[eismana]

Hi, I'm having the same problem someone else was, but they decided to give up. I'm hoping we might try again... I have a Dell Inspiron 5100 with Windows XP. It has no trouble connecting wirelessly, but will not connect with the ethernet cable. (I know it's my computer and not the cord because someone else connected with their computer just fine; also I couldn't connect when at a hotel.)

When I go into Network Connections, for Local Area Connection 4 it says "Network cable unplugged, firewalled." If I ping yahoo.com when not connected with the wireless, it says "Ping request could not find host yahoo.com. Please check the name and try again." When I do the ipconfig/all, under Media State for the Ethernet adaptor it says "Media disconnected." I also tried uninstalling the Broadcom hardware and then having the system reinstall it when it rebooted, but it didn't make a difference. (By the way, the ethernet cord is in the ethernet socket when it says it's not connected. Also, the lights around it light up just fine when I'm wireless, but when I'm not, there are no lights.)

Once upon a time the ethernet connection did work, but since I prefer wireless and use that all the time, I don't know exactly when this problem began. There are two things that I can think of that may have caused it - 1) I had the motherboard replaced in January. 2) I installed my university's internet software in March. The latter really slowed down my system and made a couple programs stop working.

I'd be grateful for any suggestions you might have. THANKS!

April

[TerryNet]

Welcome, April. This thread was such a mess that I am going to ask a moderator to split your post off into a new thread--so look for it.

In the meantime go into Device Manager and see if you have any warnings (yellow marks) there.

After this gets split off, what can you tell us about that university's internet software? And what programs stopped working?

[JohnWill]

Start, Run, CMD to open a command prompt:

Type the following command:

IPCONFIG /ALL

Right click in the command window and choose Select All, then hit Enter.
Paste the results in a message here.

[eismana]

Hi, Terry and John. Sorry for the delay in this response...

Terry, I didn't see any warning signs in the device manager. The university internet software was Cisco Secure Services, a client software program that I subsequently uninstalled, although my computer continues to be much slower booting up and shutting down than it was before I installed it, so clearly not everything was returned to normal. Norton Antivirus stopped working (I've reinstalled it). Google Desktop Search also stopped working. I could send you a screen shot of the error message for the latter if it might help. It has a lot of lines that begin with MSAFD. Another problem I had (now fixed) was that it overrode my ability to turn the Microsoft Automatic Update to manual.

Here's the info JohnWill asked for:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\April>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : berlin
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : myhome.westell.com

Ethernet adapter Network Bridge:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : MAC Bridge Miniport
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-0D-56-37-A3-6B

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : myhome.westell.com
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Dell TrueMobile 1400 Dual Band WLAN
Mini-PCI Card
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-90-4B-68-49-FC
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.47
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : fe80::290:4bff:fe68:49fc%5
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
192.168.1.1
fec0:0:0:ffff::1%2
fec0:0:0:ffff::2%2
fec0:0:0:ffff::3%2
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, May 29, 2007 8:01:10 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, May 30, 2007 8:01:10 AM

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : fe80::ffff:ffff:fffd%6
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

Tunnel adapter Automatic Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : myhome.westell.com
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Automatic Tunneling Pseudo-Interface

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : C0-A8-01-2F
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : fe80::5efe:192.168.1.47%2
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0:0:0:ffff::1%2
fec0:0:0:ffff::2%2
fec0:0:0:ffff::3%2
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

C:\Documents and Settings\April>


Anyway, the ethernet connection used to work but no longer does. I'm not sure if it's because of the university software, a new motherboard, or something else since I don't know when exactly it stopped working - I almost always connect wirelessly.

Thanks for your help with this!!!

April

[TerryNet]

Was that ipconfig /all with the ethernet cable connected?

You have ipv6 installed and don't need it; not likely that it's causing this problem, but uninstalling will at least make ipconfig /all easier to read.

Start - Run - ipv6 uninstall - OK

I'm wondering about "Ethernet adapter Network Bridge:". Do you have any bridges showing in Network Connections? If so, try removing the bridge.

You may be having lingering problems from Cisco Secure Services. I don't know anything about it, but those security suites don't always uninstall cleanly. You might check Cisco's web site (or your university's) to see if there is any kind of "clean up uninstall" utility or instructions.

[eismana]

Hi, Terry. I uninstalled ipv6 - thanks! As for bridges, there are two under Network Connections: Local Area Connection 4, and Network Bridge. Both say "Network cable unplugged, firewalled." That's with the ethernet cable plugged in.

Here is the ipconfig/all with the ethernet cable attached and the wireless turned off:


Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\April>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : berlin
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Network Bridge:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : MAC Bridge Miniport
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-0D-56-37-A3-6B

C:\Documents and Settings\April>


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here it is with the wireless connected:


Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\April>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : berlin
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : myhome.westell.com

Ethernet adapter Network Bridge:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : MAC Bridge Miniport
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-0D-56-37-A3-6B

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : myhome.westell.com
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Dell TrueMobile 1400 Dual Band WLAN
Mini-PCI Card
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-90-4B-68-49-FC
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.47
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
192.168.1.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, May 29, 2007 4:43:50 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, May 30, 2007 4:43:50 PM

C:\Documents and Settings\April>



Thanks again for your help with this!

April

[JohnWill]

The bridge makes me think something is not configured correctly. I suspect the two bridges are the issue here. If you can't delete them, let's try this stack reset and see if that gets rid of them.

TCP/IP stack repair options for use with Windows XP with SP2.

For these commands, Start, Run, CMD to open a command prompt.

Reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults: netsh winsock reset catalog

Reset TCP/IP stack to installation defaults. netsh int ip reset reset.log

Reboot the machine.

[eismana]

Hi, John. I ran the two cmd lines you mentioned and rebooted the computer. The two network bridges are still listed under Network Connections and the ethernet connection still doesn't work. I believe Local Area Connection 4 is the ethernet connection; it reads "network cable unplugged, firewalled" as does the other bridge. I've pasted in the new ipconfig/all with the ethernet cable connected and the wireless turned off below. Any other suggestions? Thanks!

April


Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\April>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : berlin
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Network Bridge:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : MAC Bridge Miniport
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-0D-56-37-A3-6B

C:\Documents and Settings\April>

[JohnWill]

I've got to believe something that's installed is screwing up the wired connection, and the two network bridges you mention are top suspects. Cisco Secure Services sounds a lot like a VPN, which would cause the issues you mention. How about posting a HijackThis log so we can see if we can spot something running. Also, I presume you've tried deleting those two bridges? How about unchecking them in Network Properties to make them inactive?

[MeatIsGood]

Thought this might be of use:

I think I have the same problem. Couldn't connect two desktops with xp Pro using Ethernet, or either one to a desktop with 98. But all connected just fine to a laptop with xp home.

[TerryNet]

Don't know if eismana is still monitoring her thread since her last post was more than 3 months ago.

If you mean that you were/are connecting two computers directly I'm pretty sure your problem is clear.

To connect 2 computers directly you need to use a cross-over cable unless one of the ports is auto-sensing. You are using a patch (straight) cable and the only computer with an auto-sensing port is the laptop.

[MeatIsGood]

Me=Bad at noticing things, sorry.

And thanks, I will now make my computer less bad.