ?

BillyBob

 

No, to be honest, motherboard drivers never did occur to me. I do however go into the BIOS every time I swap disks to make sure it picks up the drive successfully.
Believe me, I wasn't denegrating your advice. It's just that after extensive research and trying everything I could think of and everything suggested, all indications pointed to the MAC address. Once I uninstalled the Service Pack and the alpha numeric MAC address returned, XP worked fine.
My W2K drive performed flawlessly during this whole process and kept me connected to this BB to try to resolve the problem. The problem I mentioned with it was a boot problem, quite a few months ago, probably caused by my failure to make sure the BIOS had picked up the drive.
I thank everyone who responded for their advice and suggestions and will let you know if I ever find the smoking gun.

Greg
As I said before, I'm going to keep an eye on Microsoft's Knowledge Base

 

I did not take as if you were degrading my idea. I just took it to mean that you thought the problem was with the Svc Pack alone and could not be anywhere else.

And all I am trying to say is that if the Svc. Pack did in fact change the address, it may not be due just to the Svc. Pack.

BB

 

I post this on the XP drive with SP1 installed. XP refused the new drivers sent by Linksys but on their instructions, I uninstalled the NIC in Device Manager. Almost as soon as I did, the found hardware flag popped up. With little hope I figured Why Not? As I went through the wizard, XP identified two versions of the NIC. One had "Packet enhanced.... "(I forget), the other was just the NIC. I took a chance and went for the one with the "Packet...." and when I completed the wizard, I connected immediately.
What I draw from this is....if you're having problems with a device in XP, don't automatically trust the driver that XP chooses for you. In this case, XP had two drivers for the same NIC but I didn't know it until I uninstalled the NIC and let XP find it on it's own.
I want to thank all of you who replied to this post. I learned a lot and hopefully I'll never stop.

Greg

 

Hi Gregg

Glad it is finally fixed. I was waiting for you to finally get around to it!

I told you to do this days ago, before Linksys!

Smile!
Mike

 

Mike,
Stubborness will surely be the death of me! As can happen to all of us, I got tunnel vision and focused on perhaps the right issue but looking at it from the wrong angle. Again, thanks for all the help.

Greg