Windows XP Networking Bug HELP!!!

[skybolt_1]

I have a cable modem that I have connected through a Linksys 4 port router. I have 2 machines that run just fine through it. However, i just added a 3rd machine today, setting it up for home networking so that I could transfer files between the two. Now, this machine worked fine until i ran the network setup wizard to configure it for file sharing. I had run the wizard on the other two computers so that I could print off of one printer.

Now, the new machine is unable to ping ANYTHING outside the network. I can access the internet, use AIM and such, but I cannot connect to things such as Kazaa and Morpheous. I have tried pinging things like www.yahoo.com and www.gamespot.com. Ever time I do, I get an error message that says "PING: Transmit failed, error code 65." Looking on Microsoft's website, it says this is a symptom of an incorrectly setup firewall. I was originally running Zonealarm, but it wasnt causing error messages like this to pop up. Since then I have tried deactivating it, and I still get the error.

My guess is that the whole mess is caused by something that the Home Networking Wizard did. I have tried, unsucessfully, to find a way to deactivate it, but I havnt had any luck. Suggestions please!?!?! Thanks!

skybolt_1

[DVNT1]

Quote:

machine is unable to ping ANYTHING outside the network. I can access the internet, use AIM and such, but I cannot connect to things such as Kazaa and Morpheous.

that's confusing to me... can the problem computer access websites on the Internet, just not ping them?

[Nighthawk]

Check the IPs that the Home Networking Wizard gave your computers. If it's something like 10.0.x.x, you need to go back to DHCP instead of the assigned IP addresses.

[kcrispin3]

ahhh... this problem is really really fustrating.

Need to know if these 2 conditions are true.

1) You uninstalled ZOneALarm, OR removed it from teh startup tasks

2) Spyware called WebHancer resides on that machine, and you have tried to remove it.

[skybolt_1]

Ok,

DVNT1: Yes, I can access websites outside network just fine, but not ping them. However with Kazaa, I cannot open up the "search" page. I beleve that Kazaa utilizes some form of Internet Explorer into it, and since regular Internet explorer works fine I dont understand why it does this.

Nighthawk: Home networking did not assign IPs. I am running a Linksys router which is acting as a DHCP server, and my IP's seem to be correctly assigned by the router. (It assigns them in ascending order, starting at 192.168.1.100. The router's address is 192.168.1.1)

kcrispin3: I have NOT uninstalled ZoneAlarm. I have removed it's entry in the startup tasks menu. As far as I know it is not being loaded at all. As for the WebHancer problem, I am aware of issues that have arisen with Webhancer; this is one of the main reasons that I did not install it. I un-checked its option when installing Kazaa and it doesn't appear to be in my add-remove programs section. BTW, just out of curiousity, WHY does WebHancer do this (it "turned off" the Internet but not things like AIM on a friends machine, this is how I am aware of it) and is there a fix?

Thanks!!

[skybolt_1]

OK PROBLEM FIXED! Kcrispin gave me a thought, perhapes I should uninstall zonealarm. Gave that a try and now everything is back to normal. Thanks guys!

[kcrispin3]

glad to hear that you resolved that problem

in response to your reply post, i was gonna say that since you removed ZA from the startup list, that is what is causing you to not have access to the internet. For some reason, installing ZA alters the tcp/ip stack in such a way that it will not function correctly if ZA does not load. It is nice to hear that you were able to uninstall ZA without any problems. In my experiences, ZA almost never uninstalled without leaving the tcp/ip changed forever, and the only way to resolve it was to

1) always leave a firewall software installed
2) foirmat and reinstall windows and never install a software firewall on it directly
3) create a disk image of your machine before any install of a firewall software, and when you want to remove it, simply restore that image

As you can see, there are practical problems with all 3 methods...
1 is simply not a real solution to the problem, and it doesnt always meet your specifications of a solution. 2 takes time and reinstalling windows to solve every obscure problem really sucks and is akin to solving zits by taking a razor and cutting it off. solution 3 is a plain pain....

I am not sure why there are programs like webhancer out there that will modify your tcp/ip workings. At first, i thought that it was kinda a measure to force people to keep webhancer on their computers, but I am not so sure..

Again, nice to hear that you were able to uninstall ZA and have that fixed!

-kc

[skybolt_1]

At the risk of displaying my ignorance, I wonder, where are the files defining the current TCP/IP stack kept? Would it not be possible for you to make and keep a backup copy so that you could recover from problems such as this? Is it part of the Registry, or is it seperate?

[Nighthawk]

I think it's that ZoneAlarm doesn't remove the TrueVector service when it goes down, because if it was trying to modify the TCP/IP stack WFP (windows file protection, most notable in W2K and XP) would be all over it.

I was having the strangest problems where I could boot into windows but not access the internet, until I opened up ZoneAlarm.

My conclusion (possibly incorrect) was that the service worked fine without the GUI frontend (ZA), but would only allow programs through that you checked the "always allow" box on the ZA popup. With any other program, it would assume you clicked the "no" button on the popup and would not allow the program to access the network. Maybe removing the service/startup files would work, and it would save you from a rebuild.

To restore your TCP/IP stuff, if you're in W98 or Me, open up msconfig and there should be an option in there for "verify system files" or something like that (haven't run a 9x system for quite a while). It'll go through your windows files, and if it finds anything incorrect it'll reload the file from your Windows install CD.

Windows 2K or XP automatically do that verification (WFP) and won't bother you about it. You'll see entries in your event viewer if this is happening.

[GroundZero3]

Quote:

2) Spyware called WebHancer resides on that machine, and you have tried to remove it.

this would not affect the router or the internet in an way. but you really should get rid of kazza as it is full of spyware. morphous runs on the same servers as kazza.


JaYsin