identifying, Local Only, Wired connection... help

Hello all. I am troubleshooting a Vista machine that will not connect to the internet. I share an internet connection at home through a router using dhcp. I can confirm that it works as I have currently 4 machines connected (3 wired, 1 wireless) and they all connect just fine.

By the way I am using a wired connection for said machine.

The output of ping and an ip address states:

Ping with a url:
This machine was working about a week ago. Nothing was added (hardware/software) that I know of. Or at least that the kids will admit too!

I did note one occurrence, and that is, when DHCP gets an ip from my router it is 169.254.***.*** where as my router is configured to begin the adresses in 192.168.3.100 and up... Further, I don't receive a DNS from DHCP.

If I manually input an IP (in my range/subnet of course) I get the same output from command line and Network and Sharing Center.

I've tried disabled/enabled the device,

changed eth cables.

Diagnose/Repair just states that I'm not getting DNS from my router.

I know this issue has to do with something in windows and not the hardware because I have booted off of a KNOPPIX linux cd and it connects just fine

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I would like to get the children off of my laptop

P.S. I am currently scanning with Malwarebytes, AVG, then Spybot so I will update if anything changes upon completion. Thanks.

I would try to boot in Safe Mode (with networking of course) and try to diagnose it that way.

You have been fairly thorough given your post. If Safe Mode does not shed any light on the issue, I would suggest:

o Use Device Manager to uninstall/reinstall the adapter and let Windows choose the driver

o Boot with your Vista DVD and try a Repair

o Move the adapter to another slot

I hope you get it working :D

RCSHADOW: Thanks for your reply. I have tried Safe Mode, but it still says Limited/Local Only.

I attempted to remove/delete the device from device manager. Upon reboot, the system automatically reinstalled the device and just showed the same symptoms.

I currently do not own a Vista disc for a repair. Does it have to be the same disc used for installation or can I borrow/download one?

Unfortunately, the adapter is built on the board, I would have to purchase another to attempt your final advisement.
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I have been researching this and found a microsoft article stating that if you change the "broadcast dhcp" flag in the registry to a value of "1" it should fix the problem. In checking that value, I found that my settings were the same as what this fix suggested. I attempted going the other way (0), but to no avail.

Also, I noticed in the registry that the "preferred network" as it is called, contains the value 169.254.146.16 and a "preferred subnet" of 255.255.0.0 which I mentioned previously in the first post. I attempted to remove those values, only to find out that they were re-written after a reboot?!?! Where do these come from? It may be a clue. Once again, the router I am using is setup to begin the IP range from 192.168.3.100 so the values being provided to the registry are way off.

Another notable finding is the fact that windows firewall is disabled. I cannot get it re-enabled. Either by going into "Services" and re-enabling, or clicking the error message which is supposed to correct it. I thought maybe another program is preventing this from starting, but I don't see any occurrence of Norton, McAfee, etc. that would include a firewall. My AVG that is installed is just the antivirus, not firewall.

I would love to just install linux on this machine and forget about it, but the kids must have their games....

Any other ideas..? Thanks in advance.

Cheers.


Oh, yeah. I found some malicious software after the scans were completed. Everything removed successfully, but that didn't change anything

It works!!!!

I found a post on another forum saying to run the Norton removal tool.

Restart and then it detected the internet. I'm back online and the kids are off my laptop!!!

So from what I understand, there are traces of removed norton products in the registry and other system internals that have internet settings . Certain windows updates change things that the norton settings trump and then windows gets confused.

I don't understand why this would become a problem all of a sudden, however, considering I had removed Norton from my system over 2 years ago and installed the AVG. Very strange.

Hope this helps someone else, because it was a headache for me. Now my only problems are that the windows firewall service will not activate and I cannot perform a windows update. Those are topics for a new thread probably.

CHeers!

P.S. I wonder why these types of issues never occur on my Ubuntu laptop? Hmmm...

Glad it is fixed.